Justice Magazine: The Catholic social justice quarterly - Autumn 2015

THE CATHOLIC SOCIAL JUSTICE QUARTERLY

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Nicaragua Nepal Asylum HIV/Aids www.justicemagazine.org Issue 12 Autumn 2015

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SEEKING SHELTER People on the move - special reports pages 6-14

JUSTICE

THE CATHOLIC SOCIAL JUSTICE QUARTERLY

www.justicemagazine.org Issue 12 Autumn 2015

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Editorial Justice Magazine is a quarterly publication that reports on and aims to further interest in the Catholic Church’s social teaching. It takes as its guide the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace’s Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.

We would love to hear from you with your feedback, ideas for future editions or your own contributed articles. Please get in touch via our website or send an email to editor@justicemagazine.org.

If you like what you read in Justice Magazine, let your friends and family know and pass this magazine on to them.

Advertising To find out more about how to advertise in Justice Magazine and our rates, please contact editor@justicemagazine.org The next issue of Justice Magazine will be published in winter 2016. Please contact editor@justicemagazine.org with ideas for future articles or to suggest improvements.

Editor Lee Siggs editor@justicemagazine.org 07806 946697 Twitter: @justicemagazine Editorial advisers Jonathan Houdmont Nana Anto-Awuakye Advertising Emma Peckett emma.peckett@justicemagazine.org Front page photo: Caritas Internationalis Justice is designed using Quadon by Rene Bieder and Calluna/ Calluna Sans from Jos Buivenga Justice Magazine Ltd, Silkstone House Pioneer Close Wath-upon-Dearne Rotherham S63 7JZ Printed by Buxton Press

EDITOR’S MESSAGE

T

hank you for downloading, or picking up, this autumn issue of Justice Magazine which represents a milestone in the publication’s history.

Justice was launched as an independent, digital title back in 2012. Now, after 11 online issues, and thanks to the support of the organisations featured in this edition, the magazine has been printed for the first time.

Please take the time to visit the websites of the charities featured here and, where possible, make a donation to their invaluable work. The scope of the roles that they carry out is truly breathtaking, and is testament to the incredible lengths to which the Catholic Church and its organisations go in the field of social justice. All adverts are also available at justicemagazine.org for you to print out and complete.

The magazine is indebted to the various people, many of whom are members of the National Justice and Peace Network, who have agreed to accept copies of Justice for free distribution in dioceses across England and Wales.

If you would like to receive free boxes of the magazine to distribute where you are, please get in touch via email at editor@justicemagazine.org Justice is free where distributed in bulk, but if you would like to receive a guaranteed copy of the magazine each quarter, please consider taking out a subscription for a small fee covering postage and packing. Further details of this are available at www.justicemagazine.org under the ‘subscribe’ tab.

Finally, it would not be possible for Justice Magazine to exist without the tireless support and dedication of the contributors, both writers and photographers, around the world who make the publication what it is each quarter - this is something for which I am extremely grateful.

As Pope Francis stated in Laudato Si: “Theological and philosophical reflections on the situation of humanity and the world can sound tiresome and abstract, unless they are grounded in a fresh analysis of our present situation.”

The articles here, I believe, provide just that analysis.

Lee Siggs

IN THIS ISSUE 04 06 08 11 12 16 18 20 22 24 26 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48

Speaking truth to power ‘They’re fleeing wars they didn’t start and don’t understand’ Alan Kurdi, martyr Help for people on the move Las Patronas: A lesson in compassion Kamala’s story An unjust system Empowerment for women What if migrants could strike?

The struggle to keep girls in school Progressio at 75 The search for healing Phil’s skills help people to reflect on global poverty ‘We are all just people’ Tax rules must be changed An historic victory From Burma to Rome Coffee: From disease to recovery Staying in touch Our prisons need action without delay Rerum Novarum: As relevant as ever JUSTICE MAGAZINE 03

Comment: Pope Francis

Tony Magliano reports on Pope Francis’ visit to the United States

Speaking truth to power AS THE FIRST pope in history to address a joint session of Congress, Pope Francis, defending the human right of masses of oppressed and poor people to immigrate, said: “We must not be taken aback by their number, but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best we can to their situation.

“We need to avoid a common temptation nowadays: to discard whatever proves troublesome. Let us remember the Golden Rule: ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you’ ”.

Francis explained: “In a word, if we want security, let us give security; if we want life, let us give life; it want opportunities, let us provide opportunities.”

The Holy Father said: “The Golden Rule also reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development.

This conviction has led me, from the beginning of my ministry, to advocate at different levels for the global abolition of the death penalty.

“The fight against poverty and hunger must be fought constantly and on many fronts, especially in its causes.”

Referring to his encyclical on the environment and humanity’s integral link to it, Francis said: “In Laudato Si’ [“Praise be to you”], I call for a courageous and responsible effort … to avert the most serious effects of the environmental deterioration caused by human activity.”

With the US leading the world in the sale of weapons, Pope Francis asked its leaders, and the rest of us: “Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society”?

“Sadly, the answer is “Simply for money: Money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood. In the face of this shameful and culpable silence, it is our duty to confront the problem and to stop the arms trade.”

Next stop, the United Nations.

The following day, Pope Francis, speaking before the UN General Assembly, said: “Government leaders must do everything possible to ensure that all can have the minimum spiritual and material means needed to live in dignity and to create and support a family, which is the primary cell of any social development.

04 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

Speaker John Boehner welcomes the Pope to the US Congress. Francis is the first Pope to ever address a joint meeting of Congress. Official photo by Caleb Smith “In practical terms, this absolute minimum has three names: Lodging, labour, and land; and one spiritual name: Spiritual freedom, which includes religious freedom, the right to education and other civil rights.”

Pope Francis further explained: “These pillars of integral human development have a common foundation, which is the right to life.”

He said “war is the negation of all rights and a dramatic assault on the environment. If we want true human development for all, we must work tirelessly to avoid war;” in part this means strongly opposing “the constant tendency to the proliferation of arms, especially weapons of mass destruction, such as nuclear weapons”.

In a meeting with homeless men and women at a parish in Washington DC, Pope Francis, speaking truth to those with no worldly power, said: “We can find no social or moral justification, no justification whatsoever, for lack of housing. There are many unjust situations, but we know that God is suffering with us, experiencing them at our side.

He does not abandon us.”

In the face of so much injustice Pope

Francis is calling us to correct, it is reassuring to know that the God of justice, peace and love is at our side, and will never abandon us. JM Tony Magliano has entered the children’s book genre with Cracks in the Sidewalk. The author stays true to his vocation by instilling the seeds of social justice, “sharing, fairness and love for life,” into the minds and hearts of young readers, inviting them to “deepen their awareness of the many wonders that surround them”.

The book leads children from recognising the work of God in nature to recognising it in the caring people in the child’s life.

A great gift book, when shared between adult and child, Cracks in the Sidewalk can also be a reminder to adults to stop and see God’s everyday miracles.

The delightful childlike crayon illustrations by Lynn Armstrong give young readers a sense of familiarity and comfort.

The book can be ordered at www.ecpubs.com Review: Loretta Nemeth

Charity no:1160384. Company no: 9387398. Photo: Caritas

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R57184

COVER STORY Migration

Patrick Nicholson reports on a cardinal’s visit to a refugee camp in Greece

‘They’re fleeing wars they didn’t start and don’t understand’ “EVERYONE HAS SEEN the images on television, yet it’s still a shock when you witness the refugee crisis firsthand,” said Cardinal Antonio Louis Tagle of Manila after a visit with Caritas to a transit camp for migrants and refugees in Idomeni on the Greek border with the FYR of Macedonia on 19 October.

“You see the confusion, the tiredness and the fear on their faces,” said Cardinal Tagle, who is the president of Caritas Internationalis.

“Many are coming because they’re fleeing wars that they didn’t start and that they don’t understand. Surely we can do more for them. Surely nations can get together to lessen this suffering.”

More than 600,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean in 2015, 90 per cent fleeing from refugee producing countries like Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Two-thirds cross by sea from Turkey to one of the eastern Greek Islands, then by ferry to Athens and by bus to the border.

The coaches arrive by the half dozen every morning and afternoon in Idomeni, a tiny hamlet of 120 souls now swollen by 5,000 constantly changing faces each day. Most are Syrians. The country has been haemorrhaging people as five years of war just gets more messy and bloody by the day.

“Why do you think I left,” said Mohammed, a twenty-something electrical engineer from Damascus, in perfect English, as he queues to receive a Caritas food package.

“My studies are finished. I don’t want to be conscripted. I don’t want to die in the war. My future is across those tracks.”

Amin fled conflict and poverty in Su06 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

dan 17 years ago. He went to Syria, where he married Sambra. But war caught up with him again. They fled to Turkey. All but one of his four children were born in Syria. The latest though was born seven days ago on October 13 on the Greek island of Samos.

“I was unable to work in Turkey. Hospitals cost money. So we left,” he said.

Volunteers for Caritas Greece (known locally as Caritas Hellas) give out food and water to the refugees and migrants.

“It’s tiring work,” said Sous Issam, a volunteer for Caritas in Thessaloniki.

“There is no break. The stream of people is constant. But we’re doing what we can to help.”

The refugees and migrants stop in Idomeni for as long as it takes for police

“

My studies are finished. I don’t want to be conscripted.

I don’t want to die in the war

to allow them to safely cross the train tracks that mark the border to Macedonia, and then onwards to Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia, with their final destination being Germany, Belgium or Sweden.

“In September, people were just sleeping on the train tracks. There were no tents, no medical support, no toilets, little organised help,” said Sous Issam. As well as giving out food and water, Caritas has also built 40 toilets and five shower units.

“Now it’s much better. The refugees arrive, get something to eat, clothes for

the children, a place to go to the toilet and to wash and information for their onward journey. It’s well organised,” he said. “Winter and the coming bad weather is going to be the next challenge.”

“For this project, Caritas Hellas has only one paid person,” Cardinal Tagle said. “All the others are volunteers, taking turns to serve food, to sort out donations of clothing and coming here to spend the day or evening with the refugees - that is Caritas.”

Currently in Rome as one of the Synod on the Family’s presidents, Cardinal

Cardinal Nagle meets refugees in Greece Photo: Caritas Internationalis Tagle was encouraged by Pope Francis to use a break in proceedings to see how the crisis is unfolding.

He has witnessed emergencies before.

“In the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines two years ago, people were in a desperate state, but there was a belief that they could rebuild their homes,” he said. “But the refugees I met don’t have that hope. They come with nothing but what they can carry on their backs and their families. Their only wealth is their family. It’s for the future of their families that they have under-

taken such a perilous and hard journey.”

Cardinal Tagle said: “You see the parents caring for the children, and the children smiling so innocently, not knowing what’s happening and finding solace in the arms of their parents – it breaks your heart.”

“Conflicts, poverty and human smuggling are not exterior to the families, they hit the family at its core. We hope the eyes of the world will save the family and see the ill consequences of failed politics, of failed approaches to peace, the use of arms and the lack of respect

for people who differ from us in terms of culture and religions.

“It’s the innocence of the family that is really destroyed”.

After seeing a father and daughter together in prayer in the camp in a moment of “pure, pristine love”, Cardinal Tagle said: “We hope the whole world will work for peace, equality and humanity for the sake of these families.” JM To help Caritas in its work by making a donation, please do so online at www.ammado.com/community/159057 JUSTICE MAGAZINE 07

COVER STORY Migration

Marcus Mescher on how the image of one boy who drowned as his family fled Syria went viral and led to a massive increase in aid

Alan Kurdi, martyr CIVIL WAR HAS ravaged Syria for more than four years.

In that time, almost a quarter of a million people have been killed, at least 7.6 million civilians have been displaced from their homes, and nearly four million refugees have left their country in search of peace and security. Estimates are that at least half of the refugees are children.

For much of these last four years, the international community has hardly taken notice of the conflict or chaos, to say nothing of working toward consensus on what ought to be done for the growing number of people forced to flee for their lives because of this inaction. Although the UN made an appeal for $8.4 billion in aid to address this crisis at the end of 2014, there was not enough political will to fund even half this amount.

This past spring, @HowManySyrians tweeted the names of those who have died. It took them 40 days to get through the list on Twitter and five days to read through all the names in front of the White House. Since then, more than 2,500 people have died fleeing Syria.

Most have drowned at sea, but in August, 71 refugees suffocated to death in the back of a truck in Austria. Among them were eight women and four children, including an infant.

But on September 2, 2015, the world finally woke up. A picture of the lifeless body of three-year-old Alan Kurdi, lying face down on a beach in Turkey, went viral. And then, so did the story of how Alan, along with his five-year-old brother Galip and their mother Rehanna, drowned while trying to escape the spreading violence spawned by ISIS. 08 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

Liz Sly, a US journalist covering the war in Syria was among the first to share the image. Soon Nadim Houry and Peter Bouckaert, both of Human Rights Watch, followed along with David Miliband, the president of the International Rescue Committee. The Turkish hashtag #KiyayaVuranInsanlik, or “Humanity Washed Up Ashore,” quickly started to trend on Twitter.

Almost immediately, a debate started about whether it was tasteful to publish

“

Some protested making precious little Alan into a symbol, or claimed that sharing his image was too offensive for the public, or considered it succumbing to voyeurism. Others argued that to edit out this image would be to hide the truth

such a photo. Some protested making precious little Alan into a symbol, or claimed that sharing his image was too offensive for the public, or considered it succumbing to voyeurism. Others argued that to edit out this image would be to hide the truth. German paper Bild removed all images from its September 8, 2015 print edition and website in response to complaints about publishing

the picture of Alan lying on the beach with the statement: “The world must see the truth in order to change.”

Even more importantly, however, as Alan’s image and story spread (as recounted by his grieving father, Abdullah), so did awareness and action. Even as some political leaders stalled, millions of citizens came forward to donate their money, goods or time to the cause of Syrian refugees. Charities Aid Foundation recently reported that 1 in 3 Britons have participated in these relief efforts, with a third of those attributing their motivation to the image of Alan Kurdi.

More than 380,000 Britons have signed a petition to ask PM David Cameron to take action to help resettle Syrian refugees.

The New York Times recently reported that US donations to UNICEF skyrocketed after the picture of Alan Kurdi was circulated on social media (sending donations up 636 per cent) and Save the Children reported a sizable surge in support from the US, as well.

Slowly, leaders from the EU and US have followed the lead of a public now moved with such compassion.

The US recently announced it would add $419 million in humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees, on top of the previouslycommitted $4 billion.

Secretary of State John Kerry announced plans to increase the number of admitted Syrian refugees by at least 10,000, with the long-term goal of more than 100,000 Middle Eastern refugees by 2017. And in late September, the EU approved a plan to resettle 120,000 refugees across its 28 member states, overriding strong opposition from four

Tima Kurdi, aunt of Alan Kurdi, at the European Commission building in Brussels, Belgium, calling on Europe to back a humane refugee policy Photo by Eric Vidaal/ALVAAZ Eastern European countries (including, notably, Hungary, which is now building a fence to protect its borders).

All of this has transpired in just weeks after more than four years of very little organised action.

For this reason, Alan Kurdi can be considered a martyr.

Technically, according to Church tradition, martyrdom cannot be declared unless the victim was targeted out of hatred for the Church and refused to renounce his or her faith.

But the word “martyr” comes from the word “witness,” and in this way, Alan Kurdi serves as a witness of the horrors of the war in Syria and the terror inflicted upon innocent lives just as much as he witnesses to the indifference and inaction of the international community.

As Peter Bouckaert, Director of Emer-

gencies for HRW, explained his decision to share the picture of Alan Kurdi: “Some say the picture is too offensive to share …

But what I find offensive is that drowned children are washing up on our shorelines, when more could have been done to prevent their deaths.”

As it turns out, science explains why the image of Alan Kurdi elicited a response even as photographers and journalists exasperatedly point to the hundreds of pictures they have been publishing to document the last four years of war in Syria. Empathy responds to an “identifiable victim”.

As psychologists Tehila Kogut and Ilana Ritov have demonstrated in studies over the last 10 years, people are more inclined to feel empathy and compassion for (and also donate more money to) single victims than to groups of victims.

As psychologist Paul Slovic explains, “our capacity to feel sympathy for people in need is limited, leading to compassion fatigue, apathy, and inaction.”

It is easier for us to imagine the distress of a single person, whereas this soon becomes daunting if not completely overwhelming for crowds of people in need. Empathy is also parochial; it can be tempered by how one perceives those of different race, nationality, or belief.

In short, the photo of Alan Kurdi went viral – and elicited such a visceral response – because so many people could imagine little Alan as their own son.

Undoubtedly, the 700 who were killed and 900 who were injured in the recent stampede in Mecca during the Hajj will not receive the same outpouring of care or concern. Too many victims. Too different from us. >>>10 JUSTICE MAGAZINE 09

COVER STORY Migration

The same goes for the 30,000 children who die every day from mostly preventable causes (like diarrhoea or malaria, hunger or lack of access to potable water).

Since the start of his pontificate, Pope Francis has been combating apathy in the face of the daily suffering of others, whether from hunger, illness, or violence.

This past year, he urged Catholics to give up indifference for Lent and he has announced that the theme of his 2016 World Day of Peace Statement will focus on overcoming indifference.

As the official press release explains: “Indifference in regard to the scourges of our time is one of the fundamental causes of the lack of peace.

“Today, indifference is often linked to various forms of individualism which cause isolation, ignorance, selfishness, and therefore, lack of interest and commitment. Increase of information does not mean per se an increase of attention to the problems, if it is not accompanied by solidarity-based openness of conscience.”

When Pope Francis addressed Congress during his visit to the US, he highlighted the need to respond to the refugee crisis by saying: “We must not be taken aback by their numbers, but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best we can to their situation.

To respond in a way which is always humane, just, and fraternal. We need to avoid a common temptation nowadays; to discard whatever proves troublesome.”

Pope Francis is reminding us that refugees are not mere numbers, staggering though the figures may be.

By calling us to “see the face” of those in need, Pope Francis is humanising those we too easily consider “other:” the refugee, the immigrant, the poor.

Ironically, the picture of Alan Kurdi grabbed our attention even without being able to see his face.

Moreover, given the volume and velocity of images that are presented to us through digital technology and social media, it is remarkable that this picture outlasted the sensationalised 24-hour news cycle.

It speaks to the potency of empathy that concern for Alan sparked action to relieve the suffering of other refugees like him, resisting the trend of “slacktivisim” that yields little beyond “likes,” “favourites,” or “shares” on social media.

Yet even as social theorist Jeremy 10 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

Rifkin has called for us to build “global empathic consciousness,” little Alan Kurdi is a witness to the truth that empathy is a necessary but insufficient ingredient for justice.

After all, had the international community taken seriously the principle of “responsibility to protect” adopted ten years ago, the UN Security Council could have authorised the kind of intervention that would have saved thousands of lives and likely helped to obviate the current refugee crisis.

In the tradition of Catholic social thought, the dignity of every human person implies certain rights, which, in turn correlate to the exercise of specific duties to oneself as well as others (see, for example, Pacem in Terris, no. 44).

Taken together, these rights and responsibilities apply to the entire human family and help unite its members to discover a “sense of international solidarity, an ever clearer awareness of the responsibility of experts to aid men and even protect them, the desire to make the conditions of life more favourable for all” (Gaudium et Spes, no. 57).

Pope Francis explains how solidarity differs from the parochial tendency of empathy that prefers those who are like us when he notes: “In the present condition of global society, where injustices abound and growing numbers of people are deprived of basic human rights and considered expendable, the principle of the common good immediately becomes, logically and inevitably, a summons to solidarity and a preferential option for the poorest of our brothers and sisters” (Laudato Si, no. 158).

In other words, whereas empathy might be a spontaneous feeling for a particular victim, the vision of CST calls for respect for the rights of all expressed in mutuality and interdependence, not unilateral episodes of charity.

Alan Kurdi died a martyr, a witness to our inability to recognise the dignity and rights of refugees; his tragic death is an indictment of our reluctance to act on an inclusive solidarity that reaches beyond national borders.

Let us hope that we can remember his witness so that his death might not have been in vain. JM

Marcus Mescher, Ph.D, is assistant professor of Christian Ethics at Xavier University, Cincinatti, in the United States

Help for people on the move Peter Cobbold’s personal account of the work being done to assist people in Calais by a London-based prayer group Our Cenacle prayer group led by Sr Natalia (a Comboni nun of Portuguese origin) went to Calais back in July with two cars filled with around 100 pairs of shoes, jackets, clothes, a couple of spades and 200 portions of Baklava to hand out for the celebration of the end of Ramadan.

With us were people of Ethiopian, Eritrean and Sudanese origins.

An early start at 3.30am, we arrived to a traffic jam in Dover, missing our boat but reaching Calais to attend 11.15am Mass at St Bernoit where we met Pascal who lives in Calais and volunteers with Secours Catolique and had helped us in our previous trips.

The reading for the day was strangely from the feeding of the 5,000 – a beautiful message to us with our offering of Baklava for what has now reached an estimate of 5,000 people (I prefer this word to migrants) in Calais.

The priest was a substitute priest from Benin – another ‘African on the Move’ – preaching to a small congregation of elderly, white Calais residents. His message was to have faith in the providence of the Lord – but also to bring our children to Mass – otherwise, looking around the elderly make-up of the congregation, our faith will die.

After Mass we dropped off our gifts (except the Baklava) at the stores of Secours Catolique. From our previous experiences we felt that it would be safer and more efficient than turning up at the ‘jungle’ where cars can be surrounded and items taken, not always by those who really need it, and often discarded.

The jungle is littered with discarded, donated clothes – left in the mud or rain and now, without washing facilities, difficult to reuse.

We then made our way to the Eritrean/Ethiopian chapel where we had been on previous trips. It was a new construction – the last one burnt down by unattended candles.

Less organically constructed, less

appealing from the outside but clearly built with the help of volunteers with proper wood, nails, corrugated sheets and canvas protection – it looks more European than African – but inside – the peace returns.

Sr Natalia, with the courage of a true Comboni Missionary, had us all sit down with the 10 or so Ethiopians and one or two Eritreans and read the Gospel of the day with one of us translating it into Amharic.

We had actually just missed their own service (dancing and singing) but they were welcoming, if initially unenthusiastic, about us being there.

We were joined by Abel, an Eritrean who we had first met on our trip to Calais and who had been there for seven months.

The first time we met him, in the cold and wet of January, he was full of life, excited to be in Calais and near his final destination of the UK. He didn’t seem to notice his surroundings – compared to what he had been through to get to Calais, the mud and conditions were nothing; to him his mind was free and you could see it in his eyes.

Seven months later and he had lost weight, his eyes suffering from some infection, but most depressingly, he seemed to have lost hope.

In fact, the main difference I noticed on this trip was that although some of the conditions have improved – water supplies, better building materials – the people looked more depressed.

After reading the Gospel we started talking and asking questions. Why do they want to go to the UK? Why don’t they ask for asylum in France? Why don’t they organise themselves better with representatives from the different ethnic groups? Why are they fighting among themselves?

Some of our questions coming from two worlds apart had the same response as trying to give advice to an alcoholic about not drinking, but our naivety was also seen for its real concern and we ended up having a good conversation and the smiles and laughter returned.

We then went to the new Jules-Ferry complex about 10 minutes walk from the chapel. The walk there shows glimpses of how a town will evolve without any planning. From the Ethiopian/Eritrean chapel you walk through an area of Afghans where they have set up small shops, selling the basics; beyond this there were Sudanese – a huge amount of Sudanese. Since the last time we were

The chapel in Calais there, there are many more tents and people.

At the Jules-Ferry complex we were shown around by a Syrian aid worker (employed by the French Government).

It is much better compared to previous visits with some showers, mobile chargers, a nurse on weekdays, information on asylum, 120 beds for women and children and a meal a day.

It is only open a few hours a day, but a big improvement and there were games of volleyball happening and feeling of some normal life there.

We also met a young Sudanese man who our group had met on our last trip in March and who had nearly drowned in the Mediterranean when a large boat had come alongside their small boat and he had been thrown into the water. He had told us a story about how a dolphin had lifted him out of the water (he can’t swim) and saved him. He had already started to learn French and had made friends with one of the local French volunteers – another hopeful sign.

On the worrying side, we were told by the Ethiopians that by around 5pm there are people who start getting drunk and they complained about rape attempts on the Ethiopian women by drunk Sudanese and that some of their tents had been burnt down. At around 7pm they all head off for their nightly attempt to cross the Channel.

We have all seen the images on the news and the inability of any of us, or our leaders, to come up with answers.

By 2050 the Population Research

Bureau estimates that the African population will double and there is little evidence that the problems of Afghanistan, Syria, North Africa etc are going to be resolved quickly.

The numbers in Calais have doubled in the six months from our first visit there. If this continued there could be 20,000 people there by the end of next year.

If our historians and anthropologists are correct, every one of us are all the living results of waves of immigration that have their roots in Africa.

This doesn’t help the solution, but it should put into perspective that we are all part of a fight for territory, resources and a better life.

If we ourselves haven’t actually moved geographically, our ancestors at one time have moved in the hope to find these things.

On the other hand, we all move on a daily basis to try to find these things for ourselves and as Obama said recently, in a very hopeful message: “Africa is on the move.”

We have to recognise that those people in Calais are in their late teens and 20s – in many cases their families back home have sold up and loaned large amounts of money for their children to find a better life.

The destruction of the Roman Empire came about from waves of immigration from Central Europe (Goths, Vandals, Franks) and if we build up a similar wealthy fortress in Europe and close our doors, while exploiting the countries around us for cheap food and goods – we are due the same fate.

The feeding of the 5,000 comes about when we are prepared to share what we have and the fear of others and what they might take from us comes from greed.

The European Union has been a great way to share wealth among nations and help nations rid themselves of the extremes of corruption and prepare themselves to join a peaceful community of trade.

I am hopeful and have trust in God’s providence that Calais is a clear message to all of us that we have to change, become less greedy at both an individual but also at a national level, to look for other’s development, not just our own.

There are many people who have worked in this for years but the growing world population and shrinking world mean that this understanding and generosity of heart has to move mainstream. JM JUSTICE MAGAZINE 11

COVER STORY Migration

Joseph Sorrentino reports on the remarkable help given to migrants by the inhabitants of a small Mexican village

Las Patronas: A lesson in compassion LA PATRONA SEEMS like an unlikely place to find an act of charity. It’s a small, poor village in Veracruz, Mexico about a 20 minute bus ride from Córdoba, the closest city.

The houses are small and grey, built from cinderblocks; most have corrugated tin roofs. A few are painted with bright colours, perhaps an attempt to conceal the entrenched poverty. Small rubbish fires burn almost continuously in the yards, dotting the streets with smoke, the acrid taste of burnt plastic lingering in the mouth. The main road through town is paved, although it’s in dire need of repair while the side roads are mostly packed dirt and small rocks that make for jarring rides. When it rains they turn to mud.

Caña, (sugar cane), the main cash crop, lines the roads for miles in every direction. In the late afternoons during the harvest, large lorries weighed down with caña rumble through the streets, leaving dust and exhaust fumes in their wake.

Some people work in Córdoba but for the majority, there’s little work other than in el campo (rural areas). A person without land works as a jornalero, a day labourer, typically earning 130 pesos a day; about $9USD or £5.80. Someone with a couple of acres makes a little, but not a lot, more.

It seems like every other house has a front room that’s been converted into a small store, selling drinks, snacks, stationery, or anything else that might generate a few pesos a day. But here, in the midst of the poverty and caña fields, a group of women who have come to be known as Las Patronas have dedicated themselves to aiding Central American migrants making the perilous journey through Mexico.

12 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

Their story starts just over 20 years ago when two sisters, Bernarda and Rosa Romero Vásquez, were walking home after buying bread and milk for breakfast.

They stopped at a train crossing not far from home and waited for the train to pass. That train, like many, had hundreds of people clinging to the tops of cars. As the train passed, people were shouting, “Madre, we are hungry,” “Madre, give us your bread.” The sisters tossed them the food they had and went home emptyhanded.

“Before, we called (the people on the trains) ‘flies’,” said Norma Romero Vásquez, a sister and the group’s spokesperson. “We were ignorant of what was happening, that they were from Central America. We thought they were Mexi-

“

As a woman of God, I have a moral obligation to protect and serve those in need

cans on an adventure to see all of our country. Then we discovered they were migrating.”

It’s estimated that between 400,000 and 500,000 Central Americans pass through Mexico every year, hoping to make it to the US. The vast majority are fleeing Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, known as the Northern Triangle countries, which are among the poorest and most violent in the world. Until recently, the majority of migrants rode the freight trains collectively called La Bestia, The Beast, north. It’s aptly named because it’s a horrific journey where 80

per cent of the migrants will be assaulted and 60 per cent of the women will be raped. Las Patronas are one of the few bright spots of the journey.

When Rosa and Bernarda reached home that day 20 years ago, they told Leonila, their mother, what had happened. The family had a meeting and decided to hand out food and water to migrants. They’ve been doing so every day since. In the beginning, the women donated and prepared all of the food.

Now, there are more donations and volunteers, although both are usually in

A migrant reaches for water held up by one of the women of La Patrona Photo by Joseph Sorrentino

short supply. “We need money because we have expenses,” said Norma. “We sometimes have to knock on doors and ask for money.”

There are now around 15 women - and it’s all women - in the group, including Leonila and her four daughters; a sisterin-law or two; cousins; nieces and some close friends.

Las Patronas prepare food in a small kitchen on land that was donated by Crisoforo, the family patriarch. The women have rotating shifts with usually five in the kitchen on any given day.

They never know when a train will pass - there may be one a day or as many as four - and the women meet every one.

When a train whistle is heard, someone will shout, “Viene Tren” (train coming) and the women grab crates of food and water and hurry to meet it.

A train thundering past at 30 or 40 miles an hour with hundreds of people clinging to it is a remarkable event.

The migrants shout for food and water while the women scream “Aquí, aqui.”

Migrants snatch bags of food and bottles of water out of their hands, yelling “Gra-

cias” as the women turn and quickly pick up more food and water. Then, in just a few minutes, it’s over and the women return to the kitchen to prepare food for the next group of migrants. The women are in the kitchen 12 hours a day, seven days a week and, amazingly, they’re all volunteers. It’s exhausting work but their faith sustains them.

“I am a Catholic,” said Bernarda. “I believe this is a God-sent mission.

The work my sisters and I do is not easy...it is a lot, it tires one out, it can be a burden. >>>14 JUSTICE MAGAZINE 13

COVER STORY Migration

Food and drink are passed up as the train thunders by Photo: Joseph Sorrentino “Sometimes you fall and you have to get up. It is like Christ falling but He got back up.”

Until last year, the main work of Las Patronas was handing out provisions to migrants passing on the trains. But in August, 2014, the Mexican government instituted Programa Frontera Sur (Southern Border Programme) in an attempt to stem migration through Mexico.

The programme has made it extremely difficult, and often impossible, for migrants to board La Bestia. The women still meet every train; although most

“

We do not know what will happen, if they will cross the border

are empty, a few will have a handful of migrants. With the Mexican crackdown on migration, people are literally walking to America. When more migrants began showing up at their kitchen, Las 14 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

Patronas opened a small shelter where migrants can rest for a day or two before continuing their journey.

“When the train passed, we had no time to talk to them,” said Rosa. “They can stay 3, 4 days. It is good to get to know them; they are like family. When they leave, it is sad. We do not know what will happen, if they will cross the border (into the US).”

Norma, like the other women in the group, sees the work as an expression of her faith.

“As a woman of God, I have a moral obligation to protect and serve those in need,” she said. She said she goes to church every Sunday, “like my parents taught me.” But, she added, “I focus more on action than on praying.”

The group has provided shelter and sustenance for countless migrants and has become a major force in defending migrants’ rights. In 2013, they were awarded Mexico’s National Human Rights Award, one of that country’s highest honours.

The women themselves have very little in material goods.

They live in simple homes, earn some

money from the small stores they have or have husbands who earn a little from the caña fields. Lorena Aguila Hernandez is one of Las Patronas. She isn’t a relative but is considered one of the family. She has a small stationery store, which is her only source of income.

“It is really not enough (money) to survive,” she said. She thinks about moving to Córdoba for work but wants to stay in La Patrona.

“This work is stronger than anything.”

When she’s told that it’s amazing that the women, despite their poverty, do the work they do, she’s taken aback. “I am not poor; no,” she said.

“Poverty is in the soul when one is poor in heart. I am happy. I do not have things or a big house. My mission is not for a bigger house. I arrive at my house contented. When we do something we love, nothing is difficult.” JM For more photographs and links to articles, please visit www.sorrentinophotography.com This article was supported by a grant from the Puffin Foundation

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Feature: Nepal

Nana Anto-Awuakye reports on life after the Nepalese earthquake for one widow and her family

Kamala’s story MANY PEOPLE IN Nepal are still struggling, after the worst earthquake in more than 80 years killed thousands and left hundreds of thousands homeless.

But life is even harder for the Dalits, the most marginalised group in Nepalese society.

About 4.5 million of the Himalayan nation’s 26 million people belong to the group once known as “Untouchables”, at the bottom of the caste system.

As a Dalit woman, Kamala is yet further disadvantaged.

Men belonging to her caste at least have identity cards, but she has no rights to land or property, nor any access to education.

Since her husband died in the earthquake, she has been living in a corrugated iron hut on a dizzying mountainside with her two daughters, aged seven and 11, and eking out a living as a casual labourer on other people’s plots and farms.

She works around six hours a day for 300 Nepali rupees (about £1.90); her 14-year-old son, who had to give up his education when he failed to sit one exam, is now a day labourer in the capital Kathmandu.

He convinced his mother that he’d be better off working and bringing some money to the family.

Sitting on a mat beside the ruin of her former home, Kamala describes what happened on April 25, the day of the 7.8 magnitude quake (further death and destruction was caused by a 7.3-scale aftershock on May 12).

She had gone up the mountainside with her daughters to buy a chicken to help the recovery of her husband, who had spent a month in hospital.

Just as they reached the road, the earth started to shake. “We did not understand what was happening to us,” said Kamala.

Her younger daughter clung to her hand as she spoke.

“We were being shaken by something inside the earth. I grabbed my two daughters, and pulled them down to the 16 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

ground with me, holding them tight.

Right in front of my eyes I could see my house falling down.”

By the time Kamala and the girls had scrambled back down the slope, neighbours had dragged her husband’s body out of the house.

“I saw two feet sticking out from the blanket, and I recognised [his] sandals,” she said. Three days later, with the help of some neighbours and distant relatives, he was buried.

Help for Kamala came from Nepal’s tiny minority of 8,000 Catholics. Caritas Nepal has funnelled aid to victims from the Catholic aid network, including £3.3 million donated in England and Wales to CAFOD. The widow received food – lentils, rice, salt, and cooking oil – a hygiene kit with soap, detergent and disinfectant,

“

I saw two feet sticking out from the blanket, and I recognised [his] sandals

and materials to repair the collapsed roof of her house. Caritas Nepal and its network of local volunteers will join in the work. Kamala has also been helped by a neighbour to obtain a “certificate of relationship” from the local authorities.

The document is precious to her: It is the one piece of paper that gives her some form of identity, as it states that her three children belong to her.

Normally only the husband’s name is on everything, making it practically impossible for rural women to gain any official recognition.

What astounded her most, however, was the fact that when Ananda, Caritas Nepal’s district officer, came to ask villagers what they needed the most, as a Dalit she too was included in the

Kamala with the relationship document

discussions. Mantra-like, she repeats: “We were not left out. He sat with us as a neighbour.”

It is not only Dalit communities that are vulnerable. Even before the earthquake, a quarter of Nepal’s population were living in extreme poverty, many of them in villages that lie miles from the nearest road.

Working in ten of the worst hit districts, Caritas Nepal has already delivered aid to almost 300,000 people.

With roads blocked by landslides and with the monsoon rains cutting off some communities, their staff and volunteers have pushed trucks through mud, hiked up mountains and flown by helicopter to reach isolated villages.

There is a huge amount of work still

to be done: According to the United Nations, more than half a million homes were destroyed by the earthquake, and 1.4 million people are in need of food aid.

“

The thing that impressed me most is the resilience of the people....the people haven’t lost hope

Despite the challenges, however, Caritas Nepal Director Father Pius Perumana remains optimistic about the aid effort.

He said: “The thing that impressed me

most is the resilience of the people.

There is tragedy and suffering but the people haven’t lost hope.

“This gives me lot of encouragement. I am sure that Nepal will rise again.”

For Kamala, the earthquake was a devastating blow, but, despite everything, it appears to have strengthened her resolve.

“I did not get a chance to go to school, [but] I want education for my daughters,” she says.

“I pray for my son in the big city. I am a strong woman, and I will lead my family.” JM Nana Anto-Awuakye is head of world news for CAFOD JUSTICE MAGAZINE 17

Comment: Asylum

Louise Zanre highlights the work being done to support those locked up on arrival in Britain

An unjust system REFUGEES AND FORCED migrants who make their way to or who are trafficked or smuggled into the UK often find themselves destitute or detained as they progress through an asylum process that frequently fails to meet their protection needs.

Those who have already made a perilous journey across a continent or the sea sadly find themselves facing yet another endurance test.

According to the Association of Visitors to Immigration Detainees, there are 30,000 people locked up each year in the Immigration Removal Centres (IRCs) throughout the UK. Many of them arrive in the UK with the sole desire to seek sanctuary.

They have often fled repressive regimes and some have experienced imprisonment, torture and all too frequently, multiple bereavement. Currently the UK detains more people than almost any other European country and is alone in the EU for not having a time limit on detention.

Detention centres are prison-like environments: Detainees are deprived of their freedom and isolated from the “outside world”.

However, the process of detention is a completely different judicial process because when a person is sent to prison, he has been given a sentence by a judge stating a time period. But in immigration detention, most detainees do not know for how long they are going to be kept in the centre or what is going to happen to them.

Detention is without a time limit and there is no automatic judicial review.

Some detainees have been caught up in the detention system for several years.

The UK’s immigration detention facilities are among the largest in Europe: There are around 4,000 bed spaces available in the detention estate. There is a need to change the underlying culture behind the use of detention in the UK. In March this year, a cross party parliamentary report into the use of immigration detention concluded that the enforcement-focused culture of the Home Office means that official guid18 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

In detention Photo: Simon Blackley ance, which states that detention should be used sparingly and for the shortest possible time, is not being followed, resulting in too many instances of unnecessary detention.

The report made recommendations around time limit and actions to redress the injustice of the current system’s horrific effects on a detained person’s life and well-being.

The UN Human Rights committee in its periodic report on the United Kingdom of July 21, 2015, echoed the recommendation that the UK should introduce an upper time limit on immigration detention.

Jesuit Refugee Service UK welcomed the parliamentary report, calling it an “important milestone in the debate around the immigration detention practices of the UK”.

The report also called on the government to implement the panel’s recommendation of a maximum detention period of 28 days and urged voters at the General Election to hold politicians to account, letting them know that the current system has “horrific effects on a detained person’s life and well-being”.

The report by the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Refugees and Migration followed an inquiry into the use of detention in the United Kingdom.

They had received written evidence submissions from 182 individuals and organisations including JRS UK and also held three oral evidence sessions.

The first oral evidence session included evidence by telephone from detainees being held at that time in Colnbrook

Immigration Removal Centre.

The transcripts from the oral evidence sessions are available on the detention inquiry’s website and are well worth reading at www.detentioninquiry.com/ submitted-evidence There is a strong body of opinion, reflected within the oral and written submissions to the inquiry, that the very fact that there is no maximum time limit to detention is harmful to those who are detained. This is borne out by the experience JRS UK has in visiting and providing pastoral care and support for those who have been and are detained at Heathrow Immigration Removal Centre.

Not knowing when or if a detained person might be released, or indeed when or if they can be removed from the UK, causes in and of itself untold anxiety to the person detained and can have a serious adverse effect on their mental and physical health.

It is now up to us in society to effect the necessary change by holding the Government to account and to let them know that the current operation of the immigration detention system is unjust and cannot stand as it is.

Three of the parliamentarians who published the report, Conservatives David Burrowes and Richard Fuller and Labour MP Paul Blomfield, secured a debate on the report in the House of Commons in September. We now trust that with the issue of detention once again in the eyes of decision-makers, campaigners will keep up the pressure for a human and humane outcome. JM Please write to your constituency MP asking them to make their response on detention.

Briefings for MPs in advance of the debate were produced by Detention Action and by Caritas Social Action/JRS and are available.

For more information, go to the websites of any of the organisations who are part of this campaign: www.detentionaction.org.uk www.unlocked.org.uk www.londonchurches.org.uk www.citizensuk.org www.aviddetention.org.uk

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Feature: Nicaragua

Stephanie Beech has recently returned to her home city of Sheffield after a year with Catholic aid agency CAFOD on its Step into the Gap programme.

As well as working in The Good Shepherd Parish in east Lancashire, where she promoted CAFOD’s work around schools, she also spent a month in Nicaragua to visit three of the agency’s partners

Empowerment for women NICARAGUA IS THE largest country in Central America with a population of 6 million.

Bordering Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south, it is regarded as the safest country in Central America.

But since its independence from Spain in 1821, it has seen periods of political unrest and dictatorship which led to the revolution of the 1970s.

This sparked a flood of international interest in the country, including the twinning of the town of Esteli with my home city of Sheffield.

In recent years, Nicaragua has enjoyed a period of economic growth and political stability, but issues of concern remain, not least problems relating to

“

It aims to empower women by giving them the opportunity to start their own business

a ‘machismo culture’, a problem shared with many other countries in Central America.

This phenomenon has led to problems of gender inequality and domestic violence within many households.

ASOMUPRO (Association of Women Producers) is one of CAFOD’s partners I spent a week with during my monthlong visit to Nicaragua as part of my time on Step into the Gap programme.

The organisation began in 2008 with 21 members, as a trade union specifically for women in rural communities, 20 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

and has now grown to a membership of 2,493. It aims to empower women by giving them the opportunity to start their own business and earn their own money, with the result that they are less reliant on their husbands.

Within each community, ASOMUPRO runs monthly workshops teaching new skills such as water conservation and showing women how they can adapt traditional growing methods to resist climate change.

It also provides an education on gender laws, particularly a newly-enforced Law 779 which provides protection against domestic violence.

An important element of CAFOD’s work is that it strives to ensure that people are ‘authors of their own achievements’; its partner ASOMUPRO works hard to give women a voice so they can speak up for themselves and build their own future.

The first people we visited were Dona Helen and her son Simon*. Helen was part of a group of 30 women who had been involved with ASOMUPRO for two years.

She had been given a loan to buy pigs and chickens which she bred to sell. After the first litter of piglets, she was able to pay back the loan, and she can both eat and sell the eggs from the chickens.

Helen is able to conduct this new initiative alongside her daily routine of getting up at 3am to make 300 tortillas to sell at 8am.

She said she had noticed a massive change in her community thanks to the workshops, and there has also been a dramatic reduction in domestic violence because of the fear of punishment.

Members of the ASOMUPRO project and their Helen’s friend Dulcie, from the same community, spoke about her experiences with ASOMUPRO, explaining that her relationship with her husband had changed positively over recent years as she had grown in self esteem and learnt about women’s rights and gender laws.

Dulcie’s husband had become very supportive of the group while her daughter, Georgina*, said that in order to have hope “we have to believe in ourselves”.

ASOMUPRO is now helping Dona Helen to set up a bio-digester which will use the pigs’ excrement for fuel to heat the stove and be more environmentallyfriendly.

A total of four bee-keeping communities have also been set up by ASOMUPRO, one such example being Natoso where it provided the women of the community with the bees, equipment and training.

families in Nicaragua Photo: Stephanie Beech They have been able to do all the harvesting, bottling, marketing and selling of the honey themselves, and are able to keep all the profit.

Their slogan is “We are women and we can” and they refer to the bees as their ‘brothers and sisters’. Many of these women have qualifications, but have not been able to find employment so remain as housewives.

One woman, Belkis, is a trained teacher: “It’s very difficult for rural girls to find employment,” she said. “You must support the right political party and there is no democracy.”

We were able to witness how beekeeping has benefited their whole families, joining them in a joyous atmosphere for the first harvest of the year. The whole community joined in the evening’s excitement of getting the first honey into the bottles ready to sell.

Climate change is visibly affecting Nicaragua. Many rural communities are used to growing their own maize and beans to provide their staple diet of tortillas, beans and rice. The three months that make up their rainy season has been reducing every year.

We visited the indigenous community of Mozonte, in the dry corridor of Nicaragua, 17km from the nearest town which is three hours away on foot.

After last year’s harvest, there was 95 per cent less maize and 50 per cent fewer beans than in an average year, meaning that people relied on walking to the town to buy their food.

The poor harvest affected the whole country, so the food they bought was also subjected to increasing prices.

To get to Mozonte, we walked along a river bed that had dried up because of the drought; a few years ago it would

have been impossible to walk along as we were told it had been a large and fastflowing river. ASOMUPRO has shown this community how they can grow alternative crops which are more resistant to the drier weather, and has helped people to create mini-gardens on stilts, meaning that water does not filtrate the dry land and immediately disappear, but instead remains in the roots of the crops.

Water storage tanks have been provided to 35 families, and also act as water filters. The water piped into this village, considered fit for drinking by the government, is contaminated to a dangerous level with arsenic (60-70 parts per million).

The filters though have seen a massive reduction in stomach illnesses. It also means that people have been able to store water when it does rain.

Juan Carlos was the local technical support worker for this community. His job was to visit the communities to see how they were getting on and find out what they needed. “To change the world, you must first change yourself,” he said, adding that he believed that climate change was the biggest threat to the planet and was going to affect everybody; it was just more instant in some places.

Juan Carlos explained that if everyone in the world made a small change to their own lifestyle, it would make a massive difference to communities such as Mozonte.

ASOMUPRO is striving to make positive changes to the lives of rural women by providing both economic initiatives, such as the beekeeping, but also through support groups which have provided training on gender laws to protect women against domestic violence, as well as showing alternative growing methods to adapt to the increasing effects of climate change.

Nicaragua is a beautiful country unlike anywhere I had travelled to before; full of volcanoes, lakes and colourful towns.

But it was the people who welcomed us into their homes, and were so willing to share their stories, which captured my heart. It became clear that Nicaraguans are deeply connected to the environment, and many were dependent on the land for their livelihoods.

“Land is life, we live by the will of God,” was something we were told by Jose, a farmer we met in one of the communities. Despite the ever-increasing threat of climate change, I found that God was central to people’s lives, and they trusted in Him, no matter what. JM * Not their real names JUSTICE MAGAZINE 21

Feature: Work

Paul Donovan reports on the frustration felt by one Polish worker, and suggests that, were it possible, industrial action would make a point

What if migrants could strike?

MIGRANTS ARE GETTING extremely tired of contributing to British society, while at the same time being vilified for their very presence in the country.

Talking recently to a migrant worker, who has been in this country for 10 years, the growing sense of exasperation and anger became quickly apparent.

A 32-year-old Polish woman, Edith (not her real name), worked first in care homes on the south coast. She worked long and hard, while also picking up other cleaning jobs to help make ends meet. Edith took English reading and writing classes in her own time. She became active in the local Catholic church, helping in the community. Throughout this period, she was paying taxes, while getting little back in return.

She then moved to work as a cleaner at a hotel. A keen worker, she soon advanced to become a supervisor. At the moment she is also studying accountancy at college in her spare time. She hopes one day to qualify as an accountant.

“We are here, we contribute, we pay our taxes. I do not understand why there are these constant attacks on migrants,” said Edith, who has become so exasperated that she believes there should be a ‘migrant strike’. “Then people would know exactly what we do,” she said.

She is not wrong. Migrants have always played a key role in keeping the wheels of the British economy turning.

Some 26 per cent of doctors in the NHS come from other countries.

The NHS is also regularly seeking to poach nurses from other countries.

Britain’s schools and colleges are packed with teachers from across the world.

The transport system has been a ready employer of migrants, since London Transport went out in the 1950s to the 22 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

West Indies looking for workers. The care sector would come to a halt if it weren’t for migrant workers.

What of catering, where in many parts of the country it is unusual not to be served by a migrant worker?

Then there is the construction industry. It is a source of constant bewilderment to hear individuals rail against migrants, while employing Polish workers to put up their extension or loft conversion. The phrase ‘double standards’ was made for this scenario.

“

We are here, we contribute, we pay our taxes. I do not understand why there are these constant attacks on migrants

Migration is good for the economy.

The Government’s own figures show that net migration of 250,000 per year boosts annual GDP by 0.5 per cent (Source: Office for Budget Responsibility). This growth means more jobs, higher tax revenues, more funding for schools and hospitals and a lower deficit.

A study by University College London in 2009 that looked at the fiscal impact of recent eastern European migration found that migrants contributed 37 per cent more in taxes than the cost of the public services they consumed.

Migrant numbers go up and down generally according to the wellbeing of the economy. This is because, in the main, they come to work, not as popular myth would have us believe, to collect benefits.

The economic reality of the UK is that the population is aging, with people living longer.

At the same time fertility rates are falling. Not enough children are being born to replace the current population. Today there are three people of working age for every one over 65, by 2060 the ratio is expected to change to 1:1. Academic David Blake estimates that for the state pension to remain viable, there need to be 500,000 immigrant workers coming to the UK each year.

These migrants are needed if the wealth is to be generated to sustain the present aging population.

Yet despite all these positive elements about migration, the public discourse is dominated by politicians promising to cut the numbers. Indeed, the political discourse has become so distorted that the value and need for migration is rarely ever raised. The departure point of debate is always the need to cut immigration.

A one-day strike by migrants would really bring home to the population just how much those coming from other countries do contribute to this country.

If all the migrants withdrew their labour, so many of the daily services that people take for granted would grind to a halt.

The growing ferocity against migrants will, in the long term, lead to them not coming to this country. Who wants to come and work and pay taxes in a country where you are not appreciated and are actually condemned for contributing? Why not go to a country that is more welcoming?

The arguments for migration are many and varied. There are the economic positives outlined, as well as the rich diversity that different people bring

Migrant workers often carry out the more unpopular jobs in society Photo: Garry Knight to our country. London is, in many ways, a multicultural oasis because of the way that people from countries across the world live and work peacefully together.

Business knows that the economy requires the skills that migrant workers bring.

The way that migration to this country has been managed over the past couple of decades has helped to build many of the present resentments. Migrant workers have been brought in often to undercut the indigenous workforce on rates of pay. The construction industry provides a particularly clear example of these practices.

There needs to be minimum standards of pay and conditions so that there is no such undercutting. There also needs

to be proper public service provision, including house building, merited by the taxes that migrants pay.

Veteran Labour MP Dennis Skinner makes a good point as to how many different migrants settled without problems in Britain from countries like Poland and the Ukraine after the Second World War. Skinner pointed out how there were strong trade unions during these years, the incoming workers joined the unions and there was no question of being used as a cheap labour force.

“The key to improving community relations is to guarantee everybody is on a good wage and nobody is undercut,” said Skinner.

“If trade unions were stronger, the friction would be reduced and the gains

enormous in terms of harmony between people from various countries.”

So there are many ways that migration can be better managed. This aging country needs migrants to keep it going.

Migrants also add incredibly to the diversity and culture of the country.

Maybe people need a reminder of all these positive factors – a migrant strike would provide just such a wake up call.

Failure to heed the present warning signs will no doubt, in the long term, result in fewer people coming to a country where at present they feel vilified not valued. If that happens, everyone will be a loser. JM Paul Donovan is a freelance journalist.

Visit www.paulfdonovan.blogspot.com JUSTICE MAGAZINE 23

Feature: South Sudan

Education can mean a better future for females, says Paul Jeffrey

The struggle to keep girls in school IN A COUNTRY where keeping girls in school is still a struggle, Bibiana Joseph wants to be a role model.

“Most of the people here don’t see education as a good thing. They don’t know its value. I became a teacher so I could help my people, and be a role model for girls and women,” said Joseph, a teacher at the John Paul II School in Wau, South Sudan “Most of the girls here don’t go to school. Instead, they stay home, marry early, and have many children. By being here I can help them see other possibilities.”

South Sudan has proportionately fewer girls going to school than any other country in the world. According to the United Nations, less than one per cent of girls complete primary education.

Only one schoolchild in four is a girl, and female illiteracy is the highest in the world.

“

Many parents still feel their daughters should be married off because that will bring cows for them

Female teachers remain only about 12 per cent of the workforce.

Joseph obviously thinks that needs to change, and she started with her own life.

After graduating from the John Paul II School, she quickly got married and started having children. Yet she also enrolled in university courses, eventually graduating in 2012.

She then got a job elsewhere as a teacher, but wanted to come back to John Paul II School. In 2014, she was hired to teach English and religious education in the primary school.

“It was a good school for me as a student. The teachers helped a lot, and 24 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

A female student at the John Paul II School in Wau, South Sudan. Photo: Paul Jeffrey helped us value getting an education,” she said.

Joseph says schools are a more girlfriendly environment these days.

“The number of girls in schools is increasing. Parents are learning that if they don’t educate their girls they won’t get out from under poverty. Education can mean a better future for them,” she said.

The school encourages girl students to remain in class by providing them with uniforms, books, pens, and a school bag.

It’s not enough, however, to make up for the comparative advantage that boys enjoy because of how time is structured outside the school grounds.

“It’s unfair that after working hard at school, the girls go home to where they have to do a lot of work, cleaning and washing clothes and cooking, but the boys have a lot of free time to play football or do other things.

That leaves the girls little time to do

their homework, so I often find them writing in their notebooks while I’m talking in the classroom,” she said.

According to Sr Maria Goretti Namono, a member of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters for Africa who manages a project at the school promoting the full inclusion of girl students, getting families to commit to educating their daughters can be complicated.

“Many parents still feel their daughters should be married off because that will bring cows for them. It’s a cultural thing,” Namono said.

“Some parents have told me that if they leave their daughters in school, they will end up messing with a man and getting pregnant, then the parents will miss out on the cows. So they prefer to get their girls out quickly, give them to a husband they’ve chosen, and then they get their cows.”

At times, Namono says, it’s not just

Sr Maria Goretti Namono leads students in singing at the John Paul II School in Wau, South Sudan. Namono is the school’s project manager for the full inclusion of girls. From Uganda, she is a member of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters for Africa.

Photo: Paul Jeffrey the immediate family. She said one girl’s family was pressured to marry her off quickly by an uncle who would receive half of the 150 cows that the girl was going to fetch.

“Once they get married, the next expectation is that they will give birth to children continuously. There’s no space to do anything else. And if they don’t continually give birth, the husband questions why,” Namono said.

If she can’t keep them from getting married, Namono says she works to at least keep the girls in school. Joseph is

a valuable role model for that commitment, Namono says.

Namono also appointed Joseph as the school’s child protection officer. “Her role is to make sure the kids are safe in the school compound,” Namono said.

One of the biggest dangers they confront is caning, according to Namono.

“We would like the teachers to have a friendly approach to the children, to create an environment where the students can study without fear, without being scared.

“But it’s a struggle. Some teachers

think it’s hard to teach without caning,” she said.

“The people of this country have just emerged from war, and some of them are bitter and angry. So they don’t see caning as a problem. Most teachers have improved, but two or three are continuing to cane their students.

“At the back of it they have some anger that we need to deal with. We want these children to grow up with a different attitude, despite all the fighting they have seen. So our teachers need to help them see something different.” JM JUSTICE MAGAZINE 25

Feature: Anniversary

Shelley Stromdale takes a look through the history of the Catholic Institute for International Relations, now known as Progressio, as it celebrates a major milestone

Progressio at 75 PROGRESSIO HAS EXPERIENCED many changes since it was founded in 1940.

Originally named the Sword of the Spirit, the organisation took its name from Cardinal Hinsley’s powerful wartime broadcast of 1939, in which he reminded listeners of the need for Christian values of kinship and love in the face of fascism in Europe.

He said: “The sword of the Spirit will alone convert unjust assailants and recreate peace and good will.” Inspired by the cardinal’s message, and alarmed that Catholics were increasingly seen as fascist sympathisers, a group of young Catholics began a campaign of prayer, study and action to unite the citizens of this country in support of future peace.

The Sword wanted to stand up for progressive values and worked hard to

“

been in any way lost and that the problems dealt with by Progressio since the war have all been rooted in the search for the dignity, the rights and the responsibilities of all human beings,” she said.

Progressio works at all levels to help the voice of poor and marginalised communities to be heard and acted on

defend ‘the rights of God, of man, of the family, of minorities and of dependent peoples’ - a prophetic vision years before human rights were widely adopted.

That wartime movement laid the foundations for the Catholic Institute for International Relations (CIIR), which has become today’s Progressio.

Despite the two name changes, the Sword’s secretary Barbara Ward, who would go on to become an influential economist and peer, had said that the 26 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

Progressio health worker taking a class in one of Nicaragua’s childbirth centres in 1979. Photo: Progressio organisation’s values have always remained deeply rooted in Catholic Social Teaching.

“In the many years that have passed, through many problems, reorganisations and re-examination of objectives, it is quite clear that the original aim has not

Progressio’s ecumenical approach From the beginning, the Sword pioneered and encouraged ecumenical co-operation among Christian churches with the hope of establishing a plan of action that would secure peace for all.

Founders of the Sword believed social and political issues were also spiritual issues, and insisted the Church could not “abstain from intervention without betraying its mission”.

A shared sense of urgency throughout the Second World War helped to unite Christians against totalitarianism; in 1940 Cardinal Hinsley, Archbishop Cosmo Lang (Anglican) and Archbishop William Temple (Church of England) all signed a joint letter to The Times, which laid down the ‘Five Peace Points’ of Pope Pius XII and encouraged collaboration among Christians.

Although an ecumenical approach has created some difficulties for Progressio, an inter-faith approach has been pivotal to the organisation’s development.

Today, Progressio stands in solidarity with people of all faiths and none to establish a more just world for all of humankind. Without this ecumenical approach, Progressio’s important work alongside Muslim communities in fragile states, such as Yemen and Somaliland, would not be possible.

Progressio’s ‘People Powered’ approach to development By 1962, the Sword had adopted an international focus and was supporting

Female Xaqsoor supporter at a rally in the lead-up to the Somaliland Local Elections 2012, Hargeisa, Somaliland developing countries by encouraging volunteers to take up posts overseas.

The Sword believed it was important to invest in people, and so its volunteers set out to enable people in the developing world to find solutions to their own problems. This ethos, which was remarkable for the time, was key to the success of the organisation and remains central to Progressio’s contemporary approach when creating lasting change.

Having helped to establish the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD) as a fundraising and grant-giving arm of the Church in England and Wales in the 1960s, Progressio’s approach has acted as a model for other NGOs, particularly its commitment to supporting self-empowerment in ‘Global South’ communities.

Professor Hilary Russell worked alongside CIIR/Progressio in the late 1980s and 90s while on the national executive of Church Action on Poverty (CAP).

She said: “Although CAP’s focus is on UK poverty, we had many areas of common interest. CAP had much to learn from the CIIR/Progressio both in its approach to empowerment and its recognition of the need to change the

structures and policies that lock people into poverty.”

If communities in developing countries in the southern hemisphere cannot have a meaningful say in the decisions taken at international, national or local government level, the problems that they face will not be taken seriously.

Therefore, Progressio works at all levels to help the voice of poor and marginalised communities to be heard and acted on. At a local level, Progressio development workers - trained specialists - share skills, expertise and knowledge with communities so they can create the change they want to see.

This work on the ground is strengthened by Progressio’s international policy experts and campaigns team, who work together to influence international decision-making and advocate for communities whose voices and needs would not otherwise be heard. This has been an important aspect of Progressio’s work since day one.

In the 1940s, the Sword fought oppression in Eastern Europe and staged protests to secure the release of wronglyimprisoned clergy members in Poland.

When the war ended, the organisa-

tion campaigned hard for the adoption of the Declaration of Human Rights and supported the UN in its ‘Freedom from Hunger’ campaign in 1961.

Now, more than 50 years later, Progressio’s continued commitment to ending world hunger is demonstrated by its annual involvement in the global ‘Live Below the Line’ campaign, which helped raise more than £750,000 for people living in poverty in 2015.

In recent years, Progressio’s policy team worked hard to ensure the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs introduced tough legislation around the importation of timber.

This policy change reduced worldwide demand for illegally-logged timber, and has offered protection to forest-dwelling communities and endangered animals in the regions of Central America where Progressio continues to work.

To accompany this, Progressio supporters campaigned hard for the International Development Bill that secured the 0.7 per cent aid commitment in to law.

Lastly, Progressio’s work is further supported by the efforts of young volunteers through its International Citizen Service (ICS) programme. >>>28 JUSTICE MAGAZINE 27

Local and UK Progressio ICS volunteers deliver workshops in Nicaragua to deconstruct gender stereotypes in 2015 Progressio ICS In 1958, the Sword had regular communication with all Catholic grammar schools in the UK which caused sixth formers to become increasingly interested in service overseas for two to three years in a developing country.

Today, Progressio’s ICS programme continues to spark a similar level of interest in young people aged 18 to 25 years.

Over the last four years, Progressio has sent 721 young volunteers to work alongside 30 partner organisations in El Salvador, Honduras, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Nicaragua.

Today, volunteers take on shorter 10week placements, but the early expectations of volunteers to be ‘willing to understand, to adapt and learn to respect culture and customs’ resonates exactly with what is expected of Progressio ICS volunteers in 2015.

Then vs. now Back in 1979, Progressio volunteers supported the Nicaraguan government to introduce a free and efficient health service to the entire population, irrespective of income.

Progressio health professionals trained local volunteers how to administer vaccinations, which resulted in a 50 per cent reduction in malaria by 1986, brought measles under control and almost eradicated polio and whooping cough.

Now, through its ICS programme, 28 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

Progressio volunteers continue to educate Nicaraguan communities on sexual health and gender equality, alongside the construction of eco latrines - composting toilets - for environmental and economic benefit.

Progressio today: Women’s rights in Yemen and Somaliland Gender justice is central to all of Progressio’s work, as women and girls are disproportionately affected by poverty and oppression.

Important disparities exist between men and women accessing education, protection, livelihood programmes and political processes, so Progressio’s projects aim to support women and girls to empower themselves as much as possible.

Progressio has worked in Yemen since the early 1970s. More recently, faced with civil war and the lowest ranking of 142nd in the 2014 Gender Gap Index, Progressio’s focus has shifted to training local leaders, including women, in policy analysis, advocacy and lobbying skills.

This enables them to represent the views of their communities and influence the decision-making that affects their lives.

Similarly, in Somaliland, Progressio’s development workers shared their skills in gender and advocacy with the national women’s network, NAGAAD. Since then, major strides have been made in the political representation of

women in decision-making in order to promote women’s rights; from 2002 to 2012, the number of female election candidates in Somaliland increased from 5 to 140.

Progressio today: Sustainable farming Progressio supports women and men living in Southern Africa and Central America to practise sustainable farming approaches to increase food and economic security, while caring for the environment.

Looking forward The contemporary challenges are indeed great: A handful of rulers stand astride our globe with immense power, while 1.2 billion live on the UK equivalent of £1 a day for food, drink, accommodation, health, education, transport – everything.

With the recent announcement of the new Sustainable Development Goals, it is up to every living individual to recognise our values, to look wider, and take action to help those in need, those less well off than ourselves and to victims of injustice.

In celebrating Progressio’s first 75 years of taking action, it is a time to renew our commitment to communities living in fragile states, particularly women and girls.

Working together, we can move towards achieving justice, rights and dignity for every single individual. JM

National Justice & Peace Network

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Feature: HIV/Aids

As we approach the Holy Year of Mercy, which Pope Francis has announced will begin on December 8, 2015, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, Vincent Manning asks a mother living with HIV to share some thoughts on relationships, faith and the Christian life. World AIDS Day is observed each year on December 1.

The search for healing CATE BELIEVES THAT Catholic faith requires involvement in issues of social justice.

As a young woman in the 1980s, she had been active in the peace movement, and with anti-racist campaigning. Also during that decade, AIDS hit the world, with a personal and public impact that it is easy to forget today.

Early on, Cate sensed that this was an important social justice issue: “When HIV/AIDS began to appear, even though HIV and AIDS was still very associated with gay people, drug users, African people, I was really conscious of the fact that this was ... going to affect me and my generation if it hadn’t done already … it was always on my radar.”

This led Cate to volunteer for an HIV charity in the early 90s. She wanted to “stand up and be counted”.

Later when she was diagnosed with HIV herself, she remembers how those she told were very shocked. She just didn’t fit the picture of someone who might be HIV positive.

“There was a lot of stereotyping,” she recalled. Even her doctor seemed to think: “Women like you don’t get it”.

Today Cate is a very proud mother and grandmother. She is an active leader in her local church. However, she has not always felt so welcome or accepted in the Church.

The day after her diagnosis, Cate turned to God in prayer. “I started crying, and, this sound came out of me like a wounded animal ... I remember ... rocking, and crying, from somewhere deep in my soul ... ‘out of the depths I cry to thee, Oh Lord’. It makes me feel quite emotional. A really deep, soul cry.”

Cate’s prayer was answered: “I felt...the wings of an angel that just enfolded me, 30 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

...a warmth, that surrounded me, and held me and it felt like wings. And it just said ‘breathe out’ and I breathed out...”

Cate recalls this as an experience of “the Divine”. The suffering was not removed, nor could Cate forget her usual responsibilities as a mother with three young children. Yet somehow it gave her “enough strength to get up, and get on with the day”.

“In the absolute desolation ... in physical and emotional pain, when I cried out from that deep place I got that warmth and that enfolding ... and that was enough.”

A few years before this, Cate’s husband had told her that he wanted an annulment.

“I just burst into tears, and said ‘I can’t believe that you’re going to do that, were you not at our wedding day too?’”

“

The one place where we should be able to find compassion and acceptance is often where we find judgement

She found the annulment process extremely painful: “I found it horrific ...I couldn’t believe the questions I was being asked. After I ... answered all these questions, they read ... a statement that my husband had said could be read to me ... It was a flawed process, it wasn’t a healing process ... I thought you can say whatever you like but I know what’s the truth, in my heart. When I stood on the altar of God and made those promises, I expected to be with that man for the rest

of my life, and the fact that we were not did not, in any way, invalidate, what had happened on that day.”

Cate recalls the couple’s wedding day as “one of the most beautiful, spiritfilled, authentic days of my life ... that was the truth of it.”

The couple had divorced reasonably amicably, but it was the annulment process that began to distance Cate from the Church: “It felt like the Catholic Church’s excuse for divorce … like complete hypocrisy to me.”

Cate’s volunteer service supporting people living with HIV and dying from AIDS also heightened her sense of alienation from the Church, particulalry with some Christians claiming that AIDS was “a punishment from God”.

The HIV diagnosis compounded this ‘turning away’. It is, perhaps, very understandable that Cate felt unable to speak openly about her situation within the Church: “...not just within Christianity but within faith traditions ... there are other levels of stigma and prejudice that come in, with the silence that people feel ... they have to keep, about their status or about their sexuality..

“That sort of pushing out to the edge, that exclusion … like, you’re not belonging, you’re not welcome, which is completely the reverse to what any faith … any version of God should be doing, it should be bringing us in. The one place where we should be able to find compassion and acceptance is often where we find judgement, is often where we find exclusion.”

Although feeling excluded by the Church, Cate would not turn away from God. I asked her how living with HIV for more than 20 years now has affected her

Cate felt she was being “called home” Photo: Positive Catholics faith: “It cracked me open … beyond religion and theology and everything else …

HIV has enriched my faith enormously … in a bizarre sort of way. Suddenly it’s about so much more … than just religion.

“God is in everything, and every moment and every encounter. And, some of not going to church opened that out for me to be able to explore that in different ways. Which has only added to and increased my sense of faith … allows it to be, beyond boundaries, you know I don’t have God in a matchbox. I … find [God] even in the darkest and most difficult places.”

Cate’s attendance at a Positive Catholics retreat weekend began a journey back to fuller participation in the life of the Church.

“It has taken me years and years … to begin to find some healing. I met Fr

Kevin [Kelly] and he was the one who told me about Positive Catholics.

“And there was something in me that was definitely … yearning, something in my roots that was calling me home. I think that I have lived out on the edge for long enough, thank you.”

By coincidence, the retreat was held at Douai Abbey, the same place that Cate’s husband had proposed marriage to her all those years before.

“And Fr John [Sherrington, CP] … giving reconciliation and the anointing with oil, and a beautiful conversation I had with another Catholic woman on that weekend, about the divorce and the annulment, began a process of healing with me, it really did.”

Returning home after that weekend retreat, Cate unexpectedly met her ex-husband: “You’ll never guess where I have been this weekend”, she said, “...and

that was the beginning of some softening and some healing between ... us ... after 20 years of hardly speaking to each other that began to shift...”

Cate now attends St Bride’s Church each Sunday, where she feels welcomed and included.

“It has been really important to find somewhere that accepts me as I am. To have a sense of belonging within this community, it’s been really powerful.

And that did start with that weekend at Douai Abbey ... to come back to a place of communion and belonging again, it’s been incredibly important for me, for who I am.”

Today, Cate often speaks publicly about her faith and living with HIV. “I don’t think God cares whether you’re gay, straight, or other. I don’t think God cares whether you are HIV positive, I think what God cares about is how you live your life … why would I not find God within this, and stand up and be counted, and seen and heard. [So] that others, may also come in from the edge.

Come in from that place of silence and secrets and be allowed to be who they truly are, without fear of judgement. And it’s all there within the Church.

“I suppose that’s the thing that always amazes me. The words that are said every Sunday, that are repeated, it’s like do you not hear what you are saying?

“Do you not hear the beauty and the truth, in the Gospel, in the Creed in the words of the Our Father in the words of the Eucharist?

“Listen! Listen to these words, and hear, what they truly mean, and then go out and live it.

“That’s I suppose, where I’ve come to with it all, just not missing that beauty, and that richness that’s in there.

“So it continues to excite me and frustrate me in equal measure and that’s all right because that stirs my passion, one way or another.

“Tune right into it, and let it be part of who you truly are, and let it be part of who I truly am as well.” JM

Vincent Manning is chairperson of Catholics for AIDS Prevention and Support (CAPS) which supports the Positive Catholics HIV peer support ministry.

For more information or to support the groups visit www.caps-uk.org and www.positivecatholics.com or email info@caps-uk.org JUSTICE MAGAZINE 31

Feature: Volunteering

Kieran O’Brien looks at how the daily role played by a CAFOD volunteer is helping parishes to flourish

Phil’s skills help people to reflect on global poverty PHIL BARRETT, A PROFESSED member of the Secular Franciscan Order and a CAFOD volunteer based in Cardiff, is dedicating his time in bringing his skills in community development work and applying it to the work of overseas development charity CAFOD in parishes across Wales and Herefordshire. His unique approach is indeed helping parishes to flourish.

Phil, 68, volunteers his time in a community development role with CAFOD, looking at new approaches to working with parish communities.

“When I retired over two years ago, I had no intention of stopping. I have spent a long time working with charities, which I really enjoy, I have felt that this is my calling to give some significant time to helping one charity and CAFOD was the obvious choice for me.”

Phil started volunteering with CAFOD nearly two years ago, working five days a week out of CAFOD’s Cardiff volunteer centre, covering the large area of South Wales and Herefordshire. Living in Aberdare, a one-hour train ride away, he dedicates most of his time working on a specific role with CAFOD that he established himself.

“When I first approached CAFOD, I wanted to put my skills and experience in community development and charity work into practice. So I negotiated a new role with the CAFOD team which we established as a parish and community development officer.

“Basically, I try to bring my community development techniques to the role, and apply it to the work of CAFOD in parishes. So my role is much more about meeting people face-to-face and helping them to develop in their parish community.”

32 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

Phil applies his skills in community development along with CAFOD’s principles of overseas development to his work. “It is inspiring to see that CAFOD’s principles of development tells us that we in the global north have as much to learn from the communities that we work with in the global south. It is not just about them learning from us, in fact it is just as much the other way around.

I think the same applies to our parish development work.

“We don’t have the answers or solution as to how a parish can engage with social action, but by working on a bottom-up approach we find that a locallydetermined solution that fits the shape and needs of the parish are far better than any pre-determined solutions that I can offer. All communities are different, and they will all inevitably respond in different ways.”

“

As Catholics, there is a clear call for us all to work on social justice and to help our poorest sisters and brothers throughout the world

With the challenge of working with many rural parishes across Wales, Phil’s work focuses on supporting parishes to help unlock their social justice mandate.

“As Catholics, there is a clear call for us all to work on social justice and to help our poorest sisters and brothers throughout the world. In my experience there is so much goodwill and support from people to work on tackling poverty.

“But that goodwill doesn’t always go beyond holding a simple collection, or just putting our hands in our pockets and giving. Working for social justice demands a little bit more than that from us, personal transformation is required.

“My aim therefore is to try to get the parish community to reflect on global poverty, and move them beyond just holding second collections. So I go around parishes with a display and talk called Beyond the Green Envelope, where I showcase the breadth of ways a parish can get involved with CAFOD that is not just about giving through their regular Fast Day appeals [through their green envelopes], but thinking about how they can put their faith into action in their local context.”

Phil also holds the role as National Justice and Peace Network (NPJN) coordinator for Menevia diocese, a role which he does not see as conflicting with the role that he has with CAFOD. “When I speak to parishes my aim is primarily to get that parish working for justice, to unlock its social mandate so that the parish can flourish. That doesn’t necessarily mean just setting up a CAFOD group, or a Justice and Peace group, but rather looking at ways the parish community can work together to put their faith into action on both

Phil Barrett in his CAFOD office local and global issues. My hope is that whatever group that they set up, that they take in both local and global issues, and should not be seen as another ‘interest group’ within the parish, but rather a group that represents the wider parish community.”

Working on a community development model certainly does pose a range of challenges, especially in trying to get people together and give up their time to work on this.

“A significant amount of my time is spent trying to get people together,” Phil said. “It is always an ongoing challenge and I say this as no disrespect to anyone, but it is the reality of today that people are so busy and have so many other commitments. It is even harder for people to meet up these days with so much going on. I see my role in doing the nuts and bolts work of getting the beginnings of groups set up.”

Phil, a keen gardener, draws reference to his work in very pragmatic way. “As a gardener I know that sowing seeds is only a small part of the growing cycle.

If you want your plants to flourish you have to nurture them, sometimes give extra support to them if needed and regularly check up on them to see that they are OK. “The same is true for our parish development work. We can easily

sow seeds of inspiration by giving a talk or offering parishes a range of resources to follow. But in my experience, without the practical ongoing support in helping people to meet up, giving support on how to put their faith into action, it is very likely those seeds of inspiration – with the best will in the world – will fall by the wayside. I think that is what partnership means to me, it is about accompanying small parish groups to take their next step, whatever that next step might be.”

Phil’s parish development approach starts with a basic listening exercise. “I would normally go into the parish and try to meet with a number of people to carry out a simple review. In this review it really is a chance to understand what type of parish they are, how everything functions at the practical level.

“From there I can start to build up a picture of how we can work together on developing a group. But, and I can’t stress this enough, this has to be built in partnership with the parish. It has to be built on the needs and expectations of the parish community and not predetermined by me.

“From there, using a simple community development model, I build up a case profile for each parish, looking at what the next step could be for that parish.

For some it really is foundational work on just raising awareness of CAFOD’s work and overseas issues. For others it might be encouraging them into setting up a group to look at issues around campaigning, spirituality and connecting the parish with overseas communities. It really does depend on the parish.”

The role is clearly an enjoyable one, which Phil speaks about with great affection. “There is great joy in my work with CAFOD. There is a lot of travelling about and meeting a range of inspirational people. Sometimes it is just one or two who are doing their little bit, but what they see as their ‘little bit’, this makes a huge difference to how the parish responds to CAFOD’s appeals. There is also great reward in seeing, with a little support, how parishes can develop over time.”

He added: “One really interesting thing that CAFOD has taught me is that when we talk about development, there is a danger to think that we in the ‘Global North’ are ‘developed’ and that development is an overseas issue, something that is done ‘over there’.

“Rather, development is not just an overseas issue, we all need development.

Our own development and wellbeing is dependent on achieving the wellbeing of all people. I certainly have developed personally in this role, and I’m sure if others were to take on a similar role they too would find great rewards” Clearly volunteering five days a week shows huge commitment for Phil, so what inspires him to give up so much time and energy to this project?

“My inspiration? That’s easy. It’s my faith. The heart of being a lay Franciscan is about service, and that is what I offer.

“I am also inspired by the people I work with, those in the parishes who are doing incredible work, often unrecognised. It is people like these that we need more of!

“The potential of five million Catholics putting their faith into action, responding to Catholic Social Teaching, working on both local and global poverty issues, praying, campaigning, taking local action…that potential is huge.

“But that potential will only be tapped if we are willing to put the hard work in supporting our parishes to come together as a community to work on these bigger issues. As always, it starts with small things.” JM For more information call Phil Barrett on 02920 344882 or email pbarrett@cafod.org.uk JUSTICE MAGAZINE 33

Feature: Criminal justice

Lucia Dorosario-Neil asks whether we are really striving for a criminal justice system that seeks justice but shows mercy

‘We are all just people’ OVER THE YEARS I have walked alongside young men and their families and learnt the most valuable lesson I could ever have learnt. We are not that different.

When it comes down to it, we are all just people, people with hopes, dreams, fears. People with regrets, people who mourn for what is lost and who celebrate the good in our lives, however rare and fragile that may be.

St Paul wrote: “I do not understand my own behaviour; I do not act as I mean to, but I do things I hate...for though the will to do what is good is in me, the power to do it is not: the good thing I want to do, I never do; the evil thing which I do not want – that is what I do” (Romans 7:15-19) This passage speaks to us of the human predicament.

That disobedience and crime have characterised human action throughout the ages is recognised in the very first few chapters of the Bible. God creates Adam and Eve, provides all they require, and what follows is disobedience to the only single injunction he places on them.

Although this article does not have the breadth to discuss the history of crime and its development in our consciousness through the ages, it is interesting to note that crime seems to be known to ‘man’ for as long as humankind has been known to set standards from which deviation was possible. Today, crime and our fear of it seems to characterise our age in the UK, one has only to turn on the news, read the press and you will find no end of reports on people committing crimes against the person, corporation and the state.

As long as the problem of crime exists, so too does that of what to do with those who break the law, and hence require 34 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

punishment. According to the Howard League’s Weekly Prison Watch, on Friday, September 25 2015 85,892, prisoners were to be found incarcerated in England and Wales; by 2019 this number is expected to rise to well over 86,000. As many as half of these prisoners will have been in prison more than once.

While working as a community chaplain, I also completed an MA in pastoral theology. As part of this process, I interviewed a number of people who had spent time in prison and were attempting to make a different life for themselves. I was often touched by the responses I got from the men I spoke to, both in terms of their honesty and by their desire to seek something they often had never known, stability and a life without crime.

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Crime and our fear of it seems to characterise our age in the UK

One of the young men I worked with I had actually come across previously during my time working with the homeless.

Max had problems relating to people and the world around him, but he had a phenomenal memory.

Despite a number of years elapsing, when he saw me at Feltham he remembered me. Max had been placed in care as a child and rarely saw his family. He occassionally saw his father. Other than that he lived a fairly itinerant lifestyle, his only real home being the hostel in which he lived. Then one day he got into a disagreement with someone at the

The papal nuncio at Feltham Young Offenders Institution Photo from Pact

A family day at HMP Woodhill Photo from Pact hostel. They had his CD and were not returning it. In a desperate attempt to get their attention, he put a piece of lit paper under their door. Thankfully nothing terrible happened as the person was there at the time. Unfortunately Max’s actions would result in him losing his place in the only stable accommodation he had known and being sent to prison.

There is no doubt that arson is a serious crime, but Max could not understand this.

With an IQ of just around 60 he struggled to understand and retain ideas of what is socially acceptable and what is not, let alone what constitutes a criminal act.

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Most small charities go from one funding round to the next, never sure of where the next pound will come from

When I met him in prison, and had caught up with his case, I had to explain to him that this was his home for now and that we would need to find him another home when it was time to leave.

Often he would get confused about things and if he saw me in the corridors he would shout out L. U. C. I. A. L. U. C. I. A. that was how he addressed me. I’m not entirely sure he understood that he was spelling my name rather than saying it, but it was really rather touching and always gave the other staff and chaplains something to smile about.

I worked with DePaul UK on Max’s case, like Pact another brilliant Catholic charity. Between us we got him assessed by his local borough and he was safely and appropriately housed, eventually. He was also given a mentor, who has been

fantastic and despite years passing still keeps in touch with him. When I last heard, Max was doing short courses at college and his behaviour had improved.

All Max needed was a little support, care and continuity. Prison, as it is today, was not going to give him that; had we not stepped in it’s possible he would have, in his confusion, continued to commit unwitting crimes, resulting in repeated incarceration.

Our prisons continue to be squeezed so that any useful programmes are being sacrificed just to pay for vital staff and other running costs. Programmes which work to help people in prison to reflect on or change their behaviour are largely supported by charities and other nongovernmental organisations. While this gives them a certain amount of independence, most small charities go from one funding round to the next, never sure of where the next pound will come from. This severely affects their ability to plan longer term, or spend time on valuable exercises such as training, learning and information exchange.

We need to ask ourselves whether as Christians are we are part of this problem? Are we asking for justice, yet not being willing to show mercy?

Are we trying to help those who want and need our help, or are we shutting the prison door and mentally throwing away the key?

Are we campaigning for and voting for a criminal justice system that helps those who want to leave the cycle of crime?

Or are we merely looking after our own interests? JM Lucia Dorosario-Neil was the speaker at the Prison Advice & Care Trust’s (Pact) 2014 Annual Sir Harold Hood Memorial Lecture, and is part of the Community Chaplaincy Team at Feltham Young Offenders Institution JUSTICE MAGAZINE 35

Feature: Homelessness

Keith Fernett, CEO of Caritas Anchor House homelessness charity, says that the HMRC’s regulations threaten vital services for homeless and disadvantaged people

Tax rules must be changed WHEN I WAS appointed as the chief executive of Caritas Anchor House I was delighted to take on this challenge and looked forward to further developing the charity.

Caritas Anchor House, based in the London Borough of Newham, provides accommodation to more than 230 single homeless people a year. We also work with vulnerable groups, including those experiencing substance misuse, domestic abuse, mental health problems and offenders.

I wanted to enhance our existing homeless services, develop our community well-being provision, launch the Caritas Anchor House Learning and Development Academy, and develop organisational toolkits which will serve to underpin our work in the future. All of these aspirations were set with one thing in mind – to improve the lives of some of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged people in our community.

Little did I know that I would be spending my time with consultants, barristers, advisors, MPs, ministers and representatives from the Cabinet Office, acting as a corporate samurai battling a Government department.

A huge part of our vision was achieved when, in November 2014, we started the building works for our 25 ‘move on’ flats, a pivotal feature of our Home and Hope Appeal, designed to help homeless residents achieve a sustainable transition into independent living. This building will also accommodate a workshop for vocational courses, learning zones and a kitchen to provide catering qualifications.

However, we have since been presented with an unexpected challenge when HM Revenue and Customs changed our VAT treatment after 42 years, meaning an additional £1 million in VAT is due for this vital development.

The additional VAT liability was incurred after HMRC reviewed Caritas Anchor House’s description of services, 36 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

determining our definition as a ‘residential and life skills centre’ rather than a ‘homeless hostel’ left us subject to VAT despite no change in our services or client group. In essence, we are being penalised for positively and accurately describing our work, having repeatedly received professional advice that the VAT liability for the development would be £250,000.

The full cost of HMRC’s action could rise to more than £1.5 million once costs to halt development and challenge the decision are included. This unexpected cost to our finances will force us to mothball the development of the ‘move on’ flats, place substantial pressure on our services and funds, and will increase the demand on local authority services.

It should be acknowledged, also, that the at-risk development could also deliver savings to society of £500 million over 50 years.

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Caritas Anchor House provides an answer to many government priorities, and saves money in the context of severe budget cuts

HMRC have also said that because Caritas Anchor House works with referral agencies and does not accept self-referrals (direct applications from the person who wants to stay), we are ineligible to reclaim VAT. Unfortunately, it is not possible for us to welcome people straight from the streets; we run at an occupancy rate of 99 per cent and last year we received more than 600 referrals for our 118 rooms. There is a national homelessness crisis happening, and many organisations are seeing an overwhelming demand on their services.

Additionally, a large majority of those that present themselves to housing services have complex and multiple needs

– including substance misuse, offending, poor mental health – and it’s essential that we have information about each resident, via a referral process, to ensure the safety and support of all individuals staying with us.

This situation is a serious threat to Caritas Anchor House. The change to our VAT status and the consequent £1 million bill from HMRC is putting the charity, its homeless residents and service users at risk, and they do so in spite of the numerous benefits we offer to the most vulnerable, and society as a whole.

If this change in stance was applied across the British charity sector, the consequences would be disastrous.

Through the services we deliver, Caritas Anchor House provides an answer to many government priorities, and saves money in the context of severe budget cuts in both central and local government. n We provide employment support and enable our residents to live independently, helping to reduce dependency on the state – a priority of the Department of Work and Pensions. n We are making great inroads in Newham to help tackle the homelessness crisis, and provide a home for more than 230 homeless people each year and are – trying! – to build 25 flats to house an additional 50 people annually. Additional housing is a priority for the Department for Communities and Local Government. n Our outcomes show a high level of productivity, with results in some areas more than double the national average for UK homeless organisations. A report undertaken by Oxford Economics found that we provide £3.98 in societal benefits for every pound invested in our operations. Increased productivity and a strong economy are priorities for the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

We have also been nationally recognised and acclaimed for the work we do.

This year, we have been shortlisted by

This is the caption Photo by name

Work under way at the new ‘move on’ flats Photo: Caritas Anchor House the Charity Times Award in their Social Champion category, for which we were Highly Commended Runner Up in 2014 and 2013.

This accolade recognises organisations that have consistently delivered an outstanding service to their end-beneficiaries, been clear in their social changing goals and demonstrated all-round excellence. We are also a very financially effective and efficient charity, having been previously named as a finalist in Best Financial Management at the Third Sector Excellence Awards.

The awards are a testament to what Caritas Anchor House has achieved through hard work and dedication, but it is the programmes behind the awards that we are most proud of. Our Aspirations Programme helps our residents to rebuild their lives, and this for us is the greatest accolade possible.

Our Lifestyle Architects work with each one of our residents to identify and address the root cause of their homelessness to ensure they never find themselves in that situation again. In 2014, we helped 63 of our residents secure employment, while 71 moved on to independent living. Our innovative approach has also led to one of our residents being recognised as the National Apprentice of the Year; while another resident was recognised by the UK Skills Council as an Inspiration in Training and Educa-

tion, before going on to get his PhD from an acclaimed New York university.

Armed with all of these achievements, and having raised £12 million for investment in homeless services in Newham, we thought we were set fair to bring support and change to the lives of many.

When I first took on the role of chief executive, I intended on spending my time creating strategies to help even more people in need, forging partnerships to ensure access to housing and specialist services, and getting justice for the disadvantaged. Instead, along with my senior management team, I have been working tirelessly to resolve the challenges thrown at us in the form of VAT, in an effort to have the decision reversed.

We are currently appealing to the Government, and are hopeful things we be resolved in our favour. We are though also actively working on a ‘Plan B’ strategy to ensure Caritas Anchor House can continue to deliver its vital services, as well as making plans for the future to remain as a hub in the heart of Canning Town and Newham well into this century.

This episode, though, has highlighted to me that many other charities are facing battles with HMRC, and appear to be seen as an easy target.

I have been heartened, as have our staff and homeless residents, at those

who are supporting Caritas Anchor House and rallying to our cause, including MPs, ministers, the London Borough of Newham, the NHS, professional advisors, sponsors and philanthropists.

It’s reassuring to know that there are many people that care and are minded to help to support homeless people, and that the difficulties we are facing are not illustrative of the views in our society.

I would like to extend my personal thanks to all that have supported us, for which we are very grateful.

HMRC’s assessment of Caritas Anchor House lacks appreciation for the wider context and role that we successfully perform. Our services and client group have not changed, and this should surely be the defining point, rather than how we describe ourselves on a website.

In fact, we should be applauded for trying to explain our activities in the most comprehensive way – which will also benefit people looking for support.

Ultimately, HMRC’s demand will cost more than it would secure in taxes. At a time when government is seeking savings, it needs the likes of Caritas Anchor House.

Hopefully this is recognised and a decision is taken not to pursue a tax when it is in no-one’s best interest. JM For further information, please visit www.caritasanchorhouse.org.uk JUSTICE MAGAZINE 37

Feature: Guatemala

A new era of justice and democracy is dawning in Guatemala says Trocaire’s Aisling Walsh

An historic victory SEPTEMBER 2, 2015 will be remembered throughout Guatemala as an historic victory for the Guatemalan people in their struggle to end corruption, impunity and injustice. At 7pm on that day, Guatemala’s President, Otto Perez Molina, officially handed in his resignation to the Guatemalan congress.

Molina had become embroiled in a corruption scandal called La Linea, whereby the Guatemalan customs agency was found to be offering importers greatly reduced tariffs in exchange for kickbacks that were shared among dozens of government officials.

Ten days before resigning, Molina delivered a televised address to declare his innocence, but he could not have foreseen the public’s reaction or moves by the Attorney General to accelerate judicial proceedings against him.

On Thursday, August 27, the capital came to a standstill as businesses, universities, schools and public ministries shut down and more than 100,000 people gathered in Guatemala City’s central square and rural areas to demand Molina’s resignation.

Protests continued on an almost daily basis and on Tuesday, September 1, the Guatemalan Congress voted to strip Molina of his presidential immunity, paving the way to bring charges against him.

On Wednesday, September 2, the Attorney General’s office issued a warrant for his arrest. With no other option, he delivered his resignation.

Otto Perez Molina came to power in January 2012. His appointment was controversial from the beginning. A retired army general, he promised to tackle insecurity, crime and rising levels of violence with an iron fist. While this promise may have convinced the urban middle classes and the elite, Guatemalan’s indigenous people had not forgotten his involvement in massacres against indigenous communities during Guatemala’s 36-year conflict.

Guatemala was the scene of one of the most violent civil wars in Latin America’s history between 1960 and 1996. More 38 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

Otto Perez Molina Photo: Cancillería del Ecuador than 200,000 people were murdered and one million displaced, most of them indigenous people. Some 70 per cent of these murders took place in the early 1980s.

During the war, Molina formed part of the Guatemalan ‘Kaibiles’, an elite army squad trained to carry out special operations and intelligence gathering.

He was commander of the military base in Nebaj, Quiche, between April 1982 and May 1983, when atrocities were carried out against the Ixil people under the presidency of General Ríos Montt.

In 2013, Montt became the first head of state to be tried for genocide in a national court. He was found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity and sentenced to 80 years in prison.

The sentence was later overturned and a retrial is expected.

In the four years of Molina’s presidency, violent crime and homicide rates have increased with a reported 21,203 violent deaths over the course of his mandate.

He has used military operations against poor farming communities resisting extractive projects on their land such as mining and large African Palm plantations. In 2012, his government was responsible for the massacre of unarmed indigenous rights protesters in Totonicapan, leaving six dead and 38 injured.

The Unit for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, which is supported

by Trócaire, registered 2014 as the most violent year for human rights defenders since the signing of the peace accords, with more than 813 registered attacks, more than double that registered in 2012.

Molina’s government also took steps to weaken an already fragile justice system. He appointed judges that were favourable to his government and orchestrated the early dismissal of Claudia Paz y Paz, the former Attorney General responsible for bringing the case against Ríos Montt to trial.

Molina’s downfall is the greatest political crisis the country has faced in more than 20 years, with the legitimacy of the entire political and electoral system being called into question. In addition to the La Linea case, another corruption scandal reared its head in the Guatemalan Institute of Social Security (ISGG), where funds were illicitly diverted from essential public services into the bank accounts of politicians and public officials.

Former Vice President, Roxana Baldetti, was arrested in late August on charges relating to La Linea and has been remanded in custody at a local women’s prison to await trial. Many other politicians and public officials are pending investigation or have already been arrested.

The protests in Guatemala against corruption and the decisive legal action taken have set an historic precedent for tackling impunity throughout Central and South America.

Guatemalan organisations funded by Trócaire have been working for years to address injustice, corruption and impunity in the country, monitoring government policies and expenditure and advocating for more responsible governance. This work is bearing fruit.

One of the biggest tasks for the future government of Guatemala will be to work towards a more equal future by tackling discrimination and exclusion.

Recent developments have sparked a new hope in the struggle to defend human rights and promote democracy. JM

‘We express our solidarity with the people affected by HIV/AIDS, especially children, and we express our closeness to the many missionaries and health workers who work in silence’ Pope Francis, World AIDS Day, 2013

Catholics for AIDS Prevention and Support (CAPS) is a voice in the Church for people living with HIV/AIDS and a Catholic voice in the world of HIV/AIDS. The only national Christian charity offering pastoral support for people living with HIV in England and Wales, CAPS supports the ‘Positive Catholics’ peer support ministry where Christians living with HIV offer practical, emotional and spiritual support in service for each other.

Please consider a financial donation to support CAPS’ work in reaching out to those men, women and children who are among the most isolated and marginalised people in our society and Church.

www.caps-uk.org www.positivecatholics.com PATRONS: Archbishop Peter Smith/Baroness Sue Masham/Very Rev. John Kearns, CP/ Most Rev. Timothy Radcliffe, OP December 1 2015 is World AIDS Day. Please pray for people living with and affected

by HIV in your church on Sunday, November 29, 2015.

Registered Charity Number: 1095756

Feature: Personal journey

Benedict Rogers on how the Church’s work on human rights led him to become a Catholic

From Burma to Rome ON PALM SUNDAY 2013, in St Mary’s Cathedral, Rangoon, Burma, I was baptised, confirmed and received into the Catholic Church by the Archbishop of Rangoon, now Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, with Lord Alton of Liverpool as my sponsor. It was perhaps the most beautiful day of my life.

That evening at dinner, Cardinal Bo proposed that I write a book about my journey. I was very reluctant. But separately, Lord Alton made the same suggestion. Then my parish priest, Fr Peter Edwards, at St Joseph’s, New Malden, and two other Catholic friends who had accompanied me for much of my journey into the Church, said they had been thinking the same. I was still very reluctant – I did not want to write about myself – but when five people who have been a profound influence in one’s life, and whom one respects enormously, make a suggestion, one is obligated to at least think and pray about it.

After some reflection, I felt that there was a way to write a book which might have some value, and which would avoid the dangers inherent in writing something so personal. I felt that if I wrote a book primarily focused on the people who influenced me in my journey, with the emphasis on their story and their example, with my own tale simply woven in, that might be worthwhile.

The finished product is my new book From Burma to Rome: A Journey into the Catholic Church, published by Gracewing this month, with the preface by Cardinal Bo and the foreword by Lord Alton.

The first two chapters and the final chapter are the most personal, but the real heart of the book are the middle three chapters, focused on the great Catholics who influenced and inspired my journey. These include Catholics in places of persecution, conflict and oppression, who live their faith in a courageous way; Catholics in politics and public life, who live their faith by 40 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

Benedict Rogers is received into the Church by Cardinal Bo Photo: Jeanne Hallacy speaking up for justice, human rights and human dignity; and Catholic writers and theologians, whose writings helped guide my journey. Those in places of persecution and in politics are people I have had the privilege of knowing personally and working closely with; the writers and theologians are people whom I came to know through their words.

The chapter focused on Catholics on the front-lines of persecution and conflict includes people like Bishop Carlos Belo in East Timor, Cardinal Joseph Zen in Hong Kong, and Shahbaz Bhatti in Pakistan. Shahbaz was a grassroots human rights activist in Pakistan, with whom I had the great privilege of working closely for five years. I travelled with Shahbaz several times, and I used to speak to

him on the phone almost every week, sometimes several times a week. On one occasion, we missed a bomb together in Islamabad by five minutes. On another occasion, Shahbaz took me to meet a seven-year-old girl, Sharee Komal, who had been raped and tortured because she came from a Christian family. Shahbaz was helping her and her family, because no one else would.

In 2007, a Christian community in Charsadda, in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province, received an ultimatum from extremists: convert to Islam or face the consequences. The night the deadline expired, I phoned Shahbaz to ask for an update. To my surprise, he told me he was in Charsadda. The community were terrified, he said, and they

expected an attack at any moment, so he had gone to be with them. “Thank God you have called,” he told me. “The community feel forgotten, they feel that the rest of the world does not know or does not care. Your phone call enables me to tell them that someone outside Pakistan knows of their plight, is praying for them and will speak for them.”

Shahbaz was deeply devout in his Catholic faith. Whenever I spoke to him, his first request was always for prayer.

Not once did he ask for money. According to his friend Michelle Chaudhry, daughter of his mentor Cecil Chaudhry, who also features in my book and was a close friend and hero of mine, he would pray twice a day and for long hours into the night. His office and home were blessed with holy water on a regular basis. “He would not leave home without praying, and would often call on priests and nuns to pray for his work,” recalls Michelle. “He read the Bible regularly.”

His personal Bible is now placed on the altar in San Bartolomeo all’Isola in Rome as a relic of a 21st-century martyr.

Shahbaz became a member of parliament in 2008, and was soon appointed federal minister for minorities affairs.

In this government role, he continued fulfilling his life’s goal – using his new position of authority to stand up for the rights of religious minorities, pleading for justice for those unjustly imprisoned, building bridges with Muslims and promoting inter-faith dialogue, and seeking reform or repeal of Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy laws. It was this last goal that was the most dangerous, and in the end cost him his life. As he proposed reforms to the laws, the death threats increased in number and intensity.

He knew he was in grave danger, but repeated requests, by him and by many of his influential international friends, for a bullet-proof car were ignored by the Pakistani government.

On March 2, 2011 Shahbaz was assassinated, as gunmen sprayed his car with bullets. Four months before his murder, he recorded an interview with the BBC, for broadcast in the event of his death.

He said: “These Taliban threaten me.

But I want to share that I believe in Jesus Christ, who has given his own life for us.

I know what is the meaning of the Cross and I am following the Cross. I am ready to die for a cause. I am living for my community and suffering people, and I will die to defend their rights.”

In October 2009, Shahbaz came to London to address the annual conference of Christian Solidarity Worldwide.

As usual, his first request was for prayer.

He summed up his life’s vocation in these words: “I live for religious freedom, and I am ready to die for this cause. We have a commitment to bring a change in the lives of people. We will bring a change in the life of those who are living in darkness, we will bring a change in the lives of those who don’t have a hope, and we will bring a smile on the faces of those living under severe harassment and victimisation…”

Shahbaz Bhatti was a key inspiration to me – but by no means the only one.

Some extraordinary priests and nuns with whom I worked in East Timor, particularly Sister Lourdes and her Secular Institute of Brothers and Sisters in Christ, had a profound impact on me.

So too did former Timorese political prisoners Gregorio da Cunha Saldanha and Francisco Miranda Branco.

Colonel Chris Keeble, who led the Parachute Regiment in the Battle of Goose Green in the Falklands War, has the most remarkable story of faith in action on the battlefield – including inviting the Argentinian troops surrender with dignity - and his story is told

“

I discovered the Church on the front-lines of injustice, where people risk losing their lives for their faith

in my book. Ann Widdecombe and Lord Alton, as well as US Congressman Chris Smith and Governor Sam Brownback, attracted my interest through the way they live their Catholic faith in politics, as did Hong Kong’s democracy leader and devout Catholic Martin Lee and many others.

But it was Burma’s first-ever cardinal, Charles Maung Bo, who opened the door. A chance conversation with him one evening led me to investigate the Catholic faith proactively over the course of two years, and led him to invite me to be received into the Church in Burma.

For the past 15 years I have worked on Burma as part of my advocacy role with the human rights organisation Christian Solidarity Worldwide.

I have travelled to Burma and its borders almost 50 times, been deported twice, and illegally crossed the borders into the ethnic conflict zones many times. To become a Catholic in Burma was deeply symbolic of my long associa-

tion with the country and my commitment to the struggle for justice and freedom.

Cardinal Bo has become one of Burma’s most outspoken voices for religious freedom, human rights and peace, and it is his courage and boldness that first attracted me to the Church he represents. In his Easter message last year, he told the Church in Burma: “The task of Christians is to move fences, to tear down walls. ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation … We went through our way of the Cross for the last five decades. A nation was crucified and left to hang on the cross of inhumanity. We were a Good Friday people; Easter was a distant dream.

But there are streaks of hope today …

We are an Easter people. And when are we most like Christ? We are most like Christ when we are doing what he did in his extravagant gift of love on Calvary – forgiving. Hatred has no place in this nation.”

I became a Christian 19 years ago, and until 2013 I worshipped in evangelical Anglican churches. My journey into the Catholic Church is certainly no rejection of my past, but rather a beautiful new chapter in my Christian faith. I have found treasures in the Catholic Church which have enriched my soul, deepened my spirituality and strengthened my quest for justice.

I discovered the Church on the front-lines of injustice, where people risk losing their lives for their faith. I concluded that a faith worth dying for was a faith worth living for, and that the combination of faith and reason, mystery and mission, apostolic tradition and contemporary service, spirituality and social teaching as articulated by the Catholic Church were the fullest expression of authentic Christian faith. My book describes these and other factors in more depth – the factors that led me on my journey from Burma to Rome. JM Benedict Rogers is the East Asia team leader at Christian Solidarity Worldwide, and focuses on Burma, Indonesia and North Korea. He has previously worked in other parts of Asia, including Pakistan, China and East Timor. He is the author of five other books, including ‘Burma: A Nation at the Crossroads’. From Burma to Rome: A Journey into the Catholic Church is published by Gracewing in November 2015.

JUSTICE MAGAZINE 41

Feature: Guatemala

Robyn Fieser on how Catholic Relief Services in the US is helping Guatemalan farmers get back on their feet

Coffee: From disease to recovery AN EMERGING CONSENSUS among scientists blames changing temperatures for the disease that has devastated Central America’s coffee production since 2012.

Coffee leaf rust, a fungus known as “roya,” caused more than $1 billion (£650m) in crop losses last year alone, and has cost the region hundreds of thousands of jobs.

But years of neglect and the economic vulnerability of small coffee farmers are as much to blame for the situation as climate change.

Coffee plantations in Central America are old and weak. Many are not well maintained. Their natural defences worn down by age and too little investment, thousands of acres of coffee plants have been wiped out by leaf rust, an orange powder that settles into the undersides of coffee leaves until they suffocate and fall off.

Nuevo Eden, a community of 14 coffee-growing families in Guatemala’s Western Highlands, never stood a chance.

“Some of our trees are way more than 25-years-old,” says Carlos Cano. “It never even occurred to us that we should be renovating our plants, and we can’t afford fungicides.

“The roya left a desert in its wake,” he says.

Now Catholic Relief Services, through the Green Coffee Initiative, is helping the families of Nuevo Eden - along with some 1,600 other farm families affected by coffee leaf rust in Guatemala - become more resilient.

They are learning to better manage their plantations by using organic fertiliser, more effective pruning techniques and disease-fighting fungicides. Meanwhile, CRS is working with farmers to diversify their coffee plants, helping them grow varieties that are more resist42 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

ant to coffee leaf rust and other diseases.

The families of Nuevo Eden are newcomers to coffee farming compared to the legions of Guatemalan farmers who have been growing it for generations.

Most of them are originally from the western province of Huehuetenango, which saw the worst of the “scorched earth” campaigns of the country’s 30plus-year civil war.

The terror forced the families of Nuevo Eden, along with hundreds of thousands of other largely indigenous Maya, to flee to neighbouring Mexico and beyond throughout the 1980s.

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It took them 72 hours to walk to Chiapas, where they spent the first eight months living in a shed owned by a Mexican family

Carlos and his family, including his older sisters Odilia and Carmen, lived in a town controlled by the military, which routinely killed people suspected of supporting guerillas.

Carlos’ father, a carpenter, feared for the family’s safety. So one day in 1982 they left for the southern state of Chiapas in Mexico.

Carlos and his father wore a second pair of trousers and T-shirts underneath their clothes. The girls wore two dresses each. Taking a bag of any kind would have drawn too much attention.

It took them 72 hours to walk to Chiapas, where they spent the first eight months living in a shed owned by a Mexican family that was sympathetic to their situation.

Carlos’ father started building furniture again. His mother opened a little

tamale (a corn dish) shop. They made enough money to eventually build the family a shack of their own in one of the makeshift refugee camps.

When she was 18, Odilia went to work as a domestic servant. Carlos grew corn, beans and avocado to make ends meet.

“What was supposed to be 15 days turned into 16 years,” Carlos says. “My father, who thought we were leaving just for a few weeks, never would have believed it.”

He died in Mexico. Carlos doesn’t know what from.

It took two years and a historic 15-day hunger strike in front of Guatemala’s National Palace to get the credits to buy the land they had been promised by the Guatemalan government as part of the peace accords.

In 1997, the families of Nuevo Eden, who were among the first group of Guatemalans to return from Mexico, finally took possession of the 2,500 acres of coffee-producing land that is now Nuevo Eden.

Most of them, including Carlos, knew nothing about growing coffee. They received little training from the government on how to do it.

Then the international coffee market collapsed and prices plummeted.

“It was really bad luck for us,” Carlos says. “We’ve had problems with our coffee from the very beginning,” he says.

Coffee leaf rust, which destroyed about 80 per cent of Nuevo Eden’s harvest, is one more in a string of roadblocks.

With production down, the average income in Nuevo Eden is just $40 (£26) zper month.

Many farmers, including Carlos, have had to migrate to nearby cities for months at a time to work as day labourers on farms and in construction.

Today, CRS is helping Nuevo Eden

Carlos Cano at The Blessing coffee plant nursery Photo Oscar Leiva/Silverlight bounce back from the damage coffee leaf rust caused by replacing damaged, older plants with new seedlings.

It is the first time most of the farmers, including Carlos, have ever renovated their coffee fields.

They will ultimately plant 13,000 new, disease-resistant coffee plants. That means each family will change over almost an acre of their coffee fields to the new species.

In the process, they are learning how to cultivate and graft seedlings of the new variety and transplant them to replace older plants.

The community now has a thriving nursery where workers can graft up to 200 seedlings per day. The bustling nursery could soon provide neighbouring farmers with new plants, generating additional income.

“Farmers are recognising the constant threats to their well-being, whether it be prices or pests, when they rely solely on coffee.

“The project is responsive to these

concerns, providing farmers with the training and support necessary to transition from a coffee-dominated forest to a more diversified system,” says Dan McQuillan, who oversees the project for CRS. To that end, Nuevo Eden is starting to focus more of its attention on the macadamia trees that have long sat mostly unattended on their coffee fields.

“Macadamia nuts are easy to grow and lucrative,” Carlos says. “It helps during the times of hunger when money is running low.”

It is a great backup crop for farmers, who generally earn money only during the annual harvest. Unlike coffee, macadamia produces regularly throughout the year, providing farmers with a small but steady source of income to cover families’ day-to-day needs, McQuillan says.

The community also recently formed a savings group. Through this simple approach to microfinance, group members build savings over time and can borrow

money to pay for health care and educational expenses, or invest in business ventures.

The savings serve as a revolving fund that farmers can tap to avoid going into debt when they need money to buy seedlings, fungicides to control leaf rust or other critical supplies, ensuring that their response to leaf rust is a sustainable, multi-year process.

A group of women in Nuevo Eden, led

by Odilia, often borrow from the fund to buy food they then prepare for sale at community events.

Their profits go back into the savings pool - which, as of June amounted to $1,000 (£650) - generating more income for the entire community.

Nobody in Nuevo Eden ever thought they would be able to save money. Not many had ever thought about renovating their coffee fields. And the macadamias were just trees shading their coffee plants.

Today, the people of Nuevo Eden are excited about all of these things. JM JUSTICE MAGAZINE 43

Feature: Seafarers

Greg Watts on the importance of communication for seafarers

Staying in touch USING THE PHONE and the internet is a basic feature of everyday life for most of us. Google, e-mails and text messages have dramatically changed the way we communicate. But it’s a different story if you are a seafarer on a ship at sea.

For despite the technological advances in the maritime industry, communication is still a major problem. And this can have a serious impact on the lives of seafarers.

The maritime industry is huge. According to the International Maritime Organization, there are almost 55,000 ships sailing the world’s oceans, carrying nine billion tons of cargo, everything from oil and wood to cars and tomatoes.

And it’s thanks to hundreds of thousands of seafarers that the shelves in our shops and supermarkets are full. Many people don’t appreciate that around 95 per cent of the goods we buy in the UK arrive by sea.

“Surprisingly, most ships nowadays do not have a usable internet connection.

By a usable internet connection I mean a connection that would enable seafarers to call their families via Skype or even have a chat with them on a daily basis,” said Polina Baum-Talmor, an Apostleship of the Sea (AoS) ship visitor in Cardiff and a PhD student at the Seafarers International Research Centre at Cardiff University.

“Based on my experience of studying seafarers, sailing with several cargo ships, and on recent research conducted by the Seafarers International Research Centre, most ships have a satellite phone or a satellite-based connection on board.

But it’s usually for the main purpose of keeping in contact with the shipping company and receiving important updates, e.g. a change in route, a new regulation from the company, or a weather forecast,” she explained.

Using the satellite phone on a ship is normally very expensive and requires permission from the captain. Because of this, in many cases seafarers will have to wait until they reach port until they have access to a phone or the internet.

At one time seafarers used to be able 44 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

A seafarer gets in touch with home Photo: AoS to look forward to time ashore after they arrived in a port. This used to be one of the attractions in going to sea.

But the changes in the shipping industry mean that the time they get ashore is now very short. And some ships never actually dock. Oil tankers, for example, may connect to a pipeline somewhere off shore.

Polina believes that seafarers’ centres in ports play a significant role in seafarers’ communication with their families.

The seafarers’ centre in Immingham in Lincolnshire, for example, has a shop selling basic items, daily newspapers from various countries, a library, games

room, and a phone. AoS port chaplain Father Colum Kelly, who lives above it, will arrange transport for seafarers to visit local shops to stock up with supplies. He believes the centre is a vital link for seafarers who are at sea, in some cases for as long as nine months.

During time at sea they have no contact with families so when they arrive in Immingham, their main requirement is for phone and internet connection.

They may not have been able to chat for months.

Earlier in the year, he met the Ukrainian crew of a coal bunker when it arrived at the port. They had been at sea for

more than a month and only found out about the situation in Crimea after watching television.

“It came as a massive shock to them and needless to say they were very anxious and desperate to talk to their families back home. It became paramount that they establish contact with their loved ones as soon as possible.”

Fr Colum immediately set up connections to the internet so the men were able to speak with their families. “They were all very relieved once that was done and found that their loved ones were safe. It felt almost surreal as the crew were totally unaware of the extent of the

crisis and only came to know after arriving in Immingham,” he said.

However, not all ports have such centres and the one in Cardiff was recently closed.

Phone calls are vital to help seafarers cope with such long separations from their families. Because international calls are very expensive, AoS chaplains will search for the cheapest phone cards.

“Some seafarers also use Skype so they can see their families at key times, perhaps as the children are coming home from school,” said Sr Marian Davey, AoS port chaplain in East Anglia. “I will often hear a seafarer singing a lullaby for his little one going to sleep.”

However, to use Skype, they need access to the internet, which can also be expensive, she added. “If they can’t afford it, particularly if they haven’t yet received their first payment after joining a ship, then I can offer them a limited amount of mobile wifi because of the generosity of some local parishioners who sponsor a modem for me. The Merchant Navy Welfare Board also provide chaplains with a limited amount of Internet access, so seafarers can use Facebook and other social media.”

At a seminar during London International Shipping Week in September,h communication on ships was highlighted as one of the major problems facing the maritime industry. There was general agreement that the situation has many consequences for both seafarers and ship owners.

A recent European Union study found that poor onboard internet access was one of the most important factors for seafarers determining whether to remain working at sea.

Conducted as part of a major project researching the shortage of maritime skills, the report warns that inadequate communications with family and friends is cited by seafarers as the most likely reason for moving to a shore-based job. It concluded that, combined with a “more coherent and visionary approach” to human resources in shipping, the provision of improved communications facilities onboard would deliver a substantial increase in the seafarer retention rate.

However, there are some in the maritime industry who believe that providing seafarers with internet access might interfere with their working routines, distracting them from their work on board.

For instance, if a seafarer contacted his wife and discovered there were problems at home, this could lead to him not concentrating on his work and, in the worst

case scenario, an accident on board.

Polina Baum-Talmor takes the opposite view. “Seafarers often experience very difficult working conditions, being isolated and away from their families for very long periods of time, and normally not having the option to unwind after a day’s work as many people ashore have.

“This might have a negative impact on their general psychological wellbeing, on their tiredness levels, and consequently could lead to general fatigue. Also, the inability to share your problems on a daily basis with your loved ones could have consequences for the motivation of seafarers to work on board.”

Polina argues that internet access for seafarers should be a necessity, not a privilege, and they should be allowed to decide when they used it. If people working ashore are allowed by employers to use the internet and phone while at work, then why shouldn’t seafarers be?

“

I will often hear a seafarer singing a lullaby for his little one going to sleep

Paul Atkinson, AoS port chaplain on the Tyne, detects that things might be slowly changing. “As we visit ships we are finding more and more ship owners are allowing crew to have a limited internet allowance daily.

“But it is still a small percentage of all the ships that we visit.

“The crews tell us this is great as it allows them to have regular contact with family and loved ones. It makes them feel happier, more contented and less isolated.

“On a ship sailing to the UK from the US it can be 14 days without contact to home if the ship has no internet provision.

“With ships that don’t have internet access onboard crew wait for us to visit to take them ashore, supply them internet sim cards, cheap rate mobile phone sim cards, or allow them to use our mifi device, which we provide free.

“When I visit a ship, phone and internet access is always the number one request.

“I believe it is very important that we push more and more ship owners and agents to allow crews this important facility onboard.It really will have a positive effect on the crew and their working life at sea.” JM JUSTICE MAGAZINE 45

Comment: Prisons

Bishop Richard Moth on the necessity to see proper reforms in Britain’s jails

Our prisons need action without delay TAKING TO THE stage for his first party conference speech as Justice Secretary, Michael Gove promised “a new and unremitting emphasis in our prisons on reform, rehabilitation and redemption”.

The following day, David Cameron added his own voice, acknowledging the enormous potential of exploring and extending alternatives to custody.

Their approach is extremely welcome, because locking up fewer people and properly rehabilitating those we do are not just worthwhile goals, but urgent necessities.

At present there are more than 80,000 men, women and children in our prisons. And as the number has climbed, staffing levels have plummeted.

As a result prisoners are left languishing in their cells for extraordinary lengths of time, sometimes up to twenty-three hours per day.

Access to classes, chaplaincy and even showers are often restricted, simply because there are too many prisoners and not enough officers to escort them around the building.

Perhaps unsurprisingly this has correlated with a sharp rise in violence, mental health difficulties, self-harm and, most tragically, suicide.

Despite the best efforts of dedicated governors, officers and other staff, offenders are not receiving opportunities to turn their lives around, but instead are being thrust into a crowded and increasingly chaotic system.

During his recent US visit, Pope Francis entered the Curran-Fromhold prison in Philadelphia, where he declared that “it is painful when we see prison systems which are not concerned to care for wounds, to soothe pain, to offer new possibilities”.

In 2015 his words are worryingly applicable to the most outdated, overcrowded and dangerous parts of our own custodial estate.

46 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

Bishop Richard Moth Photo: Mazur/catholicchurch.org.uk With the Ministry of Justice budget set to be squeezed further, the most obvious way of tackling this crisis is to actively reduce the prison population.

Extending the use of communitybased punishments is one way of doing that. Reforms to parole and sentencing could also be explored, particularly given the large number of people currently facing extremely long periods of imprisonment before they can even be considered for release.

Such changes are naturally going to require difficult decisions which may be unpopular in some quarters, but will ultimately benefit the common good of all our society.

By relieving the unsustainable pressures on our prison system, effective rehabilitation can become a real possibility. Those in prison will have more chances to take part in educational activities, training, paid work and restorative justice programmes - all of which are proven to reduce reoffending and cut crime. There are also consider-

able economic benefits to helping people stay out of prison. The basic cost of each prison place is around £30,000 per year, before any of the wider financial consequences to society are factored in.

Above all of this is a matter of fundamental human dignity.

Michael Gove began his speech by stressing that “every life is precious”. Yet that inevitably becomes subverted when our criminal justice system imprisons far more people than we can reasonably care for and support.

While lasting reform will take time, we must not forget that many men, women and children are detained today in conditions that only serve to undermine their dignity and harm our society.

The Prime Minister and the Justice Secretary have made some encouraging commitments – now they must act with urgency. JM Bishop Richard Moth is the Catholic liaison bishop for prisons

One Body, One Spirit

One Body, One Spirit

Columbans in Korea at their annual gathering – a diverse, inter-cultural community united by their call to mission.

Columbans in Korea at their annual gathering – a diverse, inter-cultural community united by their call to mission.

Columban Missionaries

Columban Missionaries Together we share in God’s compassionate outreach to all

Together we share in God’s compassionate outreach ‘Our mission as Christians is to conform ourselvesto all evermore to Jesus as the model for our lives’

Pope Francis

‘Our mission as Christians is to conform ourselves evermore to Jesus as the model for ourEnquiries lives’ For the Columban Fathers, Lay Missionaries and General St. Columban’s, Widney Manor Road, Solihull B93 9AB Pope Francis Tel: 01564 772096 E-mail: office@columbans.co.uk

For the Columban (Sr. Maureen Donohoe) For the Columban Fathers,Sisters Lay Missionaries and General Enquiries 209St. Quebec Drive, Westwood, East Kilbride, Scotland 8BB Columban’s, Widney Manor Road, SolihullG75 B93 9AB Tel: 013552 38312 E-mail: colsisek@btinternet.com Tel: 01564 772096 E-mail: office@columbans.co.uk

For the Columban Sisters (Sr. Maureen Donohoe) www.columbans.co.uk www.columbansisters.org

209 Quebec Drive, Westwood, East Kilbride, Scotland G75 8BB Tel: 013552 38312 E-mail: colsisek@btinternet.com

Feature: Catholic Social Teaching

The 125 year-old papal encyclical Rerum Novarum was the starting point for Catholic Social Teaching which still provides guidance for a troubled world, writes Kenneth R. Overberg, S.J.

Rerum Novarum: As relevant as ever AS WE APPROACH the 125th anniversary of the landmark encyclical, The Condition of Labour (Rerum Novarum), both old and new social, political and economic events continue to rock our world: Genocide, terrorism, AIDS, preemptive war, refugees, globalisation, worldwide economic crises.

In the midst of these threats to hope and to life itself, we have discovered the continuing wisdom and urgency of Catholic Social Teaching. Its emphasis and guidance remains relevant, real, and challenging.

The collection of documents called the social teachings began in 1891 with Pope Leo XIII’s The Condition of Labour.

For almost 125 years, the statements of the popes, Vatican II, and conferences of bishops have addressed critical national and international issues such as human rights, labour problems, economic depression and development, political participation, war and peace.

In recent years, Pope Benedict XVI in his first encyclical, God Is Love (Deus Caritas Est), affirmed the wisdom of the social teachings while discussing the relationship between justice and charity.

He stated that “the promotion of justice through efforts to bring about openness of mind and will to the demands of the common good is something which concerns the Church deeply” (28a).

In a later encyclical, Charity in Truth (Caritas in Veritate), Pope Benedict addressed issues of social ethics, especially the financial crisis and related topics. He stated his basic conviction this way: “The greatest service to development, then, is a Christian humanism that enkindles charity and takes its lead from truth, accepting both as a lasting gift from God” (78).

48 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

Most recently, Pope Francis challenged the world about the environmental crisis in his Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home. This encyclical calls for an ecological conversion, indeed, for a profound change in lifestyle.

To help us all follow Pope Paul VI’s words that these social questions “must in the years to come take first place among the preoccupations of Christians” (A Call to Action, 7), five major themes of the Church’s Social Teaching and offer some action steps for today are explored.

Affirming human dignity At the heart of Catholic social teaching is an emphasis on the value of the human being. We are created in God’s image, and our value is rooted fundamentally in who we are and not in what we do.

Situations that undermine or limit human dignity cry out for change; those that truly promote such dignity need to be fostered. The theme of human dignity is discussed in detail in two documents: (1) Pope John XXIII’s Peace on Earth (1963) presents the more philosophical view and (2) Vatican II’s The Church in the Modern World (1965) sets forth the more scriptural view.

Pope John XXIII develops at length his conviction that human nature provides the key both for individual rights and duties and for the international co-operation necessary for peace. The Church in the Modern World incorporates much of Pope John’s thought but emphasises how the Bible shows the meaning of human dignity: in Jesus Christ, sin is overcome and each person’s full dignity and destiny are revealed.

Action steps What does this emphasis on human dignity mean for us? At least three things:

1. See human dignity as a starting point for moral decision making. Our growing appreciation of what truly enriches human dignity - and what truly injures it - provides a solid basis for our morality.

2. Believe in your own worth. The social teachings remind us that we, too, are precious and unique.

3. Treat others with great respect.

Too easily, we get trapped in thinking of others according to some stereotype, especially those who are different from us. We need to skip the racist joke and the sexist comment.

Valuing work Labour - or better, the labourer - has been a central theme of the social teachings. In 1891, Pope Leo XIII wrote The Condition of Labour in response to the massive problems caused by the Industrial Revolution: Exploitation of the worker, terrible working conditions, unjust wages. In order to defend people from such abuse, Leo stressed the basic right of human beings to work, to receive a just wage, to form unions, to possess private property.

Concern for the worker is expressed throughout the social teachings and is developed in detail in a contemporary way in Pope John Paul II’s On Human Work. In this very reflective statement, the Pope again affirms the rights of workers and unions.

Consistent with other social teachings, On Human Work criticises Marxism with its emphasis on state ownership and its rejection of private property; it also criticises capitalism for its neglect of the common good and for its focus on productivity and profit rather than people.

Pope Leo XIII wrote Rerum Novarum Photo: Will Glynn Action steps The social teachings prompt the following suggestions: 1. Take a fresh look at your work. Most of us work, but do we really find our work creative and fulfilling, or does it more often become numbing drudgery?

2. Be attentive to questions of justice at your workplace. In the US, working conditions and the power of unions have changed drastically in the many years since The Condition of Labour. Our view of the relationship between workers and owners probably depends much more on our profession and economic bracket than on the social teachings.

3. Recognise both values and limits in capitalism. Pope John Paul II stressed both in his encyclical Centesimus Annus commemorating the 100th anniversary of The Condition of Labour. While some commentators try to interpret his words as a complete affirmation of capitalism,

John Paul actually offers a powerful critique of capitalism, with its domination of things over people and the worsening problems of marginalisation, consumerism and exploitation.

Developing the Common Good Closely related to concern for workers and international economics is the third major theme: The Common Good.

Recognising the increasing interdependence among all the peoples on earth, Pope John XXIII explained in Peace on Earth that the universal common good “embraces the sum total of those conditions of social living whereby people are enabled to achieve their own integral perfection more fully and more easily” (58). Such basic necessities as food, clothing, and shelter are, of course, included, but also the right to education, the right to take an active part in public affairs, the right to worship God freely.

Pope John argued that in today’s world, the Common Good of one nation cannot be separated from the common good of the whole human family. Countries must seek the good of all and not just their own self-interest.

Later popes continued to develop this theme of international development and liberation. Pope John Paul II’s On Social Concern (1987) commemorates the twentieth anniversary of Paul VI’s The Development of Peoples. Pope John Paul judged that the reality of the developing nations has become worse in the intervening 20 years and so calls for genuine collaboration among peoples as a necessary part of our response.

Although earlier popes had addressed concerns about the environment, Pope Francis is the first to devote an entire encyclical to the topic. Issues include pollution, water, climate change, and global inequality. >>>28 JUSTICE MAGAZINE 49

Feature: Catholic Social Teaching A perfect example of the common good: the very existence of “our common home.”

Action steps Especially at this point, we may be tempted to ask, “What can I do? I’m only one individual.” Worldwide political, economic, and environmental issues are immense and overwhelming. The social teachings, however, stand as a challenge to us, reminding us that it is our world and, in some sense, our responsibility.

1. Develop a global outlook. In our families, for example, we can discuss and pray over issues like famines or climate change or the pain of whole nations torn by strife. We could also express our global concerns in the way we vote and by writing to those who represent us in government.

2. Find ways to promote the Common Good. For instance, we might raise our awareness of how a consumer-oriented lifestyle affects other nations: How does the gobbling up of shrinking supplies of oil and lumber by some nations, for example, deplete the resources and harm the environment of others? This might lead us to personal efforts to conserve the earth’s resources: By recycling, perhaps, or simplifying our lifestyles.

Creating justice Justice - right relationships along with the structural recognition of human dignity and rights and responsibilities - is a major theme throughout the social teachings.

In 1971, a worldwide synod of bishops met to follow Vatican II’s direction to “read the signs of the times.” The synod’s statement, Justice in the World, finds massive divisions in the world between rich and poor, which result in millions of people living marginal lives, being illiterate, ill-fed, and poorly housed. The bishops state that the Gospel demands justice for these people as an essential expression of Christian love. Our relationship with God is closely related to our relationship with other persons.

Action steps Here are some ways we can help create a more just society: 1. Get involved in political issues.

When we see how some government and business leaders make decisions that oppress people and deny human dignity (think of corporate scandals and sweatshops everywhere), we cannot, as Christians, simply remain silent about these profoundly human, ethical, religious issues. We see the importance of voting responsibly and speaking out 50 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

Live the Gospel by tackling climate change Photo: Trocaire

on such matters. The people we elect are the ones determining policy on a wide range of crucial justice issues, whether it is a matter of trade agreements, funds to fight AIDS and malaria, or the debts of poor countries.

2. Start now in your home and community. There are plenty of justice questions to tackle in our own areas.

Do we abandon the elderly in nursing homes? Do we scornfully look down on persons suffering mental illness? Are we prejudiced against persons of a different sexual orientation or race or religion?

How are our attitudes embodied in our votes on bond issues and school policies or in decisions about volunteering? We don’t have to look far to find people and places in need of justice.

Building peace In a century marked by world wars, the use of atomic bombs and the build-up of arms, the social teachings frequently turned to the topic of war and peace. As we have already seen, Pope John XXIII’s Peace on Earth emphasises human dignity, rights, and duties as the only possible foundation for true peace.

Vatican II’s Church in the Modern World links the preparation for war with the problems of development: “The arms race is one of the greatest curses on the human race and the harm it inflicts upon the poor is more than can be endured” (81).

Action steps How can we help?

1. Be a peacemaker in your community. The bishops conclude their long

pastoral letter by urging Christians to accept the cost of discipleship, to be faithful to Gospel values. Concretely, this may mean helping to resolve conflicts at work or home or teaching children a message of peace when we see violence on TV. 2. See the link between war and other human violations. The Challenge of Peace shows connections between preparation for war and all the other issues treated in this article: “When we accept violence, war itself can be taken for granted. Violence has many faces: oppression of the poor, deprivation of basic human rights, economic exploitation, sexual exploitation and pornography, neglect or abuse of the aged and the helpless, and innumerable other acts of inhumanity. Abortion in particular blunts a sense of the sacredness of human life” (285).

Challenge and hope Our rich heritage of Catholic Social Teachings challenges us to use our gifts and imagination in upholding the dignity of people and tackling the social problems of our day as active citizens.

The Church, moreover, proclaims its profound trust that a loving God walks with us. As the US bishops’ Economic Justice for All puts it: “We cannot be frightened by the magnitude and complexity of these problems. We must not be discouraged…. [A]s believers in the redemptive love of God and as those who have experienced God’s forgiving mercy, we know that God’s providence is not and will not be lacking to us” (364). JM

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