Justice Magazine Winter 2015

THE CATHOLIC SOCIAL JUSTICE QUARTERLY Winter 2015 www.justicemagazine.org @justicemagazine

JUSTICE magazine

Sierra Leone Syria Foodbanks Homelessness Native Americans

REFLECTING ON POLITICS

Active citizenship: Catholics and the election

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THE CATHOLIC SOCIAL JUSTICE QUARTERLY

JUSTICE magazine

Contents Winter 2015

Justice Magazine is a non-profit making quarterly publication that reports on and aims to further interest in the Catholic Church’s social teaching.

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Editor Lee Siggs Editorial advisers Jonathan Houdmont Nana Anto-Awuakye

34 Sierra Leone The hero people: Burying Ebola’s victims 4 8 10 16 18 23 24 28 30 40 42

Seafarers: Maritime workers caught in the nets of the traffickers United States: The forgotten plight of Native Americans El Salvador: Photo exhibition Ireland: The year of development LGBT ministry: Treating everyone with dignity Lent: A time to repent Trafficking and modern day slavery: From Rome to Ribble Valley Poverty: Institutionalising foodbanks Active citizenship: The general election and the need to participate Syria: Battling through the winter Syria: Education: The refugees’ story

Cover photo by LocoSteve

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Acknowledgments The editor wishes to thank all the agencies and individuals who have submitted articles and photos.

The next issue of Justice Magazine will be published in May. Please write to editor@justicemagazine.org with ideas for future articles or to suggest improvements.

JUSTICE MAGAZINE 3

Feature Trafficking

Greg Watts reports on the seafarers who find themselves trapped and working for a pittance

Maritime workers caught in the traffickers’ nets The discovery in August of 35 Afghans, including 13 children, inside a container at Tilbury docks in Essex grabbed the media headlines.

One of the group was found to be dead when the container was opened.

Police later charged three men in connection with the death.

Yet what happened at Tilbury is part of a much larger picture of global human trafficking at sea. Because of famine, poverty, political or religious persecution, natural disasters, armed conflicts and many other causes, thousands of people take to the sea in search of a better life.

But these journeys are perilous. The boats are usually not properly manned, equipped or licensed for carrying passengers on international voyages. Migrants can be at sea for days and in very dangerous circumstances. Generally they travel without documents, in crammed conditions, facing severe weather at sea, and often even death.

A few weeks after the shocking discovery at Tilbury, more than 500 migrants died when their boat sank off the coast of Malta after a trafficking gang rammed it. The mainly 4 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

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Migrants can be at sea for days and in very dangerous circumstances.

Generally they travel without documents, in crammed conditions, facing severe weather at sea, and often even death

Syrian, Palestinian, Egyptian and Sudanese migrants had set out from Damietta in Egypt and were forced to change boats several times during the crossing towards Europe.

The traffickers, who were on a separate boat, then ordered them onto a smaller vessel, which many of the migrants feared was too small to hold them.

According to the International

PHOTO: AoS

JUSTICE MAGAZINE 5

Feature Trafficking

Organisation for Migration, about 2,900 migrants have died this year in the Mediterranean, compared to 700 in 2013.

But there is another kind of trafficking at sea. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, a growing number of migrant fishermen from impoverished nations in south-east Asia, such as Cambodia, Indonesia and the Philippines, are trafficked to serve as “forced slave labour” on fishing boats.

The men often turn to Apostleship of the Sea (AoS) chaplains such as Father Isagani Fabito for help. He is based at the Iglesia Filipina Independiente Church in Aklan in the Phillippines.

It was thanks to him that Vincente, a 34-year-old working 20-hour shifts on a tuna boat in the Indian Ocean, was able to escape. He had been initially promised a monthly salary of US$550 by a broker in his village but after paying close to US$560 in broker fees, he found out he was only going to be paid US$200 when he arrived at a staffing agency in Singapore.

Peter Barrigan, a ship visitor with Apostleship of the Sea

Shocked

“The first time I saw the contract I was shocked,” he said. But it was too late and saddled with debt, Vincente signed off the next three years of his life to an uncertain fate.

When, after 10 months, his boat docked at Cape Town, South Africa, for the first time since he set sail, he was able to call his family, who told him to come home.

His family contacted Father Fabito, who managed to find someone from the International Transport Workers’ Federation in Cape Town to help Vincente get off the boat and on a plane home.

When he arrived in Singapore, where he had to change flights, another AoS chaplain was waiting to meet him.

“I was afraid someone from the agency would come and get him at the airport and put him on a ship again,” said Father Fabito.

However, flying fishermen like Vincente home incurs early termination 6 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

fees and flight ticket costs, which often offset the already meagre wages, said Father Romeo Yu-Chang, the AoS east Asia regional coordinator.

Father Romeo tries to use church funds to put fishermen on a flight home and sometimes offers them a bed in the church’s retreat centre.

AoS in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, also has a shelter and assists seamen. The shelter can house about 40 people and is usually fully occupied, mostly by fishermen, said port chaplain Father Ranulfo Salise.

He added that AoS has been

observing an increasing number of complaints from fishermen since 2009, mostly from Indonesians. Yet only 32 have filed legal cases to pursue their unpaid salaries since 2009.

“Most of them come to our shelter to sleep and go home. They don’t usually chase legal disputes,” said Father Salise.

In June the International Labour Organization (ILO) adopted a new protocol to eradicate contemporary forms of slavery, a move welcomed by AoS national director Martin Foley.

“Seafarers and fishermen work in

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It is becoming increasingly apparent that vulnerable men, women and children are being exploited by criminals all over the world and that we must respond compassionately to their cries for help

chaplains to ethnic communities, embassy staff - to be alert to the signs and responsive to the suffering of those who are trafficked but also informed as to where help can be sought.”

Roger Stone, AoS port chaplain to Southampton and Portsmouth, echoed his words: “Human trafficking is a growing problem across our society, as many reports on BBC and media reveal.

“In the maritime world, it’s rare on ships that come into UK ports but when it happens it’s very serious.

Trapped

PHOTO: AoS

one of the most dangerous environments and yet all too often governments and authorities turn a blind eye to the appalling conditions many are forced to endure,” Mr Foley said.

“We’ve read about the brutal treatment of workers in Thailand linked to seafood production. Sadly such appalling conditions are not confined to Thailand.”

Bishop Patrick Lynch, chair of migration policy for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, who attended a meeting on

human trafficking at the Vatican earlier this year, said: “It is becoming increasingly apparent that vulnerable men, women and children are being exploited by criminals all over the world and that we must respond compassionately to their cries for help. We support the Home Secretary in her commitment to making Britain a hostile place for human traffickers, and hope that the criminals in this case are speedily brought to justice.

“We need to help ‘first line respondents’ - priests, doctors, leaders and

“I have supported Filipino victims of human trafficking. Seafarers from other countries such as Ghana, for example, are also victims.

“Another seafarer I met who was almost certainly a victim was from Kenya.

“The victims don’t necessarily realise that they are victims. They can be trapped and beholden to their traffickers.”

He said ports need to be more alert to the possibilities of human trafficking.

“Ports can be slow to realise that the seafarers who reveal the parlous conditions in which they have to work don’t immediately recognise them as potential victims of trafficking. Sometimes not at all.”

Greg Watts is a freelance journalist

JUSTICE MAGAZINE 7

Comment Native Americans

Tony Magliano on the injustices served against America’s indigenous population

The forgotten plight of Native Americans

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PHOTO: Rennett Stowe

When it comes to the harsh difficulties many Native Americans face every day, the saying “out of sight, out mind” hits home.

Many people have only a vague sense of the serious past and present injustices suffered by Native Americans.

From the very beginning, starting with Christopher Columbus’ voyages to the Bahamas, we get a sad introduction of how Europeans, Americans and Canadians, would steal from, enslave and kill Native Americans largely for their land and natural resources.

Columbus in his quest for gold and power, according to the late famous social justice historian Howard Zinn, enslaved and decimated the peaceful native Arawaks – who greeted him and his crew with food, water, and various gifts when he first landed in the Bahamas.

Later on in the United States, the government would do much the same. In fact, within the Declaration of Independence, the founding fathers in a series of grievances against King George III of Great Britain, included a “grievance” that would haunt Native Americans throughout much of US history.

The king, they wrote, “has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions”.

With an attitude that Native Americans were sub-human “merciless Indian savages” the federal government, US army, and many

white settlers forced countless Native Americans off their lands, away from ancient hunting grounds, and unto reservations.

The most infamous removal of Native Americans took place in 1838 when the Cherokee nation was strongly pressured to give up its lands east of the Mississippi River and to migrate to an area in present-day Oklahoma.

The Cherokee people called this militarily forced journey the ‘Trail of Tears’ because of its devastating effects. The migrants faced hunger, disease and exhaustion on the forced march. Historians estimated that well over 4,000 out of 15,000 Cherokees died.

Another tragic example of US injustices toward Native Americans came on December 29, 1890 when the US 7th Cavalry surrounded a Lakota Sioux camp near Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota and massacred between 150 to 300

men, women and children. The US Civil Rights Commission in a report titled “A Quiet Crisis,” states that “in exchange for land and in compensation for forced removal from their original homelands, the government promised through laws, treaties, and pledges to support and protect Native Americans.

However, funding for programmes associated with those promises has fallen short, and Native peoples continue to suffer the consequences of a discriminatory history...

“Native Americans still suffer higher rates of poverty, substandard housing, and higher rates of disease and illness. Native Americans continue to rank at or near the bottom of nearly every social, health, and economic indicator...

“Native Americans living on tribal lands do not have access to the same services and programmes available to other Americans, even though the government has a binding trust obligation to provide them.”

Chief Joseph, leader of the Nez Perce tribal nation eloquently said, “Treat all men alike. Give them the same laws. Give them all an even chance to live and grow. All men were made by the same Great Spirit Chief. They are all brothers. The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it.”

Now that’s the Gospel truth!

Tony Magliano is an internationally syndicated social justice and peace columnist

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Feature El Salvador exhibition

Elam Forrester spent time during her International Citizen Service (ICS) experience in El Salvador with her camera, documenting the daily lives for the people she was working with. The result was an excellent body of work which led to an exhibition in London

Portraits from El Salvador The most unexpected thing about Elam Forrester’s collection of photographs from El Salvador, displayed at an east London cinema last month, is that they were nearly not taken at all.

“It sounds ridiculous now but I almost didn’t take my camera,” said 25-year-old Elam.

“Everything I heard about El Salvador before going made it sound like a terrible, violent place. I thought really hard whether bringing a camera along was worth the risk.”

Luckily she did, and her Stories of El Salvador exhibition was displayed at the Rich Mix cultural arts venue and cinema last month, along with two short documentaries and archive photographs that together tell stories of the Central American nation.

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Feature El Salvador exhibition

Through her work, Elam aims to challenge what are often negative preconceptions of life in El Salvador.

Instead of familiar images of drugs, gangs and violence, she has captured strong and striking images of community, work and family life in full swing.

“My experience of living in a rural community in El Salvador was far removed from what I expected to encounter,” she said. “I came away from my time there greatly inspired by the spirit and passion of the people I met and their commitment to fighting gender and social inequalities despite their difficult history.”

The professional filmmaker spent 10 weeks in the rural community of Ahuachapan in 2012, as part of her International Citizen Service (ICS), a Government-funded initiative that sets up young people with voluntary projects in some of the world’s poorest countries.

Elam’s placement was organised by Progressio which joins forces with local NGOs in developing countries – meaning that UK young people work alongside national volunteers on projects that are selected and run on a local level.

Most of Elam’s work was with women’s rights associations, which aim to educate Salvadorian men and women on human rights and gender equality, and help train women in skills that could turn into a source of income.

Again, through photographing the work of these organisations, Elam aimed to tell a different story from what is familiar.

“Before leaving for El Salvador, most of what I heard about in connection with the country’s women concerned the shockingly high femicide rates – women being murdered simply because they were women,” Elam said.

“But going there I’d never encountered anyone who was fighting so hard against gender inequality. My photographs show women, and men, who are really taking hold of their situation and are determined to become self-sufficient.”

Among the people Elam connected 12 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

PHOTO: IHH/Emre Karap覺nar

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Feature El Salvador exhibition

Images from the civil war period 14 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

Elam Forrester and a dancer at the launch of the exhibition

with most was Amanda Gonzalez, a former guerrilla fighter who Elam filmed as part of a short documentary film discussing the work of the women’s rights association she founded in Ahuachapan.

“I felt it was particularly important to record, rather than simply photograph, Amanda because she had such an interesting story to tell,” Elam said.

“She grew up being told that her role as a woman was only to sweep and cook. But later, after becoming a guerrilla, she joined an association that taught her to read and write, and when she returned home she decided to set up her own organisation to pass on her knowledge.”

Elam presented archive photographs alongside her own work.

These were gathered from the next cycle of Progressio volunteers who conducted an oral history project, asking the local community to collect old photographs and discuss the history behind them.

The photographs show the central role of women in the conflict, often joining the side of the left-wing guerrilla groups against the military government.

The women depicted are often in active, leadership positions – leading a rally, or holding guns aloft.

Returning home, Elam says she had a greater awareness of the issues sur-

rounding women’s rights, not simply in the developing world, but in her own neighbourhood. “My experience in El Salvador made me reflect on my own community in London,” she said.

“In Tower Hamlets, where the exhibition was held, many women face similar challenges.

“I wanted the exhibition to give an opportunity for a larger conversation about women’s rights in Central America and beyond.”

ICS is a Government-funded programme for 18-25 year olds.

For more information about signing up with Progressio visit www.progressio.org.uk/ics JUSTICE MAGAZINE 15

Feature Ireland

Éamonn Meehan of Trocaire assesses Ireland’s role in the months ahead There has arguably never been a 12 month period when Ireland has held such influence on global affairs as 2015.

The coming months will see decisions made on a number of issues that will shape the future of the planet over the coming decades.

New global strategies will be decided upon to fight climate change, hunger, poverty and inequality.

Ireland has a central role in all of these decisions.

The actions of our politicians this year will impact every corner of the globe and will shape the lives of billions of people.

President Higgins recently launched Ireland’s participation in the European Year for Development, an EU-wide initiative to promote Europe’s role in poverty alleviation and development.

The EU is the biggest donor of development assistance in the world and this initiative is an opportunity to assess the impact of our collective efforts and discuss shared targets and focus.

A recent Eurobarometer survey showed that, despite the economic downturn, support for overseas aid amongst Europe’s citizens is growing, with 80 per cent of respondents believing aid to be important and 60 per cent supporting an increase in overseas aid.

Two-thirds believe that tackling poverty in developing countries should be one of the European Union’s main priorities.

Ireland will significantly shape Europe’s – and the world’s – development policy over the coming 15 years by co-chairing the international negotiations on new international development targets to replace the Millennium Development Goals.

Our role as co-chair, alongside Kenya, gives Ireland enormous influence in determining how the world responds to issues such as climate change, health, hunger and

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The year of development

education. The new targets – the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – will set global policy until 2030.

Ireland’s track record on issues such as combatting hunger makes us a credible and respected international voice.

Our track record on responding to climate change, however, make

us something of a divisive voice internationally.

It is on this issue – how to reduce future impacts of climate change while also responding to impacts that already exist – that Ireland needs to show leadership by its actions at home in order to be a credible voice in our role as co-chair of the SDG process and within the

PHOTO: Trocaire

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Ireland’s track record on issues such as combatting hunger makes us a credible and respected international voice

EU ahead of the vital UN Climate Summit in Paris in December.

December’s meeting is an absolutely vital gathering, when a global deal on climate change simply must be agreed.

It has been described as a deadline for action on climate, one which must not be allowed pass.

Climate change is the biggest

problem facing the world today and its impacts are disproportionately felt by the world’s poorest people.

Increasingly erratic weather patterns are leading to storms and droughts and driving hunger and disease.

As the EU prepares itself for December’s Climate Summit, each member state needs to do its fair share towards collective action on climate change.

Ireland has so far lobbied for special status because of the large role the agriculture sector plays in our greenhouse gas emissions.

Put simply, the Paris Climate talks must result in a global pledge to reduce carbon emissions by at least 80 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050 if we are to avoid climate catastrophe by the end of this century.

The Irish government must look at our combined carbon emissions and determine how to make this reduction.

Agriculture, energy and transport account for more than 70 per cent of Ireland’s emissions.

Far from being on track towards reducing their levels, emissions for all three sectors are set to rise over the coming years.

Ireland meets more than 90 per cent of its energy requirements by importing fossil fuels, at the cost of €6.5bn per year. Reducing both of these figures must be a priority for government.

This year has been described as both a new beginning and a deadline – a new beginning for attempts to tackle poverty but a deadline to face up to the reality of climate change.

Ireland will be to the fore of these momentous events.

Let us hope that we make the right decisions. Éamonn Meehan is the executive director of Trócaire

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Feature LGBT ministry

Kenneth R. Overberg, S.J., on Catholic Social Teaching and ministry to the LGBT community in the United States

Treating everyone with dignity Controversy often surrounds LGBT issues. Soon after Pope Benedict announced his resignation, comments about his record appeared, along with concerns and hopes for the new pope.

The 2013 Supreme Court decisions on the Defense of Marriage Act and California’s Proposition 8 raised new concern and tensions in the Church.

Even in ordinary times, people involved in LGBT ministries face numerous difficulties, including misunderstanding and discouragement.

Whatever the challenges or times, key themes of Catholic Social Teaching offer support, encouragement, and direction for those involved in LGBT ministry.

In their pastoral message Always Our Children, the US Catholic bishops state: “The teachings of the Church make it clear that the fundamental human rights of homosexual persons must be defended and that all of us must strive to eliminate any forms of injustice, oppression, or violence against them.”

Later they add that “all homosexual persons have a right to be welcomed into the community, to hear the word of God, and to receive pastoral care”.

Various groups - diocesan, parish, and others like the Marianist Social Justice Collaborative - attempt to embody and express these convictions 18 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

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The teachings of the Church make it clear that the fundamental human rights of homosexual persons must be defended and that all of us must strive to eliminate any forms of injustice, oppression, or violence against them

by promoting welcoming and understanding communities.

This article highlights key themes of Catholic Social Teaching that ground LGBT ministry: Human dignity, common good, and justice. It also resurrects a framework for integrating these themes; the consistent ethic of life.

Human dignity

The heart of the social teachings is the value of the human being. Everyone is created in God’s image; therefore, everyone is sacred and social. One’s value is rooted in who a person is, not in what one accomplishes.

Human dignity is always present in every person; it is not bestowed on us by family or government. Human dignity and rights are viewed in a personalist perspective, not an individualist one. The person is the centre of attention, but is always understood as a social being, implying interdependence and mutual obligation and duty.

Human dignity is the foundation of all the Catholic social teachings, expressed in papal encyclicals, the documents of Vatican II, and in statements of bishops’ conferences. A thorough understanding of human dignity is developed in two of these, John XXIII’s Peace on Earth (Pacem

PHOTO: Stephen Ritchie

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Feature LGBT ministry

in Terris) and Vatican II’s The Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes).

Pope John develops his vision of world peace from a philosophical perspective of natural law. This vision, presented in ever-widening concentric circles, begins with human nature and dignity at its very core. “Peace on earth, which people of every era have most eagerly yearned for, can be firmly established only if the order laid down by God be dutifully observed” (#1).

John focuses first on human rights as a means to protect and nourish human dignity. Then he expands from the person to society, discussing the role of public authorities, international relations, and finally a worldwide public authority to promote the universal common good.

One advantage of this natural law approach is its capacity to address more easily people of other religions or with no religion. Indeed, Peace on Earth shares many insights and convictions with the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Second Vatican Council called for much more attention to and use of Scripture in developing insights into contemporary moral issues. Its own document, The Church in the Modern World, expresses this conviction.

The long first part develops an understanding of humanity in light of revelation. Human beings are sacred and social (#12), endowed with conscience, one’s “most secret core and sanctuary” where one is “alone with God” (#16), and blessed with a communitarian nature and called to develop solidarity with all (#23-32).

Respecting, protecting, and nurturing human dignity is the very centre of LGBT ministry. The opening lines of The Church in the Modern World accurately capture the spirit of this ministry: “The joys and hopes, the grief and anguish of the people of our time, especially of those who are poor or afflicted, are the joys and hopes, the grief and anguish of the followers of Christ as well. Nothing that is genuinely human fails to find an echo in their hearts” (#1).

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The grief and anguish experienced by many LGBT persons have been well documented in the United States and around the world. These experiences include both subtle and blatant forms of disenfranchisement and violence.

LGBT ministry’s efforts to respond by challenging prejudice and fear and by fostering dialogue and understanding (for example, the Collaborative’s “A Place at the Marianist Table”) clearly embody Vatican II’s pastoral concerns as well as those expressed in Always Our Children: “Nothing in the Bible or in Catholic teaching can be used to justify prejudicial or discriminatory attitudes and behaviours.”

Common good

A second key theme for LGBT ministry from the social teachings is the common good. Both John XXIII and Vatican II describe the common good as all the conditions of social living that enable people to achieve authentic human development (see Peace on Earth #58). Such basic necessities as food, clothing, and shelter are, of course, included, but also the right to education, medical care, and participation in public affairs, and also the right to worship God freely.

Pope John also emphasised that 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.

As interdependence and globalisation increased recent popes have stressed the universal common good even more. Key encyclicals such as The Development of Peoples (Populorum Progressio) by Paul VI, On Social Concern (Sollicitudo Rei Socialis) by John Paul II, and Charity in Truth (Caritas in Veritate) by Benedict XVI have all emphasised this point as the gaps between rich and poor continue to increase.

It is important to note that these teachings of the Church stress that “integral human development” (true human flourishing of the whole person) includes not only economic needs, but also cultural, social, political, and religious needs.

In this context, Pope Paul calls for “increased esteem for the dignity of others” (#21; see also #14-20). Pope Benedict stresses that development is a calling from God, requiring a free and responsible answer, demanding respect for the truth, and having love of God and neighbor as its centre (#17-19).

LGBT ministry evidently contributes to building up the common good with its various actions to promote esteem for the dignity of others and to challenge economic, social, political, and religious structures that undermine human flourishing (what many call sinful social structures— see, for example, John Paul II’s The Gospel of Life, #12). Offering hospitality, providing tools to eliminate homophobia, encouraging positive attitudes and inclusivity; all these surely occur in some local situation but also help strengthen the wider common good.

Justice

The third key theme, closely related to the common good, is justice. Justice can be understood as fidelity to the demands of a relationship (a biblical focus) along with structural recognition of human dignity and rights and responsibilities. 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, that 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.

In a celebrated passage of this statement, the bishops declare: “Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the gospel” (#6). Justice in the World also emphasises a preferential option for the poor and marginalised (see, for example, #10 and #20).

Building on the insight that the

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Offering hospitality, case of believers and non-believers alike. With the help of the Holy Spirit, providing tools to it is the task of the whole people of eliminate God, particularly of its pastors and theologians, to listen to and distinhomophobia, guish the many voices of our times encouraging positive and to interpret them in the light of God’s word, in order that the revealed attitudes and truth may be more deeply penetrated, inclusivity; all these better understood, and more suitably surely occur in some presented” (#44). local situation but Ethic of Life also help strengthen Consistent A sound framework for holding the wider common together these three themes (and others) from Catholic social teachings is good

common good includes much more than economics, those involved in LGBT ministry can recognise that there are many more marginalised people than just economically poor ones, that there are many forms of injustices, including those impacting LGBT persons.

Prayerfully reading Justice in the World with appropriate applications to LGBT issues in mind may well inform and inspire those involved in LGBT ministry. Similarly, pondering “Biblical Perspectives on Justice” by John R. Donahue, S.J., in The Faith That Does Justice (edited by John C. Haughey) may deepen the biblical roots of one’s passion for justice.

Another passage from Vatican II’s The Church in the Modern World summarises well both the challenge and gift of LGBT ministry in respecting human dignity, protecting the common good, and nurturing justice.

“Nowadays when things change so rapidly and thought patterns differ so widely, the church needs to step up this exchange by calling upon the help of people who are living in the world, who are expert in its organisations and its forms of training, and who understand its mentality, in the

the consistent ethic of life. This moral vision offers not only direction for action but also energy and hope.

Developed and promoted by the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin in the 1980s and 1990s, the consistent ethic of life became a centrepiece of the teachings of the US bishops. More recently, this focus has not been emphasised. Resurrecting it now would offer support for LGBT ministries along with many other aspects of life in the church.

The consistent ethic of life is a comprehensive ethical system that links together many different issues by focusing attention on the basic value of life. It challenges left and right, liberal and conservative, calling for consistency and ruling out contradictory moral positions about the unique value of human life.

It would be contradictory, for example to be against abortion but for capital punishment or to work against poverty but support euthanasia. The consistent ethic of life recognises that powerful forces in our culture significantly shape our convictions and spirituality.

These forces often lead to the contradictions that separate us from a consistent ethic of life. Politics, media, money, and class - and not our faith - may well be the real sources of some of our values. The consistent ethic of life points to the possibility that an individual’s moral stance may, in part, be rooted in prejudices or unexamined assumptions.

Questioning all views that contradict the message and meaning of Jesus, the consistent ethic of life calls

for actions involving institutions and structures of society. In his address, The Consistent Ethic of Life after Webster, Cardinal Bernardin encourages us to be “both prophetic and public, a countersign to much of the culture, but also a light and leaven for all of it.”

Later he adds: “We should be convinced we have much to learn from the world and much to teach it … A confident Church will speak its mind, seek as a community to live its convictions, but leave space for others to speak to us, help us to grow from their perspective, and to collaborate with them.”

Cardinal Bernardin’s words and vision offer support and guidance for LGBT ministries. Confronting discrimination and fostering dialogue and respect contribute not only to justice and human dignity but also to creating a culture of life.

While these ministries may take on different tasks, from the personal to the structural, their work can be see as part of a larger whole—respect for life. Also learning from other perspectives in society and connecting with other respect-life groups will promote greater awareness and cooperation among all the participants.

What might emerge from a respectlife gathering of people with a variety of interests, for example, immigration, abortion, LGBT issues, economics, war and peace!

Possible contradictions in living the consistent ethic of life (as described above) could be acknowledged and challenged. New partnerships, for example, between those promoting nonviolence and those addressing LGBT issues, will likely create new energies and better embody the gospel of life.

Based on our ancient Scriptures and attentive to contemporary experiences, the consistent ethic of life provides an ethical framework for confronting the many moral dilemmas of LGBT ministry.

It helps us all to promote the full flourishing of life!

Kenneth R. Overberg, S.J. teaches at Xavier University in Ohio, United States JUSTICE MAGAZINE 21

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Comment Lent

Tony Magliano urges us to use this time of year to reflect on our failings and make positive changes to our lives, just as the saints did

A time to repent

PHOTO: Mike

“The kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”

With these two compelling sentences – as recorded in the Gospel of Mark – Jesus inaugurates his ministry and sums up what his mission is about: To break the shackles of sin that enslave humanity, to put us on the path of liberation from all oppression, and to teach us how to unconditionally love one another .

But what does it mean to repent?

Striving to avoid sin and living virtuously is certainly part of what it means.

But there’s more.

In the Gospels the biblical word used for repentance is the Greek word “metanoia” – a radical change of mind, heart, soul and action. It happens when one changes course and turns around to walk in the right direction. Metanoia means a life-changing conversion.

That’s what Jesus is calling us to when he says “repent”.

Think of some of the great saints who deeply repented, who truly experienced a metanoia.

St Paul did a complete about-face. He went from persecuting the followers of Christ, to championing their cause and suffering with them.

St Augustine of Hippo turned from fleeting unmarried sexual pleasure and unsatisfying philosophical pursuits to a totally fulfilling surrender to the will of God. In his famous autobiographical “Confessions” he sums it all up so well: “You [God] have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”

When we allow our heart to rest in God, we become a new creation, fully dedicated to advancing his kingdom.

But this takes humility, honesty, much prayer and hard work. Not for the fainthearted.

The respected English writer and theologian G.K. Chesterton wrote: “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.”

And making it even more difficult, a life dedicated to listening to the Holy

Spirit concerns itself not only with personal repentance/metanoia, but also with the conversion of the nation.

Sharing the good news that God desires to save all people from sin and all other forms of oppression, necessarily includes striving to dismantle what St Pope John Paul called the “structures of sin.”

And sadly, “structures of sin” abound in every nation.

From the murder of unborn babies through legalised abortion, to the killing of the sick through assisted suicide, to the woefully inadequate response to poverty and hunger suffered by brothers and sisters throughout the world, to the insanity of war, to the state-sanctioned murder of the death penalty and to environmental degradation, nations need to repent, change course, and begin walking in the right direction.

Lent is that solemn time of the year when the Church invites us to examine

our conscience and honestly admit where we have sinned individually and as a nation.

Since Jesus has assured us that with God all things are possible, let us confidently take our petitions to him trusting that a far better world can be built with loving hearts and hands.

Let us pray: • God of life, inspire us to protect all human life from its beginning at conception to its earthly end at natural death.

• God of justice, inspire us to fairly share with all people the resources necessary to adequately sustain life with dignity.

• God of creation, inspire us to be good stewards of your wonderful world.

• God of peace, inspire us to finally put an end to war. Amen.

Tony Magliano is an internationally syndicated social justice and peace columnist

JUSTICE MAGAZINE 23

Feature Modern day slavery

Mark Wiggin of Caritas Salford on how the Church is working hard today to combat the scourge of slavery

From Rome to Ribble Valley: Trafficking and modern day slavery In 1864, Caritas Salford, known then as a ‘Rescue and Protection Society’, began a mission in industrial Lancashire to rescue children from poverty and the workhouse. Today, Caritas is still working directly with children and vulnerable people. Its newest project is to support a network of people with a growing awareness and concern of trafficking and modern day slavery.

Slavery is not a historical fact – it is a present day reality and human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world. According to the campaigning movement Stop the Traffik, it is second only to the drugs trade in profitability.

The trade in people has achieved this notorious status at the top of the league tables of inhumanity partly because it is a subject that the ordinary person in the street knows very little about.

Yet, if we are to tackle this most pernicious trade, it needs to become a subject addressed in the classroom and elsewhere so that the public become aware of modern day slavery and know what to do about it.

Many people thought slavery was a 24 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

thing of the past, ended in the British Empire through the efforts of enlightened activists such as William Wilberforce. But in recent years we have begun to recognise many new forms of slavery alongside older ones.

The trafficked migrant worker, or the girlt trafficked for domestic service or sexual exploitation are both part of modern day slavery, as is forced marriage, forced begging and the removal of organs.

No longer is slavery confined to the poor countries of the developing world, but can be found in the towns and cities of the UK.

Mistreatment

A few years ago, it was estimated that there were more than 27 million men, women and children suffering some form of modern day slavery throughout the world. Behind this statistic are the stories of 27 million individuals whose human dignity has been eroded or reduced through a loss of freedom and mistreatment, exploited for their labour or sexually abused.

As a result of its criminal nature, there are no authoritative statistics on the number of people trafficked in

PHOTO: Imagens Evangélicas

JUSTICE MAGAZINE 25

Feature Modern day slavery

the UK; the Centre for Social Justice Slavery Working Group admits that agencies are groping in the dark for a sense of the scale of the trade.

One worrying fact that the records do confirm is that human trafficking is increasing. In 2013 there were 1,746 referrals to the UK Human Trafficking Centre of the National Crime Agency, an increase of 47 per cent increase from the previous year.

In 2014 the figure was 2,340, a further increase of 34 per cent. These figures confirm an escalating trade in people, but are also are a pale reflection of the true size of the problem.

The global trade in people has exploded over the last few decades, fueled by chronic poverty and the growing gap between rich and poor.

Those left behind by the race for economic growth or those fleeing war, religious or political persecution are the most vulnerable to the illegal trafficking industry.

Drawn to a better life, many look to western Europe where they seek refuge but can fall prey to the traffickers seeking to exploit them in forced labour, prostitution and domestic servitude. The highest numbers of trafficked people come from eastern Europe, Nigeria and Vietnam, but in the UK there are trafficked nationals from 112 countries, reinforcing the fact that this is a global problem.

Forced labour of trafficked people affects thousands of people across the UK – and the number of cases is growing. The growth of forced labour has coincided with changes in the nature of the UK’s labour market. The Government’s easing of workforce regulation and enforcement combined with longer supply chains within big companies has led to greater potential for migrant workers to be exploited.

Less enforcement of labour standards and current immigration policies that exclude people from formal employment also make these workers more vulnerable.

Nearly two-thirds of all trafficked people into the UK are women. There is a growing awareness and concern for the isolation of female domestic 26 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

migrant workers living in our cities who are vulnerable to exploitation.

The recent Immigration Bill 2014 has not helped this group. Before the bill, domestic workers’ visas allowed them to change their employer but the bill now prevents this. If they escape their abusive employers, they no longer have the right to work in the UK and thus they continue to fall prey to further exploitation which may be no better than that from which they have just escaped.

The Immigration Bill - hastily pushed through Parliament under public pressure – is an example of legislation that has not been thought out and which ignores the wealth of knowledge from agencies and charities working in this field. Hopefully, some of the flaws in the Immigration Bill can still be addressed through the new Modern Slavery Bill and there is an urgent need to lobby and petition

parliament and raise awareness as widely as possible to put pressure on the Government to act.

Bleak

The global and domestic picture looks bleak and is predicted to get worse with more people falling victim to the traffickers and entering into servitude. However, there is some light being thrown on this dark trade and some coordinated action; it is coming from the Catholic Church in Rome.

At his inaugural Mass on March 19, 2013, Pope Francis invited every single human being to be a “protector” reminding those listening that first principle of Catholic Social Teaching is to respect the dignity of each person, especially the poor and the vulnerable.

A few months later, Pope Francis made his first official trip outside Rome to visit Lampedusa, the tiny

PHOTO: Crittenton SoCal

island off Sicily that has become the first port of safety for untold thousands of migrants crossing by sea from North Africa to Europe. The choice of Lampedusa was a highly symbolic one for Francis, who has placed the poor at the centre of his papacy and called on the Church to return to its mission of serving them.

The Pope’s visit was an extremely important gesture that has helped keep attention on the issues of migration and human trafficking.

This all-embracing principle to protect everyone, including the stranger, trafficked person and the refugee, is slowly being turned into action by the national and local responses to the Pope’s call for action to end modern day slavery and human trafficking.

In April 2014, the second Vatican Conference on Combating Human Trafficking brought together the bishops and law enforcement officers of

the world and led to the formation of the Santa Marta Group.

In December 2014, the Santa Marta Group met in London where once again bishops and law enforcement officers world wide came together to work in partnership.

In Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols has been following through the work of the Santa Marta Group, encouraging the police and the Catholic Church to take up the challenge of defeating trafficking in the UK though raising awareness amongst as many people as possible so that whenever a trafficked person is in the public eye there is someone there who can spot the signs and alert the authorities.

Bishop Patrick Lynch, the bishop for migrants, recently stated: “It is my experience, however, that in some places and in some communities there is still a lack of awareness about the reality of modern day slavery and a lack of awareness of the practical help that is available especially to victims.”

Tackling trafficking and modern day slavery might at first sight appear to be the job of the police and authorities and not something for the average person in the street or a parishioner who is not a professional in these matters.

However, in Caritas Salford, at a local, parish-community level, an effective anti-trafficking network is responding to the Church’s call for action. Local people are learning about the illegal trade and already Anthony and Mary Brown, two parishioners in the Catholic parish of Our Lady of the Valley set in the beautiful Ribble Valley of Lancashire, have started delivering awareness sessions in schools that make three main points about modern day slavery: It happens here, it’s bigger now than at any time in past history and the Catholic Church is doing more than any other religious organisation to combat slavery.

Anthony and Mary, founder members of the network commented that: “Already the awareness programme in schools is showing how little young people know about human trafficking

and how surprised and shocked they are to find out about its scale and dreadful effects on people.”

Anthony added: “Our group is about 20 strong so far and I expect it will grow. At the moment it is almost 100 per cent the Parish of Our Lady of the Valley but already, following an interdenominational service, we have someone from outside our parish. My hope is that we can become much more of community group and open to everybody.”

The Catholic Social Teaching principle of the dignity of the human person reminds us that every human being has an inalienable and transcendent human dignity which gives rise to human rights.

This aspect of human dignity is sometimes referred to as the principle of the unity of the human family.

It is the bedrock of all Catholic social ethics. It follows that people are always more important than wealth and must never be treated as a means or an instrument to be used for the benefit of another. The dignity and worth or each and every person is the starting point for every issue we address and supersedes the needs of market forces or the state. If we are to rehumanise the world we live in and work towards the freedom of people, one starting point can take its lead from local people in Caritas Salford who have got involved at a community level to bring modern day slavery and trafficking to a quick end.

The call from Rome has been heard and is certainly being answered here in the Ribble Valley.

Mark Wiggin is the CEO of Caritas Diocese of Salford. He is also a member of the Caritas Social Action Network of more than 40 charities working together to deliver a broad range of services addressing poverty and disadvantage in England and Wales. He is also a member of the Caritas Europe working party on the promotion of Catholic Social Teaching throughout a European network of national organisations and a trustee of the Volunteer Missionary Movement, a laity-led Christian organisation working with partners in developing countries in Africa.

JUSTICE MAGAZINE 27

Feature Foodbanks

Paul Donovan on how a last resort has now become part of coping with poverty

PHOTO: David Woo

Institutionalising foodbanks The enormous growth in the number of people going to foodbanks in the UK has been a feature of the past five years.

In 2010, there were 54 foodbanks, today the number has increased to 423. Some 41,000 people went to foodbanks in 2009/10, compared to 913,000 being given three days emergency food and support last year (330,000 were children).

In contrast, over the same period the number of billionaires in the UK has gone from 53 to 100. The richest 1,000 people now have £450 billion of the wealth – an increase of £150 billion in the past three years.

The demand for foodbanks has grown at the same time as the Gov28 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

ernment has been cutting away the safety net of the welfare state. This has been done to the accompaniment of the mood music in the media, that those on benefits are scroungers and skivers.

The danger moving forward is that foodbanks get institutionalised, effectively becoming a charitable alternative to the welfare state.

Some 8,318 tonnes of food was donated by the public in last 12 months.

Thirty thousand people have volunteered at foodbanks over the past year; 27,000 frontline care professionals such as doctors or care workers have vouchers to issue for foodbanks.

The growth in the number of people going to foodbanks at a time when the economy is recovering, provides further proof that those living in poverty are not sharing in the benefits of the recovery. Notably, a quarter of those attending foodbanks are in low paid work.

Former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said: “People who are using foodbanks are not scroungers who are cynically trying to work the system. They are drawn from the six million working poor in this country, people who are struggling to make ends meet in low-paid or bitty employment.”

The Trussell Trust, which runs the foodbank network across the UK,

‘‘

Currently, 45 per cent of food bank referrals are due to benefit delays and changes, including sanctions, and 22 per cent of the 500,000 that came cite low income as the main trigger for the crisis

point out that there have been 500,000 people coming to foodbanks in the six month period between April and September this year, 38 per cent more than for the comparable period for last year.

Currently, 45 per cent of food bank referrals are a result of benefit delays and changes, including sanctions, and 22 per cent of the 500,000 that came cite low income as the main trigger for the crisis.

David McAuley, chief executive of the Trussell Trust, said: “Substantial numbers are needing help because of problems with the social security system but what’s new is that we’re also seeing a marked rise in numbers of people coming to us with ‘low income’ as the primary cause of their crisis.

“Incomes for the poorest have not been increasing in line with inflation and many, whether in low paid work or on welfare, are not yet seeing the benefits of economic recovery.

Instead, they are living on a financial knife edge where one small change in circumstances or a ‘life shock’ can force them into a crisis where they cannot afford to eat.”

A report compiled by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Hunger and Food Poverty, titled, Feeding Britain, makes recommendations concerning changes to the benefits system, to stop delays and the implementation of the living wage to counter low pay.

However, it is the third recommendation to create a new generation of “super” food banks that is most controversial. The new foodbanks would

combine food aid with welfare advice and advocacy. This network of foodbanks would bring together the existing players with supermarkets and the state.

The report suggests the supermarkets could redeploy some of this food and play a much more hands on role in helping out with the foodbanks.

This suggestion goes to the heart of the dilemma, a step toward institutionalising foodbanks, rather than seeing them as a temporary measure to deal with a hunger crisis.

The story of foodbanks in Canada provides a salutary lesson. Foodbanks were introduced there in the early 1980s in what was perceived as a tough economic time.

There are now 700 foodbanks in Canada, providing help to 800,000 people.

The number has increased by nearly 100,000 over the past six years – as the country has come out of economic recession.

There have been an abundance of low income jobs created as part of the economic recovery. Sound familiar?

Writing in the Guardian, Graham Riches, emeritus professor and former director of the School of Social Work, University of British Columbia, tells how foodbanks have become a second tier of the benefits system in Canada. “The sad fact is that in Canada, with its 30-year track record of increasingly corporatised food charity, recent national data shows that one in eight households or 3.9 million individuals (11.6 per cent of the population) are still experiencing food insecurity,” said Riches, who criticised plans for super foodbanks as only addressing the supply side of the question, thereby recommending “a vanguard role for the charitable food industry and food waste in the battle against structurally caused food poverty”.

The institutionalisation of food banks leads to the depoliticisation of the issue of hunger. “This can only lead to the long-term institutionalisation of food banking and diminish political appetite for progressive reform,” said Riches, who claims that in Canada, the food charity industry

has fostered the depoliticisation of hunger, so it is now a matter primarily for community and corporate charity, and not a human rights question demanding the urgent attention of the state.

Perception

“Today, Canadian public perception of food charity is that it should take care of domestic hunger. Governments can look the other way,” said Riches, who suggests that a right to food should be entrenched in domestic law backed by international statute, then the obligation to deal with hunger would be put fully back under the responsibilities of the state.

Former Leeds West MP John Battle, who has been doing some research work on foodbanks in Leeds, warns that “foodbanks could become institutionalised as an alternative to the welfare state”.

He believes that the real issue is low pay, with the rich getting richer and the poor poorer. “This cannot be allowed to go on, with the poor effectively being left to pick up the scraps from the rich man’s table,” said Mr Battle who pointed out that the ‘Feeding Britain’ report found many of those using foodbanks were on zero hours contracts.

He insisted that the implementation of a living wage and maintaining of the welfare state is the direction in which things should be heading.

The net result of simply expanding the foodbank network is that some can continue to feel good about helping out the poor in a purely charitable way, whilst the corporates gain a good helping of positive PR from their growing involvement in these ventures. In the meantime, the numbers going to foodbanks and living under the poverty line continues to grow.

The issue has to be one of justice, put very simply, the right to eat and live.

It would be a true irony if a virtuous charitable endeavour like foodbanks evolved into a back door means to further emasculate the welfare state and build the low pay economy.

Paul Donovan is a freelance journalist. www.paulfdonovan.blogspot.com JUSTICE MAGAZINE 29

Cover story Active citizenship

30 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

Tanya Murray urges Catholics in the UK to find out as much as they can ahead of May’s general election

The general election and the need to participate

PHOTO: secretlondon123

The beginning of the year is always a time for reassessing our priorities, evaluating our lives and deciding if there are any changes which we could or should make.

This period of reflection holds a particular importance in an election year as we find ourselves tasked with reevaluating not only our personal goals, but those of our country as a whole and the resulting impact of this on the national and international community (suddenly, that decision to lose half a stone seems a lot less daunting by comparison!)

It is very easy to talk ourselves out of taking action: “It won’t make any difference” we tell ourselves, or “I simply don’t know enough to have an impact.”

The sheer enormity of the task before us is enough to put anyone off, and yet it is simply not true that our vote and our voice don’t matter.

Everyone does and should have a role to play at election time and it is up to each of us to work out what that role is and how best to fulfill it.

As Catholics, it seems a sensible

idea to begin our quest in the social teaching of the church. There exists a vast body of literature describing a Catholic approach to social action; from Pope Leo’s Rerum Novarum in 1891 to our own Pope Francis’ repeated calls to embrace our duties to the poor.

Translating these writings into a workable guide for action is not an easy thing to do and many theologians and Catholic writers have grappled with this over the years.

However, regardless of how many ‘principles’ you believe Catholic Social Teaching to have, there are several key themes which emerge as particularly important at election time.

The first of these, and a phrase familiar from pastoral letters, is the ‘Common Good.’ Quite distinct from the idea of the ‘greatest good for the greatest number’ the common good places a strong focus on the individual as a member of society. Pope John XXIII describes it in the following terms: “The sum total of conditions of social living, whereby persons are enabled more fully and readily to JUSTICE MAGAZINE 31

Feature Active citizenship

achieve their own perfection.”

In other words, social action is both necessary and good for our own personal development. With regards to political action this relates to the notion that elections should not be focused on single issues. The challenge for us as voters is to struggle through the media polarisation of the debate and hold multiple issues and ideas in our head at one time which is no mean feat. The question is not ‘is immigration good or bad?’ or ‘is reducing the deficit more important than increasing NHS provision?’ but rather which policies come together to create the best possible outlook for our society, and indeed each individual within that society.

From bankers to those on benefits, each individual has a stake in the Common Good and it is important to work together to form a society which is fairer for everyone. At election time a theory of the Common Good calls upon us to resist divisive politics and reductive media spin to view the events of the next few months as a means to long term change and social improvement.

The second theme is participation, Catholic Social Teaching calls upon us not only to participate actively in our societies but moreover to encourage and facilitate the participation of others as well. As Pope Paul reminds us “all of us, in union with Christ, form one body, and as parts of it we belong to each other.” As such, it is important that I take action, and it is of value to me when others do the same. Participation is something which sounds great, and unlike some of the other themes, is a word which we come across and use in everyday life and yet it is not always easy to be an active participant in our societies, nor is it even clear what to ‘actively participate’ would mean.

In terms of the elections one clear sign that we find participation hard is the rates of voter turnout and registration. The most recent research by the electoral commission revealed that 15 per cent of people who are eligible to vote in Great Britain are not correctly registered. Add to this the fact that only 65.1 per cent of those registered voted in the last general 32 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

‘‘

The challenge for us as voters is to struggle through the media polarisation of the debate and hold multiple issues and ideas in our head at one time which is no mean feat

election and it becomes clear that non-participation is staggeringly high.

In fact, the percentage of non-voters in the 2010 general election was higher than the percentage share of votes received by any one political party. Participation is a real challenge and one that seems particularly acute when it comes to the political system.

The third and final theme which I would highlight is in many ways simpler: Human dignity. As Catholics, we believe that every individual is made in the image and the likeness of God, with inherent dignity and worth; with fractious debate raging it is very easy to forget this simple truth.

Whether we agree or not with the particular position of a party or candidate, it is vital (challenging as it may be) to remember that each of us has something of importance to bring to the conversation and it is part of our Christian duty to transform resentment and disquiet into the seeds of hope.

Moving from the theoretical into the practical it is important to remember that our Catholic heritage not only gives us reasons to act but provides us with examples of positive action drawn from a long history of social engagement.

Recent research conducted by CSAN (Caritas Social Action Network), showed that Catholic charities in England and Wales provided serv-

ices to almost half a million people in 2013 alone; everything from emergency food aid to training programmes and support into work.

Moreover, Catholic charities have a record of achieving above average results in helping people to overcome the problems or challenges that they face. To take the example of CSAN members, Caritas Anchor House has a 37 per cent success rate in helping homeless people into sustained employment compared to the industry average of 10 per cent, while the Cardinal Hume Centre has a 78 per cent success rate of helping the most hard to reach jobseekers into sustained employment for three months or more.

Catholics are also at the forefront of driving social change as seen by the Church’s involvement in tackling the scourge of modern day slavery, from Pope Francis’ summits on human trafficking to the joint submission from CSAN and the Catholic Bishop’s conference on the draft Modern Slavery Bill. Not only then do we have a voice but we must use it and indeed, as Catholics, we have something particular and valuable to say.

So what can we do? While keeping our themes in mind there are several concrete actions which we can take at election time to do our part to ensure the best outcome for our country.

The first thing, unsurprisingly, is to get educated by reading up on your local candidates, their political parties and the issues which are important both to politicians and to you.

All the major news sites will have resources to help you do this as May 7 draws nearer. Charities and campaigning groups will also have materials to help you get to grips with their particular issues. CSAN, in partnership with CAFOD, has created an election leaflet for our supporters with suggested questions for candidates.

The second thing is to get in touch with your candidates, whether that be on your own doorstep as they canvass, by writing to them or by attending a local hustings event.

While, as I mentioned above, the elections should not be fought or won on

PHOTO: David Bowler

single issues, it’s all right to concentrate your efforts on a narrower range of topics when questioning potential MPs. Picking a couple of issues which are important to you will set you on a more even footing with your candidates and allow you to assess their answers more effectively.

CSAN’s chosen issues for the general election are in-work poverty and housing. With half of families living in poverty having at least one adult in work and over a third of working parents having to cut back on food in order to be able to pay for their home, we feel that these are pressing challenges which the next government must tackle. Such issues are not easily dealt with, but it is important to raise them with candidates, asking them

‘‘

it is important to vote and Unfortunately, when toFinally, encourage others to do so, by talkit comes to choosing ing about it with friends and relatives how to vote, there is or even participating in a voter regdrive. Unfortunately, when no straight answer to itistration comes to choosing how to vote, that popular there is no straight answer to that popular question, ‘what would Jesus question, ‘what do?’ would Jesus do?’

Rather, we must approach this

to confront the problem and highlighting that they will need to work hard to gain your support.

You can follow up any contact with an email re-emphasising your points or even share your conversation on social media thus helping other constituents to get to know their candidates better.

decision thoughtfully and prayerfully, using some of the actions outlined above to guide us, trusting that with God’s help and our sustained commitment we can use the opportunities offered by an election to work towards the Common Good.

Tanya Murray is a policy and communications assistant at CSAN JUSTICE MAGAZINE 33

Feature Ebola

Laura Purves and Poppy Hardee on the workers carrying out a nightmarish task for the good of others

Alex Musa Koroma, 45, is a science teacher of 29 years.

His smiling eyes and thoughtful replies to questions let you know that he is an accomplished teacher.

When asked about the effect Ebola has had on his community in Kambia, Sierra Leone, he talks about how his children have been unable to go to school since May 2014, how the school where he has taught for the last seven years has been closed, and about his commitment to teaching every evening after he’s finished his new job.

We are sitting in the middle of a car-park full of ambulances, hearses and burial supplies. Alex’s work today is far removed from the classroom: He leads a safe burial team, supported by CAFOD’s partner Caritas Makeni. He is wearing his dusty pink scrubs that go under his space-suitlike protection outfit. His phone is placed next to him, and as soon as an alert comes in, Alex and his team will travel across the district – which is the size of Derbyshire – to collect the deceased.

On average the burial teams will respond to seven or eight alerts in a day, the highest being seventeen in one day. Teams like Alex’s provide the deceased and their families with a safe and dignified burial. “I volunteered because Ebola is not just for medical staff. As a teacher I have to play my part,” says Alex.

Kambia, in the north of the country has been a particularly difficult area to support, on the country’s border with Guinea, with remote and hard to reach villages. CAFOD has set up six burial teams to ensure that people who have died from the disease can be laid to rest safely and with dignity.

This means that individuals are buried in a way that is both as safe 34 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

The hero people: Burying Ebola’s victims

Alex Musa Koroma and daughter Rachel

PHOTO: CAFOD/Laura Purves

JUSTICE MAGAZINE 35

Feature Ebola

Alex and Kadiatum smiling together

PHOTO: CAFOD/Laura Purves

and as close to observing family and community customs as possible.

As the Ebola crisis gripped the country last year, and trained burial teams started entering communities, many Sierra Leoneans were sceptical of the new approach. They could not reconcile the practise of a safe medical burial with their traditions and customs surrounding how they sent off their loved ones.

In some areas, unsafe burials continue, exposing families who wash bodies and have other direct contact with them to the virus when at its most contagious. Where fear and uncertainty remains there are protests against burial teams and a number of teams were attacked or barred from collecting bodies.

To reduce this fear and opposition CAFOD and our partners have taken great steps to educate communities about the ways Ebola spreads, and have worked with faith and tradition36 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

al leaders to educate their communities on the risks of the virus and how to prevent it.

CAFOD’s burial teams have made sure that a religious leader can attend the graveside, to offer prayers or conduct burials that don’t involve body contact.

“I imagine that it is me lying there,” says Alex. “Would I want the burial team to delay or treat me bad? No! Today it is the person lying in front of me. Tomorrow it could be me. Being respectful and dignified means everything to the family and the community we are in.”

CAFOD has worked hard to include and promote female members on burial teams, giving women an opportunity to earn a living. Kadiatum, 55, says: “I was working in the local market making a poor living from trading, because Ebola has driven people away from the marketplace.”

Most importantly, the women on the burial teams are able to decontaminate female corpses and ensure their modesty before the bodies are taken to the graveside by teams of both men and women.

Kadiatum’s slight frame belies her physical strength, but it hasn’t be easy for women to be accepted onto the burial teams; this kind of work isn’t considered suitable for women in Sierra Leonean culture. But Kadiatum says that she and the other women have overcome this: “Some people accept us, some don’t.

But overall we are generally treated well and people appreciate women being on the teams. Some doubted we would be strong enough to pick up and carry the bodies, but we have proved we can do it. They prefer older mature women on the teams. They listen to us and we also show respect to families who are grieving.”

As of January 21, the Kambia burial

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Feature Ebola

Alex, centre, with his burial team

PHOTO: CAFOD/Laura Purves

team have safely buried 402 people.

Being on a safe burial team is not easy for Alex or Kadiatum and their families. Before the virus hit, Alex’s 14-year-old daughter Rachel would ask him: “Daddy how was your day?”

Now she asks: “Are you being careful?”

Alex’s landlord initially requested that he and his family isolate themselves from the local community, while Kadiatum was initially rejected by her family.

“They were very scared and some refused to talk to me,” she says, “but they learnt more about Ebola and they see I’m not sick so they now accept me and my work.”

There is much we can learn from the resilience and strength of the Sierra Leonean people.

When Sierra Leone finally reaches zero new cases, we must not forget about its people who have been affected by this appalling disease. There is still a lot of work to do to rebuild lives, 38 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

‘‘

Thanks to the work of people like Alex and Kadiatum the number of Ebola cases in Sierra Leone is starting to fall.

jobs and trust in communities. But until then burial teams will continue to work flat out to bring an end to Ebola, supported and encouraged by the ongoing international effort, and by the words of comfort, prayer and solidarity from CAFOD and its supporters.

Alex says: “It reminds me how close God is to us when we hear about the prayers and solidarity of people so far away. It is also a reminder that we should all do whatever we can, no

matter how small, in the service of others in great need.”

Kadiatum also feels encouraged by the solidarity of others: “We all appreciate the support we receive from so far away, but also here in Kambia. We hope that Ebola will finally leave our country very soon.”

Thanks to the work of people like Alex and Kadiatum the number of Ebola cases in Sierra Leone is starting to fall. Alex is rightly proud of his role and hopeful for the future.

“We are part of the hero group,” he says.

“We are fighting the battle. I hope that after the final eradication of Ebola, Sierra Leone and its future generations will prosper.”

To find out more about CAFOD’s Ebola response work in Sierra Leone visit www.cafod.org.uk Laura Purves and Poppy Hardee are CAFOD humanitarian aid workers

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Feature Syria

Catholic Relief Services has been helping Syrian refugees cope with the harshest of winters, writes Kim Pozniak

Battling through the winter

A powerful winter storm swept through the Middle East in January 2015, killing Syrian refugees in Lebanon and forcing thousands more to huddle for warmth in makeshift refugee camps.

Syrian refugees in Lebanon are facing harsh conditions after storms dropped several inches of snow on tent camps in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.

Catholic Relief Services and our partner the Good Shepherd Sisters are distributing critical shelter materials, food, blankets and heaters.

“There is snow everywhere and it’s very cold,” says Sister Micheline Lat40 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

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In the camps, latrines are outside the tents and since it’s so cold, people can’t use them anymore and this - in the long run - might lead to hygiene and sanitation problems

touf of the Good Shepherd Sisters, which has supported Syrians crossing the border into the Bekaa Valley since the onset of Syria’s civil war.

“Some roads are blocked and the camps are full of snow. Families gather all in one room - where there is a heater - sometimes 10 people in a small room.”

“Refugees are locked inside their tents—they can’t leave them,” Sister Lattouf continues. “In the camps, latrines are outside the tents and since it’s so cold, people can’t use them anymore and this—in the long run—might lead to hygiene and san-

itation problems.”

In the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, thousands of people who fled the violence and threats by ISIS are also facing harsh conditions without adequate shelter, supplies or even clothes. CRS and Caritas Iraq have worked in Erbil and Dohuk to provide safe shelter and other critical supplies and services.

Many of the displaced Iraqis who came to Dohuk are Yazidis and Christian minorities. They have been persecuted by ISIS and forced from their homes. In many cases, ISIS has killed and abducted their family members.

“They’re living in abhorrent conditions,” says Erin Atwell, a CRS programme manager working in Dohuk. “I recently met a young Yazidi girl and her even younger brother, living in an unfinished school, both parents killed by ISIS.” The children are among thousands of people currently living in abandoned and unfinished buildings without walls, doors or windows.

These buildings were part of a construction boom that came to a halt about five years ago during the global economic downturn.

CRS and Caritas Iraq are weatherproofing many of the unfinished buildings with PVC windows and doors, covering holes and stairwells with plastic sheeting. We’re also providing blankets, heaters and cooking supplies, and have entered into agreements with municipalities, homeowners and local contractors to make hundreds of houses habitable. In all, we hope to help 33,500 people through the winter with safe housing.

“It is important that people understand the complexity of the situation here.

“It can be easy to write it off as just another war in the Middle East,” Atwell says.

“It can seem overwhelming and a bit daunting to think we can have an impact on this situation.

“But we can.”

Kim Pozniak is a CRS communications officer covering global emergencies and sub-Saharan Africa.

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Feature Syria

Kim Pozniak on the work being done in education to help Syrian refugees

Rawan, five, playing with her baby brother, Ahmad, attends a CRS-supported pre-school for Syrian refugee children in Jordan. Her mother says the school has made her “stronger”. Photo by Kim Pozniak/CRS

Education: The refugees’ story CRS and our Caritas partners are providing critical services—including trauma counseling and education for children—in Syria and Lebanon, where millions of Syrians and Iraqis have fled their homes because of violence and civil war.

Many parents fear that their children may be part of a “lost generation” because their education has been disrupted.

We’re restoring hope by assisting more than 350,000 refugees and displaced people across the Middle East who have lost everything in the con42 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

flicts. CRS and our partner Caritas Jordan support a local charity on the outskirts of Ramtha, Jordan, which runs a pre-school for Syrian refugee children.

The school recruits teachers and experienced volunteers from the community to provide counseling and education to 80 children.

At a refugee centre in Amman, Jordan, the Caritas staff provides hundreds of Syrian and Iraqi refugees, migrant workers and Jordanians who need help with food and rent assistance, counseling, house-

hold items and medical and other critical services.

Many of the refugee children who come with their parents to the Caritas centre in Amman, Jordan, are severely traumatised and don’t attend school. CRS supports Caritas Jordan in providing educational activities and counseling for them.

RS works with No Strings International and the co-creators of The Muppets to help traumatised refugee children express their feelings about what they’ve witnessed so they can heal.

The Raeed family of five shares three mattresses in a tiny space at Our Lady of the Assumption Armenian Catholic Church in Amman, Jordan, after fleeing their home in Mosul, Iraq. Photo by Kim Pozniak/CRS

Iraqi refugee children in Jordan suffer enormously from the crisis in their country.

Ripped from their homes, friends and school, they spend day after day with nothing to do.

Photo by Kim Pozniak/CRS Iraqi men and a Caritas worker play backgammon in Amman, Jordan. One of the hardest things for Iraqi refugees living in Jordan - many of whom are teachers, doctors or engineers - is feeling a lack of purpose without work. Photo by Kim Pozniak/CRS JUSTICE MAGAZINE 43

Feature Homelessness

Keith Fernett, director of Caritas Anchor House, on the year ahead

PHOTO: Garry Knight

Homelessness on the rise At this time of year, it seems a good time to think about those less fortunate than ourselves.

This year, almost 500,000 people will face homelessness, with recent statistics showing that more than 100,000 people approached their council as homeless in 2013 - a 26 per cent rise over four years.

In reality, the actual figure is much higher as an estimated 380,000 people are part of the ‘hidden homeless’ – those staying in temporary accommodation such as hostels, bed and breakfasts, or on the sofas of friends or family.

However, in the face of this wide44 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

spread and growing problem, things are becoming increasingly difficult for the homeless charities who can help. Our Government funding is being cut, we have to overcome a number of hurdles to performance put in our way by the statutory sector and in the current climate of low wages, zero-hours contracts, pay day loans, benefits cuts and sanctions, things are set to get worse. The poorest in society are being increasingly excluded and more people than ever are just a few pay packets away from homelessness.

Caritas Anchor House, where I am director, is one of the main providers

of services to disadvantaged adults in Newham, east London.

We offer practical support, education and accommodation to hundreds of people affected by homelessness, substance misuse, mental health, domestic violence and crime each year.

Our aim is to provide more than just a warm place to sleep – we want to help people improve their skills and address their underlying needs.

Our approach is highly effective and our record for getting our residents into work is four times the average for homeless organisations in the UK. We have also been shortlisted for

multiple national awards and were praised by Lord Touhig in the House of Lords last year as a charity that has “diversified and begun operating in new and creative ways”.

One of those that has benefited from our holistic approach is Tony.

After splitting from his partner, Tony was unable to pay his rent single handed and he and his teenage son found themselves homeless and on the streets. They spent the next three months sleeping rough, with only old curtains and hats to keep them warm during the day and cardboard boxes to sleep on at night.

On a particularly rainy evening, Tony approached Caritas Anchor House, not knowing it was a service for homeless people, and was invited in for some shelter, warmth and a cup of tea. Shortly afterwards, he and his son were referred to us and moved in, and Tony took up as many courses and volunteering opportunities as he could.

Certificates now cover his bedroom wall and, following a volunteering assignment, he secured a job as a delivery van driver. He is currently saving hard and his next goals are to find his own home and get back into a settled life.

Looking back, Tony says: “I lacked motivation. If it wasn’t for Caritas Anchor House, I’d be back on the streets, sleeping on an old curtain.

Now I’m on a good road and finally know it will only get better.”

This is just one story of many, and we want to do our best to help as many people like Tony as possible.

For this reason, we are currently in the middle of our Home and Hope Appeal aimed at refurbishing Caritas Anchor House to transform our

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The first stage of this was focused on refurbishing all residential rooms and providing our residents with access to individual learning facilities

Keith Fernett, right, of Anchor House

building into a fit-for-purpose complex to meet the increasing demand on our services.

The first stage of this was focused on refurbishing all residential rooms and providing our residents with access to individual learning facilities, so that they have the best chance to improve their employability.

We now have builders on site again for the next phase of the appeal, which involves building 25 studio flats and first class training facilities.

Leaving the supportive environment here can be difficult for some residents, so the flats will act as transitional accommodation for those who need further support when making the move into independent living.

They’ll be self-sufficient but our staff will be here for them if they need us and will still be able to access our services.

The training facilities are also a vital part of our plan to help our

homeless residents and community members back into work. Included in the plans are spaces for workshops, e-learning facilities, a kitchen for catering courses and a Community Resilience Centre to improve the health and wellbeing of our local community.

We put our residents and service users at the heart of everything we do, and this development is a huge milestone for us all.

The new facility will both extend our ability to offer services to meet the growing demand, and improve the quality of our education and training - key factors in enabling our three aims: For residents to gain employment, live independently and become an active citizen.

To find out more, visit www.caritasanchorhouse.org.uk or to donate, please send a cheque made out to Caritas Anchor House, to 81 Barking Road, London E16 4HB. JUSTICE MAGAZINE 45

Final thought

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PHOTO: Jeannie O'Brien

Mahlet Ali (13) from Sebeya, Tigray, north Ethiopia who features on the 2015 Trocaire box. Her family will beneďŹ t from a new irrigation system being built by Trocaire and its local partner, ADCS.

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