Justice Magazine: The Catholic Social Justice Quarterly - Spring 2014

THE CATHOLIC SOCIAL JUSTICE QUARTERLY March 2014-May 2014 www.justicemagazine.org @justicemagazine

JUSTICE magazine

Clean water South Sudan BeneďŹ ts Street Women in Yemen Non-violence

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THE CATHOLIC SOCIAL JUSTICE QUARTERLY

JUSTICE magazine

Contents Spring 2014

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

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 by sending an email to editor@justicemagazine.org.

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If you like what you read in Justice Magazine, let your friends and family know so they can download their own free copy.

Individual printed copies of the magazine are also available from www.magcloud.com. We believe this is a sustainable, environmentally-friendly way for people to access print.

Justice Magazine does not charge for the magazine in print, the amount payable goes directly to the printers for production and postage.

Free advertising space has been given to Catholic charities and agencies. If you can, please make a donation to help them continue their excellent work in the UK and overseas.

Editor Lee Siggs

18 Water: A matter of life and death 4 8 11 16 22 26 30 34 38 42

NEWS: Round up of March’s news SOUTH SUDAN: Dreams of a new nation fall apart ENVIRONMENT: Clean water for all LENT: A fitting time for self-denial LEGAL AID: A threat to basic human rights WELFARE: Benefits Street - a dangerous road to go down DALITS: Suffering on a huge scale YEMEN: Giving a voice to women NON-VIOLENCE: The key to understanding what Jesus taught is FINAL THOUGHT

Cover photo by Chris John Beckett of Paddy Hill, one of the Birmingham Six, campaigning against changes to Legal Aid

Editorial advisers Jonathan Houdmont Nana Anto-Awuakye For regular news updates from Justice Magazine, remember to visit www.justicemagazine.org

Help spread the word by retweeting @justicemagazine

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 June. Please write to editor@justicemagazine.org with ideas for future articles or to suggest improvements.

JUSTICE MAGAZINE 3

News MARCH 2014

Archbishop ‘tired of theories’ A Nigerian archbishop has said the country is “tired of theories” and wants “concrete results” in the continuing threat by the Islamist Boko Haram group.

Archbishop of Jos Ignatius Ayau Kaigama made his comments after the announcement of the National Security Adviser of the federal government in Abuja, regarding the adoption of a “new approach” to defeat Boko Haram that has terrorised the north of the country.

The new approach provides not only a military response but also a series of economic and social measures, meeting the demands of the people of the area.

According to the government, the new national strategy against terrorism was prepared by a special commission with the advice of experts from other countries.

Archbishop Kaigama said however that “this approach should have been adopted a long time ago, when it was easier to find the path of dialogue”.

“The security problem is represented by the attacks on villages by gangs of pastors equipped with increasingly sophisticated and powerful weapons,” he added.

“I am not a military expert but as a common citizen I think I understand the desire of every Nigerian who wants to be able to live a normal life, to walk safely 4 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

without the fear of being killed.

“The government now says it wants to adopt a multidimensional approach to solve the problem of Boko Haram. What we desire is for peace to be restored. We will continue to pray for this to happen.”

Emergency in Ethiopia for South Sudanese refugees Between 72,000 and 100,000 South Sudanese refugees are at risk after fleeing to the western Ethiopian region of Gambella, according to estimates by humanitarian organisations.

Clashes between government soldiers and rebels loyal to former South Sudanese Vice President Riek Machar have forced several hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people and refugees in neighboring countries, primarily Ethiopia, to flee.

The humanitarian situation of refugees in the Gambella region is precarious and is getting worse daily because of the continuous arrival of new refugees.

Fears have been expressed over sanitary conditions of the two camps where refugees are welcomed , one in Kule and the other in Pagak, 80 km west from Kule.

Do justice for the weakest The Archbishop of Patna in India has said the Church must do justice to the defence of the rights of the

most vulnerable people in society.

Archbishop William D’Souza was speaking during a workshop on the Social Doctrine of the Church organized by the Justice, Peace and Development Commission of the Bishops’ Conference of India.

He urged the faithful to have “an active commitment to justice”. Quoting the prophet Micah, he recalled the phrase “do justice, love mercy”, saying that this enlightens Christians on how to respond to the “signs of the times”.

Fr Charles Irudayam, secretary of the Bishops’ Commission, said the

Social Doctrine of the Church was not just pure theory but a call to social commitment.

The participants said that according to Pope Francis’ style and recommendations, the Church in India was rediscovering the importance of making serious discernment and effective social action in order to actualize and embody the fundamental principles of the social doctrine.

Bishop given special security measures A bishop in Peru has been afforded special security measures after speaking out against corruption and

PHOTO: EU Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection

Refugees from South Sudan

violence. The Bishop of Chimbote Angel Francisco Simon Piorno has been given the help because of the insecurity in the region of Ancash, 500 km north of Lima. Bishop Piorno said that "the new police chief of the division of Chimbote has forced me to special security measures. I did not ask for such measures, because I feel safe and I have not had any problems with anyone. I do not believe anyone would want to hurt me, despite the crime wave that has reached its highest level in our city. I feel I am protected by God".

The bishop, however, reiterate his condemnation of the assassination of Eze-

quiel Nolasco Campos, whom he knew personally, who had expressed a desire to discover who had killed his son, Roberto Torres Blas. Mr Nolasco Campos was a councillor and president of a union that often denounced corrupt authorities. He was killed on March 14.

Bishops says Venezuelans want peace The Catholic Church will always be ready to act as a mediator, to work and above all to continue to contribute to peace, a bishop in Venezuela has said.

The Bishop of Margarita Jorge Anibal Quintero Chacónwas speaking

during the celebration of the Solemnity of St Joseph of Paraguachi after violence which have followed protests by students against the government.

The bishop said “the Catholic Church is one of the institutions that has always worked for peace and now is willing to act as a mediator between the parties”.

Fellow Venezuelan bishop Mario Moronta of the diocese of San Cristóbal urged the world’s media to pay more more attention to Venezuela as “it is important to inform with truth”.

“Violence must end, the authorities must respect the laws and human rights, and if people want to protest, it must be done peacefully,” the bishop said.

A total of 29 people have been killed in the antigovernment protests which started in the state of Tachir.

Cardinal visits pastoral centre Cardinal-Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols has visited the St Joseph’s Pastoral Centre in Hendon which enables 200 people with intellectual disabilities, from all faiths or none, to participate in programmes of creative and life skills courses.

The cardinal spoke with enthusiastic students and tutors as he was shown around the centre. The students enjoyed showing the cardinal their pottery project and how they were learning to use their newly-acquired IT skills.

The visit concluded with a reception hosted and prepared by students and staff where he was pre-

sented with art and craft gifts made by the students.

Cardinal Nichols said: “I was deeply moved by the opening part of the music and movement performance where Carol, one of the students, simply stated “I am” – reminding us forcibly, that each of us is unique and uniquely loved by God.” Director of Caritas Westminster, John Coleby, said: “Cardinal Vincent’s visit to see the work of the centre celebrates and affirms the place and value of disabled people in the life of the Church and in our communities. So often the focus is on what people cannot do.

The work of St Joseph’s highlights the gifts of all people and their contribution to the world around them.”

Pope: Without work, human dignity is wounded Pope Francis has again emphasised the primary importance of work and the need for creativity and solidarity to face the economic crisis.

He made his remarks when receiving in audience the employees and managers of the Italian Acciaierie di Terni steelworks, accompanied by the bishop of the diocese and a group of faithful, to commemorate the 130th anniversary of the company’s foundation.

“It is necessary to reaffirm that employment is necessary for society, for families and for individuals,” the Pope said. “Its primary value is the good of the human person, as it allows the individual to be fully realised as such, with his or her attitudes and intellectual, creative and manual capacities. Therefore, it JUSTICE MAGAZINE 5

News MARCH 2014

Displaced at risk in CAR Aid is urgently needed for displaced people in the Central African Republic because of the forthcoming rainy season, religious 6 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

PHOTO: hdptcar

follows that work has not only the economic objective of profit, but above all a purpose that regards man and his dignity. And if there is no work, this dignity is wounded.

Indeed, the unemployed and underemployed risk being relegated to the margins of society, becoming victims of social exclusion.”

The Pope added: “What can we say, when faced with the very serious problem of unemployment that affects various European countries? It is the consequence of an economic system that is no longer able to create work, because it has placed at its centre the idol of money.

Therefore, the various political, social and economic actors are called upon to promote a different approach, based on justice and solidarity, to ensure the possibility of dignified work for all.

“Work is an asset for all, and must be available to all.

Phases of serious difficulties and unemployment must be faced with the tools of creativity and solidarity. The creativity of courageous businesspeople and craftspeople, who look to the future with trust and hope. And solidarity between all the elements of society, who all give something up, adopting a more sober lifestyle, to help those in need.”.

Rebel troops in the Central African Republic

leaders have warned.

“We are here to get everybody to hear the cry that comes from deep in the heart of the Central African people, who are experiencing the most tragic moments of their history,” the Archbishop of Bangui Dieudonné Nzapalainga said during an address at the Brookings Institution, a leading US think-tank. Archbishop Nzapalainga was in Washington as part of a visit Central African members of the Religious

Platform for Peace are carrying out to ask for an increase in international aid.

He said it was now necessary to go beyond what the African and French missions in the Central African Republic (MISCA and Sangaris) were doing and said it was “time to organise the UN peacekeeping operation”.

been ongoing for three months now in the M’Zab Valley in southern Algeria.

Clashes between the Ibadi Berber population and groups of Sunni Islamists have not been dealth with by security forces and gangs are also taking advantage of the chaos and looting.

The small local Christian community has offered its prayers and its effective Christians pray for peace in contribution to help Algeria overcome the wounds destroying centuries-old Sectarian violence has coexistence among differ-

Bishops condemn attack on Hindus Strong condemnation for

ues.

“For another year the value of Working Tax Credits, Child Benefit and many disability allowances will decline in real terms.

“People are already experiencing hardship as a result of this policy and there is a very real danger that it will be compounded by the planned cap on welfare spending.”

“Recent proposals to slash a further £12 billion from the welfare budget, lower the household benefit cap and remove support from young adults are also likely to undermine any positive steps to help people in difficulty.

“The only consistency we’re seeing is a worryingly inconsistent approach to tackling poverty.”

Last month CSAN’s patron, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, expressed his The Church has attacked George Osborne’s budget anxiety about the extent of benefit cuts, derailed peace in Pakistan. warning that “the basic an act of intolerance and a request to the government safety net that was Budget once again fails the there to guarantee that places of worship of any poorest religion has been made by people would not be left bishops in Pakistan after in hunger or in The social action arm of the destitution has actually attacks on a temple and Catholic Church in England been torn apart”. the Hindu religious shrine and Wales has said that Dharam Shala.

CSAN member charities Chancellor George Islamic extremists working to support peoOsborne’s Budget attacked the shrine and ple in poverty have Statement failed to get to temple while Hindus celeexperienced a grips with poverty in the brated the feast of Holi. significant increase in UK. Islamists accused the demand for their Helen O’Brien, chief Hindu community of services since changes executive of CSAN (Caritas to the benefits system blasphemy.

Social Action Network), A recent conference hear began. said: “Once again we’ve that distorted education, heard promises to help prejudice against religious struggling families through minorities and hatred tax and childcare towards Christians and Hindus in school textbooks measures, whilst at the same time the significant were the main elements that created disharmony reduction in support for and conflict in society and the poorest people contin- Sources: VIS, Fides, CSAN PHOTO: altogetherfool

ent groups rooted in the region. “We, the small Christian community of M’Zab, suffer with you all,” the Bishop of Laghouat Claude Rault said in a statement.

The titular bishop of one of the largest geographical dioceses the world added: “For centuries you have been living in peace despite temporary conflicts that have touched your communities and your families.

Wisdom has always prevailed, with the help of God.”. But today, he added, hostility and clashes “are fuelled by false rumors that increase violence”.

“Our friendship,” Bishop Rault added, “goes beyond the differences that may separate us. We ourselves are very touched by the hospitality you have always shown. We are here as artisans of peace and reconciliation. With all our hearts we pray our merciful God every day, so that he may sow peace in the hearts and in the communities”.

In recent days, the violence which broke out in the district of Sidi Bou Noura Abbaz in the city, quickly spread to the town of Ghardaia. Recurrent waves of violence in recent months - with deaths, injuries, looting and dozens of homes and shops being set on fire - have often occurred at the end of the prayers in mosques.

Authorities in Algiers have sent units to the local security apparatus and young Berbers have organized armed squads to protect their homes

JUSTICE MAGAZINE 7

Feature South Sudan

8 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

Nana Anto-Awuakye on the continuing fighting in South Sudan which is plaguing the world’s newest nation

Dreams of a new nation fall apart

PHOTO: paulsimpson.org

There was not a dry eye in the house after a group of school children sang South Sudan’s new national anthem in full voice in the small garden of the Catholic radio station, Radio Bhakita.

With right hands placed over their hearts, eyes fixed in the distance, they bellowed out: “Oh God, we praise and glorify you, for your grace on South Sudan. Land of great abundance, uphold us united in peace and harmony.”

I met the singing school children in the compound of Radio Bakhita in the capital, Juba.

They were a symbol of a hope renewed now that the country could put war behind them and let independence usher in a true sense of togetherness.

I was in Juba on the eve of independence, July 8, 2011, and at the time there was much joy and anticipation amongst the South Sudanese for their new found peace andfreedom.

When I visited Juba’s only hospital, I met Susan Poni, who had safely given birth to her second child, a boy named Jonathan, weighing a healthy eight-and-a-half pounds.

She was excited that he had been born in time for independence. “My greatest hope,” she said, “is that with better schools, my son will have the chance to be a doctor or even the next President.”

CAFOD supporters across England

and Wales showed their solidarity with the people of South Sudan, by praying with them for the country’s long-term peace.

Little did we, or any others, know that the hope of so many would fall apart so quickly and so violently; the world’s newest country plunged once again into violence, triggering a humanitarian crisis as people flee to safety and find themselves in need of the basics of life - food, water and shelter.

The violence that erupted between rival army factions in South Sudan last year has forced more than 500,000 people from their homes.

Many are in urgent need of food, water, healthcare and safe places to stay. But despite a ceasefire agreement between the two warring parties, signed in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa fighting is continuing in some areas of the coun-

‘‘

Little did we, or any others, know that the hope of so many would fall apart so quickly and so violently

JUSTICE MAGAZINE 9

Feature South Sudan

try which is hampering humanitarian access to people who are in great need.

CAFOD’s local partners in the Diocese of Malakal describe some towns as a “humanitarian disaster area”.

Many buildings have been looted, food is scarce, and it is extremely difficult to deliver aid to those in need – particularly to those who have fled and are hiding in forests.

In Juba, South Sudan’s capital, CAFOD are working with the Sacred Heart Sisters Congregation to ensure that people still sheltering in St Theresa’s Cathedral compound have medicine, maize, flour, rice, sugar, milk and household items.

The Sisters have also helped to support mothers giving birth over the Christmas period.

Lungina Abawo, one of the women taking shelter with the Sisters, said: “I was already pregnant when I came to Juba.

“I settled near the barracks with other people from my community.

When shooting started, I ran to the church. I delivered at midnight with the help of the Sisters.

10 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

“I don’t know what would have happened if these Sisters were not here.

They are feeding me and my two other children.”

When a sudden outbreak of fighting like this happens, ordinary people are caught in the firing line.

Looking back at my visit to Juba in 2011, I remember meeting Morri Francis, a young student and radio presenter at Radio Bakhita.

As news came in of the violence spreading beyond Juba, I emailed him to find out if he and his family were safe.

When I saw his email a few days later, with news that he and his family were all fine, I was relieved.

In his message he wrote: “I still remember the sweet memories of the independence, of our party with my friends, these memories of happiness still linger in my mind, and I refuse to let them disappear into thin air.

“We don’t believe in war as a solution to any problem. The leaders must sort out their differences to avoid innocent civilians shedding more blood.”

Over the last two years there has

been relative progress in improving South Sudan’s crumbling infrastructure, with both its roads and telecommunications networks expanding.

The only road and bridge out of Juba were being rebuilt. There is so much to do in this beautiful, green, lush country; roads, hospitals, and schools need building, and the fertile terracotta soil, watered by the Nile, needs agricultural investment.

I know that CAFOD supporters will continue to pray for peace. We cannot afford to allow the hope and promise of this new country turn to the despair and ruin of the past.

Nana Anto-Awuakye is CAFOD’s Head of World News. Find out more about CAFOD’s humanitarian work at cafod.org.uk/emergencies

Comment Water

Tony Magliano reflects on World Water Day and urges people not to take such a vital natural resource for granted

Clean water for all We turn on our taps and out comes water – clean, refreshing, plentiful, life-sustaining water. But we rarely give it a thought. We just tend to take for granted that it will always be there. We even forget to thank God – the well-spring of life.

But for 768 million fellow human beings, clean plentiful water is a distant dream, cites the United Nations.

For them, the water they drink, cook with, and bath in, is polluted and often disease ridden, and must be carried long distances in many cases.

According to figures released by the United Nations Children’s Fund in 2013, lack of access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene is a leading cause of death from diarrhoea in children under five, amounting to approximately 1,400 children dying each day.

For those of us who have nice bathrooms, we simply flush the toilet, and that’s that. But according to the UN approximately 2.5 billion people do not have access to toilets or even latrines.

March 22 is World Water Day, a time dedicated by the United Nations to learn about the extreme importance of protecting this priceless gift from God and to motivate us to work for that day when every single person has access to adequate safe water and sanitation.

According to Catholic Relief Services (CRS), in the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo, communities often use rivers as a drinking fountain, swimming pool, laundry and public toilet. Yet, every day, women fill old petrol cans with the contaminated water and take it back to their families. But with the help of kind-hearted donors families in an eastern Congo village are healthier because they are now able to sanitise the water they collect.

In the US, legislation has been proposed to change things.

According to CRS, the Senator Paul Simon Water for the World Act 2013

A man drinks water from a public tap in Nepal

is designed to help ensure that many of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable human beings receive the clean water they need in a sustainable, equitable and conflict-free way.

While the US is by some standards the richest nation on earth, there are many of its residents who lack easily accessible clean water and sanitation.

I once worked at a parish in western Maryland – part of Appalachia – where I became familiar with people who lived in shacks with no indoor plumbing. They would have to haul water from mountain springs. And some people did not even have out-

houses. During Lent we are called to improve our prayer life, fasting and almsgiving.

If we pray, fast, give and work to ensure that everyone has access to adequate safe water and sanitation, when we stand before the Lord Jesus we will rejoice in hearing him say to us, “I was thirsty and you gave me drink. … Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.”

Tony Magliano is an internationally syndicated social justice and peace columnist

JUSTICE MAGAZINE 11

Feature Seafarers

The exploitation of the world’s fishing community is a growing problem, and one which the Apostleship of the Sea is attempting to combat, writes Greg Watts

A hard life, and it’s getting harder Unless you live in a port, you probably never think of the workers who go to sea to bring you the prawns or mackerel you cook in your kitchen.

The life of a fisherman has often been a hard one.

But now there are growing concerns that in some countries fishermen are being exploited or, in some cases, victims of human trafficking.

According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the UN, in 2011 50 per cent of the world’s fishing vessels came from Asia and the Middle East. Europe, in contrast, accounted for 16 per cent. There are nearly 6,500 fishing vessels based in the UK and 12,700 men working on them.

And of the 82 million tones of fish caught in 2011, 61 per cent come from the Pacific Ocean.

Last November, the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, which oversees the work of Apostleship of the Sea, renewed its appeal to governments to urgently ratify the Work in Fishing Convention 2007.

The convention would ensure fishing crew had ongoing medical care, sufficient hours of rest, the protection of

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‘‘

We are talking about the exploitation of migrant workers who, because of poverty and misery, easily fall prey to recruitment agencies that bind them to forms of forced labour

a contract of employment, and the same social benefits enjoyed by workers ashore.

“We are talking about the exploitation of migrant workers who, because of poverty and misery, easily fall prey to recruitment agencies that bind them to forms of forced labour, becoming at times victims of trafficking onboard fishing vessels,” it said.

Fishermen, it claimed, risked signing illegal or incomplete employment contracts, coupled with poor salaries and safety conditions onboard.

Coastal pollution and destruction along coasts were also forcing them to go further out to sea using substandard boats.

Apostleship of the Sea has first hand experience of the kinds of issues fishermen sometimes face. Last year in Newcastle-upon-Tyne two Filipino and two Indonesian fishermen were stranded when the fishing boat they were working on in the North Sea hit

PHOTO: AoS

Working nights in Auckland, New Zealand JUSTICE MAGAZINE 13

Feature Seafarers

‘‘

It is appalling that overseas fishing crews who are stranded in the UK through no fault of their own are treated like criminals and subjected to treatment that has demeaned and humiliated them

financial difficulties and was impounded. As the crew had not been paid for several weeks, they were not able to send money back home to their families.

Because they were only contracted to work on this particular vessel they weren’t able to transfer to another for alternative work. Also, as they were working on transit visas the UK Border Agency had them arrested in mid-June and taken to a detention centre. uring their ordeal, Apostleship of the Sea’s Tyne port chaplain, Paul Atkinson provided practical and emotional support to alleviate the men’s stress and ensure they were fairly treated.

Apostleship of the Sea national director Martin Foley said of the incident, “The application of immigration rules to these men has taken no consideration of their circumstances. It is appalling that overseas fishing crews who are stranded in the UK through no fault of their own are treated like criminals and subjected to treatment that has demeaned and humiliated them.”

While cases of human trafficking among fishermen in Britain are thankfully rare, the picture is different in other countries. Last year, a report by the Nexus Institute, an international human rights research and policy centre in Washington D.C. the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Geneva claimed seafarers and fishermen in Ukraine, seeking employment through legitimate recruitment organizations, risk ending up trafficked at sea.

The report was based on a study of 46 men trafficked to Russia, Turkey and South Korea on vessels under Panamanian and Russian flags 14 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

engaged in illegal crab fishing or cargo transportation. It detailed extremely harsh living conditions on board the vessels, regularly leading to serious injury, illness and even death. Crews were routinely denied medical care and traffickers often used violence to control the men and prevent rebellion over working conditions and non-payment.

Seafarers and fishermen interviewed for the study reported being

forced to work up to 22 hours a day, seven days a week, without pay and with little access to food and water.

“These men do not fit the stereotype of trafficked victims,” said Rebecca Surtees, senior researcher at Nexus Institute, and author of the report. “A common assumption is that poverty and lack of education are predominant risk factors for being trafficked. However, these men have received education and worked in dif-

PHOTO: AoS

Fishermen in Cuba

ferent posts, including as captain and navigator.”

She added that most men thought they were signing legally binding agreements with reliable crewing companies and employers. They all travelled with legal documents and crossed formal borders.” The seeming legitimacy of the recruitment process made it difficult for the victims to protect themselves from exploitation.”

A report last year into the Thailand

fishing industry, which employs over 142,000 people, by the International Labour Organisation and the Asian Research Centre on Migration at Chulalongkorn University revealed that approximately 17 per cent of the fishermen surveyed said they were working against their will and unable to leave because of the threat of penalties.

The fishermen fell into two groups: those who could not leave because of

a financial penalty and those who cited other reasons including the threat of violence or denunciation to the authorities. Conditions were found to be worse for those who had been at sea for more than one month.

Nearly 25 per cent were subjected to deceptive or coercive labour practices.

The fishermen interviewed were predominantly irregular migrants from Myanmar and Cambodia; eight per cent were from Thailand. Just over 80 per cent of those surveyed were working on short-haul voyages of less than a month.

The report concluded that many of the problems faced by fishermen are compounded by a lack of employment contracts. Nearly 94 per cent of those surveyed did not have a written contract. As such, working hours and the terms of payment, including the method for calculating pay, frequency of pay and deductions, are not clearly defined. Other contributing factors include the irregular status of migrant fishers, limited monitoring by the labour inspectorate or other bodies, and the lack of any representative workers’ group.

“This improved understanding of the situation will help to formulate evidence-based policy responses for regulating the recruitment and employment of fishers and preventing and eliminating all unacceptable forms of work,” said Professor Supang Chantavanich, director of the Asian Research Center on Migration.

“Improving working conditions is also vital to addressing the severe labour shortages in the fishing sector, and to ensure the sustainability of the industry”.

Martin Foley said that fishermen deserve justice. “Fishermen work in 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.

“The Church has always been an important advocate for fishermen.

“Now more than ever she must work with governments across the globe to eradicate abuse and ensure that fishermen are justly treated.”

Greg Watts is a freelance journalist

JUSTICE MAGAZINE 15

Comment Lent

Tony Magliano looks at the Pope’s message for Lent, and how he challenges our consciences to be converted to justice

A fitting time for self-denial

16 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

PHOTO: JeffyBruno

“As Lent draws near, I would like to offer some helpful thoughts on our path of conversion as individuals and as a community.”

In the first sentence of his Lenten message, Pope Francis gave us a needed reminder that we are called to walk on the “path of conversion.”

But conversion is not a once and for all done deal. It is a lifelong journey. We must remember that we are a work in progress. We need to keep in mind and heart the challenge put before us on Ash Wednesday: “Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.”

As individuals, church and nation, we are called by God to turn away from all evil. Sins like pride, greed, lust, indifference, nationalism, consumerism, secularism, anger, abortion, violence and war must give way to the central Gospel virtue of love – love for all, including our enemies. And our love must have a preferential concern for the vulnerable and poor.

“Charity, love” writes the Pope, “is sharing with the one we love in all things. Love makes us similar, it creates equality, it breaks down walls and eliminates distances. God did this with us.”

The Holy Father teaches that “The logic of the incarnation and the cross” is “God’s logic, the logic of love.”

The Pope writes: “It is striking that the Apostle [Paul] states that we were set free, not by Christ’s riches but by his poverty …

“What gives us true freedom, true salvation and true happiness is the compassion, tenderness and solidarity of his love. Christ’s poverty which enriches us is his taking flesh and bearing our weaknesses and sins as an expression of God’s infinite mercy

to us. In imitation of our Master, we Christians are called to confront the poverty of our brothers and sisters, to touch it, to make it our own and to take practical steps to alleviate it.

Destitution is not the same as poverty: destitution is poverty without faith, without support, without hope.”

The Pope teaches that there are three types of destitution. The first type is material destitution – normally called poverty – affects “those living in conditions opposed to human dignity.”

Pope Francis warns against making power, luxury and money our idols.

He urges us not to let these idols take priority over the need to have everyone benefit from a fair distribution of wealth.

But sadly, fair distribution of wealth is not the case throughout most of the world.

The Pope challenges our consciences to be converted to justice, equality, simplicity and sharing.

“No less a concern is moral desti-

tution, which consists in slavery to vice and sin,” adds the pope.

Finally, there is spiritual destitution which occurs when we turn away from God. The Holy Father writes: “If we think we don’t need God who reaches out to us through Christ, because we believe we can make do on our own, we are headed for a fall. God alone can truly save and free us.

“Lent is a fitting time for selfdenial; we would do well to ask ourselves what we can give up in order to help and enrich others by our own poverty,” writes Pope Francis.

“Let us not forget that real poverty hurts: no self-denial is real without this dimension of penance. I distrust a charity that costs nothing and does not hurt.”

Tony Magliano is an internationally syndicated social justice and peace columnist

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JUSTICE MAGAZINE 17

Feature Malawi

Water: A matter of life and death

PHOTO: Jeannie O’Brien

Enestina Muyeye in Malawi

Meabh Smith on the daily battle to secure a clean water supply Getting clean water should be the most natural thing in the world, but for people like the Muyeye family from Dedza, Malawi, it’s a daily and sometimes life-threatening struggle.

Trócaire’s 2014 Lenten campaign is highlighting the global water crisis – a worldwide water emergency that’s affecting over a billion people.

It’s 5am in a tiny rural village in Dedza, central Malawi. The one thing on everyone’s mind is water. Women and girls arrive at the Kamboni river to queue and wait. When their turn comes, they hunker barefoot on the muddy riverbed and scoop water into their buckets. The daily hustle for water has begun.

Eliyeta Muyeye, 32, and her daughter, Enestina, 9, make a one kilometer round trip every morning to fetch water for their family of six. When 18 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

they get to the river there is usually a long queue. As heat and dust sweeps over the landscape, Eliyeta and Enestina return to home two hours later, laden with their precious cargo on their heads, heavy buckets of dirty water.

Enestina frets when she talks about collecting water. “I don’t like carrying water. It’s very far and it’s heavy to carry. I have neck pains.” She started carrying water when she was six years old and knows that it’s one definite in a future of uncertainties. “It makes me late for school. The time I spend getting water would be better used to study.”

Her mother, Eliyeta, spends at least four hours a day fetching water, walking to the river four or five times a day. “We’ve no option, she says. “It’s the only source of water we have.”

Walking through bush at 4am or 5am can be dangerous. She recalls a chilling moment when she narrowly avoided walking on a cobra. Its venomous bite in this remote village would have undoubtedly been fatal.

As one local doctor said, “when this happens, we are meaningless”.

Amid the chaos, a system has naturally emerged in the village to share the trickling Kamboni river by using two different patches of water. But when the dry season begins, one of the areas dries up completely, leaving the entire village of 1,000 people reliant on one small patch of moisture.

During this time, queues are high, tensions simmer and people scramble. They spend the blistering summer morning digging the riverbed to find moisture. And hope

PHOTO: Jeannie O’Brien

for water. Eliyeta and her husband, Steven (38), ration water as if living in a desert. “We are thirsty a lot. It’s hot here,” says Steven. “But we don’t drink to quench thirst.”

The quality of the water makes matters worse. The Kamboni river is a warren of bacteria and disease. “The water we drink is contaminated,” says Steven. “It’s where animals drink and even pass waste; dogs, pigs, goats, they all drink from the water. Washing in the river gives us boils in our skin.”

It’s a revolving door of bilharzia, dysentery, and stomach pain. “The hospital gives us medication and it takes a week to work,” says Steven.

“But as we go back and drink the same water, we can never say that we are cured.”

Congolese medic, Dr Kileya Parfait, the only doctor in the local hospital, treats swells of people presenting with repeated water-borne disease.

“When the rainy season starts in November we have an increase in dysentery and malaria,” he says.”There are also high cases of scabies and bilharzia. People get boils on their skin caused by a parasite. One of these species can cause river blindness.”

This is a community that lives and breathes at the whim of a river. And it’s not just drinking water that’s affected. The water crisis has caused a perennial food crisis.

Steven and Eliyeta farm a ½ acre of land but without an irrigation system, they rely entirely on the rain and adjacent river to water their crops.

It’s hardscrabble work and yet again buckets are carried back and forth from the river and splashed on the crops until every leaf is watered.

Inevitably, their one annual harvest only feeds them for seven months, leaving a hungry period of five long months.

“Between November and March we have no food,” says Steven. “We work on other people’s land as labourers and get paid maize, sometimes a bag, sometimes a tin. The children get just one meal a day of maize and vegetables.”

The Muyeye family is living at the epicentre of the global water crisis brought upon them by climate change, poor natural resource management and exclusion from local

Enestina and Eliyeta at the river

and global governance. They are carrying the weight of a worldwide water emergency that has trapped a billion people in this daily grind.

“I know that this is something to do with climate change, says Steven. ”In ten years time I’m worried that there will be no rain here at all.”

Enoch Issa is the local agriculture specialist with CADECOM, The Catholic Development Commission in Malawi. He has seen how water scarcity is affecting all aspects of life in this forgotten area. “Instead of going to school, the children draw water, they bathe in dirty water, they get diarrhea and bilharzia,” he says.

“With erratic rains the crops don’t grow as expected, so farmers have less food. November to March is a critical

period when you will find malnourished children.”

Enoch spent a year in the United States studying and saw for himself the pollution being generated by rich industrialized nations, pollution that is now wreaking havoc with the weather system in Malawi.”This is contaminating the air and destroying the ozone. Africa, including this community, is suffering because of this.

And we aren’t sparing ourselves by cutting trees,” he says.

Poor households rely on trees for firewood to cook and need land to farm. Yet tree cutting has caused damage to groundwater reserves.

Many poor rural people now live and farm in degraded watersheds, where loss of soil and biodiversity has JUSTICE MAGAZINE 19

Feature Malawi

20 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

PHOTO: Jeannie O’Brien

reduced the ecosystem’s capacity to hold water, as well protection from floods and drought.

“We work with the government’s forestry department, plant tree seedlings in the community and raise awareness, says Enoch. “People in this community now know the importance of reforestation. The land was bare, but we have planted trees. The houses used to be built with sticks, but now they are built with clay bricks.” They control what they can.

In spite of its critical water scarcity, the village, with support from Trócaire and CADECOM, has set up a village committee that meets regularly. They have asked the local government for a water pump, but have been “overlooked”.

One of the reasons is because the village was cut off by narrow paths and bushes, making it difficult to reach with construction machinery, To overcome this, the people came together last year to build a clay road.

They also constructed a new school building. Yet obtaining a borehole and irrigation system has remained out of reach. Climate change and mismanagement of natural water reserves have undoubtedly contributed to Malawi’s water woes. But the predicament also testifies the government’s inability to deliver this basic service to its citizens.

“There is a needs paradox here.

And the most telling paradox is that this is a country with rich natural water reserves,” says Martin Mazinga, who oversees CADECOM’s national livelihoods programmes from the capital, Lilongwe.

Lake Malawi is a vast stamp on the country’s landscape, breeding the Shire River that snakes through Chikwawa in southern Malawi, which is ironically once of the most watersparse parts of the country.

“Malawi has water resources, yet we talk of water problems. There are issues of access, distances, water quality, capacity and infrastructure in the water sector,” he says. “There was a government water-drilling boom in 1994 ahead of elections. But communities were not taught about how to maintain them. Over 400 of these boreholes are no longer functioning.”

This means that even when there is a borehole nearby, it might not be usable. It might be polluted with

Enestina carrying a 15 litre bucket of water from the local river.

chemicals or too salty to drink because the water quality wasn’t tested. Other boreholes have simply dried up.

“People don’t realise that water is a human right,” says Martin. “The budget for the water sector is decreasing each year so we are lobbying for better budget allocation.”

Meanwhile, young girls like Enestina Muyeye continue to queue for water, oblivious to the complex international and local politics that surrounds what should be the most natural resource in the world.

Recently, Trócaire and CADECOM installed a drinking water pump in her village that is supplying half of the community’s water needs. It is hoped that the community will soon

have another water pump and in the future, an irrigation system.

Martin Mazinga has seen too many needless deaths caused water shortages in his country, from insidious water-borne parasites, to crocodile attacks in rivers. “People are putting their lives at risk,” he says. “If the slogan ‘water is life’ means anything, we need action now.” Until this happens, young girls and their mothers will continue to worry, contain to walk and continue to wait for water.

To find out more about Trócaire’s Lenten campaign visit trocaire .org/lent

Meabh Smith works for Trocaire

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JUSTICE MAGAZINE 21

Feature Legal Aid

Charlotte Image says Catholics should join the campaign for justice and legal aid

A threat to basic human rights The Legal Aid system was created in the UK in 1949 as the ‘fifth pillar of the welfare state’, alongside the NHS, free education, social security and public housing.

At the time of its inception, it was therefore recognised as being as fundamental to the existence of a just and good society as healthcare and housing. Unfortunately, that pillar has been crumbling for many years, and is now under threat of being destroyed completely.

Legal Aid used to be available for many types of legal problem, including in many family, housing and education cases. However, the ability to qualify for free assistance was steadily reduced until it became a service for only the poorest in society.

According to Government figures, 97 per cent of those who received civil Legal Aid in 2008-09 were in the poorest two-fifths of the population.

In 2010 the Government proposed dramatic cuts with a new statute that would take away Legal Aid from a number of areas of law, including social welfare, employment, education, and many family, housing and immigration cases. Unfortunately, 22 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

although some amendments were achieved as a result of objections and campaigning coming from a range of sources, from the House of Lords, to Caritas and our own Archbishop Peter Smith, the cuts came into effect from April 2013 under the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (LASPO).

According to the Government’s 2012 impact assessment, 590,000 people per year would lose Legal Aid as a result of LASPO, with £250m

cut from the annual budget.

As a Legal Aid solicitor working in family law, these cuts were disastrous in terms of the impact upon the vulnerable people who constitute my client base. My firm was one of the many who had to turn people away on a daily basis, on occasion reducing them to tears when informing them that not only could we not help them, but no other firm could either.

In April 2013 the Government proposed further cuts and these will take

PHOTO: chrisjohnbeckett

effect very soon. The plans include making Legal Aid subject to a “residence test”, so that most migrants who have not been here lawfully for 12 months could not get free help. It will also be harder to get Legal Aid to challenge wrongful acts by the state, as lawyers for individuals will have to take every case “at risk” of payment, even though the Government can spend what it wants on its representation from the start. This means that a child who was born in the UK and

lived here all their life, but has no legal status, will not get free help if the Home Office wrongfully refuse their application for permission to stay. A single mother who has had a condition wrongly put on her status, saying that she cannot access public funds so she and her baby can be properly clothed and fed, will have trouble finding a lawyer still able to take on a challenge to this decision.

The Government has also made cuts to Legal Aid for prisoners, for

example, to assist them in rehabilitating and reducing their risk of offending. The Government has admitted that these cuts are for ideological reasons, not costs saving.

They go against the recommendations of Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights, which urged that Legal Aid be made available for all parole hearings, categorization, mother and baby cases and cases affecting young people and prisoners with mental health problems.

However, the Government has not stopped there, with the Secretary of State for Justice, Chris Grayling, determined to make further cuts in relation to criminal Legal Aid. These may have already come to your attention through the recent media reports of barristers and solicitors refusing to attend court on March 7. For the first time, lawyers of every political allegiance are uniting to stand together against what is seen in the legal world as the biggest threat to British justice in hundreds of years.

Some concessions have been won, such as the removal of the proposal for Price-Competitive Tendering for contracts to do criminal work (in which contracts would be awarded to firms who would cost the least to finish cases for the highest number of clients – a principle that clearly should not apply when questions of justice and liberty are at stake). However, following a purported ‘consultation process’, on February 20, Mr Grayling announced that his proposals to make 17.5 per cent cuts

‘‘

For the first time, lawyers of every political allegiance are uniting to stand together against what is seen in the legal world as the biggest threat to British justice in hundreds of years

JUSTICE MAGAZINE 23

Feature Legal Aid

24 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

PHOTO: chrisjohnbeckett

to solicitors’ fees and 6 per cent to barristers’ fees would be implemented – with the first sweep coming into force just 3 weeks later, on March 20.

Even when putting to one side that the result of the consultation must have been predetermined for the cuts to be enacted so quickly, the Government’s figures do not add up. They have used national averages in their calculations, with the result that the cuts will be disproportionately felt in London and the South-East – with the cut to Police Station in fact constituting a cut of up to 30 per cent in these areas. When taking into account that Legal Aid lawyers had a pay freeze with no rise for inflation from 1995 to 2007, with reductions made from 2010 onwards, these cuts are simply unsustainable. Legal Aid firms operate within tiny margins – often only 5-10 per cent. Imagine then, what cuts of 17.5 per cent are going to do to these firms.

Not only that, but the Government has made the decision to reduce the number of contracts for duty solicitor work, which constitute the main source of income for many Criminal Law firms.

Firms will first be forced to bid for contracts to do ‘own client’ work (where firms are allowed to represent anyone who visits their offices) in April/May of this year, with a further bid then taking place for ‘duty’ contracts (where firms have rotas at the police station and magistrates’ court to assist clients there who do not already have their own solicitor). The new duty solicitor contracts will commence in Spring 2015. Currently 1,600 law firms form a part of the duty solicitor scheme nationwide.

The Government is reducing the number of available duty solicitor contracts to 525, which means less than one-third of existing firms will be able to perform this work on future (even ignoring that some firms may obtain more than one contract).

With these figures, one begins to realise quite how severely these cuts will bite. Either firms will merge, or they will die – at least 66 per cent of them, if these cuts are not stopped.

The effect of this is that quality solicitors who invest time in cases will not be able to afford to stay in business. It will therefore be more difficult for clients to access legal rep-

Lawyers protest in the Legal Aid rally in London

‘‘

Paddy Hill spent 16 years in prison before his sentence was quashed and said: “If I was in prison today, I wouldn’t get Legal Aid. I would still be rotting in prison.”

resentation, as well as there being huge pressure on the firms remaining in business to do their work as cheaply as possible – which in turn is likely to result a huge increase in the number of miscarriages of justice. We were reminded of the impact of good

representation on ordinary lives on Friday, March 14, which was the 23rd anniversary of the release of the Birmingham Six. They were wrongly convicted and sentenced to life for bombings they did not commit.

Paddy Hill spent 16 years in prison before his sentence was quashed and said: “If I was in prison today, I wouldn’t get Legal Aid. I would still be rotting in prison.”

Even more concerning is that despite this, the Government has traded in on the ‘fat-cat lawyer’ image, propagating the myth that we have one of the most expensive Legal Aid systems in the world (we don’t) and releasing figures of the earnings of top-end QCs. It is true that many QCs earn large sums, as in fact do very experienced consultants in the NHS. What the

of the “option for the poor”.’ It is difficult to think of a clearer example of a system which works in the interests of justice and in pursuit of the “option for the poor” than the Legal Aid system, and we cannot in good conscience allow it to be destroyed in this manner.

This was re-emphasised by Pope Francis in the Evangelii Gaudium 2013, where he urges care for the weakest members of society: “the homeless, the addicted, refugees, indigenous peoples, the elderly who are increasingly isolated and abandoned” and migrants, for whom the

access-to-justice-for-all. At the time of writing, this petition stands at around 18,000 signatories – this needs to reach 100,000 before there will be a debate in Parliament. Another important option is for you to contact your local MP to set out your concerns about these cuts and their impact.

More information on the cuts and their effect can be found on the websites of Young Legal Aid Lawyers (www.younglegalaidlawyers.org), and of the Justice Alliance, which is an alliance of legal organisations, charities, community groups, grass roots

PHOTO: Carl Gardner

Government has ignored is that the vast majority of Legal Aid lawyers do not even earn half that much, and many are struggling to survive. Some junior barristers earn as little as £10,000 a year once rent to chambers, travel expenses and the cost of their working clothes is taken into account.

Skilled, hardworking and intelligent lawyers do not pursue a career in Legal Aid for the money – why would we, when the alternative is a job in the corporate world with triple the pay, along with fringe benefits such as pensions and private health insurance?

We pursue a career in Legal Aid because we care. We pursue it because we have a vocation – because we strongly, passionately and wholeheartedly believe in the importance of justice, and the importance of that justice being available to all, regardless of income.

Although the arguments may at first glance seem to be based solely around finances, the point is this – if the cuts go through, the firms will either only be able to provide representation on a privately fee-paying basis, or will not survive.

And if only those who can afford private fees can obtain adequate representation, then access to justice – a right and principle in British Law dating back to the Magna Carta – will have been destroyed. If an innocent man prosecuted by the State does not have the means available to defend his innocence, then the justice system has collapsed.

And this, really, is why Catholics should care. Because regardless of political opinion, it is difficult to see how depriving the poor and vulnerable of any access to justice or redress can be morally justifiable. As stated

by Cardinal Vincent Nichols recently, “the moral challenge roots back to the principle that we have to regard and treat every single person with respect”.

Further, as explained in The Common Good and the Catholic Church’s Social Teaching [statement from the 1996 Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales ], ‘The Church’s social teaching can be summed up as the obligation of every individual to contribute to the good of society, in the interests of justice and in pursuit

Paddy Hill makes his feelings known about the changes to Legal Aid

Pope exhorts “a generous openness”.

He goes on to say at paragraph 201 “while it is quite true that the essential vocation and mission of the lay faithful is to strive that earthly realities and all human activity may be transformed by the Gospel, none of us can think we are exempt from concern for the poor and for social justice: “Spiritual conversion, the intensity of the love of God and neighbour, zeal for justice and peace, the Gospel meaning of the poor and of poverty, are required of everyone”.”

So as Catholics, what can we do to help? One simple step that will take just a couple of minutes of your time is to sign the petition to protect access to justice at www.change.org/enGB/petitions/david-cameron-uk-gov ernment-save-legal-aid-to-protect-

and other campaigning groups, trade unions and individuals who have come together to oppose these cuts to Legal Aid (http://justiceallianceuk.wordpress.com/about/).

Although these are only small steps for each individual to take, the cumulative effect of value of Church members adding their voices to those already opposing the cuts cannot be underestimated.

Please, help us in our fight to protect Legal Aid before it is too late.

Charlotte Image is a solicitor and committe member of Young Legal Aid Lawyers JUSTICE MAGAZINE 25

Feature United Kingdom

Liam Allmark on why Channel 4’s programme about the welfare system did a disservice to the millions of people who work hard just to get by

Benefits Street: A dangerous road to go down With more than five million viewers Benefits Street has given Channel 4 its highest ratings since the 2012 Paralympic Games.

There is a strange irony in that: whilst coverage of Ellie Simmonds, Hannah Cockroff and David Stone winning medals for Great Britain helped to challenge society’s perceptions about the limits of people with disabilities, the controversial portrayal of residents on James Turner Street has stoked the very worst stereotypes of families supported by our welfare system.

At a time when life is becoming harder for the UK’s poorest in spite of a tentative economic recovery, there is something deeply unsavoury about the incessant and repeated focus on criminality, fraud and benefit dependency.

Of course, these problems exist, but to imply that they are somehow endemic to the welfare state is at best a misleading portrayal and at worse a dangerous form of scapegoating.

After all, the figures tell a very different story: apart from pensions the biggest part of the benefits bill is spent on people in work.

This is largely because the recent fall in unemployment has been driven by a proliferation of minimum wage jobs and insecure contracts, meaning that millions of families need a little extra support from the state if they 26 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

are to have any hope of keeping up with soaring food prices and utility bills.

As for the Benefits Street residents depicted as making little or no effort to find work, they represent a rare exception to the rule.

In fact less than half of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance do so for more than three months and less than 10per cent claim it for more than a year.

When it comes to the well-

Benefits facts g Approximately two-thirds of children in poverty have at least one parent in work g Benefit fraud accounts for less than one per cent of the entire welfare bill; six times as much goes unclaimed g Less the 0.5 per cent of families receiving benefits have been out of work for multiple generatigns g The majority of people who are out of work claim Jobseeker’s Allowance for less than three months and less that 10 per cent claim it for more than one year

rehearsed rhetoric about families where two or three generations have never worked, all the best evidence suggests that this applies to less than one in every two hundred workless households.

The vast majority turn to out of work benefits as a temporary protection rather than a long-term lifestyle choice.

The same dramatic gap between fact and fiction exists around benefit fraud, which members of public generally believe accounts for more than a quarter of the welfare budget but it actually constitutes less than one percent. More benefits are left un-claimed than are illegally obtained through fraud and in monetary terms it would be far more significant to focus on the eye-water-

PHOTO: Channel 4

The residents of James Turner Street in Birmingham were part of the Channel 5 documentary

ing impact of areas such as corporate tax avoidance.

For a more representative picture of our welfare system, television crews might better visit some of the Catholic projects in Tower Hamlets where I met parents who meticulously budget every pound of their wages and benefits to provide clothes, healthy meals and warm homes for their children.

They could talk to Hayley, the young mother who has managed to save £75 a month to pay for a college course and improve her job prospects.

They could talk to Mark and Joe, the fathers whose pay and tax credits are shrinking in real terms, whilst the luxury flats built around them drive up local rents.

Excellent work is already being undertaken by the Who Benefits campaign: a fast-growing coalition of charities who are trying to shift the public perception away from deeprooted myths and demonstrate how the whole of our society is better off when the poorest and most vulnerable people are properly supported.

Led by the Children’s Society, Crisis, Gingerbread, Macmillan and Mind, it is officially backed by CSAN as the social action agency of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, along with a number of other Catholic charities including the Cardinal Hume Centre, the Passage and Housing Justice.

However, whilst it is quickly gathering pace and providing the strongest coordinated challenge to

ignorant myths and deliberate misrepresentations about the welfare system, the campaign will face resistance as long as initiatives like Benefits Street continue to shape public opinion.

Of course it would be wrong to lay the blame solely at the door of Channel 4 and Love Productions: they certainly weren’t the first and definitely won’t be the last to present such a distorted picture.

Some of the most inflammatory rhetoric of the past year followed the conviction of Mick Philipott ,was described on front pages as “a vile product of welfare UK” who “embodies everything that is wrong with the welfare state.” The same kind of outrageous finger-pointing was repeated months later when Mark Bridger was JUSTICE MAGAZINE 27

Feature United Kingdom

28 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

PHOTO: Chaennel 4

convicted, with one journalist asking “is there a link between life on welfare and the vile crimes which appear on our daily news schedules?”

It is staggering that some of the most widely read newspapers were actually able to get away with using appalling murders to effectively tarnish the entire welfare system, which supports more than 20 million lawabiding families.

There is a clear and worrying link between this negative press and the kind of government initiatives to ‘get tough on welfare’ that have already seen an unprecedented squeeze on almost every part of the system from Child Benefit to Working Tax Credits.

Nevertheless, simply calling on our media and politicians act with honesty and integrity is not necessarily enough: both are driven by public views as much as they shape them, which means that all of us have a duty to change attitudes in our own communities, our social circles and even our parishes.

If we are educated on the facts, savvy about our use of social media and above all willing to challenge those who write-off the welfare state as a haven of freeloaders and cheats, we can counter the influence of any manipulative television series or scare-mongering headline.

This is not just a moral duty but an urgent necessity, because hostile perceptions translate into very real consequences for those bearing the brunt of economic hardship.

Several of the UK’s largest disability charities have reported that they are regularly contacted by people who have been verbally abused in public for supposedly faking their disability.

They have warned that one of the factors contributing to this climate of suspicion is the repeated allegations of widespread abuse in the benefits system and expressed concern that instances of hate crime will continue to rise.

When it comes to future government policy the outlook is equally bleak: in January the Chancellor announced plans to cut a further £12 billion from the welfare budget, on top of the £18 billion cuts that have been made during recent years.

Young people are likely to be the target of this latest squeeze, with senior

government figures already outlining plans to slash housing support for anyone under twenty-five and limit child-related benefits to just two children in any family.

The consequences could well be disastrous, particularly given that so many are already struggling with the impact of successive and significant reductions to their safety net.

Yet these proposals enjoy considerable public support driven largely by the exceptionally misplaced perception of an overly generous system that simply bankrolls people who do not want to work.

Whilst our welfare system constitutes one of the largest areas of state spending is that necessarily a bad thing?

Is it really so wrong that we are prioritising looking after older people; disabled people; those who’ve lost their jobs; those whose wages don’t

cover their basic outgoings and those who are struggling to support their families?

It goes without saying that we should never blindly accept the status quo: there must always be scrutiny of the system, shortcomings must be addressed and exploitation must be tackled.

However, in answering Pope Francis’ call to “overcome paralysing mistrust” and to “be an instrument of God for the liberation and promotion of the poor” we should put ourselves at the forefront of preventing our media, our politicians and most importantly our fellow citizens straying beyond the line of critical assessment to scapegoating or demonising those most in need of our support.

Liam Allmark works for CSAN

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JUSTICE MAGAZINE 29

Feature Dalits

PHOTO: ActionAid India

Dalits are treated appallingly not only in India but in 132 countries around the world

Suffering on a huge scale Dalits are the continuing victims of India’s caste system which keeps 200 million people trapped in poverty and slavery, says Lord Alton On a visit to West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, I spoke about the plight of India’s untouchables, the Dalits, and the forms of exploitation and slavery which stem from the caste system.

Dalit is a term which derives from a Sanskrit word meaning “broken” or 30 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

“crushed”. Some 200 million Dalits in India make up one sixth of India’s population, and one thirty-fifth of the world’s population. Dalits live in 132 countries, including countries like the UK, where South Asians have migrated.

Take Dalits and Tribals together,

both of whom fall outside the caste system and experience discrimination; they comprise a quarter of India’s population and one twentyfourth of the world’s population.

Lest you think that these are historic questions, let me make absolutely clear that hardly a day

‘‘

Two centuries later and the caste system which Wilberforce said should be abolished - and which the British during the colonial period signally failed to end still disfigures the lives of vast swathes of humanity

to be broken, not the people, but the system which ensnares them.

As Parliament in the UK considers the new Bill on modern slavery, reflect that the Global Slavery Index, published in October 2013, confirmed that around half of the world’s slaves are in India – some 13.9 million out of a global total of 29.8 million, and that most of them are Dalits or Tribals. In the Hindu caste system, they are regarded as subhuman—lower even than animals and left fighting a largely unknown struggle for emancipation.

If you are a Dalit in India you are 27 times more likely to be trafficked or exploited in another form of mod-

PHOTO: Bobulix

passes without some new horror perpetrated against the Dalits.

Two hundred years ago, on June 22, 1813, six years after he had successfully led the parliamentary campaign to end the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade, William Wilberforce made a major speech in the House of Commons about India.

He said that the caste system “must surely appear to every heart of true British temper to be a system at war with truth and nature; a detestable expedient for keeping the lower orders of the community bowed down in an abject state of hopelessness and irremediable vassalage. It is justly, Sir, the glory of this country, that no member of our free community is naturally precluded from rising into the highest classes in society”.

Two centuries later the caste system which Wilberforce said should be abolished – and which the British during the colonial period signally failed to end – still disfigures the lives of vast swathes of humanity.

India’s Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh has trenchantly and rightly argued that “untouchability is not just social discrimination; it is a blot on humanity”.

There are those working tirelessly to combat this injustice, especially Voice of Dalit International and the Dalit Freedom Network, particularly its international president Joseph D’Souza – whom I first met after he had joined forces, in 2006, with other Christian leaders after five Dalits were lynched for skinning a dead cow.

In New Delhi those leaders joined a protest, met the parents of the victims and provided their families humanitarian assistance. Dr D’Souza said: “The statement we were making was that these Dalits were human beings, and that it was the caste system that consigned them to work with animals—a statement in direct contrast to that of a Hindu nationalist leader, who said that a cow was more valuable than a Dalit.”

In my study at home in Lancashire, I have a small terracotta pot given to me by Dr D’Souza. Such pots must be broken once a dalit has drunk out of them so as not to pollute or contaminate other castes. This is the 21st century. It is not the pots which need

Dalit men clean sewers

ern slavery than anyone else. Much of this is brilliantly documented in Dalit Freedom Network’s booklet “Half the World Slaves?”

According to CNN, India’s former Home Secretary, Madhukar Gupta, “remarked that at least 100 million people were involved in human trafficking in India”, whether for sex or for labour. The head of the Central Bureau of Investigation said that India occupied a unique position as a source, transit and destination country for trafficking, and that it has more than three million prostitutes, of whom an estimated 40 per cent are children. These statistics are hugely significant; the situation in India simply must be at the heart of the global fight against trafficking Caste should be recognised as a root cause of trafficking, of modern day slavery and poverty and unless we raise the profile of the oppressed Dalits nothing will change.

Ten years ago the deadening effects of caste were recognised by the Department for International Development (DFID).

In a Policy Paper they stated that ‘Caste causes poverty’, and ‘gets into the way of poverty reduction’; that caste ‘ reduces the productive capacity and poverty reduction of a society as a whole’; and that ‘poverty reduction policies often fail to reach the socially excluded’, Dalits ‘unless, they are specifically designed to do so’.

Yet these clear and coherent priorities scandalously failed to make any appearance whatsoever in the Millennium Development Goals and although the post-2015 High Level Panel Report, chaired by David Cameron, does include a section on “Other Vulnerable Groups” and the one group mentioned by name are the dalits, we need to say and do far more. The panel was right to argue that there is a need for “legislative and institutional mechanisms to recognise the indivisible rights of indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities, dalits and other socially excluded groups must be put in place” but how is that reflected in our day to day priorities, diplomacy and policies?

Dalits constitute 40 per cent of the global poor and are denied of DFID Funding, because they largely live in India, which simply doesn’t make the JUSTICE MAGAZINE 31

Feature Dalits

policy priorities. This becomes a new form of untouchability.

One development worker, with 14 years experience of working among Dalits, says that “95 per cent of development time, energy and resources are wasted on combating … a ‘general Caste mindset’…stipulating how different segments of caste based society should live as touchables or untouchables, humans or sub-humans.

The whole life of more than 50 per cent of the population, from morning till night, from birth to death, is predetermined.”

In India you can’t make poverty history unless you make caste history.

As we examine what has been achieved through the MDGs and the plight of the global poor the professional development agencies need to take a long hard look at the way they target poverty.

As they think beyond 2015 they need to listen, rather than impose, and develop a cross thematic frame32 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

work for addressing the curse of the caste system.

The churches, too, need to play a more decisive role in recognising the existence of caste and its consequences – in India but in the UK too, where 50 per cent of our estimated 1 million Dalits are considered to be poor.

In considering their response to caste and the Dalits, any Christian from the Catholic tradition, or those running Church agencies, should ponder carefully the words of Pope John Paul II: “At all times you must continue to make certain that special attention is given to those belonging to the lowest castes, especially the Dalits.

2They should never be segregated from other members of society. Any semblance of a caste-based prejudice in relations between Christians is a countersign to authentic human solidarity, a threat to genuine spirituality, and a serious hindrance

to the Church’s mission of evangelisation.”

Let them also reflect that violence against Dalit Christians has intensified in recent years.

In 2008, two women—one of whom was seven months’ pregnant— were gang-raped in Nadia village, Madhya Pradesh The village leader ordered the act after the women’s husbands refused to renounce their Christian faith. On January 16, 2006, Christian homes were set on fire in Matiapada village, Orissa.

Instead of the arsonists being brought to justice, the Christians were imprisoned for nine days under the state’s anti-conversion law.

Although untouchability was barred by the constitution, the system was not dismantled.

Most of the worst forms of exploitation are proscribed by statute, but all too often the laws are simply not implemented and the police further

PHOTO: ActionAid India

entrench, rather than protect against, caste prejudice.

Consider for a moment what must be one of the most appalling and disgraceful forms of labour anywhere in the world, known euphemistically as manual scavenging.

It involves cleaning human excrement from dry latrines and is uniquely performed by Dalits as a consequence of their caste. The number engaged in this occupation is not known for certain, but it may be as high as, or higher than, the equivalent of the population of Birmingham.

Tens of millions of India’s citizens are subject to many forms of highly exploitative forms of labour and modern-day slavery.

This often plays into the problem of debt bondage and bonded labour, which affects tens of millions.

It perpetuates a cycle of despair and hopelessness, as generations are bonded to the family debt, unable to be educated and unable to escape.

Tragically, the debt is often the result of a loan taken out for something as simple and essential as a medical bill.

At times, Britain and India have had a turbulent relationship; but what is often called “the idea of India” is one that continues to captivate and enthral anyone who has been fortunate enough to travel there.

In 1949, India and Britain were founding members of the Commonwealth, which exists to promote democracy, human rights, good governance, and the rule of law, individual liberty, egalitarianism, free trade, multiculturalism and world peace.

Britain and India are democratic nations with many shared values as well as significant common economic and security interests. Bilateral trade is worth more than £13 billion annually.

Our cultural, sporting, linguistic and historic links—some of which have required colonial ghosts to be

laid to rest—underline the values that bind us together.

Yet, in 2014, while India is a rising world power and is rightly gaining a reputation for innovation and excellence in many fields, what its Prime Minister calls a “blot on humanity” disfigures India’s reputation and has become one of the world’s greatest human rights challenges.

Millions of people remain imprisoned by the bondage of what Wilberforce described as “the cruel shackles” of the caste system. Those shackles inevitably lock their prisoners into the most menial forms of labour, trap them in servitude and leave them susceptible to innumerable forms of exploitation.

David Alton is an Independent peer in the House of Lords JUSTICE MAGAZINE 33

Feature Yemen

Progressio’s Unbreakable campaign calls for greater political participation for women living in fragile states and for women’s voices to be heard in decision-making processes, says Esther Trewinnard. Here, two Yemeni prisoners supported by Progressio tell their stories to Saba Al-Sabri

Giving a voice to women In Hodeidah’s Central Prison yard, Hafsah, 27, is playing with little children. Her face is full of happiness as she tells me that in 5 months she will be released. She is convicted of murder.

“I killed my brother as he was attacking me at dawn,” she says. “I did not mean to kill him. He came to my house when my husband was away in Saudi Arabia. My brother was totally drunk. To begin with I hesitated to open the door for him, but he told me he wanted to go to the bathroom and under his insistence I opened the door.”

“It was not the first time he had tried to attack me. I had raised a case against him at the police station as well as with the Sheik. He had been arrested and spent 7 months in prison. However, this time I could not stop him, he wasn’t conscious, I tried pushing him and I threatened him with a knife that I took from the kitchen closet, but he did not stop, he kept approaching.”

“The first stabbing was in his waist, but he gained extra strength, I do not know from where. As he persisted I got more and more scared until the 34 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

final stabbing that killed him. I phoned my other brother who came quickly, I told him what happened, he tried to calm me down. Then I delivered myself to the police station.

Later I found a lot of people supporting me. Facebook activists, human rights activists, and also the judge who agreed that my brother was attacking me, they sentenced me for a year and six months in prison.”

“I am looking forward to leaving the prison and starting my life with my husband who stood by me in this difficult time and did not leave me.

My husband kept sending me my monthly expenses non-stop. I am looking forward to continuing my computer diploma and living as a human being again after all the tough months in the prison. But, I know a tough life is waiting for me because of society’s perspective of me. I will be working to overcome that unfair perspective. I could have had nervous and psychological collapses, but my family stands by me.”

Hafsah has received support through Progressio’s work with female prisoners.

In Yemen, Progressio is part of a

joint initiative, the Hodeidah NGO forum, to protect the rights of female inmates and ex-prisoners. Working as a network means Progressio is able to support prisoners, ex-prisoners and their families on both sides of the

PHOTO: Amira Al-Sharif/Progressio 2014

Mariam and friend Hafsah in their dark room at Central Prison in Hodeidah, Yemen

prison gates. Yemen is ranked 136 out of 136 countries in the Global Gender Gap index and so, while violence against women is a global societal problem, in Yemen it is even more difficult than in most countries to

assert your human rights as a woman.

Women in fragile states are at the heart of Progressio’s work to strengthen the ability of poor and marginalized people to demand and defend their rights.

Another woman supported through Progressio’s work, Mariam, 19, never imagined she would spend her early twenties in prison. There is still fear in her eyes as she tells her story.

“I was 16 when I was forced to JUSTICE MAGAZINE 335

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36 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

‘‘

I did not even get past my first year in my husband’s house.

He started hitting me and humiliating me and then one day he beat me and imprisoned me in a room

not devote yourself to doing something to change the role and status of women in the world.”

At an international level, Progressio is campaigning for women’s voices to be heard. This is the first step to achieving equal access to justice and political representation. Progressio supporters are being asked to write to Justine Greening, the International Development Secretary, to show commitment to women’s political and social participation in fragile states.

Progressio will also be hosting a side event at the United Nations 58th Commission on the Status of Women, in New York, this March, to discuss how faith communities can play an important role in empowering, or indeed disempowering, women.

PHOTO: JAmira Al-Sharif/Progressio 2014

marry a man who was older than me.

He already had children from another marriage,” begins Mariam. “I did not even get past my first year in my husband’s house. He started hitting me and humiliating me and then one day he beat me and imprisoned me in a room.”

In Mariam’s desperation to escape the unhappy marriage and domestic abuse she had endured, an even more unimaginable tragedy befell her.

“One of my husband’s daughters, who was just 3 years old, was able to open the door for me while her father was out. When she opened the door, I pushed her aside and ran away from the house to my family home.”

“When the police arrived at my home I was surprised. They were arresting me for having killed the girl.

I collapsed. I never meant to kill her.

I am still healing from the psychological trauma. My husband wouldn’t accept that his daughter’s death had been accidental. He refused to divorce me demanding two million and eight thousand Yemeni Riyal, which my family could not pay. I want to continue therapy and escape this nightmare. I need a lawyer but cannot pay his fees.”

In this case, two lives were ruined as a result of violence against women, one that had barely begun. There are many injustices to unravel to fully understand the circumstances that led to Mariam being imprisoned in Hodeidah Central Prison. Sadly, her story, while unusual and utterly tragic, is not entirely unique. Many women imprisoned in Hodeidah Central Prison are victims of rape, domestic violence and prejudice against them. As a ‘fragile state’ Yemeni women cannot count on the state for protection from sexual violence.

Progressio and its partners do what no one else cares to do for these women who are living at the very sharpest edges of society. They listen to them, seek to meet their basic needs, and offer legal advice and hope for the future.

Violence against women is a societal problem with devastating consequences for everyone. Progressio works with prison staff, civil society organizations, religious leaders, local authorities, the local media, community members and with

Mariam Abker

female inmates themselves to raise awareness about human rights and judicial procedures. Re-addressing the social and cultural norms that lead to violence against women is something that requires the whole of society to be involved. It’s something we can all be part of, regardless of our gender, faith or where we come from.

As Sister Joan Chittiser has commented: “It is simply impossible to be really committed to the poor and

For Yemeni women, the recent National Dialogue process offers many reasons to be hopeful for the future. The challenge now is to implement the ideals drawn up in the document and support Yemeni women as they claim their rights and hold leaders to account.

Esther Trewinnard works for Progressio

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Feature Non-violence

Fr John Dear suggests that whether people see themselves on the ‘left’ or ‘right’ of the Church, what matters is a determination to remain peaceful

Non-violent protest is key to understanding what Jesus taught us In June 2009, one dedicated Christian killed another during a church services in Witchita, Kansas.

Both men thought they were doing God’s will.

One - the zealous anti-abortion activist, Scott Roeder, believed in “justifiable homicide” to bring to a halt the activities of the other - the abortion doctor, George Tiller.

I grieved for both of them, for everyone in that scene, for all of us.

Both were far from the non-violent Jesus, but so are we all. The sad event confirmed what many of us had been saying for years. We all need to repent of our violence and discover Jesus’ way of non-violence.

There is a reason for this madness.

For 1,700 years we have rejected the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus’ truth about non-violence (“Put down your sword. Love one another. Love your enemies. Be as compassionate as God”). In the fourth century, we made a ruinous accommodation, and started down the path toward the socalled Just War theory - and Christians have been killing Christians ever since. Popes, bishops, priests and ministers have blessed 38 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

mass murder, and still do so, and assume they are doing God’s will.

The Just War theory opens Pandora’s Box. It allows for a time when it is permissible to declare war for God’s sake. With each condition we move farther away from the Sermon on the Mount. As we have assumed war is justifiable, so we have come up with other occasions when killing is justified. We execute people, build nuclear weapons, and support jingoistic militarism, and all the while believe we are ushering in God’s reign.

The German bishops who served Hitler are but one extreme example of this blasphemous rejection of Gospel non-violence. The American bishops and priests who avow US war plans and defend nuclear weapons show a similar anti-Gospel ethic of justifiable killing.

Dr Tiller, I submit, held a similar anti-Gospel ethic. And so did Roeder, his killer.

As a priest and a human being, I too am against abortion. As a follower of the non-violent Jesus, I look towards Cardinal Bernardin’s “Consistent Ethic of Life.” One cannot pick and choose contradictory issues. Are

‘‘

The Just War theory opens Pandora’s Box. It allows for a time when it is permissible to declare war for God’s sake. With each condition we move farther away from the Sermon on the Mount

PHOTO: Carles Cerulla

There is no cause, however noble, for which we support the taking of a single human life

you “Pro Life,” “for life,” “for the God of Life?” Then stand against every war, handgun, weapon, greedy corporation, and execution. Stand against poverty and starvation and disease and extinctions and racism and sexism and environmental destruction. As well as abortion.

But that’s only the beginning. You have to look deep within at the roots of your own violence. Then allow the Holy Spirit to disarm you and transform you into a channel of universal non-violent love. From this process, the good fruit of peace flows. You begin to uphold a vision of non-vio-

lence for all humanity, all creatures, and all creation. You experience a God of non-violence “who makes the sun shine on the good and the bad and the rain to fall on the just and the unjust”. Few nurture such universal, non-violent, love, and that is precisely our problem.

When Dr Tiller was assassinated, most of the major “Pro Life” organizations around the country denounced it. Most insisted that their “pro life” group or movement is nonviolent. I doubt it. Despite these claims, I am still searching for a group which adopts that name “Pro

Life” and is truly committed to nonviolence.

A “Pro Life” group committed to non-violence would never use hateful language. If they were non-violent, they would understand the connection between all of life and so speak out with similar passion against war, poverty, handguns, nuclear weapons and catastrophic climate change.

Such a group would advocate the non-violence of Jesus and pay closer attention to his teachings of love, compassion and peace. A non-violent, pro-life group would try to be as gentle, unarmed, vulnerable, and JUSTICE MAGAZINE 39

Feature Non-violence

non-threatening as a new born babe, as lambs sent into the culture of wolves. Such a radical commitment to life would never find a home with political parties and leaders who supported the bombing of children, rewarded billionaires, tortured prisoners and lied.

Alas, despite claims that they are “non-violent,” I do not see much evidence that the movement which uses the name “Pro Life” understands what non-violence really means.

Until they show concern for the taking of any life, until they oppose the culture of war and the nuclear threat and poverty and executions and environmental destruction, to my mind they remain unworthy of the label “Pro Life.” Their commitment to the unborn will continue to lack credibility.

To be fair, such non-violence is also rare in the so called “peace” movement. We’re all in some measure addicted to violence. We, all of us, are neophytes when it comes to non-violence. I’m disappointed that so few demonstrate any sincere interest in the study and practice Gospel nonviolence.

If an extremist for peace had killed an employee of the Bush administration, I would have insisted that we stop all peace movement activities; this is what Gandhi said in the early 1920s, after some of his movement activists beat five British soldiers to death. He called off the whole national civil disobedience programme, went on a fast of repentance and resigned from the movement. He insisted, from his daily reading of the Sermon on the Mount, that there is no cause, however noble, for which we support the taking of a single human life.

We have to help one another uproot and renounce whichever form of violence holds us captive. The task is to deepen our awareness about our complicity with violence and learn how to become genuinely non-violent as individuals, as a Church, as nations and as a world.

Some time ago, I had joined friends in a day of lobbying against the death penalty at a state building. A Franciscan priest in brown robes was with another church group, lobbying against abortion and gay marriage.

He confronted me with a hard word 40 JUSTICE MAGAZINE

or two. “You should stop all of this anti-death penalty, anti-war and antinuclear work,” he said adamantly.

“None of that matters.” I was astonished and saddened. How far we have drifted from the non-violent Jesus, I thought.

I then met another Franciscan priest, this one sporting Army fatigues and a cross around his neck.

He was an Army chaplain who told me fervently how he blesses the soldiers as they embark for war, and how hard it is it to counsel them when they return home suicidal - or in coffins to be buried.

He too claimed to be a “true pro lifer.” Once again, I found myself full of compassion and sadness at our predicament.

Jesus, a victim of the death penalty himself, could see all of this on the horizon.

His message of non-violence was consistently rejected during his public life.

Yet he stubbornly forgave and loved and tried to liberate, both oppressors and oppressed, from the shackles of violence.

He taught non-violence and enacted it to the bitter end, and it cost him his life, but with his last breath he practiced what he preached, saying “Put down the sword,” and “Forgive them.”

I write as one who has struggled for years to teach and practice an authentic non-violence in my own culture, Church, and time.

It always seems like one step forward, two steps back.

My hope and prayer is that all of us - “Pro-lifers” and “peaceniks,” “liberals” and “conservatives,” “left and right,” - can become Sermon on the Mount people and learn the Gospel truth that killing is never justified, that abortion and murder and war and nuclear weapons and violence of all kinds are wrong, that all of us are summoned to an entirely new way of life, a life founded on the wisdom of Jesus’ non-violence.

PHOTO: clarkinator5000

Fr John Dear is a Catholic priest in the United States JUSTICE MAGAZINE 41

Final thought

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PHOTO: Eoghan Rice/Trócaire

A child at a camp for displaced people in Kachin State, northern Myanmar. Conflict has displaced more than 100,000 people.

Church agencies are responding by providing shelter and food to people in the camps