Hand in Hand A A Recent Ecumenical Seminar
t the beginning of the annual Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity, which began this year on the 18th January, Kerygma, a ministry of Youth With A Mission ran a seminar on effectively crossing the Catholic/Protestant divide. The Seminar was originally developed to train Youth With A Mission, Kerygma staff members around the world. It soon became apparent that it was an effective tool for any Christian desiring to learn if and how Catholics and Protestants can work together. It has been run in various countries, Australia, Ireland, Italy, UK, Austria and we had the privilege of hosting it on the Rock in January.
Guest Speakers:
Bruce Clewett from Youth With A Mission Austria, an Evangelical protestant, who
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has been a member of YWAM in Europe since 1971. One of the founders of Kerygma, he has a passion for promoting understanding between Protestants and Catholics so that they can together help fulfil Christ’s Great Commission. Bruce is married to Esther, they have 3 grown children. Rob Clarke of CEO Spirit Radio Ireland, a Roman Catholic who was leader of YWAM Ireland from 1987 until 2008 and is one of the founders of Kerygma. Rob joined the Spirit Radio team in 2010 and helped
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launch Ireland’s first Christian radio station in 2011- ‘Spirit Radio’1 Rob is married to Anne and they have six children. Youth With A Mission is a global movement of Christians from many cultures, age groups, and Christian traditions. Also known as YWAM2 pronounced “WHY-wham”. They currently work in more
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than 1,100 locations in over 180 countries, with a volunteer staff of over 18,000. Kerygma is a ministry of Youth With A Mission with a special focus on the Catholic world with representatives in: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Ghana, Gibraltar, India, Ireland, Jordan, Slovakia, Spain, Uganda, UK and USA.
Topics tackled:
Bruce Clewett and Rob Clarke built on decades of ecumenical experience, presenting a seminar which challenged over 60 participants from across the Christian community on the Rock. They challenged their thinking and strengthened their outlook on
what true Christian unity means, is and should be. Discussing topics ranging from the Eucharist and Mary, “Same words, different meanings” to “Are Catholics and Protestants world-views apart?” with “Touchy feely unity vs open eyed reconciliation” and finally, “Principles for working together” and “Why bother?”
Upon this Rock magazine is published monthly by EuropeAxess Media, Gibraltar. Editor: Fr. S. Chipolina: editor@uponthisrock.gi. Production Editor: A. Sargent: angela@europeaxess.com. Upon this Rock magazine is entirely supported by advertising and donations. It is run in liaison with the Catholic Diocese of Gibraltar by EuropeAxess Media Ltd. as a not-for-profit project. For Advertisers: This magazine is handdelivered to homes, churches, hospitals and many businesses around Gibraltar every month. To discuss your advertising requirements, or promote your church group or charity, call Tel: +350 200 79335 email: angela@europeaxess.com. Editorial is selected by EuropeAxess Media in liaison with the Catholic Diocese of Gibraltar. Neither of these parties is responsible for the accuracy of the information contained herein, nor do the views and opinions expressed herein necessarily reflect the views and opinions of either party. Advertisers are not endorsed by virtue of advertising in this magazine. EuropeAxess Media Ltd. reserves the right to refuse space to any submissions or advertisements. Efforts have been made to establish copyright owners of images, but if we have used your material, and have not credited you, please contact us to discuss restoration. The magazine is online at uponthisrock.gi. Cover Main Photo: © Aid to the Church in Need, Christians returning to Iraq. Small Photo: © Kerygma Team Gib, Hand in Hand Seminar.
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A Recent Ecumenical Seminar
Catholic Testimonials:
“What a wonderful blessed weekend. Bruce and Rob, what a wealth of information you shared in your teachings. And so this psalm becomes so relevant in our daily lives, “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity“ Thanks to all that took part and the friendships made. God Bless you all.” “If I am honest, I have to admit Ecumenism had never been high on my list of spiritual priorities, but the Hand in Hand seminar has opened my eyes to the importance of connecting with the many other churches that form the body of Christ. We have so much in common, so much to share and so much to learn from each other! Thank you for the gift of a great and thought-provoking weekend which I know will bear abundant fruit for all Christians in Gibraltar.” “Hand in Hand refreshed in me the importance of partnership with other Christians and Christian groups. It made me realise that there is still a lot of hard work and hard talking to be done if the work of reconciliation is to be engaged with properly but that there are clear models of hope that it can happen. Most of all it brought home to me how much there is still to be done within our own Catholic Church to bring about the revival of the life in the Spirit as God intends but that He has given us every good gift to bring it about.” “The hand in hand seminar has been such a positive experience for me. It has shed new light and understanding and also provided the tools with which to build and restore. I enjoyed the talks and also thoroughly enjoyed being
together with my brothers and sisters in Christ. So thanks everyone. God bless you all.”
Protestant Testimonials:
“As a protestant, I was pleasantly surprised how much interest there was in the Catholic camp in working together with evangelicals seeing as we are so much fewer in numbers. The genuine curiosity shown in how we do and don’t differ was very encouraging and gives me hope for the future of the gospel in Gibraltar. It isn’t going to be easy, but at least now we know it is possible!” “I was a little apprehensive going into the weekend as I really did not know what to expect. Whatever apprehension I may have had quickly vanished though.
The teaching was extremely good, and really laid down the ideological framework for really interesting, thoughtful and very respectful exchanges between the Catholics and Evangelicals present. I am so grateful that we had a safe space where we could have honest conversations in a constructive and frank way. I think that I can now relate a little bit better to my Catholic brothers and sisters as a result. Thank you to everyone involved for making this happen. God bless you all richly in Christ.” “The whole weekend was very well organised, the food and fellowship was amazing. Thank you so so much! Both speakers brought their teachings with great experimental insight and humour and the practical part
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of discussing in groups was very hands on, informative and extremely helpful. I was still very challenged and overwhelmed at times trying to wrap my head around the differences but whenever I let go and let my heart lead, I was fine. I believe that some fears were broken and that we should not ignore our differences. I was so glad that we were able to have this weekend together and I pray we will deepen the friendships that started this weekend to be one in Christ and serve together more often for the purpose of winning people to Jesus and use our different gifts together.
Grateful Thanks:
The seminar was run by Kerygma a ministry of Youth With A Mission and was partly funded by donations from a wide section of the community. The Hand in Hand Seminar, would not have been possible without the generous financial contributions from The Christian Mission Trust, The Albert Ferrary Trust, Alpha Gibraltar, as well as individual and anonymous donations.
Links:
www.spiritradio.ie www.ywam.org 3 www.kerygma.network 1 2
5
Anne Mesilio writes
The cry of the
Deer
“Do you dye your eggs green on St. Patrick’s Day?”
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I
was asked this question by an American lady last year and burst into incredulous laughter.
She was more than a little miffed and looked at me askance! Her question was a serious one but asked out of ignorance I suppose and listening to silly excesses often associated with 17th March. Yes, rivers do get dyed green, beer too, faces painted with shamrocks, people dress in leprechaun fancy dress and so on, and whilst done in fun, in recent years this carousing and revelry has become excessive,
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masking the true meaning of the day. Sadly, it mimics Christmas, when the true meaning of the Saviour’s birth is hidden behind the tinsel and twinkling lights. St. Patrick was real. Ripped out of the heart of his home (history does not quite agree where but Wales is most likely) by marauding Celtic pirates, he was sold into slavery and set to herding sheep and pigs on the wild open slopes of Mount Slemish in Antrim, N. Ireland, an extinct volcano 437 meters high. He was 16 years old. For six long terrible years, in impossible isolated circumstances on these
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Red Stag on Mangerton Mountain, During the Annual Rutting Season in Killarney National Park, Ireland. Photo:Valerie O’Sullivan steep and rocky slopes, he hungered for home and longed to escape. He turned to prayer and learned the language from the few Irish he came in contact with and developed a fondness for them. He did escape, and in a nutshell studied for the priesthood and when he was forty eight he had a dream in which he heard the Irish calling to him. He obtained permission from his Bishop and returned in
432 AD. Now, the Romans never conquered Ireland regarding the Irish Celts (with good reason!) as barbarians, and to this lawless country Patrick elected to return as an Evangelist. In my research I came across this: “Patrick wanted the gospel to grow in Irish soil, rather than pave it over with a Roman road”. Love the analogy! Well, he had no paved roads to travel on and so for twenty eight years, with a band of disciples, he walked to bring Christ to the pagans, sinners and barbarians. He started at the top, meeting with kings and their households to set an example and he did have many converts. He is credited with Christianizing Celtic pagan festivals. The most famous example is as follows: The pagan festival of Ostara (Easter) was about to be celebrated and the High King had given orders that no fires should be lit before he, the King lit the great bonfire on the Hill of Tara. On nearby Slane hill,
St. Columba’ window at Iona Abbey, Scotland
“St. Patrick was a gentleman, who through strategy and stealth Drove all the snakes from Ireland so here’s toasting to his health. But not too many toastings lest you lose yourself and then forget the good St. Patrick and see all those snakes again!” Patrick and his followers lit their bonfire before the King, he was furious. He sent his soldiers to arrest them and Patrick chanted a prayer that we now know as The Breastplate of St. Patrick, or a ‘lorica’ of faith, also known as Cry of the Deer, which allowed Patrick and his followers to pass by the soldiers undetected, as though they were a herd of deer. I would urge a Google search for this prayer. It is a powerful prayer for protection, celebrating God who lives with us, sheltering us, guiding us, strengthening us and “is with us and in us through his Creation”. It was written in Irish and Latin and depicts the spirituality of the age which was arriving and flourished until the Vikings arrived in the 9th century. Through his earlier experience of living in Ireland Patrick had the advantage of insight into the culture and this was a great help when he arrived as a missionary. Yet, it was not easy, the Irish Celts were known for worshiping idols and he and his followers had to run the gauntlet of insults, slander, imprisonment and great discomfort in this primitive society. His unshakable belief that Christ was needed here kept compassion alive and slowly he eroded pagan beliefs and Christianity began to take hold. He has said; “I cannot be silent about the great benefits and the great grace which the Lord deigned to bestow upon me in the land of my captivity”. He choose to become a missionary, not in far away lands
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as is often the wont, but in a land he knew, and near, which needed the message of Christ. Perhaps there is a message there for us, that like charity, evangelization can begin at home. The excesses associated with his Saint’s Day continue to concern me. I have no problem celebrating with feasting, but unfortunately the excess of public drunkenness is not what St. Patrick’s Day is all about. He left a legacy that would spread the Gospel in western Europe for six hundred years after his death. One such famous missionary was St. Columba who set out for Scotland 563AD. By all means wear your green, I will, eat, drink and be merry, especially as St. Patrick’s day falls in the middle of Lent and any Bishop may grant a dispensation in his diocese on that day, honestly! To those who celebrate, enjoy the day, and may the Blessings of the Saint fall abundantly on you all. Beannachti Na Feile Padraig oraibh!
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St. Patrick’s window, St. Joseph’s Parish Church, Gibraltar
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Where faith and science meet
“
Pinwheel Galaxy Rainbow Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/STScI/CXC
Space is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist, but that’s just peanuts to space.” Douglas Adams: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Indeed, truly, the numbers are staggering. The universe has been around for, oh, around 13.8 billion years (we’ll get into some REALLY big numbers shortly). Most of that time, as seen from our limited point of view, all the universe has been doing is making and breaking up stars and galaxies. Our sun, a relatively recent arrival around 4.6 billion years ago, is about half-way through its life-span, but hopefully will not be having a mid-life crisis anytime soon. The earth came into being just a little later as gas and other matter coalesced around the sun into planets. Mankind came along a mere 200,000 years ago. If the life span of the universe were expressed as one whole day, human beings would have been around for just the last 1.5 seconds. So, when we talk about God having a big picture, it really is an awesomely big picture that we can never get our heads around. To my limited mind, it’s just a shame that so many
brilliant scientists seem to just airbrush Him out of that picture, as if having God as part of the scientific narrative takes something away from it rather than, with God, making sense of the otherwise randomness (and empty hugeness) of it all. Good scientists approach problems using tried and tested scientific method, eliminating redundancies, pursuing what survives analysis: everything material can, indeed needs, to be explained and explanations have reasons and causes. Sadly, there are leading scientists such as Richard Dawkins and Stephen Hawking whose intellectualized contortions are designed subtly to subvert the scientific method when it comes to God as they seek, sometimes desperately, to find a “first cause” that cannot be God. Interestingly, in The God Delusion, Dawkins actually agrees that there has to be a first cause, but is so intensely and emotionally anti-God (and therefore anti-Christ), that he loses true scientific perspective. In chapter 4: Why there is almost certainly no God, an imaginary friend debates: “There must have been a first cause of everything and we might as well give it the name God.” “Yes” I said “but it must have been simple and therefore whatever else we call it, God is
FUNDING AVAILABLE
The Christian Mission Trust provides local Christians with donations for evangelistic initiatives and outreaches. The Trust is ecumenical and has provided money to many groups, individuals and churches during the last 12 years. It is run by a Board of Trustees.
We invite applications for funding from anyone who wishes to launch an evangelistic initiative or who needs support for an existing Christian missionary activity. Please write to: The Chairman, Christian Mission Trust, 4 South Pavilion Road, Gibraltar. 8
not an appropriate name unless altered ... if [the values] were we very explicitly divest it of all greater, it is doubtful if galaxies the baggage that the word ‘God’ could ever have formed ... if carries in the minds of religious [the values were] negative, the believers”. [Big Bang] would be replaced This is a truly shocking by a catastrophic collapse of the statement coming from any universe”. scientist but most of all from In other words, if either of one of Dawkins’ pretensions as those two universal constants a logical atheistic intellectual. (it doesn’t matter that you and In effect, he concedes that there I don’t understand what they must have been a First Cause mean) were out by a fraction of of the universe (something that 1/10 followed by fifty zeros, the could not have been caused by universe could not exist as it anything else). does. His objection is not to the fact that there is a First Cause but, rather, that we should not call it ‘God’ because it implies religious “baggage”. Instead of trying to explain, as a scientist, what the nature of that First Cause is, he rushes to be condescending about religion and, as a result, compromises his science. Other scientists, like Sir Fred Hoyle, famously begin P in the same kind of atheistic aul Da vie s place as Dawkins but end up compelled to come to different conclusions. But first let’s take a look at the Davies goes on to say that kind of numbers we’re talking a 2% reduction in the strong about and a good place to start force constant would make any is physical constants of which elements heavier than hydrogen scientists disagree on the actual impossible. A 2% increase in number (shock) - there are that constant would result in no around 17 known primary ones. hydrogen, only heavier elements An easy one to get is the speed of and therefore no long-term fuel light which, at a never-changing for the stars, or water, without 186,200 miles per second is, which life, as we know it, would well, constant. be impossible. The point of calling them Sir Roger Penrose, a constants is that they have Cambridge physicist and in no literally universal applicability way a religious man, concluded across time and space. Paul in The Emperor’s New Mind: Davies is an English theoretical “In order to produce a universe physicist and cosmologist. In resembling the one in which The Accidental Universe, he we live, the Creator would wrote: have had to aim for an absurdly “If the gravitational constant or tiny [number of all] possible the weak force constant differed universes – about 1 in 10 to the from their values by even one power of 10 to the power of 123”. part in 1050 ... the structure of In other words, the chances of the universe would be drastically THIS universe existing as it does
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Chris Pitaluga
ot Ph yle Ho
ob yD avi dL eve nson
finely aligned for carbon (essential for life) to be abundant in the universe, is said to have acknowledged that nothing had shaken his atheism as much as this discovery. He said: “A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with physics ... and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature.” When taking into account all the requisites for the universe to support life, he later compared the odds of life developing by pure chance to a tornado sweeping through a junkyard and assembling a 747 jumbo airplane ready for flight. In the long history of science, there have been dedicated scientists who have been able to go about their work diligently, bringing fresh, exciting revelations of what the Father created and is still creating. For all that some, perhaps many scientists, seek to take God out of His big
picture, t h e evidence points overwhelmingly to God’s hand at work in all around us. We who are Christians know this almost by instinct. After all, faith is itself an intuitive type of knowledge that is based on trust in the guiding hand of God. Faith is not a leap in the dark. On the contrary, it’s a leap from darkness into light. Once again, let’s hear what Pope Benedict said in In the Beginning: “Physics and biology ... have given us a new and unheard-of creation account with vast new
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images, which let us recognize the face of the Creator and which make us realise that at the very beginning and foundation of all being there is a creating Intelligence. The universe is not the product of darkness and unreason. It comes from intelligence, freedom and from the beauty that is identical with love” My prayer – and I hope yours – is that scientists all over the world come to understand that their work, so invaluable to mankind, comes from that One source of intelligence, freedom and beauty that is to be found in the One who loves us unto death on a cross. After all, the Father made the universe so that all things – all things – might be reconciled to Him in His son, Jesus Christ:
Images Credit: commons.wikimedia.org
is a fraction that looks like 1/10 followed by a truly astronomical and mind-boggling number of zeros. It is a minute fraction of possibility, rendering the likelihood of the universe being a random chance or accident virtually impossible. No wonder even Dawkins has to concede that there is a First Cause. Sir Fred Hoyle, a renowned physicist of his day and atheist, who discovered, among other things, that the resonance levels (the ‘stickiness’) of atoms of carbon, beryllium, oxygen and helium need to be so
“For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through the blood of His cross”.
(Colossians 1:19-20)
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A time to
Aid to the Church in Need is a Pontifical Foundation directly under the Holy See.
Charity gives aid to
More help is needed
to prevent a reversal of the
homecoming
process
C
hristians forced out of their ancestral lands in northern Iraq are rejoicing after a leading Catholic charity announced an urgent injection of aid to rebuild an extra 2,000 homes last month.
The £3.6 million package from Aid to the Church in Need will support projects renovating 2,000 houses on the Nineveh Plains – 1,500 in Qaraqosh and 500 in Bartella, Bashiqua and Bahzani. ACN’s international executive president, Baron Johannes von Heereman, who has met with displaced families in the Iraqi Kurdish capital Erbil, stressed the urgent need to provide help. He said: “If we do not do everything in our power to support this first third of returning Christians, they will leave their towns again – and perhaps even the country – for good.” ACN Middle East projects head, Fr. Andrzej Halemba said he was encouraged that up to 35 percent of Iraq’s Christian had already returned to their homes. He said: “More than 30,000 Christians have in the meantime
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gone back to where they lived before the Islamist terrorist groups invaded. “However, their situations are anything but easy.” Fr. Halemba said that Christians are facing high heating and electricity costs due to a severe winter. He added that although Daesh (ISIS) had been defeated in the region, their extremist ideas had taken root in some sections of society. Rebuilding is being overseen by the Nineveh Reconstruction Committee (NRC), which was formed by the Chaldean, Syriac Orthodox and Syriac Catholic Churches. Since it was set up in late March 2017, the NRC has rebuilt nearly 3,000 houses – with ACN providing support for the renovation of 784 homes. The latest aid package is a stopgap measure until more charities, governments and NGOs back the NRC scheme. Fr. Halemba said: “It will be possible to achieve the greater objective – namely, to restore 6,000 houses – only if we provide concrete aid together with other players and only if this region is not left to its own devices. “This would enable at least each second displaced person of the Christian minority to return. “Otherwise, we have to fear a reversal of the currently still tangible homecoming process.” Fr. Halemba added that to keep people from emigrating from the area, further steps needed to be taken to ensure long-term security. Since 2014, when Daesh seized the Nineveh Plains, Aid to the Church in Need has provided more than £28 million for Iraq’s Christians. ACN provided nearly half of all emergency aid – food,
rebuild in Nineveh
John Newton and Murcadha O’Flaherty
repair 2,000 homes for Christians in Iraq Map; www.fides.org AINA
Christians returning to the Nineveh Plains, northern Iraq © Aid to the Church in Need
medicine, shelter and schooling – for displaced families supported by the Chaldean Archdiocese of Erbil.
TA K E AWAY FA C T S • Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has stated that his country needs more than £70 billion to fix crumbling infrastructure.
• There were more than 1 million Christians living in Iraq before the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003.
The world is largely silent in the face of Christian persecution. The scale of the problem is so great, silence is no longer acceptable. Persecuted Christians need YOU - and all of us! Together our prayers and actions can make a difference. You can PLEDGE YOUR SOLIDARITY by: • Praying ACN’s Prayer found in leaflets in your local Church, or your own prayers for Persecuted Christians in danger. • Sharing this article and Christian Persecution facts with others so that all understand the need.
Donation Details:
Bishop Carmel Zammit Lenten Appeal for‘Aid to the Church in Need’, Gibraltar International Bank, Account Name: ‘Trustees RCC/CAN’ Account Number: 00812022, Sort Code: 60-83-14.
• Numbers have declined to between 200,000 and 250,000 today.
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Raising awareness
Rome, Anne Mesilio February 2018. Cardinal Archbishop Nichols’ address to the Holy Father at the fifth international Santa Marta Group
of Human
L
aw enforcement officers, Bishops, religious sisters and international organisations from across the world gathered in the Vatican for the fifth Santa Marta Group conference to update and share good practice in the fight against human trafficking and modern slavery. This year’s conference, entitled ‘The dark face of
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Trafficking
Globalization’ focused on regional realities with tailored solutions to human trafficking in each continent. With input from every continent, each region discussed their experiences, both the successes and challenges they face, with growing collaboration identified as a priority in neighbouring countries where the challenges are similar. Education and economic opportunity is the
focus on the supply side from countries of origin and the need for a strong legal framework, accountability and active citizenship on the demand side in countries of destination. While there are significant similarities in approaches to combating human trafficking across regions, the need for local action was emphasised, recognising the significant levels of internal trafficking taking place. The conference also featured contributions from international agencies, introducing the role of the private sector and the importance of transparency in supply chains. Practical ways to address difficult to track human trafficking, such as slavery within seafaring, were also discussed. A challenge to the group was to increase their accountability through greater transparency with the media, both on work done and long term strategy.
An example was shared from the UK, where Church and Law Enforcement partnered with a media outlet (the Evening Standard) to raise awareness of human trafficking, investigate cases of modern slavery and propose solutions through a round table chaired by Cardinal Vincent Nichols. Cardinal Nichols, President of the Santa Marta Group, in his address to Pope Francis, drew attention to the need to always remember the victim at the centre of this evil crime; the enslaved person who demands our action in combating trafficking. Cardinal Nichols said: “Our Santa Marta Group meeting has been a hard look at one of the dark faces of globalization: the scourge of human trafficking and modern slavery. In contrast, Holy Father, we thank you for the many ways in which you make visible the truly human face of our world.
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conference entitled ‘The Dark Face of Globalization’
The Pope hosts the fifth international Santa Marta Group conference Photo © Vatican Media.
“Constantly in your actions and words, you remind us that the well-being of the human person must always be at the centre of every endeavour.” FULL ADDRESS
Holy Father, we thank you for this gift of a meeting and for the privilege of greeting you, so as to express our respect and regard for you in your ministry at the helm of the Catholic Church throughout the world. Our Santa Marta Group meeting has been a hard look at one of the dark faces of globalization: the scourge of human trafficking and modern slavery. In contrast, Holy Father, we thank you for the many ways in which you make visible the truly human face of our world. Constantly in your actions and words, you remind us that the well-being of the human person must always be at the centre of every endeavour. You constantly point to the face of our true humanity, a face reflecting the infinite goodness and compassion of God, made visible in Jesus. We thank you for your leadership and encouragement in the fight against human trafficking. In these last two day, this meeting of the Santa Marta Group, the fifth we have held, has heard of this work from every continent of the growing cooperation between law enforcement agencies and the resources of the Catholic Church. Achievements are considerable. The challenge is great. In all our efforts we try to keep before our eyes the faces of those who are enslaved, those who are rescued, those who are making the long road of recovery. It is they, our brothers and sisters, whom we wish to serve, as well as striving wholeheartedly to find, stop and prosecute the perpetrators of these evil and brutal crimes. Holy Father, we are very conscious of so many who are involved in this world-wide campaign. Yesterday many of those people, present in Rome, gathered for the celebration of
Holy Mass in the Basilica of St. Peter, including many religious sisters, who are so often on the front-line of this work against modern slavery. We thanked God for their courage and we dedicated our work to the glory of God and to the service of the dignity which God gives to every person. We have committed ourselves to deepen our cooperation, to promote truly local awareness and responsibility, to develop not only national partnerships, but also development regionally in centres such as Argentina, Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia. We ask you, Holy Father, to continue to call Governments to a truly humane response to the victims and survivors of human trafficking in the support and protection they provide; to urge financial and business institutions to do all they can to eliminate slavery and its profits from their transactions; and to encourage all people of good will to become more alert to the presence of slave-labour. Holy Father, we thank you from the depth of our
Every year sees more tragic drownings in the Strait as desperate migrants attempt to cross into Europe. According to one press report, human traffickers are ‘using migration crisis’ to force more people into slavery1
theguardian.com/world/2016/may/19/human-traffickers-usingmigration-crisis-to-force-more-people-into-slavery Photo A. Sargent.
hearts for the ministry and leadership you give in our world today. We assure you of our wholehearted support and promise you our prayers and prayers for all victims of human
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trafficking. We ask you to bless our work, our families and each one of us today. +Vincent Nichols Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster
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It’s a
Another Lourdes miracle confirmed
The people of
Gibraltar
keep Faith with Our Lady of
Lourdes
for good reason.
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E
verybody knows that there is only one Mary the Mother of God, who gave birth to Jesus, our Saviour, but Christians revere her under many guises, reflecting in the way she has appeared to the faithful over the Centuries. There is Our Lady of Walsingham, where both Catholic and Anglican churches have been built in the eponymous village to minister to the many thousands of pilgrims who make their way to the site in North Norfolk, England. Our Lady of Fatima, who appeared to the shepherd children on a windy hillside, gets frequent visits from the people of Gibraltar, for some
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Sr. Bernadette Moriau Image RTÉ.ie
Miracle! this is an annual pilgrimage, to escape our busy streets and go to sample the peace of the Portuguese village. These pages cannot hold all the different ‘Our Lady’ devotions from around the world, but even Our Lady of Guadalupe has spread her mystical veil over us so far away from here in physical miles, but the struggles of the people of Mexico are almost like the trials of close cousins spiritually speaking and we are glad to offer a home to a very special icon representing her in the Shrine of Our Lady of Europe. Who knows what undeclared miracles Our Lady of Europe has worked, but surely it is a miracle in itself that the devotion to her has been maintained on the cliff top at Europa Point for so many
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Centuries in spite of terrible trials inflicted on her devotees.
70th Lourdes Miracle
On Sunday 11 February this year, Bishop Jacques Benoit-Gonin of Beauvais in France, proclaimed a miracle, nearly a decade after Bernadette Moriau attended a blessing of the sick ceremony at the Lourdes sanctuary in southern France. The Bishop of Lourdes, Nicolas Brouwet announced the declaration during Mass at the shrine’s basilica, this is the 70th event to be recognised as an act of divine intervention at the world-famous pilgrimage site. Readers are no doubt familiar with the shrine in southern France where apparitions of Mary, Jesus’s mother, appeared 160 years ago to 14-year-old Bernadette, and the riverside location which is the site of so many miraculous cures. Water running from a spring in the sanctuary’s ‘Grotto of the Apparitions’ has curative powers and millions of pilgrims visit the sanctuary every year. Sr. Bernadette Moriau’s experience underwent extensive studies and tests by the International Medical Committee of Lourdes. The Bishop has the last word on whether to approve a reported
Photo: Emmanuel Brunner
The Grotto at Lourdes
cure as a miracle. Sr. Bernadette had four operations on her spinal column between 1968 and 1975 and was declared fully disabled in 1980. One foot was permanently twisted, requiring her to wear a brace and use a wheelchair. She took what she said were significant doses of morphine for pain. “I never asked for a miracle,” the nun, now 79, recounted of her July 2008 pilgrimage to Lourdes. After returning to her convent near Beauvais she was praying in the chapel, when, she tells us,
“I felt a (surge of)
well-being throughout
The Novena of Our Lady of Lourdes is an important February event in several parishes in Gibraltar, culminating in the whole congregation taking the statue of Our Lady to visit sick members of the Community who receive a special blessing.
my body, a
relaxation, warmth ...
I returned to my room and, there, a voice told me to ‘take off your
Upon This Rock Library photo St. Paul’s Parish Procession leaving St. Bernard’s Hospital 2015
braces,’”
Sr. Bernadette continues in French, on a video posted on the Beauvais diocesan web site. “Surprise! I could move!” She said she immediately did away with all her aids, from braces to morphine — and took a 5 kilometre hike a few days later. The Bishop said the nun’s “sudden, instantaneous, complete and durable change” alerted him to a possible miracle. The Lourdes medical committee said the changes were unexplainable “in the current state of our scientific
knowledge,” he added. Sr. Bernadette does not know why she was chosen for this miracle but “This grace will help me in my work” she says. The last miracle at Lourdes was declared in 2013. It involved an Italian woman who visited the Grotto in 1989, suffering with severe high blood pressure and other problems. Not all declared miracles pass through Lourdes. A French nun, Marie SimonPierre, was declared cured of
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her Parkinson’s disease after praying to the late Pope John Paul II, who suffered from the same neuro-degenerative disorder. That helped fast-track the much loved Holy Father’s canonisation as it was one of the two miracles needed for him to become St. John Paul II in 2014.
French speakers will be able to enjoy Sr. Bernadette’s video, by Googling ‘Beauvais miracle video’ or go to youtube.com/channel/ UC2mTtUjqW 9FCC5ddqO-Z5Mw/featured
Sources
catholicherald.co.uk/ news/2018/02/12/nunsrecovery-recognised-as-70thlourdes-miracle/
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