April 2020 226

KEEP

CALM IN THE

COVID-19 CRISIS Inside • Practical tips from WHO on caring for your mental health during the COVID-19 Crisis •Join daily Spiritual Communion services online

Editorial approved by Fr. Stuart Chipolina

Messages from Bishop Carmel and Pope Francis:

COVID-19 teaches us we are all

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n Gibraltar the Bishop responded to the threat of the Coronavirus early.

Bishop Carmel put measures into place to safeguard congregations and priests before swiftly taking the difficult decision to restrict access to Mass entirely.

Now, hundreds are regularly attending daily ‘Spiritual Communion’, services, rosary and adoration online and via tv channels. Speaking from the Shrine of Our Lady of Europe on Mother’s Day the Bishop said that this is a time to reflect on what it is that makes our lives worth living.

ONE HUMAN COMMUNITY That we have to shelve many of our plans and pleasures for the time being. “Its a time to reflect and pray about what Christians should do to show our belief in God. We should show compassion, show that we care and accept the directives that the authorities give us so we can save more lives.

Nothing is going to go back to normal. This is a time to purify ourselves for what is to come. We must try to see what God is telling us. The way God thinks is not the way we think. When Samuel was sent to Jesse’s house to find the King that the Lord had chosen

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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 hand-delivered 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.

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Cover: Patroness of GPLM Lady Cristina and Sir Peter attend a GPLM meeting on 6th Feb 2020 Photo © A.Sargent

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from among his sons, he was presented with Eliab, but the Lord said, ‘Take no notice of his height, for I have rejected him: God does not see as man sees: man looks at appearances, but the Lord looks at the heart.’

So we too must see with the eyes of God, to have Hope and Faith, and God willing we will get through this together. We must praise God for showing us what really matters in Life.”

Pope’s Prayer The Pope also emphasizes the importance of prayer, recalling how the Apostles turn to Jesus to save them during the storm (Mark 4:35-41). “Prayer helps us understand our vulnerability”, he says. “It is the cry of those who are sinking, who feel they are in danger and alone. And in a difficult, desperate situation, it is important to know that the Lord is there to cling to”.

Pope Francis makes no distinction between “believers and non-believers”. People are weeping because they are suffering, he says. “Everyone” is suffering. “We are all children before God”, he adds.

The Pope then speaks of those who are dying alone and without the comfort of their families. He says he was struck by the story of an elderly woman who said her final

Pope Francis’ Prayer for the Coronovirus Pandemic O Mary, you always shine on our path as a sign of salvation and of hope. We entrust ourselves to you, health of the sick, who at the cross took part in Jesus’ pain, keeping your faith firm. You, salvation of the Roman people, know what we need, and we are sure you will provide so that, as in Cana of Galilee, we may return to joy and feasting after this time of trial.

Help us, Mother of Divine Love, to conform to the will of the Father and do as we are told by Jesus, who has taken upon himself our sufferings and carried our sorrows to lead us through the Cross, to the joy of the resurrection. Amen goodbye to her loved ones over a phone belonging to one of the nurses. “The pain of those who have died without saying goodbye becomes a wound in the hearts of those who are left

behind”, says Pope Francis.

He thanks “all the nurses, doctors and volunteers who, despite their incredible exhaustion”, offer themselves, “with patience and kindness” to stand in for family members who cannot be there.

Pope Francis also addresses the consequences of the

coronavirus pandemic for our future. The current crisis will help to remind us “once and for all, that humanity is a single community”, he says. It will teach us that “universal kinship” is important and critical. We should think about it like a “post-war” phenomenon, he says: “It will no longer be

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‘them’. It will be ‘us’. Because we can only come out of this situation together”. Pope Francis concludes saying: “We will need to look even more closely at our roots: our grandparents, the elderly”. We will need “to build true kinship amongst us”.

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Cathedral Graduation Ceremony

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ast month His Lordship Bishop Carmel Zammit spoke to the graduates of the Cathedral’s Women of Grace Course, about the important role women have to play in the Church today.

In doing so Bishop Carmel alluded to the Holy Father’s recent visit to South America and his words on ‘The strength and gift of women’1 which we have published here in full.

In the Amazon region, there are communities that have long preserved and handed on the faith even though no priest has come their way, even for decades. This could happen because of the presence of strong and generous women who, undoubtedly called and prompted by the Holy Spirit, baptized, catechized, prayed and acted as missionaries.

For centuries, women have kept the Church alive in those places through their remarkable devotion and deep faith. Some of them, speaking at the Synod, moved us profoundly by their testimony.

This summons us to broaden our vision, lest we restrict our understanding of the Church to her functional structures. Such a reductionism would lead us to believe that women would be granted a greater status and participation in the Church

The Strength and Gift of Women only if they were admitted to Holy Orders. But that approach would in fact narrow our vision; it would lead us to clericalize women, diminish the great value of what they have already accomplished, and subtly make their indispensable contribution less effective.

Jesus Christ appears as the Spouse of the community that celebrates the Eucharist through the figure of a man who presides as a sign of the one Priest. This dialogue between the Spouse and his Bride, which arises in adoration and sanctifies the community, should not trap us in partial conceptions of power in the Church. The Lord chose to reveal his power and his love through two human faces: the face of his divine Son made man and the face of a creature, a woman, Mary.

Women make their contribution to the Church in a way that is properly theirs, by making present the tender strength of Mary, the Mother. As a result, we do not limit ourselves to a functional approach, but enter instead into the inmost structure of the Church. In this way, we will fundamentally realize why, without women, the Church breaks down, and how many communities in the Amazon would have collapsed, had women not been there to sustain them, keep them

together and care for them. This shows the kind of power that is typically theirs.

We must keep encouraging those simple and straightforward gifts that enabled women in the Amazon region to play so active a role in society, even though communities now face many new and unprecedented threats.

The present situation requires us to encourage the emergence of other forms of service and charisms that are proper to women and responsive to the specific needs of the peoples of the Amazon region at this moment in history.

In a synodal Church, those women who in fact have a central part to play in Amazonian communities should have access to positions, including ecclesial services, that do not entail Holy Orders and that can better signify the role that is theirs. Here it should be noted that these services entail stability, public recognition and a commission from the bishop.

This would also allow women to have a real and effective impact on the organization, the most important decisions and the direction of communities, while continuing to do so in a way that reflects their womanhood.

Expanding horizons beyond conflicts, Pope Francis does not explain in the document what

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he means by that other than by saying, “Women make their contribution to the Church in a way that is properly theirs, by making present the tender strength of Mary, the Mother.”

Reparatrix Sr. Augusta de Oliveira, a Brazilian and vicar general of her order, was the only woman chosen by the Vatican to present the Pope’s document to the press Feb. 12.

Throughout the Amazon and in Amazonian Catholic communities, she said, women are “conquering and occupying spaces for decision making, reflection and service in defence of threatened life.”

In the most difficult areas of the Amazon basin, she said, “we find the female presence” in religious communities “animating, supporting and serving.”

Pope Francis, in his document, urged Catholics to trust that the Holy Spirit is alive and active in the Catholic communities of the Amazon.

“For wherever there is a particular need, he has already poured out the charisms that can meet it.”

The Church, the Pope wrote, simply must “be open to the Spirit’s boldness, to trust in, and concretely to permit, the growth of a specific ecclesial culture that is distinctively lay.”

1. Pope Francis’ Post-synodal Exhortation ‘Querida Amazonia’ paragraphs 99-103

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In the name of the Carmel blesses couples celebrating their 25th, 40th, 50th & 60th Wedding Bishop Anniversaries at the Cathedral of St. Mary the Crowned on 7th February 2020

Schools Winner Governor’s Meadow Live Crib Norbert Andrew & Maria Del Pilar Sene

Norbert & Maria De Las Mercedes Sene

Louis & Kitty Pereira

Horacio & Frances Bosano

John & Lindon Dominguez

Manolo & Lilian Galliano

Eric Douglas & Susan Goldwin

Francis Joseph & Rosemarie Mifsud

Schools Winner Governor’s Meadow Live Crib

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Joseph & Yasmine Schembri

Reggie & Flor De Liz Azopardi

Albert & Olga Banda

William & Marie Davitt

Peter Albert & Helen Jane Ferrary

Henry & Mari Carmen Payas

Daniel & Lorraine Buhagiar

Rodger & Vanessa Celecia

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Father‌ The event was organised by the Christian Family Movement.

Colin & Tanya Davis

Dominic & Rosa Danino

Keith & Sundri Vinnicombe

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Photos: Jeremy Duo

Glen & Monica Mir

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Practical support for mental and psychosocial well-being during COVID-19 outbreak.

CALM IN THE

COVID-19 CRISIS Since World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of a new coronavirus disease to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern in January, the crisis has been generating stress in the population.

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he following mental health considerations were developed as support for the mental and psychosocial well-being of specific sectors1 of the population during COVID19 outbreak.

The general population COVID-19 has and is likely to affect people from many countries, in many geographical locations. Do not attach it to any ethnicity or nationality.

Be empathetic to all those who are affected, in and from any country. People who are affected by Covid-19 have not done anything wrong, and they deserve our support, compassion and kindness.

Do not refer to people with the disease as “COVID-19 cases”, “victims” “COVID-19

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families” or the “diseased”.

They are “people who have COVID-19”, “people who are being treated for COVID-19”, “people who are recovering from COVID-19” and after recovering from COVID-19 their life will go on with their jobs, families and loved ones.

It is important to separate a person from having an identity defined by COVID-19, to reduce stigma.

Minimize watching, reading or listening to news that causes you to feel anxious or distressed; seek information only from trusted sources and mainly to take practical steps to prepare your plans and protect yourself and loved ones.

Seek information updates at specific times during the day, once or twice. The sudden and near-constant stream of news reports about an outbreak can cause anyone to feel worried.

Get the facts; not the rumors and misinformation. Gather information at regular intervals, from WHO website and local

Crown of thorns ID 1015170 © Tasosk | Dreamstime.com

KEEP

health authorities platforms, in order to help you distinguish facts from rumors. Facts can help to minimize fears.

Protect yourself and be supportive to others. Assisting others in their time of need can benefit the person receiving support as well as the helper.

For example, check-in by phone on neighbors or people in your community who may need some extra assistance. Working together as one community can help to create solidarity in addressing Covid-19 together.

Find opportunities to amplify positive and hopeful stories and positive images of local people who have experienced COVID19. For example, stories of people who have recovered or who have supported a loved one and are willing to share their experience.

Honor caretakers and healthcare workers supporting people affected with COVID19 in your community.

Acknowledge the role they play to save lives and keep your loved ones safe.

Care providers for children Help children find positive ways to express feelings such as fear and sadness. Every child has their own way to express emotions. Sometimes engaging in a creative activity, such as playing, and drawing can facilitate this process. Children feel relieved if they can express and communicate their feelings in a safe and supportive environment.

Keep children close to their parents and family, if considered safe for the child, and avoid separating children and their caregivers as much as possible. If a child needs to be separated from their primary caregiver, ensure that appropriate alternative care is provided and that a social worker, or equivalent, will regularly follow up on the child. Further, ensure that during periods of separation, regular contact with parents and caregivers is maintained, such as twice-daily scheduled phone or video calls or other

age-appropriate communication (e.g., social media depending on the age of the child).

Maintain familiar routines in daily life as much as possible, or create new routines, especially if children must stay at home. Provide engaging age appropriate activities for children, including activities for their learning. As much as possible, encourage children to continue to play and socialize with others, even if only within the family when advised to restrict social contract.

During times of stress and crisis, it is common for children to seek more attachment and be more demanding on parents.

Discuss COVID-19 with your children using honest and age appropriate language. If your children have concerns, addressing those together may ease their anxiety. Children will observe adults’ behaviors and emotions for cues on how to manage their own emotions during difficult times.

Guidelines for older adults, care providers and people with underlying health conditions Older adults, especially in isolation and those with cognitive decline/dementia, may become more anxious, angry, stressed, agitated, and withdrawn during the outbreak/ while in quarantine. Provide practical and emotional support through informal networks (families) and health professionals.

Share simple facts about what is going on and give clear information about how to reduce risk of infection in language older people with/ without cognitive impairment can understand. Repeat the information whenever necessary. Instructions need to be communicated in a clear, concise, respectful and patient way. It may also be helpful for information to be displayed in writing or pictures.

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loved ones (for example via phone or other accesses).

Prepare a personal safety pack. The pack may include a summary of basic personal information, available contacts, medical information, regular medicines for two weeks, storable preferred snacks, a bottle of water, and some personal clothes.

People in isolation Engage their family and other support networks in providing information and helping them practice prevention measures (like handwashing).

If you have an underlying health condition, make sure to have access to any medications that you are currently using.

Activate your social contacts to provide you with assistance, if needed.

Be prepared and know in advance where and how to get practical help if needed, like calling a Taxi, having food delivered and requesting medical care.

Make sure you have up to 2 weeks of all your regular

medicines that you may require.

Learn simple daily physical exercises to perform at home, in quarantine or isolation to maintain mobility and reduce boredom.

Remember, keep regular routines and schedules as much as possible or make new ones to suit, including regular exercising, cleaning, daily chores, singing, painting or other activities. Help others, through peer support, neighbor checking, and childcare for medical personnel restricted in hospitals fighting against COVID-19 when safe to do so.

Keep regular contact with

Stay connected and maintain your social networks. Even when isolated, try as much as possible to keep your personal daily routines or create new ones. If health authorities have recommended limiting your physical social contact to contain the outbreak, you can stay connected via e-mail, social media, video conference and telephone.

During times of stress, pay attention to your own needs and feelings.

Engage in healthy activities that you enjoy and find relaxing. Exercise regularly, keep regular sleep routines

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and eat healthy food. Keep things in perspective. Public health agencies and experts in all countries are working on the outbreak to ensure the availability of the best care to those affected.

Seek information updates and practical guidance at specific times during the day from health professionals and the WHO website and avoid listening to or following rumors that make you feel uncomfortable. Stay informed.

1. Further information for healthcare workers, and current numbers about the spread of the disease worldwide is available from WHO at www.tinyurl.com/COVID-19-WHO and www.epi-win.com

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Science, service and stewardship.

A world wor th

The austerity that was Lent ended with the joyous proclamation “He is Risen” which rang out on Easter Sunday morning, freeing us from fasting, allowing us to take part in feasting and rejoice in the blessing of new life in the Spring.

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hey laugh that “there is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate”, and Easter is synonymous with this delicious, pleasurable and decadent treat.

Chocolate Easter eggs are big business and we pay dearly in tons of non biodegradable products which end up in landfills. Yes, sadly, chocolate and its production methods have an enormous environmental impact. A recent study at Manchester University looked at the carbon footprint by assessing the impact of ingredients, manufacturing processes, packaging and waste. Lets look at packaging. There is no doubt the seductive bright and eye catching packaging is a magnet which draws us in to buy, but, surely you may have noticed

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as you greedily unwrap on Easter morn, just how much unnecessary packaging there is for such a small chocolate return! Have you? Think about it and mull over this as you munch on your chocolate this Easter morning.

Did you know it takes about 1,000 litres of water to produce one chocolate bar? Also the UK chocolate industry alone produces 2.1 million tonnes of greenhouse gases a year? And that individually, each person eats the equivalent of 157 Mars bars a year? The Easter egg packaging produces over 8,000 tons of waste, 150 million eggs are sold producing 3,000 tons of foil and plastic, and this is in the UK alone!

Chocolate is much loved and I am sure we are not going to stop eating it anytime soon, but consider what it takes to get from the cocoa beans to the products available to us on a grand scale. I will have to be brief and use this example; cocoa is cultivated around the equator, mainly in West Africa, where five to six million farmers grow cocoa along the equatorial belt. There the hot humid climate is well suited for growing cocoa trees.

It has a considerable distance to travel before it becomes the chocolate bars produced and consumed in the UK, where the first bar originated in 1830.

In fact, cocoa has appeared in

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different cultures worldwide for hundreds of years. Cocoa was first developed as a crop in many ancient South American cultures, with the Aztecs and Mayans being the most wellknown of these indigenous populations.

Cocoa is also a delicate, sensitive plant. It requires high rainfall and temperatures to

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grow, as well as rainforest trees to offer shade and protection from too much light and damage caused by wind. Because cocoa farms are sensitive to this type of climate, they can only flourish in a narrow band of countries between 20 degrees north and south of the equator.

As we unwrap our favourite bars and slowly savour this delicious treat and enjoy the feel good factor, I wonder how many watched The Blue Planet in fascinated horror at the appalling level of plastic waste choking our oceans? Was one of those wrappers yours, or mine?

This year on 22nd April we will mark fifty years since the first observance of Earth Day. More than a million people will call for policy changes at government level to change human (mis)behaviour to the ravages of our planet.

This year’s theme speaks

Anne Mesilio writes

fighting for The Resurrection – Piero della Francesca 1462

eloquently; Climate Change.

Maybe because it is Easter my thoughts roamed off to the island of the same name, Easter Island, ‘discovered’ on that day by a Dutch explorer, Jacob Roggeveen, 5th April 1722.

Nestled remotely in the Pacific Ocean, 5,700 kilometres west of South America, it has the distinction of being an example

of the worst and most extreme deforestation in the world. It was a catastrophe which collapsed the eco system as millions of giant palms were felled to clear fields and make fires.

When the Europeans arrived they found few inhabitants in this now mostly barren land.

In our recent history we have witnessed devastating wild fire

consume huge areas of Australia where about 12.35 million acres of land have burned according to the Associated Press. The Amazon continues to burn and World Fire Atlas has recorded 79,000 wildfires in August 2019 compared to 16,000 in the same time in 2018.

The consequences are severe and brutal for the atmosphere, where carbon dioxide levels contribute to green house gases and effect climate change. Soil nutrients are eroded, floods and landslides are common.

For humans adverse health outcomes range from coughing and shortness of breath to respiratory and cardio vascular issues. It is happening before our eyes, fierce storms, scorching summers, flooding, a reality we just have to confront. Another reality is our care for this planet, to hand on to younger generations. What will they

have to thank us for? It is our only home, surely we have no other choice than to care for it? Remember the creation when after seven days we were gifted with a planet of plenty, given into our keeping. Pope Francis; “together we pledge our commitment to raising awareness about the stewardship of creation”.

There is more scientific research yet needed but there seems to be evidence that cocoa contains antioxidants called flavonoids which may have benefits for those with cardio vascular and high blood pressure problems.

On this Earth Day,and indeed every day, as you unwrap your bar of chocolate to enjoy, dispose of the wrapper carefully.

Every single one of us can make a difference to make every day Earth Day. It is a world worth fighting for.

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.

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Bishop Zammit’s Lenten Appeal

Fionn Shiner writes

Sponsored by

Sr. Maria Lúcia Ferreira

“ We burned clothes to stay warm ” A MOTHER in Syria has described how she has been forced to burn clothes to keep her disabled daughter warm amid reports that on the ninth anniversary of the civil war the economy is in freefall and people are on the breadline.

Speaking to Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Sr. Maria Lúcia Ferreira, from Mar Yakub Monastery in Qara, Qalamoun, about 50 miles north of the capital, Damascus, relayed an account of desperate measures taken by a woman she has been helping.

The Sister, known as Sr. Myri, said: “A local woman, whom we know well because she has a disabled daughter, told us that she had neither electricity nor gas.

“It is very hard to get gas in the country, or any kind of fuel oil, to heat the furnace.

“So she told us: ‘To keep Maria, my girl, warm, we have been burning clothes that we no longer use.’”

In response, ACN has provided heating fuel for more than 1,700 families in the Aleppo and Damascus regions,

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prioritising the elderly and the sick.

Sr. Myri added that food is increasingly scarce and that economic sanctions imposed by Western nations had worsened the situation significantly.

The World Bank estimates – as of 2017 – the conflict caused a £217billion loss in GDP. Sr. Myri said: “It’s horrible.

People can no longer buy anything to eat. Some people survive on bread and water.”

She added: “After the crisis in Lebanon and the new sanctions imposed on the country, the economic situation has become really terrible.”

According to Sr. Myri, the harsh winter increased the strain on struggling families.

She said: “The winter was mild until January, when several snow storms struck us here in Qalamoun, one of the coldest places in Syria.

“Here in Qalamoun, we still get two hours with electricity and four hours without it.

“But I think the area is better off than others because we heard that in the city of Homs, they sometimes go two days without electrical power. It depends on the part of the country.”

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Hope and healing for the victims of the Easter Day bombings

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ass attendance at one of the churches worst affected by the Easter Day bombings in Sri Lanka is 80 percent back to normal, according to the parish priest, who says a leading Catholic charity’s help is proving crucial for people’s recovery from trauma and bereavement.

A scene of devastation in Syria The civil war has left more than 380,000 dead and, according to the UNHCR, created 5.6 million refugees and 6.6 million internally displaced persons.

Syria is a priority country for ACN, and in 2018 the charity supported 185 projects, providing medicine, rent money for housing, education scholarships, repairs to homes and churches, and support for sisters and priests.

For the eighth year running, ACN provided Christmas parcels for more than 19,000 children, containing warm clothes, shoes, toys, devotional items and other essentials.

Sr. Myri also said: “I would like to ask people to join us to pray for these people who are in such a situation.”

Images both © Aid to the Church in Need: Sr. Maria Lúcia Ferreira; A scene of devastation in Syria.

In an interview with Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Fr. Jude Fernando, rector of St. Anthony’s Shrine, Colombo, thanked the charity for providing counselling services for victims of the bomb blasts on 21st April 2019, which killed at least 250 people and maimed more than 500 others.

At St. Anthony’s parish, 55 people died and 138 were injured – and there were more victims at Easter Day services in Batticaloa and Negombo.

Speaking during a visit to ACN’s international headquarters near Frankfurt,

Germany, Fr. Fernando said for many of the victims the road to recovery has been slow and painful.

In response, ACN funded 40 certified therapists to help people including the bereaved and a further 300 specialists have been trained with the charity’s support to provide psychological help for 2,000 people – families and children.

Thanking the charity, Fr. Fernando said: “The way we experienced your solidarity is highly appreciated. You have joined your prayers with ours.

You shared in our pain and suffering. We will never forget your contributions in word and deed.”

Fr. Fernando said the bombings had helped bring people of different faiths together, stating that 40 percent of the people coming to his church each day are non-Christians – with many Buddhists and Muslims.

The shrine director went on to praise Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo, for his

John Pontifex writes

Fr. Jude Fernando

steadfast support of the faithful in their grief and his calls for those responsible for the blasts to be brought to justice.

Referring to the cardinal, who has signalled he will call for street protests if the government fails to publish results of inquiries into the blast, Fr. Fernando said: “After the attacks, the Cardinal took leadership and spoke out in public and asked all the communities to forgive one another.”

Fr. Fernando stressed that people were still a long way from recovery and thanked ACN for backing a fresh counselling project, this time aimed at priests.

The shrine director said: “The priests need help. If we are to be strong for others, we need to be strong ourselves. If we are weak, the people will remain weak.”

Photo of Fr. Jude Fernando © Aid to the Church in Need

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.

ACN projects in Sri Lanka include support for church buildings, Mass stipends for priests, providing Christian education, training of seminarians and help for Sisters.

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Set up a monthly gift:

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.

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SAMUEL - God’s Special Gift

A Story by Manolo Galliano continues to be serialised

Chapter 9

This is the story of Samuel, a child with a mental disability and his encounter with Jesus, Continuing from Issue 224 who became his very special friend. aura of silent majesty.

As he came ever closer to where they were standing, Jacob saw that a twisted cap of thorns had been wedged down on his head, causing thin rivulets of blood to trickle down his cheeks from myriad small puncture wounds. He also noted that his face was heavily bruised, his hair matted with congealed blood, and his tunic muddied and bloodstained, which made him realise that he had been tortured whilst being imprisoned.

When Jesus was finally brought before him, Pilate stood up, and addressing the representative group of senators and chief priests who were standing nearby, he said to them in a loud voice, “Look!

Here is the man!” But they stared insolently at him and shouted back “Crucify him!”

And almost immediately, as if it had been rehearsed, this refrain was taken up by many in the crowd who repeated, with blood-curling shouts, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”

Jacob at once remembered his daughter’s dark and prophetic fears only a few days earlier, when Jesus had been making

Samuel, in his weakened state, has fallen and banged his head, meanwhile Jacob and Rachel witness Jesus being brought before Pontius Pilate …

Slowly he hobbled down as best as he could, amid shouted insults and constant heckling from many of those gathered below. A threadbare, purple cloak had been carelessly thrown over his back, but, far from making him look ridiculous, this actually had the opposite effect and lent him an

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what seemed at the time his triumphant entry into Jerusalem to the acclaim of spell-bound crowds. He now became very disillusioned and angry at their irrational behaviour.

Meanwhile, Pontius Pilate appeared to become increasingly nervous over the people’s violent reaction and so he addressed them again. “As you are well aware, I always set free a prisoner at this feast of Passover. So, which one do you want me to free for you?

Barabbas, the bandit, or Jesus Ben Joseph, whom you call the Messiah?”

The people then shouted over louder. “Barabbas! Free Barabbas!” Jacob saw that Pilate was getting really worried about the worsening situation, and this was borne out by his silent command to his soldiers to unsheath their swords and to draw nearer to where he was standing. In what appeared to be a trembling voice, he asked them, “What then, shall I do with Jesus Ben Joseph, the so-called Messiah?

Without a moment’s notice they screamed back. “Crucify him, crucify him!”

Pilate, apparently fearing that the whole thing might end up in a riot, sat down again, and ordering one of his servants to bring him a basin of water, proceeded to wash his hands ceremoniously, saying, “I am not responsible for the death of this man. This is your doing!”

And with that he gave orders that Jesus should be scourged and be handed over to be crucified.

Jacob and the others were aghast at this grave outcome.

Apart from being completely confused as what to do next,

Story so far can be found at uponthisrock.gi they were also having to contend with the hysterical wailing of Mary of Magdala.

To make matters worse, one of Mathias’ servants arrived just then, bringing them news that Samuel had disappeared without trace.

Forgetting the Master’s predicament for the time being, and knowing that they were completely powerless to take any positive action, Jacob and his daughter dashed away and immediately commenced an exhaustive search for Samuel.

Over the next few long hours, they trudged everywhere through the confused maze of streets and lanes of the Upper and Lower City, Mount Gihon and the Temple area, enquiring at all the shops and inns, looking into every single courtyard and doorway, but without success.

The sudden violent storm, accompanied by torrential rain made them discontinue their search, and they returned, drenched and downhearted, to Bethpage with the fervent hope that they might find Samuel there waiting for them.

However, unknown to them, at that very precise moment, Samuel was lying unconscious in a cellar after having been swept there by the force of the ferocious downpour whilst their beloved Master was breathing his last on a criminal’s cross on Golgotha, the ‘Place of the Skull’.

that he was not tucked up at home in a warm bed, but lying on the damp dirt floor of a half-lit underground chamber.

His head throbbed and he had difficulty in focussing properly, but what worried him most of all was that he could not recall how he had actually got there.

All that he could remember was the pelting rain, and loud peals of thunder and, most especially, the torrents of muddy water pushing him down into total darkness.

Slowly, other images came back to him, that of Roman soldiers marching, the beating of drums, of crowds of people jeering and, finally, of a wounded man in chains falling in front of him and staring helplessly at him.

Now the details came flooding back to him and he remembered that the prisoner was, in fact, his friend Jesus and that he had fled from him when he most needed his help.

Samuel got up and peered round the cellar which was full of barrels of fruit, sacks of grain and large, stoppered pottery vessels containing wine and oil. He also noticed

that there was a little window or opening high up near the ceiling, which was letting in some light, but which seemed to be completely inaccessible.

By a corner of the chamber he saw, in the gloom, some stone steps leading up to some kind of entrance. Immediately be rushed up and tried to open the heavy wooden door. But despite tugging and pushing it with all his might, he could not budge it and he assumed that it had been locked from the other side. He next tried kicking and banging it, but this made no significant difference and even screaming for help proved equally unsuccessful, only managing to make himself hoarse.

What Samuel did not realise was that he had been lying unconscious since the previous day and that the building he was in was, in actual fact, a warehouse which was closed for the festival. Despite feeling very weak and dizzy, he was also quite hungry, so without another thought, he rummaged through one of the barrels until he found some fruit stored in

one of them and grabbed an apple to eat.

As he lay sprawled back against one of the sacks, he considered all that had happened to him and wondered how he was going to manage to get out of there.

As he gazed up at the small window, he knew that this could be his only means of escape, although he was still uncertain how to reach it.

Suddenly, he had a brainwave and immediately tossing away his half-eaten apple, he got up and started pushing some of the smaller sacks against the far wall, placing a number of empty crates haphazardly on top of them.

To be continued…

Chapter 10

Between bouts of incessant coughing and severe trembling, Samuel finally opened his eyes, and realising in bafflement

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