Wm november2013 issuu

inside: Long wakes and extravagance • Oasis of peace and faith • Healing of memories

living among the dead Tombstone beds and silent neighbors Finding a gem amid the crypts

n ovember 2013 • n o. 272 • VOL X X V • 50 pesos • ISSN 0116-8142

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editorial

Beginning, not end The Asian Catholic Monthly Magazine

www.worldmission.ph MAILING ADDRESS: 7885 Segundo Mendoza Street Villa Mendoza Subd. - Sucat 1715 Parañaque City, M.M. - PHILIPPINES TEL.: (+63-2) 829-0740/829-7481 FAX: (+63-2) 820-1422 E-Mail: wm.editor@gmail.com OWNER AND PUBLISHER: WORLD MISSION is published monthly by the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus as part of their ministry and program of missionary awareness in Asia. WORLD MISSION magazine is registered at DI–BDT and at the National Library (ISSN 0116-8142).

EDITOR: Fr. Dave C. Domingues, MCCJ REDACTION: Corazon A. Uy (secretary), Fr. Jose Rebelo,MCCJ and Fr. Lorenzo Carraro, MCCJ (staff writers) COLLABORATORS: Manuel Giraldes (Portugal), Fr. Joseph Caramazza (UK), Fr. Francesco Pierli (Kenya) and Kris Bayos (Philippines) MANAGEMENT: Fr. Raul Tabaranza, MCCJ wm.administration@gmail.com Ma. Corazon P. Molvizar (secretary) Angeles S. de Vera (circulation) PROMOTION: Fr. Dave C. Domingues, MCCJ wm.promotion@gmail.com ART & DESIGN DIRECTION: Ric M. Gindap GRAPHICS & DESIGN: Victor Garcia SUBSCRIPTION RATES: (11 issues and Calendar) Regular (Philippines):.........................P500.00/year Six months (Philippines):...........................P300.00 Overseas–Air mail: Asia................................US$35 Rest of the world.............................................US$40 DISTRIBUTION: WORLD MISSION is distributed to subscribers by mail. Entered as Second Class Mail at the Parañaque Central Post Office under Permit No. 214-89 (March 9, 1989; valid until December 31, 2013). Published monthly in Parañaque City, M.M. Composition: World Mission. Printed by Lexmedia Digital Corp.

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L

ife and death are closely intertwined in our human journey.

Generations, since time immemorial, have developed rituals, traditions, mitts and sayings which, transmitted in writing or simply orally, became part of our culture and, therefore, have shaped peoples’ lives and their understanding of themselves, the world around them and of the world beyond their reach.

Many of the spiritual gurus of our times would agree that death, aside from fascinating human imagination, creating fear and inspiring multiple stories and movies, has a powerful influence over life. It would not be erroneous even to assume that death, in its mystery, has much to teach us about life. Moreover, if we believe that death is not an unexpected trap, nor is it a last door that closes but, instead, a natural end to a journey of life which leads us to a different realm of new life what, in faith, we call eternal life, then death cannot be devoid of meaning.

Often, in my liturgical services for the dead, I find myself pondering upon the lessons we may draw from death of a loved one, however more or less tragic it may have come. In my ref lection, I have discovered that death is a good teacher about life, its meaning and purpose. What could be some of the lessons to be learned?

First, as we face the death of a loved one, we realize that life is pure gift – actually God’s gift – meant to be taken as such. We do not own our lives nor can we extend the number of our days. Gratitude for such precious gift enlivens the heart. It makes us aware of the great ‘Artisan’ of our life – God – and all those who became instrumental in receiving and appreciating this gift – parents, relatives and all those who are part of our human journey.

Second, this gratitude for life, received as pure gift, leads us to cknowl-

Dave Domingues EDITOR

Our view of death is also shaped by the way we understand and live life. Death should not be seen as our end. It can become our new beginning. It does not have to be a denial of what life stands for.

edge God – the Giver – and to assume responsibility for the way we use this gift. Taking life for granted would be foolish! Realizing its preciousness and how short it may be should lead us to embrace each moment as if it was the last; living fully each experience; appreciating each smile; feeling compassion for each tear; taking the chances to leave an imprint that can be memorable and linger on beyond our own life; taking chances to fight for what is right and good; seizing opportunities to make a difference; spending time with what matters; living acolorful life that can be treasured, remembered and celebrated even when we are gone.

Third, living the gift of life fully during our earthly journey, we can only trust the words of Jesus: “I came that you may have life and have it to the full” ( John 10:10). As Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart placed it: “I thank my God for graciously granting me the opportunity of learning that death is the key which unlocks the door to our true happiness.” Then, our view of death is also shaped by the way we understand and live life.

Death, should not be seen as our end.

It can become our new beginning.

It does not have to be grim, cruel, harsh, a source of consternation or a complete denial of what life stands for. Instead, without denying the pain and the grief that death can cause us, it should not be regarded as an enemy but as part of the great mystery of our existence.

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your let ters Write to: The Editor, World Mission Magazine • 7885 Segundo Mendoza Street, Villa Mendoza Subd. − Sucat 1715 Parañaque City, M.M. – Philippines • E-mail: wm.editor@gmail.com UNDERSTANDING OUR ROLE

Your October issue of World Mission magazine has very insightful articles on the role of the laity in the church, the beginning of the laity's participation in the early church, their role and the challenges ahead. Your topics on the laity are very informative and give us, lay volunteers, a better understanding of who and what we are in our service to the church. Your back cover says it all: "Our vocation as laypeople is to bring the Gospel beyond the Church’s parking lot."

I hope that many lay people will be able to read this October issue of WM to guide them in their service as lay volunteers. God bless us all! « Eva M. Aguilar, Parañaque City (Received by e-mail)

ATTENDING MASS I would like to react to an interview with Gang Badoy published by World Mission magazine in the September issue. In the article she narrates a shift – from her being someone who used to cut classes just to attend the Mass to a "critical thinker" who "knew when to disobey." She also says: "I think the real Mass happens when you're around your child, your spouse, your friends, or you changing someone's tire. I am sure that it is a greater offering than the Eucharist."

I don't entirely disagree with her. It is important to live your life charitably by helping your family and neighbor whenever you can, like a good Samaritan. It is necessary to go out and spread the love of Christ on the streets. I understand the point she is trying to make.

However, it can easily be misconstrued as a message that displaces the Mass in our faith. Living the Gospel is essential as an extension of what we gain from the Eucharist but it can NEVER be MORE important than the Mass.

Badoy says that "if you are flexible, you are a stronger Catholic as opposed to a rigid one." The point of having a religion is not to wear it any way you want like a fashionable hat. It is a disciplined way of life to act as a conduit to experience and realize the Divine God. Loving the Eucharist and the Mass does not

make you a Pharisee, but simply a Catholic, with the Mass as central to our faith.

I am not arguing for the opposite of staying in Mass and tradition like snobbish zealots. "Faith without works is dead"(James 2 14-26). These works, however, have to be filled with spiritual nourishment found only in the Mass.

Then again, simply going to Mass would not make you a better Catholic. We need to celebrate it with full passion and understanding. For instance, while it might seem admirable to cut classes to attend Mass, celebrating it within a "mundane" day does not replace Mass celebrated on a sacred(meaning separated) hour on a sacred day (Sunday). « Matthew David Ordonez (Received by e-mail) LIFETIME SUBSCRIPTION I have been transferred to a region where communications is very, very difficult. We do not have even mobile phones or other modern express means of communications.

I want to continue with my subscription to World Mission as long as I live. I am 65 years of age. I was ordained on the 1st of July 1973.

I will say the Masses required for your intentions as the renewal of my subscription to World Mission every end of the year. « Fr. Zakaria Lwinga,Tanzania, East Africa

Visit Our Website: www.worldmission.ph JOIN us! www.facebook.com/worldmissionmagazine

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RENEWING YOUR SUBSCRIPTION Subscribers and friends: For your convenience, you may now remit renewal fees by: • Bank transfer (BDO, Villa Mendoza – Sucat Branch, Acct. No. 005280011577, Acct. Name: Comboni World Mission).

If you will use this method, please send us, by fax or ordinary mail, the copy of the deposit slip with your name and address.

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Please help us to provide you the best service you deserve. Thank you!

events to remember in november 01 02 09

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- Solemnity of All Saints - All Souls' Day - Feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran Basilica - Universal Children's Day - Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary 24 - Solemnity of Christ the King 30 - Feast of St. Andrew, Apostle mIssion prayer intention

That the Churches of Latin America may send missionaries to other Churches as a result of the continental mission.

inside IN LOVING MEMORY

Human history is filled with traditions and rituals that celebrate life and death. Each culture has its own set of rules and behaviors, commonly accepted and handed down from generation to generation. The Philippines, with its great variety of cultures, is known for its wealth of traditions that deal with the connection between those who stay and those who have left this world. The traditional beliefs and practices which Filipinos observe to honor and show respect to their dead during the bereavement time, burial and special dates of remembrance, are particularly rich. Though they are marked by religious teachings that remained after the colonial rule, there are specific variations according to the different regions and, often, ancient local traditions are deeply entwined with those of Christian influence.

A mixture of fascination for death and fear of the dead and their spirits gave rise to numerous practices which are observed religiously – bringing the living to associate with the dead not only in sorrow and pain of the loss, but also in the joyful celebration of the loving memory of the departed.

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world touch

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frontiers

WM special | celebrating the departed

Skin whiteners are “racist”

By Fr.Shay Cullen, preda

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filipino focus | living among the dead

Tombstone beds and silent neighbors

By KRIS BAYOS, JOURNALIST

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filipino focus | living among the dead

Finding a gem amid the crypts

By KRIS BAYOS, JOURNALIST

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Long wakes and extravagance

by Michael L. Tan dean, u.p. college of sciences and philosophy

frontline | south sudan

Oasis of peace and faith

By Fr. Dave Domingues, MCCJ

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spiritual reflection | HUMAN RIGHTS

How nations become accountable to each other

By Fr. John Converset, MCCJ

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Missionary vocation | Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

Healing of memories

By Fr. Lorenzo Carraro, mccj

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THE LAST WORD

Christians by words only or by deeds?

By Fr. SILVANO FAUSTI, sJ

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Death: A celebration and continuity of life

by Analyn Salvador-Amores, Ph.D.

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Keeping the dead among the living

by Christian Clarke Cásarez

WORLD MISSION has the exclusive services of the following magazines for Asia: ALÉM-MAR (Portugal); MUNDO NEGRO (Spain); NIGRIZIA (Italy); NEW PEOPLE (Kenya); WORLDWIDE (South Africa), AFRIQUESPOIR (DR of Congo); ESQUILA MISIONAL (Mexico); MISION SIN FRONTERAS (Peru); and IGLESIA SINFRONTERAS (Colombia).

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w o r l dto u c h china

Inflation worries the “spirit world” Deep in China's “spirit world,” an inflation crisis is brewing that would give central bankers chills. For hundreds of years, Chinese have burned stacks of socalled "ghost money" for their ancestors to help ensure their comfort in the afterlife. The fake bills resemble a gaudier version of Monopoly money, emblazoned with the beatific-looking image of the Emperor of the Underworld.

Traditionally, paper money burned in China came in small denominations of fives or tens. But more recent generations of money printers have grown less restrained. The value of the biggest bills has risen in the past few decades from the millions and, more recently, the billions. The reason: even Hong Kong's dead try to keep up with the Joneses, and their living relatives believe that they need more and more fake bucks to pay for high-cost indulgences like condos and iPads.

This year, on the narrow Hong Kong streets that are filled with shops that specialize in offerings for the dead, there appeared a foot-long, rainbow-colored $1 trillion bill. "What we have right now is hyperinflation," says University of Hong Kong economist Timothy Hau. "It's like operating in Zimbabwe."

The inflation problem worsened during this year's Hungry Ghost Festival, when the gates of the underworld are believed to open and ghosts are allowed to wander the earth. Residents across the city staged traditional opera performances to entertain their supernatural guests (leaving the front row of seats empty for ghost spectators), cooking elaborate meals of roast meats for their enjoyment and burning wads of fake money on the sidewalks in their honor.

The inflation in the underworld mimics what is happening above ground.

In recent years; both Hong Kong and mainland China have felt the impact of higher prices. With its rising cost of food and housing, Hong Kong, in particular,

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has its hands tied in fighting inflation, Hong Kong's central bank, the Hong thanks, in large part, to its currency peg Kong Monetary Authority, says it is powwith the U.S. dollar, which keeps the erless to address underworld inflation city's interest rates low. because it lacks the regulatory authori"Inflation is ever ywhere so, of ty. "As a result, [the HKMA] does not colcourse, it happens in the underworld lect monetary statistics on the amount too," says Li Yin-kwan, 42. The $1 trillion or value of currency in circulation in the bill is the most popular note in her shop, 'afterworld' or seek to regulate its issushe says, "because it allows the ghosts to ance activities," said a spokeswoman buy many things, such as a fancy car and who apologized for not being funnier in a big house." Still, she said that there is her reply. also a place for burning smaller-value According to Chinese tradition, bills. "The ghosts need spare change burning ghost money – which in many to buy daily necessities, too," she says, ways is more of a cultural than religious “such as clothes and food.” practice – is a vital part of ancestor care.

Vendors like Ms. Li point to other The traditional view of the Chinese afworrying signs of an underworld eco- terlife is that it closely mirrors the real nomic crisis, including the proliferation world, with its own otherworldly bureauof paper credit cards from the Bank of cracy full of officials that need careful the Underworld – some adorned with cajoling – not to mention bribes. pink diamond motifs and VIP stick"We've got corruption in the underers, and others colored mint green like world as well," says Maria Tam, Chinese American Express. Other symptoms of University of Hong Kong anthropoloa splashed-out consumer economy are gist. For example, she says, if you burn afoot, including paper iPads, flat-screen a paper house for your ancestors, you TVs with 3-D glasses and sports cars. have to burn money as well. "Otherwise Economists say the problem is that Lusasome petty bureaucrat down there will the underworld has no control over how probably take it for their own," said much currency enters its economy. The Ms. Tam. "So you need money to bribe more "ghost money" burned, the more them." inflation continues to zoom upward.

Cash is needed for other pursuits as "Inflation is, everywhere, a monetary well. "In the underworld, they also need phenomenon," says Mr. Hau, citing the money to gamble," says Mr. Cheung. "No late economist Milton Friedman. "It's money, no fun." www.online.wsj.com/ Te-Ping Chen the money supply that's causing it."

 INFLATION. The $1 trillion bill is the popular denomination to cover all the dead's needs.

americas

Comboni Missionaries, 75 years in Peru

WATER

Hope for drought relief in rural north Kenya Two vast underground aquifers, storing billions of liters of water, have been discovered in the poorest and least developed area of Kenya. The finds, in Turkana county in the north west, were uncovered using new technology to interpret groundpenetrating radar from satellites.

Professor Judy Wakhungu, appointed Minister of Environment, Water and Natural Resources in April, described the find as extremely significant: "It is not too deep and ought not to be too expensive to develop," she added. Wakhungu said Kenya plans to use the technology to map the entire country: "We are excited to be able to provide a national map of the country's water resources."

The barren semi-desert Turkana region is home to about 700,000 people. Most live off their herds of camels, goats and sheep. Temperatures rarely fall below 30C and water is scarce. "Many people have to live on around 10 liters of water a day," said Brian McSorley, OXFAM's water expert in Nairobi. "This is half the minimum daily requirement." The aquifers could change the lives of people in the region.

One, close to the main town of Lodwar, is said to have a proven reserve of 10 billion cubic meters of fresh water. The other, the Lotikipi basin, further north, towards the Sudanese border, is even larger, holding at least 200 billion cubic meters of water.

These aquifers are being recharged from the surrounding plains and hills, an area of 21,000 sq km, The study indicates it

is being replenished at a rate of 1.2 billion cubic meters a year – more than enough to supply the entire county. But getting the water to the scattered people of Turkana will be no easy matter. This is among the most remote and lawless regions of Kenya.

There are sporadic raids from neighboring Uganda, Sudan and Ethiopia. Drought and disputes over livestock have plagued the area for generations. The Turkana, Samburu and Pokot people have traditionally engaged in cattle raids, but in recent years these have increased in intensity, leaving many dead.

McSorley believes the real test will be whether the infrastructure will be installed to allow the water to reach local people. He has been working at the giant Dadaab refugee camp in north-eastern Kenya for years. This lies close to another giant aquifer, but getting access to the water is not easy. "Groundwater resources here are not an issue but many of the surrounding communities still lack a borehole or the pumps to access it," he said. "Those that do cannot always afford the fuel to operate the generator to power the pump or have the cash to service and maintain the equipment."

Turkana lies just south of the Ilemi triangle, a disputed border region, whose exact boundaries have never been agreed upon by neighboring states. Quarrels over where the border runs began during the colonial period and continue to this day.

The Comboni Missionaries are celebrating the 75th anniversary of their arrival in Peru, their first missionary field in Latin America. It was on September 11, 1938 that the three pioneers, Fr. Alois Ipfelkofer, Fr. Michael Wagner, both from Germany and Fr. Andrew Riedl from South Tirol, arrived at Callao Harbor near Lima, the capital.

They came, at the Vatican’s request, to answer the spiritual needs of the German colony in Pozuzo. Years later, we are witnesses to the many fruits the Lord has bestowed upon their work. Now, we are around 60 missionaries working in the fields of evangelization, mass media, vocation promotion and formation of new missionaries for the world at large.

Missionaries accompany Christian communities in the periphery of the larger cities or in the remotest villages in the Peruvian Andes or in the rainforest.

The main celebration was moved to Sunday, Sept. 8, the feast of the Nativity of our Lady. It took place at our Comboni parish, in the outskirts of the capital, in what used to be a shanty town. The chapel was packed with more than a thousand worshippers.

The Holy Mass, presided by Msgr.

Jaime Rodriguez, Bishop of Huanuco, lasted for more than three hours, in the best African and Latin American style. Fr. Roy Zuniga,mccj

www.theguardian.com

China will plough billions of yuan into farmland in Ukraine that will eventually become its biggest overseas agricultural project. Ukraine will initially provide China with at least 100,000 hectares – an area almost the size of Hong Kong. − www.scmp.com/Mandy Zuo

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“The Church will not collapse, I am sure, I am sure.

Sanctity is stronger than scandals.”

– Pope Francis, at a meeting with diocesan clergy in the Basilica of St John Lateran, last September 16. www.catholicherald.co.uk

“While the Church is not a democratic institution, it needs to ref lect on the democratic spirit of the times and adopt a collegial way of governing.” – Archbishop Pietro

Parolin, the new Secretary of State of the Vatican, in an interview for the Venezuelan newspaper, El Universal. www.cathnews.com

“The benchmark for extreme poverty is an income of $1.25 per day. Can we, as Christians, really say that that is sufficient? Can we stand by while each year a quarter of a million women die in childbirth, or while malnutrition kills eight million children and confers a legacy of disease and stunted growth on hundreds of millions more?” – Australia’s

Catholic Bishops, in their annual Social Justice Statement, "Lazarus at Our Gate: A critical moment in the fight against world poverty." www.cathnews.com

“Success can be the death knell for innovation and creativity, especially nowadays, given how fast moving the world is.”

– Noreena Hert, author of "Eyes Wide Open: How to Make Smart Decisions in a Confusing World," during an interview for CNN last September 24, 2013.

"In 2012, military expenses amounted to 1,750 billion dollars; 8% of this figure is spent on the Middle East. This really is adding fuel to the fire.” – Msgr. Silvano Tomasi, the Holy See's representative to the U.N., in Geneva, in an interview by the Vatican Radio last September 9. www.vaticaninsider.lastampa.it “In parts of the world where democracy has not asserted itself strongly enough, the accumulation of arms – bought through legal and illegal means – helps keep small elites in power and they certainly have no regard for the common good of their people.”

– Idem, Ibidem

FOOD CRISIS

U.N.’s wake-up call to world leaders Governments in rich and poor countries alike should renounce their focus on agribusiness and give more support to smallscale, local food production to achieve global food security and tackle climate change, according to UNCTAD, the U.N. trade and development body.

The 2013 Trade and Environment Review calls on governments to "wake up before it is too late" and shift rapidly towards farming models that promote a greater variety of crops, reduced fertiliser use and stronger links between small farms and local consumers. Persistent rural poverty, global hunger, population growth and environmental concerns must be treated as a collective crisis, argues the UNCTAD report, which criticises the international response to the 2008 food-price crisis for focusing on technical "quick-fixes."

"Many people talk about energy,

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transpor t, etc, but agr iculture only comes on the agenda when there is an acute food-price crisis, or when there are conflicts at the national level over food," said Ulrich Hoffman, senior trade policy adviser at UNCTAD. "At the international scene, most of the discussion is on technicalities, but the matter we have before us is far more complex."

The report, which includes contributions from 60 international experts – cov-

ering topics from food prices and fertiliser use to international land deals and trade rules – demands a paradigm shift to focus efforts on making farming more sustainable and food more affordable through promoting local food production and consumption.

The report argues that industrial, monoculture agriculture has failed to provide enough affordable food where it is needed, while the damage caused to the environment is "mounting and unsustainable." It echoes the work of Nobel prize-winner Amartya Sen in arguing that the real causes of hunger – poverty and the lack of access to good, affordable food – are being overlooked. Agricultural trade rules must be reformed, it says, to give countries more opportunity to promote policies that encourage local and regional food systems. www.theguardian.com/ Claire Provost

CONGO

Nun wins U.N. Refugee Award

egypt

Two million Egyptians living in cemeteries Revolution in Egypt has not reached its cemeteries. Few people expect any sort of spring to break out here ever – including those living here. The latest survey by the Public Statistics Agency says there are more than two million Egyptians living in cemeteries. A housing shortage and poverty drove most of them to Cairo’s graveyard slums. Some work cutting marble for tombs. Others earn a few cents from the families of the dead, to recite verses from the Koran at the gravesite.

Hatem Hosni and five of his family occupy a burial plot with a structure that serves as a bedroom and a small kitchen. This one was built around 150 years ago, so below ground are dozens of corpses, and strong smells. He says his children have nightmares and wonders if they will have a better future. “Lack of jobs and high rents made us come to live here. To get a new apartment would cost me a lot, and I don’t have any work, so I can’t move. The government has forgotten us and does not care. They consider us dead, because we live in cemeteries.”

Al Haj Ahmed has lived in Cairo’s Aisha cemetery for 43 years. When people visit the place, they may give him a small charity donation. The city center is just a few kilometers away, but he does not go there. “I am an illiterate man. I do not know what is going on in Egypt. I only get news from people who come here, like you. They tell me there are clashes. But I really don’t care. I live here. I have no one to support, and I don’t get mixed up in politics.”

Egypt’s tomb enclaves have also become a shelter to people running from the law.

Some are thought to work in organized burglary, murder or drug trafficking. The police generally stay out. But since the tomb tradition remains strong, a family will reopen a crypt when a member dies, temporarily displacing living squatters who are down on their luck.

“My daughter asked the government for an apartment four years ago,” an older resident told us. “Her husband is disabled, and they live with her mother-in-law in a small room. The authorities told her there would be a two-year wait.” Successive governments promise change, but none has delivered it. Basic survival is the rule. For instance, we saw a man who lives on bread that others throw away. He washes it, wraps it in cloth, leaves it for few minutes and eats it.

Mohammed Shaikhibrahim summed up: “The people who live in cemeteries are branded ‘the dead who live above ground.’ They’re ignorant of political conflicts and don’t think about what’s going on in their country. In these cemeteries’ narrow streets, the only conflict is how to stay alive.” www.euronews.com

"It is not my work only. It is the Lord's."

Such was the summation of Sr. Angelique Namaika, a member of the Augustine Sisters of Dungu and Doruma, as she spoke to reporters in an international conference call, upon winning the Nansen Refugee Award bestowed annually by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Namaika has been working for the past four years with women forced to leave their homes in the northeastern Congolese bush because of the ongoing civil strife in the Congo. Many of the women have been forced to marry members of the Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel group led by Joseph Kony, whose activities have destabilized not only Congo but disrupted life in neighboring African nations as well.

Speaking through an interpreter during the Sept. 12 conference call, Namaika said: "When I arrived here in Congo in 2003, I started helping women who didn't have a chance to go to school.

So when the displaced women came in 2009, I greeted them in the communities where I was doing training. I saw that these women were vulnerable, even more vulnerable than the other women I was helping, because these women were traumatized, and they didn't have a chance"…"Since they were living so far away from the center," she continued, "I moved my training and teaching activities to the center where they were living."

The Nansen Award, comes with a cash prize ($100,000), donated by the winner to a charity of his or her choice. The award was presented in a ceremony in Geneva on Sept. 30. www.ncronline.org

Muslims in northern Kenya and the Coast Province have been primary targets for recruitment and extremism by Al-Shabaab and its sympathizers. The residents are predominantly Muslims who have felt marginalized by the central government. − www.ipsnews.net

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ETHIOPIA

Reducing child mortality Ethiopia, a low-income country in the drought prone Horn of Africa, has achieved the millennium development goal to cut the mortality rate for children under the age of five ahead of the 2015 deadline, according to figures recently published. The statistics, contained in a 2013 progress report, “Committing to Child Survival: A Promise Renewed,” compiled by the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the World Bank Group, showed Ethiopia has reduced child deaths by more than two thirds over the past 20 years. In 1990, an estimated 204 children in every 1,000 in Ethiopia died before the age of five. The latest data shows that, by 2012, the rate had dropped to 68, a massive 67% fall in the under-five mortality rate. Bangladesh, Liberia, Malawi, Nepal and Tanzania have also achieved the target.

According to the report – which examines trends in child mortality since 1990, analyzes the main causes of under-five deaths, and highlights national and global efforts to save children's lives – the annual number of under-five deaths has fallen from 12.6 million in 1990 to 6.6 million in 2012. Some of the greatest advances in cutting child deaths are being made in east and southern Afr ica.

Between 2005 and 2012, the regions achieved an annual reduction rate of 5.3% – the highest in the world.

In Tanzania, the Help Babies Breathe Alliance has trained and equipped more than 100,000 health workers, resulting in a 47% reduction in deaths during the first 24 hours of life. In Zambia and Uganda, meanwhile, safe deliveries in health facilities have been promoted through the training of hundreds of health workers in emergency obstetric and newborn care, along with the availability of essential supplies and equipment for the treatment of postpartum problems.

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However, there are still some anomalies. Kenya has experienced an increase in the overall under-five mortality rate, from 96 deaths per 1,000 births in 1990 to 108 per 1,000 in 2012. The rise has occurred despite the introduction of free maternal healthcare, and despite some regional success in cutting deaths. The

western and central regions of Africa are making the least progress globally. Almost one in every eight children born there will not reach their fifth birthday and the annual rate of reduction, while increasing, remains the slowest in the world. Political instability, recurrent emergencies and disasters, widespread extreme poverty, and

some of the lowest budgetary allocations to basic social services in the world have contributed to the dismal child survival rates in these regions.

UNICEF states that, without faster progress in all regions, it will take until 2028 for the world to meet the target on reducing deaths among under-fives.

Government commitment and resources have contributed to Ethiopia's progress on the issue. "The government has set some very bold and extremely ambitious targets.

It has then backed them up with real resources and real commitment sustained over the last 10 years," said Dr. Peter Salama, UNICEF country representative for Ethiopia, pointing to the countr y's health extension program.

"The program put on the government payroll more than 36,000 health workers and deployed them to more than 15,000 health posts across Ethiopia … That is the single most important reason why Ethiopia has reduced its under-five mortality rate."

Salama said the fact that the health extension program has been government-owned rather than donor-led has contributed to its success, and means, the gains made, are sustainable in the longer term. But he added that further progress in cutting child deaths will be increasingly dif f icult to achieve.

"An increasing number of the remaining child deaths [in Ethiopia] – attributed to newborn deaths – those in the first 28 days of life. These newborn deaths are intrinsically linked to maternal health and nutrition [which is] more complicated to deal with because it implies much more high-skilled service delivery. Without addressing this, it's going to be hard to see the same level of progress that has been made in the last decade." www.theguardian.com

f r o n t i e r s

SKIN WHITENERS ARE “RACIST”

I

by

magine the scene in a charity clinic where a teenager was brought threatening suicide. Barbara, 17 years old, was crying out in her anguish, beating her clenched fists on the table and screaming, "I can't live with a face like this, I am better off dead, dead!" She wailed and wept and the nurses could see the cause of her anger and frustration: uneven dark and white blotches had disfigured her face, the result of dangerous toxic skin whitening creams. She wanted to look like a movie star but it all went wrong.

Barbara was persuaded to calm down and get counseling and help to reverse the condition. We have reason to fear and ban the deadly diseasecausing products that disfigure young people, who are feeling insecure and inferior because of a darker complexion. With therapy and counseling, Barbara overcame her trauma and was later empowered enough to be an advocate for racial equality. Those products are truly racist for wrongly promoting the white skinned Caucasian as a superior being and by implying everyone else is a lesser human being.

Whatever skin cream you use, be sure that it is non-toxic and not a skin whitener or bleaching agent. The Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has banned 16 dangerous skin whitening products containing toxic cancer-causing substances. They are suspected of containing high levels of heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, mercury, and arsenic. “Continuous use of these products may cause adverse or allergic reactions that can result to severe or irreversible skin problem,” FDA said last week.

Even worse can happen when the dangerous chemicals are absorbed into the bloodstream and can cause skin cancer, liver, and kidney damage or poisoning. Hydroquinone, a toxic substance, is found in many of the

Fr. Shay Cullen, ssc | Preda Foundation

skin whitening and bleaching products; they are very dangerous and can disfigure a person's face over time.

Young people need to be given affirmation and positive re-enforcement and assurances that they are good, valuable, and loved persons irrespective of race, creed, or skin color.

They need a positive self-image based on good character, spiritual values and not based on outward physical appearance and how one looks. They need to accept themselves as they are, not how cosmetic surgical procedures or skin whitening will make them look. It’s what you are as a person, not

one’s name besmirched and thus to lose the respect of others or be dishonored or diminished in some way.

The lack of integrity, cheating, lying and hypocrisy are the common practice in society and among the greatest cheats are those who make false claims and peddle false images of health and beauty. The advertising, fashion, makers of cosmetic products such as skin whiteners, and some medical practitioners do the greatest damage. Instead of giving the "face" that comes from spiritual values, they have created a false image of so called “beauty” that is racist and discrimi-

how you physically look that matters.

They need help to understand that “true face” is based on integrity and comes from the belief in their own inner goodness, their abilities to help others, being unselfish and authentic and having awareness and respect for human rights and dignity.

Having "face” is an important Asian value; it is the respectful selfimage, the dignity of a nation, family and the individual. It is supposedly based on a reputation for goodness, honor, and being true to your word.

To lose "face" is to be humiliated, have

nates against all who do not fit that image. We are made in the image and likeness of God, not that concocted by a beautician.

Skin whitening products are considered "racist." They, by their very existence, promote the false, insulting and racist belief that darker skin color is indicative of an inferior person or lower race or connotes ugliness, not attractiveness. They promote the attitude that "white is right." These products must be roundly denounced and people of all nations must boycott and shun them.

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filipino focus • living among the dead

Tombstone beds and silent neighbors

Filipinos are a people known to deal with death not only with grief but also with fear.

For a highly superstitious race, Filipinos believe that the soul of the dead lingers in the mortal world even if its earthly body expires and that the soul makes its presence felt among the living by showing up as ghosts. Generations have passed and the Filipino’s belief of ghosts has been passed through word of mouth, generation after generation – except among those who have been living among the dead. by

KRIS BAYOS | Journalist

C

arolina Samson-Marzano, 56, has long shunned the superstitious belief on ghosts. Having been born in Pasay City Cemetery and, eventually, raising a family sharing a roof with the dead, the mother-of-five has proven for herself that ghosts do not exist.

“I’m not afraid of ghosts because I have never seen or felt one during my entire stay at the cemetery,” she said.

Proof of her disbelief is the fact that their matrimonial bed had been a stone tomb for the longest time, just like her children’s who have also married and gave her six grandchildren. The Marzanos are among the 1,000 families living among the dead buried at the 3.5-hectare public cemetery in Pasay City.

Being a sepulcher keeper has been Marzano’s source of livelihood since time immemorial. But before even getting married, Marzano entertained the idea of looking for a different job. After finding no better-paying job in the province, Marzano returned to the graveyard and continued cleaning graves in exchange for an average of P3,000 or $75 a month.

“If I only have a choice, I want to live somewhere else. But what can I do? I wasn’t able to finish school and cannot find a job other than this,” she said.

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Kris Bayos

 LIFE. Ricardo Medina Sr. looks at his third wife and 18th child, who was born in the cemetery last September, and named Ricardo IV.

Rent-free

Unlike Marzano, who is staying at the cemetery because of the job, Leonesa Origen, 51, said her family is residing in mausoleums only because they cannot afford to rent a more decent place.

Aside from living within roofed and concrete crypts for free, Origen and her neighbors also consume electricity without paying a centavo for theirs are connections illegally tapped from electric power lines. Water is the

only utility they pay for but those who still cannot afford to buy water can extract some from a well also built inside the cemetery.

“We have no jobs so we have no money to rent a place where we can live.

Here, we do not pay for rent because the owners of the mausoleums allowed us to crash in. We also get our electricity free courtesy of jumpers,” she said, referring to the device used to divert electricity from the main to illegal lines.

But Origen admitted that f lood is the bane to all cemetery residents. Since the Pasay City Cemetery lies next to a river, heavy rains or typhoons would cause the river to overf low and drown the cemetery with f loodwater. The absence of drainage system within the graveyard worsens the problem.

“Whenever there is flood, we always need to relocate to higher gravesites.

This persistent problem is the reason why we would be willing to be relocated by government elsewhere there is decent housing,” she added.

Origen’s daughter, Aurora Torres, however, made a step forward and took advantage of the government’s “cashfor-work” project that employs homeless individuals as streetsweepers and compensates them enough to rent a decent place to live.

“I preferred to move away from the cemetery because I don’t want my son to live in the kind of environment where criminals, prostitutes, and vicious people abound,” said the 26-year-old single mother.

But she admitted that once her employment with government ceases and she cannot find another means of livelihood, she will have no choice but to forego renting and go back to the mausoleums to live.

Social ills

Unemployment and lack of affordable housing are the major reasons why illegal settlers are thriving in the cemetery, according to Captain Benjamin Tumajar of Barangay 148, which covers the Pasay City Cemetery.

“Most of them do not have place to live in the city and cannot afford to rent so they just manage to live in the cemetery where it is free to squat,” he said.

The local government of Pasay City has offered relocation to cemetery residents in Tanay, Rizal but Tumajar said beneficiaries eventually go back because of the relocation’s remoteness to their place of employment.

“They complain because the relocation site is very far from their workplace.

Kris Bayos

 MUSIC. A resident of the cemetery belts out a song with the use of a karaoke, a common leisure activity among neighbors.

I personally do not like my grandchildren to stay here.

There are drug users, snatchers, and lawbreakers living among us in the cemetery. I want them to stay away from those kind of people to avoid getting into vice.

Most of them have returned already since it is more convenient for them to be living in Pasay than in Rizal,” he said.

Most of those living at the Pasay City Cemetery are employed, ordinarily as sepulcher keepers, while the rest are robbers, prostitutes or pimps, the barangay leader admitted. Tumajar also noticed that most of the unemployed men at the cemetery are addicted to all sorts of vice while women are usually pregnant. Worst, children are malnourished and uneducated.

“Most of the men are inflicted with colon cancer due to incessant drinking of alcoholic beverages while the children are mostly malnourished and sickly,” he said, although stressing that basic social services have been given to cemetery residents.

These are the reasons why Marzano would still prefer her grandchildren to grow outside of the cemetery.

“I personally do not like my grandchildren to stay here. There are drug users, snatchers, and lawbreakers living among us in the cemetery. I want them to stay away from those kind of people to avoid getting into vice,” she said.

Torres also said teenage girls in the cemetery start to get pregnant at the

early age of 14 and usually bear children with different men.

“This is the normal fate of girls who live in the cemetery. They get married and become mothers very early. They are also prone to corruption and this is the kind of environment that no mother would want her children to grow up in,” she pointed out.

‘Quiet neighborhood’

But for Ricardo Medina Sr., 65, the “quietness of the neighborhood” has been one of the other reasons families like his have stayed on.

“It’s quiet here. Our neighbors never make noise,” he joked, referring to the dead people who have been his neighbors for the last 30 years.

Of Medina’s 18 children, almost 10 have stayed with him and resided in the cemetery. In fact, Medina’s third wife gave birth to Baby Ricardo IV just last September 17.

“We are not moving out of the cemetery anymore,” the 65-year-old patriarch said. “This is where we already built homes as well as our families. I do not mind dying here, at least there is a place for me here – whether I am dead or alive.”

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filipino focus • living among the dead

Finding a gem amid the crypts If not for the fire that burnt her and their shanty, Crystal would not have been saved from spending a lifetime in the cemetery. by

KRIS BAYOS | Journalist

Chris Yuhico

 SAVED. The fire that destroyed her poor shanty and the danger of the trade among the graves, gave Crystal a new beginning and a new life.

T

he 12th of June in 1996 was a one-of-a-kind Independence Day for Fermina and Genardo (surnames were withheld to protect their identity) for it was when the couple’s fervent wish was granted: finally having a baby girl after rearing nine sons.

But the baby girl’s life is not exactly as decent as what parents would wish for their children. In fact, the infant was born in a garbage dump lying along a stinky creek that divides the TugatogSangandaan public cemetery into two phases: one phase is considered part of Malabon City and the other, part of Caloocan City. It would be hard for the family to locate their address because their dwelling neither has roof nor walls to speak of, only sack bags and tarpaulins sewn together and tied to scrap wooden sticks to form a makeshift tent. Their house doesn’t even lie on solid ground but on a bed of dump atop

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running creek water, which normally drowns the family’s abode whenever floodwater rises during typhoons.

Their situation pales in comparison with their well-housed neighbors – dead people lying on concrete crypts or housed in gated mausoleums. The girl, eventually nicknamed Crystal (not her real name), remembers creeping over their cold neighbors’ crypts whenever f loodwater washes whatever it is that they call home.

If not for the fire that accidentally burnt their family’s dwelling, sometime in 2000, when she was at a tender age of four, Crystal would have spent the rest of her life in the cemetery.

Finding Crystal

Simon Peter Emata, Irene Orine and their colleagues at the Asian Students Christian Foundation (ASCF) were rescuing Joel, a boy they found sniffing solvent on

the street of Caloocan. But in the course of finding out about Joel’s origin in the cemetery, they also found Crystal, then nursing burns from the fire accident.

“We found her in need of medical help so we volunteered to help her.

Her parents cannot afford to nurse her wounds so we brought her home to help her fully recover,” Irene, referring to ASCF’s children’s home called Mango Tree House, then located in Project 8, Quezon City.

But when it was time to bring Crystal home to the graveyard, Simon Peter had second thoughts. It was not the filthy abode that made him think twice but the unsuitable environment that will welcome the toddler back.

“There is danger in the cemetery.

There, sex and drugs are as common a commodity as food to survive,” Simon Peter says.

“If we weren’t able to save her from

the cemetery, Crystal might have been a prostitute by now or could have been a wife or mother at an early age of 12 just like her peers,” says Irene, whose first social work case was with Crystal.

It was not easy for ASFC to convince Fermina to voluntarily turn over Crystal to the Foundation’s care. After all, she was their only daughter. But now that her girl has turned into a healthy and educated 17-year-old lass, Fermina said she had sacrificed a lot as a consequence of that decision.

Barefootball

At the Mango Tree House, Crystal lived with 45 other street children, either orphaned or abandoned by their parents and guardians. Just like in any children’s home, activities are scheduled, even their playtime. Whenever playtime comes, Crystal and her friends would go out under the sun and play with whatever toys they have.

“We really do not know football at first. We were only toying with balls with our bare feet and passing it to one another in the yard until our friends from England saw us and gave us footballs to play with. We started playing football since then,” Crystal shares.

Despite no paid training to brag about, Crystal had been playing football

well, her coaches confirm. As a matter of fact, Crystal is part of the Payatas Football Club, whose players are competing for a slot in the Team Manila which will then play against the teams from Davao, Cebu, Iloilo and Tacloban. Players who will stand out from among the teams will be recruited to form the Team Philippines that will be competing for the Street Child World Cup in Brazil next year.

“As a player, Crystal is great to work with. She's usually very bubbly and enjoys playing football and helps keep the rest of the kids in line during training. Crystal is a very determined girl and will always do her best for the team.

She's all heart and that's a great thing for a player but it's an even better thing off the pitch, too. And that's why she's in the running for Team Philippines in the Street Child World Cup, because of her attitude on and off the pitch,” says Roy Moore, executive director of the Fairplay For All (FFA) Foundation, which is the organizing charity of Team Philippines for the Street Child World Cup. While attending her vocational course classes, Crystal trains for football together with her fellow street children from Payatas, Quezon City.

Mango Tree House is now located in Rodriguez, Rizal which is proximate to Payatas. But due to their location, Crys-

Crystal claims pride in being born and raised in the cemetery, saying “I am not ashamed of being born in the graveyard.

In fact, I am proud because it is the cemetery that motivated me to aim high and to get my family out of that place.”

Chris Yuhico

 PLAYING TIME. Football became a passion to nurture dreams and keep the hope alive.

tal and her peers could not train on a real football field. Instead, they train on vacant lots or on concrete courts.

“We train barefoot because we save our football shoes for the real game otherwise, the soles will wear out. Besides, we started playing football barefoot so we are used to it,” Crystal shares.

Crystal smiles a shy smile whenever asked if she wants to play football professionally. She admits dreaming of becoming part of the Malditas, the popular name of the Philippine Women’s Football National Team.

But aside from being a professional footballer, Crystal also dreams of becoming a social worker like Irene and the rest who took care of her at Mango Tree House.

“My friends in Mango Tree House and I plan on establishing a foundation of our own to help children from the cemetery. We want them to experience what we experienced so that, like us, they too can have a chance to live a life different from the ‘normal’ life in the cemetery,” she says.

Crystal claims pride in being born and raised in the cemetery, saying “I am not ashamed of being born in the graveyard. In fact, I am proud because it is the cemetery that motivated me to aim high and to get my family out of that place.”

“But if I stayed in the cemetery, I could be different from the person I grew up to be. I might have been like the other teenagers who get pregnant at a young age or get addicted to drugs. Life could have been very complicated for me,” she points out.

The girl also wants to be a role model for homeless children born in the cemetery or in the streets. She encourages her fellow street children to dream and to cling on to hope, stressing out that “when there is life, there is hope.”

“Don’t lose hope. Keep on dreaming because your dreams will motivate you in life,” she adds.

And looking back, the fire that razed their shanties may have scarred Crystal physically but it also ignited her hope for a better life.

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wm special • celebrating the departed

Long wakes and extravagance

Our priests and cathechists will have to find ways to change this perception that extravagance and prolonged wakes and funerals are “Catholic.” There’s room certainly for a more festive observance of wakes and funerals and November 1, but we need more solemnity, a time to reflect about our existence on earth, of the goodness of the deceased, and how we might want to carry on their legacy. by

Michael L . Tan | dean, u.p. college of sciences and philosophy

N

on-Filipinos, Westerners especially, are always surprised, even shocked, with the way we deal with death. In particular, they are shocked with our wakes, which are prolonged and festive, with much eating, drinking, conversations, joking, cardplaying and singing. Through the years, wakes seem to have become even noisier, the guitar playing now substituted by loud karaoke. In many wakes too, you’ll often find a commotion around the coffin as if they were conversing with the deceased, “Oh Ma, here’s Junior’s son. . .”, “Oh Pa, you’re looking good” and then you realize they have a video camera (sometimes on a cellphone or a tablet) zooming in on the deceased so the images can be sent through a web camera into the Internet, and allow relatives overseas to pay their respects.

On November 1, when our cemeteries come alive, we see the same fanfare, as thousands of people come in for a combined fiesta and picnic, a replay of the wakes. The drinking in cemeteries became so problematic that many cities now ban that because of the rowdy behavior that comes after alcohol intake.

Shouldn’t wakes be more solemn?, my foreign friends ask. And where’s the mourning? I explain there is, in fact, a lot of mourning. At the wake, the closest relatives are obliged to tell and re-tell

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the circumstances around the death, often accompanied by weeping. There will be periodic outbursts of grief, especially if the death was unexpected, through an accident, for example, a stroke or heart attack or. . .a murder, which becomes even noisier because of the non-stop chirping of chicks that have been placed on the coffin, the purpose being to bother the conscience of the murderer.

Richer families, especially of Chinese descent, will hire professional mourners – made famous in the movie “Crying Ladies” – who will suddenly show up wailing and crying and extolling the virtues of the deceased.

Grief and overacting

And wait till the funeral comes along, I tell my overseas friends. That’s where you see an outpouring of grief, to the point of o.a. (overacting) with almost mandatory hysterical fainting. The expressions of grief build up until the coffin is about to be entombed, with family members, usually the women, shouting out, “Isama mo na ako, isama mo na ako!” ("Take me along!"). And just as a foreigner is now convinced that there is indeed grief, there will be someone among the mourners who will quip, “Itulak mo na, itulak mo na!”, (“Push her in, push her in!”).

Culture involves performance, complete with scripts, some of which are strictly followed while others are improvised on the spot. Among the rituals, the ones around the dead are the ones that involve the most performance, and this happens for many reasons.

Death is extremely disruptive to the social fabric, forcing people to wonder about many existential questions: why do we die? Why are we born in the first place? Why did this good person have to die so young? Theologians talk about theodicy, questions about evil on earth, and death always brings up those issues as well. For example, why does a merciful God allow people to suffer so long before dying? Why does He allow children to die?

Cultures have evolved many different responses to death, affected by environment, religion, and, ultimately, life circumstances, the ones that make us raise philosophical questions. In other

The role of social status

alysasalen.blogspot.com

Culture involves performance, complete with scripts, some of which are strictly followed while others are improvised on the spot.

Among the rituals, the ones around the dead are the ones that involve the most performance, and this happens for many reasons. words, the cultures around death deal much more with the living than the dead.

Our long wakes have many purposes. First and foremost is the need to bring the family together. This is not easy, considering that we have extended families recognizing paternal and maternal sides. (Many societies only recognize one side, usually the paternal.) This is made more complicated by the extent of Filpino migration, both domestic and international, which means long travel times to get home for a funeral. The wake functions then as a family reunion and woe on those who do not have an acceptable excuse for not showing up: that person would be subject to much gossip in the years to come as being uncaring, sometimes

with added comments like, “Oh, that’s because he’s lived in America so long.”

Extended wakes, with all the fanfare, also ref lect our sociality. The Filipino fears being alone, and when someone dies, we extend that fear not only to the bereaved relatives, who we think needs company to be consoled, but also to the dead. In western countries, funeral homes will often have visiting hours, and will close down in the evening to re-open the next morning.

Some upper-class Filipinos are shifting to this practice, informing friends that visiting hours are limited, much to the shock of other Filipinos who will gossip about how the family is so uncaring (or again, “western”), leaving the dead on their own at night.

Another reason why we have prolonged wakes is that we think this is good for the health of the bereaved relatives.

We think that the relatives will need a multitude of friends and relatives to console them, together with the eating and singing and other social activities.

Again, the idea is not to leave the closest bereaved relatives alone, lest they become overwhelmed by grief.

To some extent, it does help to have company, and there’s probably some psychotherapeutic value for the closest relatives to be talking about the deceased but we forget this can be tiring even after a day or two.

Despite the stress of prolonged wakes, many families still opt for these long wakes because they have still another added function, that of social status. Upper-class families, especially those of politicians, have prolonged wakes because of the number of people who will want to visit. Notice how this extends into the funeral. The day-long funeral procession of the late President Corazon Aquino showed this important aspect of our death rituals, the wake and the funeral becoming paalam, a way of saying goodbye, as well as pahatid, sending off an important visitor to their destination.

The paradox is that lower-class families are also forced into prolonged wakes but for a different reason: economic need. First, relatives intending to go home to the wake have limited finances for travel, sometimes even having to go into debt to get home, and having to take the cheapest modes of transportation. You see this all the time with household helpers. Second, the relatives also need time to raise money for the wake and the funeral, and sometimes a long wake does bring in more contributions to defray expenses.

A time to move on

Many other customs are based on religious beliefs, and these beliefs may be a mix of pre-colonial and Christian elements. For example, we have the pang-

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siyam or prayers on the 9th day, and then another one on the 40th day. On the surface, these seem to be Christian in nature, but I suspect there are preChristian inf luences as well, mainly around the idea that the soul of the deceased needs time to move on to the next world.

There may be another psychotherapeutic function with the 9th and 40th day prayers, and this is to allow the living to accept the separation, to bring the mourning to a closure. Even with the 9th and 40th day observances, there may not be enough closure and the first November 1 visit to the cemetery, after a death, is usually more solemn, a time to remember the recently deceased.

I should point out that there is no single “Filipino” way of mourning. So far, what I’ve discussed is the Filipino Christian customs and, even there, we will have variations among the different ethnolinguistic groups. The differences are even more sharp when it comes to Filipino Muslim groups, that follow a universal Islamic tenet of burying the dead on the day they die, preferably before sunset. In many cases, the dead are buried very simply, in a shroud. These practices reflect Islamic teachings about the body being a temporary home for the soul and that death marks the beginning of real life.

There are many rules around the burial of Muslims, again with variations from one place to another. Some are more strictly enforced, especially in relation to the Islamic faith. For example, the head of the deceased must be buried facing the direction of Mecca, the same direction they use for their five daily prayers. Another strict rule is that Muslims cannot be buried in a cemetery of non-Muslims. Catholic cemeteries have a similar rule, and are, in fact, even stricter, forbidding burial of a Catholic who have committed suicide, or who became Masons.

Until recently, overseas Chinese also preferred having their own cemeteries but this has changed since so many of the ethnic Chinese now con-

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 RITUALS. The funeral procession of the late President Corazon Aquino took one day.

We need more solemnity, a time to reflect about our existence on earth, of the goodness of the deceased, and how we might want to carry on their legacy. Wakes, funerals and November 1 – they’re as much about the living, as of the dead. sider themselves Filipinos. In fact, there is a kind of diaspora going on right now where the remains of the Chinese in Chinese cemeteries are exhumed and moved to a memorial park or to a Catholic columbarium, an example of how the changing realities of the living affect our death customs.

Web cameras and powerpoint

Death customs are constantly changing.

Some come about because of new technologies. It was St. Peter’s Chapel that first started the e-burol (electronic burol) with web cameras before the coffin, in recognition that many overseas Filipinos will not be able to fly home for a wake and funeral and will have to pay their respects through the Internet.

Another quaint change that’s catching on are powerpoint presentations of photographs of the deceased, from birth to late life, played over and over again during the wake. These presentations can be quite therapeutic for the mourners, as they recall happier times.

Other practices are more complicated, cremation being the prime example. Cremation was practiced in different parts of the Philippines before the

Spaniards arrived. The Catholic church disapproved of cremations because this seemed to defile the temple of the Holy Spirit but, in recent years, the ban was lifted. Cremation has since spread across the country, with churches themselves building columbaria for ashes.

There are practical reasons for the shift, given the way cemeteries are now becoming so overcrowded; I actually saw a municipal cemetery with a sign posted, “No Vacancies.” But there has been resistance as well to cremation, especially among older Filipinos. The resistance is not so much theological than an extension of the idea that the dead are still like the living. One older person explained her opposition to cremation: “Patay na, susunugin pa, tapos didikdikin pa ang mga buto.” ("The person’s already dead, then you burn him, and then pound on the bones.")

Cremation has also posed new challenges on our mourning practices. The cultural scripts were very clear for a burial, including prayers right before entombment. A cremation is different.

What does one do during the 2-hour cremation? Some families pray, which can be difficult because it is a long wait.

wm special • celebrating the departed Others eat and chat, which may seem disrespectful to some. Some families allow everyone to attend and others request that it be limited to family members. As usual, I have heard negative responses to the restricting of the cremation to immediate family, again based on the idea that everyone should be allowed in the pahatid but I can understand too that, like our airport goodbyes, Filipinos overdo this goodbye routine with entire clans or barangays participating and with a two-hour wait that can be a logistical nightmare.

I have talked to some people who say that this waiting period needs to be better planned, with more rituals or scripts to help the family. One friend told me how disconcerted the family was, especially the grandchildren, when the deceased’s coffin was suddenly pushed into the crematorium, without warning. There was almost a “whooshing” sound, she said, as if the dead had been sucked into some vacuum. Not only that, the cremation itself, with crackling sounds, can be heard from the outside, which was terribly distressing to older relatives.

Funeral rituals are important because the grief and mourning reaches a high point, as relatives and friends realize they are going to be separated from the deceased. Again, I have seen some changes that are worth propagating.

One funeral I attended had relatives releasing butterf lies right before entombment, the butterf lies reminding us of how transient life is. That same funeral had a lay person officiating with Catholic rituals. He explained that he was not a priest but had been trained for these rituals. As with any cultural change, I later heard mixed reviews, some people saying they would have preferred a “real priest” while others said it was good to have someone who wasn’t rushing (which is what happens with overworked priests) and who was eloquent and comforting. I think that, in the future, we will see more of such lay people.

People also seem to be realizing that wakes need not be so prolonged, and that it can be stressful, rather than comforting, for the grieving family. I see a trend now of having the burial within two or three days. There are also families that opt to have a cremation shortly after the person dies, with the wake limited to a few days and with the urn and ashes in the chapel, rather than a coffin.

I also see eulogies and memorial services delayed, sometimes even after the burial. This is happening for faculty members at the University of the Philippines. The old practice was to have the coffin of the deceased faculty brought over to the campus, to the Catholic or Protestant church for

 TECHNOLOGY. Internet (e-burol) provides a way for relatives to pay their respects online.

one service, and then to the professor’s home college for another one. These days, people are more considerate, understanding this can be difficult for the family, so the memorial service is postponed, sometimes even several weeks after the death.

Excessive expenses

The eulogies, I have to say, are still very “Filipino” – being rather long with flowery speeches. I attended one where, after a eulogy that went from 6 p.m. to close to midnight, the organizers announced there would be a second round the next night.

Culture sometimes needs to be questioned, especially when it becomes dysfunctional. One time, a household helper wanted to borrow P40,000 for her father’s funeral expenses, explaining this was to feed visitors and to buy a memorial park cemetery lot. I asked why the wake was going to be so long (12 days) and why they couldn’t use the municipal cemetery and she frankly said people would think they were poor and what was their relative doing working in Manila and not bringing home money for a more “decent” wake and funeral?

I just had to tell her all the expenses were not going to be appreciated by the dead. In fact, I said maybe her deceased father would turn in his grave seeing how their impoverished family was going into debt just to bury him. But no, she insisted, people would talk if they did not have a “proper” funeral and, besides, this was the “Catholic” custom.

Our priests and cathechists will have to find ways to change this perception that extravagance and prolonged wakes and funerals are “Catholic.”

There’s room certainly for a more festive observance of wakes and funerals and November 1, but we need more solemnity, a time to ref lect about our existence on earth, of the goodness of the deceased, and how we might want to carry on their legacy. Wakes, funerals and November 1 – they’re as much about the living, as of the dead.

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wm special • celebrating the departed

Death: A celebration and continuity of life

The gradual change of some elements of traditional Butbut funeral practices, vis-à-vis the urban practices, did not lead to the cessation of their own conception of death. Death is a celebration and a continuity of life; it strengthens their social relations with their ancestors, perpetuates tradition, and unites the community together. by

Analyn Salvador-Amores, Ph.D. | University of the Philippines, Baguio

Wikipedia

 BEAUTY AND TRADITION. The Cordillera region and its different indigenous communities are rich in natural beauty and in traditions.

T

hroughout the Cordillera region, there are many ways of celebrating the deceased. Corpse are buried, entombed, preserved or mummified, exhumed, and reburied in meaningful and expressive ways. The practice ref lects how the Cordillera people confront death, and in so doing, celebrate life. It is in death rituals, “that most important cultural values by which people live their lives and evaluate their experiences” are found (Metcalf and Huntington 2008: 25). The elaborate

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and painstaking preparations of the corpse are performed to appease the ancestors of the deceased. This reflects the core cultural values concerning the nature of the individual and of life.

As an anthropologist working with indigenous communities in the Cordillera region for the past ten years, I witnessed funerary rituals accorded with death. Although, my initial research was on bodily adornments, specifically on traditional tattoos (batok, whatok) among the Butbut (Salvador-Amores

2013), an ethnolinguistic group found in southern Kalinga, north of Luzon, I was particularly drawn to the indigenous notions of death. I later found out that tattoos have relations with death.

From my conversations with Apo Miladring, a Butbut elder, her ancestors told her that when people die, “tattoos are the only ones permanent (nisikud); when you die, you give away your hongor (beads), luwhay (gold earrings, and kain (skirt). Only your whatok (tattoos) are buried with you – those are the only

things that you inherit (tawid) from the ancestors.” For the Butbut, it is evident that they have strong relations with the ancestral spirits without strong regard to material things. For them, the alichogwa (soul) of the deceased unites with ancestors in the afterlife. This is in contrast to other societies, when the deceased are buried with all the material refinements in life.

Notions of Death

During my long stay among the Butbut people, I attended several occasions of funerary rituals of young children, a young man, and the elderly men and women, most of whom were tattooed.

My conversations among Butbut elders describe death (natey) as a “body that has not awaken.” More importantly, this is a departure of the spirit to the jugkao. Jugkao is a place where the spirit of the ancestors lives: “it is far beyond the mountains,” the elders would say, as they point to the highest peak of the mountains in Kalinga.

Death among the Butbut is not taken as a horrible experience. For the Butbut, death can be good (whayu) and bad (lagwing). A good death is when a person had been sick for a long time or when people die of old age; those who are left behind take this with acceptance and resignation. The bad is when a person had untimely death, such as when a person is killed and died from accidents. As such, there are appropriate rites performed to appease and to free the spirits of the deceased from pain and torture.

For the purposes of this essay, I will discuss the funerary rituals of a good death, most specifically for the persons who died of old age. All these, I have witnessed during the course of my anthropological fieldwork in southern Kalinga.

In my understanding, both the spirits of recently deceased, at any circumstances, are believed to hover around the village to guard and protect the living – the Butbut would refer to them as ayan (also alan or spirits). Until the demands of the spirit of the deceased

Analyn Salvador-Amores

 FOR THE DEAD. The Butbut celebrate death to ensure good health, harvest and fortune.

If the spirit is not appeased, it stays in the village and the Butbut attribute to them as malevolent spirits that caused sickness and misfortunes to the community. As such, the relatives of the deceased meticulously do preparations at death. are fulfilled, and appeased through the performance of appropriate rites and offerings (of chicken, pigs and carabao, food, wine and others), then the spirits translocate to the jugkao. If the spirit is not appeased, it stays in the village and the Butbut attribute to them as malevolent spirits that caused sickness and misfortunes to the community. As such, the relatives of the deceased meticulously do preparations at death.

The announcement of death is being passed on by word of mouth.

This is done when one travels to the mountain trails: news is passed on from people to people, until all the villages would learn of the news. Preparations are made during this occasion – before they travel, a family would carry bundles of rice, a black dog, a pig, labna (baskets) and others as atod (gifts or offerings that serve as a contribution) to the family of the deceased. They gather in the house of the deceased to pay their tribute to the dead.

Celebrating Life and Death

On many occasions, the Butbut regarded me as their whuyno (friend) – after

being able to learn the local language to understand their ethos, and at the same time, I made sure to be always present in many special occasions in the community – baptism, weddings, ritual events, fiesta, childbirth, peace pacts, planting and harvesting season, and even death.

Moreover, my Butbut friends made sure that I document these important lifecycle events through photographs or video. The photographs are given away to relevant families and form part of their memory (sum-sumo), a remembrance of that particular occasion.

As I carried my camera on all occasions, and without exception to mortuary rituals, family members of the deceased relative would direct me what to photograph: the deceased and his funerary garments, the rituals performed and the many faces of the people who attended. As an anthropologist, the Butbut voluntarily placed me at a “strategic location” to witness firsthand the rituals involved in their preparations. I also respect the relatives who would instruct me “what not to photograph” and giving them time to mourn in private.

It was only this time that I overcame

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my fear of death. The Butbut, regarded death as a celebration and not the end of life. Treatment of the deceased is most admirable for the Butbut – close kins are gathered inside the house to wash, to wrap and to watch over the dead like a “living person in deep sleep.” The spouse would patiently sit nearby the coffin to watch over the deceased wife or husband. There are also ritual taboos observed by the spouse during the wake and after the burial.

The rest of the community gathers outside the house to chant the chanchanag (chants for the dead) for days, most especially on vigil nights to keep the people awake and to accompany the dead. The Butbut do not wail or weep during these occasions, but they express their grief through the chanchanag. This is done through chanting and singing lines that pertains to the life of the deceased. A lead chanter would set up the tune and the others would respond in chorus following the same line. The men and women are close together, swaying their bodies to and fro with the infectious rhythm of the chant performed to a distinct tune. The chanchanag is performed at the presence of the deceased. People believe that the spirit of the deceased will be pleased when he/she is honored this way.

Meantime, as the chanchanag is performed, each household would contribute food, such as rice, butcher a pig, and serve the ricewine – all these would last for days. Meals are fed to the mourners and the relatives of the deceased. The wake would last for three to five days depending on the stature of the person and the nature of his/ her death. The old ones would lasts for longer days, and the young ones a day or two. Burial ceremonies are mostly done inside the house, and to be interred in one’s own ground under the house or near the yard is most honorable for the Butbut. According to Apo Takhay, one of the oldest elders in the village, “being buried near the house is best, the spirit need not travel far to ask for his needs.

Family members are near to provide for

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this.” She emphasized that the ancestorspirits should not be offended and their requests should be granted accordingly by the living, this for them is to avoid misfortunes in the future. The detailed adherence of the people to rituals reflects their attitude to the departed and so with their fear of the ancestor-spirits.

Only the elderly men are allowed to carry the wooden coffin outside of the house. Pregnant women, young children, including infants, are not allowed to observe the interment. It is also taboo to sneeze in the belief that it will bring bad omens. When the deceased is interred, the corpse is wrapped with a binaliwon or pinagpagan, a death blanket and is placed in a wooden coffin.

The blanket is to keep the spirit of the deceased warm and to be recognized by the ancestor-spirits in the realm of the jugkao. Bundles of rice are buried with the dead and a chicken is butchered.

These will serve as the dead's food as he/she journeys to the jugkao.

After the body is interred and elaborate rituals performed, the community prepares a feast for the dead called acherma. Women would pound rice on mortars, the men butcher the pigs and carabao, gather firewood for cooking, and prepare meals. I witness these simultaneous activities during the acherma – all busied themselves helping each other (abab’hujug in the local language) to prepare for this important feast. (In Tagalog, it is the equivalent of the bayanihan spirit.) The members of the kin-group would give their share; other relatives and friends may also incur expenses besides the gift.

Shared meals are communal among the Butbut. It is often done for it involves their wellbeing. The celebration for the dead is believed to bring good health, good harvest and good fortune for the community. In other words, in their local language, everything will be whayu (good) once the spirits are pleased.

When a child is born, the name of the deceased ancestor is given to the child. This is to perpetuate the

memory of the ancestor. They also believe that naming the child after the deceased ancestor will pass on his/her special characteristics, such as strength, fortitude, discipline, patience and others, to the child. In this way, there is continuity of life, after death through generations.

Interface of Christianity

It is inevitable that Christianity would reach the villages in remote and isolated villages in Kalinga since the Belgian and American priests came at the turn of the century. Some left a lasting impact on these communities through churches and schools in Kalinga. At

wm special • celebrating the departed

Analyn Salvador-Amores

 RITUALS. The Butbut bury their dead near the house of the deceased.

Burial ceremonies are mostly done inside the house, and to be interred in one’s own ground under the house or near the yard is most honorable for the Butbut...“being buried near the house is best, the spirit need not travel far to ask for his needs." present, there is a makeshift Catholic church in Bugnay and Born-Again groups that set up churches in the Butbut villages. There is also the Translators Association of the Philippines (TAP) which is in the process of translating the Bible into the local language, bringing the Bible’s messages closer to the community. Stories from the Bible are incorporated into the Butbut way of life, hence people relate well with these stories in their own lives.

Furthermore, many of the Butbut are now able to study in local schools in nearby communities, in Baguio City and Manila. A lot of them have already migrated, intermarried with the lowlanders and found jobs in the cities.

Part of this transformation is embracing Christianity. Despite being baptized Christian, many remain true to their traditions back in the village. In relation to death, I also witnessed how Butbut migrants in Tabuk, Kalinga’s

urban capital, would fuse traditional funerary rituals with Christianity. According to Nita, a middle-aged Butbut migrant, what they earlier believed as jugkao is similar to the Christianity’s notion of “heaven.” “This is the place where our deceased relatives go,” she adds. An elder Butbut, Mariano, shares the same conception. He said that: “the teachings of our tradition have similarities with the Christian beliefs – what is good and what is bad, where we go after death, our care for the dead, and our fear of ancestors.”

Once, I joined my Butbut friends from the village to attend the wake of a Butbut elder in Tabuk. There I saw throngs of Butbut men and women, young and old rode the bus altogether, carrying with them sacks of atod for the deceased. When we arrived in the community, I saw a lot of people gathered singing in chorus the chanchanag, their bodies swayed as they chanted for the deceased. In between breaks, teens and elders sang songs from a Catholic church. Prayers were said in Butbut language in the presence of Catholic priests; they too came to do the final blessings for the deceased, like what the missionaries did in the past. The deceased now in a casket with binaliwon draped on it, no longer wrapped, was interred at a local cemetery. The gradual change of some elements of traditional Butbut funeral practices, vis-à-vis the urban practices, did not lead to the cessation of their own conception of death.

Death is a celebration and a continuity of life; it strengthens their social relations with their ancestors, perpetuates tradition, and unites the community together.

Metcalf, P. and Huntington, R. (2008). Celebrations of Death: The Anthropology of Mortuary Ritual. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Salvador-Amores, A. (2013). Tapping Ink, Tattooing Identities: Tradition and Modernity in Contemporary Kalinga Society.

Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press and the Cordillera Studies Center.

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wm special • celebrating the departed

Keeping the dead among the living

In Mexico, it is a national holiday. In the U.S., where the Latino community keeps growing, the festivities are disputing the place of Halloween, in comparison, a mere child’s entertainment.

Explains a specialist: “More people are embracing Día de los Muertos because it confronts death in a real – and meaningful – way. It reminds you about the inevitable loss of life that comes with living, but it also allows you to find life beyond death.” by

Christian Clarke Cásarez

A

s night falls, a young woman lights the candles surrounding the altar she created in honor of her grandmother who passed away two years ago. The ofrenda, an offering embodied in an altar of remembrance, is part of Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) traditions that welcome home the departed, for food and festivities.

Rose petals and cigarettes line the path to the altar, which celebrates her abuelita’s fondness for gardening and smoking. A heart-shaped box holding the matriarch’s ashes sits beside a cup of coffee and a plate of pan dulce (sweet bread). Old family photographs provide a nostalgic black-and-white backdrop for the display. At the center, a pink and black prayer veil cradles a card bearing the grandmother’s name: María del Refugio, which, in English, means Mary, be our refuge.

For more than 3,000 years, communities – from ancient Meso-america to modern México – have provided refuge to the spirits of loved ones who traverse the world of the dead to commune with the living. November begins with Día de los Muertos, a national holiday in México. Throughout the country, communities diligently prepare for the two-day celebrations (Nov. 1-2) by creating altars and preparing special aromatic foods. Cemeteries bustle with visitors delivering f lowers

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to gravesites and mausoleums. Papier mâchè skulls line store-window displays and paper banners with images of dancing skeletons drape across walkways. At night, city plazas welcome revelers whose marigold-festooned altars display personal trinkets and treats in honor of the departed.

Although Día de Los Muertos coincides with Halloween in the United States, the south-of-the-border tradition does not focus on candy collection or mischievous tricksters. For Mexicans, the symbolic visits from the dead are neither morbid nor macabre. They are celebratory. Día de los Muertos remains an important and profound holiday laced with Christian religious symbols and figures, including the Christ on the Cross and the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The celebration has a rich historical and cultural tradition that springs from the human hope to never be forgotten.

Links to Ancestor Veneration

The celebration of Día de los Muertos bears striking resemblance with the tradition of ancestor veneration practiced by ancient Mesoamericans. The Aztecs, Zapotecs, Maya and other indigenous groups did not envision the dead inhabiting a reality apart from the living, but rather viewed the worlds of the dead and the living as deeply intertwined. “Death and life were not sepa-

rate states of existence for Meso-american communities,” says Julia Guernsey, an assistant professor of art and art history. “For them, the living and the dead co-existed, and they believed communication could take place between the realms. During this period, there were no community graveyards in our modern sense of the term. Instead, families typically buried their loved ones directly under the f loors of their households.”

Meso-american burial chambers often were not permanently sealed.

This form of ancestor veneration showed a great respect for the dead.

Family members could enter the tombs and make offerings to their deceased ancestors long after they were laid to rest. The living sought help from their deceased relatives who could act as intermediaries between the realm of the living and of the dead. In fact, vivid images of this practice exist throughout Mesoamerica. For example, a classic maya stela (or carved upright stone

slab) from the ancient site of Piedras Negras in Guatemala, depicts the presentation of an offering to a deceased ancestor, who rests below in a chamber, swaddled in cloth as a mummy bundle.

“Such images provide rich evidence for long-established patterns of ancestor veneration, which appear to be echoed in the modern rituals of Día de los Muertos,” Guernsey says. The indigenous traditions continued throughout the pre-Columbian period and beyond the arrival of Europeans when the rituals merged with Catholic practices to create a transcultural blend of celebrations, scheduled to coincide with the Christian holidays of All Saints Day and All Souls Day in November.

Life in Death

Throughout Mexico’s history, death has been part of the mainstream culture.

“Mexicans revere death and do not fear the afterlife to the same degree as many other cultures,” Peter Ward, a professor of sociology and public policy, says. As

Nobel Laureate Octavio Paz explains in “Labyrinth of Solitude,” a Mexican mocks, caresses, sleeps with and entertains death. Paz places death among Mexicans’ favorite playthings and calls it their “most enduring love.” His sentiments capture the cultural and emotional significance of Día de los Muertos in Mexico where conquest, wars and high infant mortality rates have made death a part of daily life. “In a country where every family has been touched by death, learning to look the afterlife in the face is a powerful – and cathartic – exercise,” Ward says. “In many cultures, once people are buried, they are permanently separated from the living.

But, Mexicans confront death and view it as just another part of life. That’s a healthy – and honest – attitude.”

Ward holds the C. B. Smith, Sr. Centennial Chair in United States-Mexico Relations #2. During his classes on the society, culture and politics of modern Mexico, he introduces students to the profound and religious nature of the

country’s most famous celebration. According to Mexican legend, there are three types of death. The first occurs when all bodily functions cease and the soul leaves the body; the second occurs when the body is interred, returning one’s physical shell to the earth; and the final, most definitive death, occurs when no one remembers you. “Remembrance is powerful. So long as someone remembers you, then you will escape the third death,” Ward says. “The Día de los Muertos rituals are meaningful reminders of the connections between life and death, between the living and the dead. On a fundamental level, there is something comforting about knowing you will always be remembered.”

Rituals of Remembrance

Throughout Día de los Muertos, family members and friends tend to the gravesites of their loved ones, clearing away grass and debris and adorning the space with favorite trinkets and food and drinks. The colorful and play-

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ful ofrendas include earthly tributes for both children and adults: toys and tequila top many of the tombstones.

Marigolds, also known as the flower of the dead (cempasúchil), adorn table settings, altars and final resting places.

Above the bright orange f lowers hang colorful paper with cut out images (papel picado) of f lowers, birds or skeletons. The images of the skeletons (calacas) are not fear-inspiring. Instead, they capture a joyful moment of dancing or drinking.

The first day (Nov. 1) is All Saints Day and focuses attention and prayers on los angelitos, or little angels representing the souls of children. The second day (Nov. 2) is All Souls Day and welcomes home adults. In some homes, the family elder presides over the festivities and place settings are reserved for the recently departed. At the end of the two-day celebration of the dead, the living partake of the feast for the nowdeparted honorees. They drink the water – and other favorite beverages – and consume the specially baked breadof-the-dead (pan de muerto) and treats made from alfeñique (sugar). Among the most popular of the powdered sugar figures are skulls (calaveras) that display the names of loved ones.

“Much of Dia de los Muertos involves the senses,” says Cristina Cabello de Martínez, a lecturer in the Spanish

and Portuguese department and the Center for Mexican American Studies. “The celebration beckons one to see the bright-orange f lowers, smell the incense and taste the flavors of our loved ones’ favorite food and drink.”

Cabello de Martínez says the uplifting and welcoming nature of the festivities has helped preserve and expand the holiday. “Dia de los Muertos survived the conquest because it embraced the Catholic belief that death is not an end,” she says. “There occurred a synchronicity in spirituality between the indigenous and Catholic faiths. Each believed in the immortal nature of the soul.” Today, she says, the traditions continue to resonate with people even if they did not grow up with the holiday. “The celebration has become a popular, mainstream event among immigrants and secondand third-generation Mexican-Americans,” she says. “And, it continues to gain momentum in the United States among non-Latinos.”

Día de los Muertos has been celebrated in areas with high concentrations of Hispanics such as Los Angeles, Chicago and New York City. In 1999, the New York Times reported New York’s Archdiocese had yet to embrace Día de Los Muertos as part of Catholic beliefs, citing its rituals’ pagan roots.

But, as more immigrants from Mexico and Central America moved into the

 CALAVERAS. Skulls made of sugar and flowers are forms used to celebrate the dead.

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city, pastors of local churches began to allow parishioners to set up ofrendas. In Texas, almost 35% of the population is Hispanic. Día de los Muertos has been popular along the U.S.-Mexico border, in cities such as El Paso and Laredo. As more Texans of Mexican descent move into central and north Texas, there is an increasing awareness of the south-ofthe-border celebration in communities such as Austin, Houston and Dallas.

“There are regional variations in how Día de los Muertos is celebrated,” Cabello de Martínez says. In Los Angeles, there is a stronger connection to the indigenous roots of the holiday. The rituals are more orthodox, adhering to the symbolic arrangement of f lowers, incense and the inclusion of native-language chants. Farther from the border, the traditions are more informal, ref lecting regional styles and personal preferences. For Mexican-Americans who grew up celebrating both Halloween and Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead stands in contrast to the candy-laden celebrations that drew their fascination and energies as children.

“Halloween evokes memories of fun and games, of dressing up as your favorite super hero or monster,” Adan Briones, a third-year law student who grew up in El Paso, says. “When I think about Día de los Muertos, I remember a deeper, more symbolic holiday that recognizes the past and honors the people you loved. As an adult, I think you can outgrow Halloween. But, you can’t really outgrow Día de los Muertos. As you mature, the holiday becomes more important and profound.” Briones predicts the Mexican holiday will continue to gain momentum north of the border, while remaining popular among Mexican-Americans who want to preserve a connection to their heritage.

“More people are embracing Día de los Muertos because it confronts death in a real – and meaningful – way. It reminds you about the inevitable loss of life that comes with living, but it also allows you to find life beyond death,” Briones says. www.utexas.edu

frontline • south sudan

Oasis of peace and faith

The preparations had been done meticulously before our departure: food and drinks, spare tires and, most importantly, 40 liters of diesel for travelling the 300-km rough road that awaited us the next morning. Our final destination was the Tali Post, a mission run by three Comboni Missionaries, Fr. Markus, Fr. Albino and Bro. Damiano, among the Mundari people, in the north-west corner of Central Equatorial State in South Sudan. At the end of the journey, we found an oasis of peace and faith among the still omnipresent scars of decades of war. by

Fr. Dave Domingues | comboni missionary

Dave Domingues

W

e left Juba, the Sudanese capital, early in the morning; it was still dark. Simon, our experienced driver, did not want to waste time for he knew what a rough and dusty road is capable of. I, a Portuguese visitor coming from the Philippines, and Bro. Antonio, the administrator of our missions in South Sudan, were on board our vehicle looking forward to reencounter our confreres working in the

remote and isolated land of Tali Post.

We started our journey on a paved road; shortly, our bumpy ride began. Simon kept a good speed, despite the numerous holes he tried to avoid, at times diverting off the road, making a new trail among the trees to ease our buttocks.

He was an expert, a master of the steering wheel. But, his efficiency and speed were soon brought to a halt: there was a military check point! Simon engaged

the military in the local language and negotiations started. The dialogue went on for some time. After looking intently inside the car and at the two foreign passengers, Simon convinced them that we were just two missionaries going to visit our confreres. Without losing their stature of authority, they let us go.

Our journey continued on the dusty and bumpy road. Often, we had to slow down due to the herds of cows

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frontline • south sudan or goats crossing the road. They had the priority, for to run over one cow or a goat would mean long hours of negotiations, the settlement of which would lead to no less than two or three times the value of the victim. Meaning, if you kill one, you have to pay the value of two or three such animals. Knowing that very well, Bro. Antonio would continuously remind Simon saying: “The cows and goats of the Mundari are the red lights on the road. When you see them, it is wiser to stop than to regret not having done so.”

Cattle is their money

The Mundari can be considered agropastoralists because they do not only raise livestock, like cows, goats and sheep, but they also cultivate their fields around their homestead during the rainy season. The main crop they cultivate is sorghum, their main staple food.

They also grow maize, groundnuts, beans, cassava and other root crops. At the beginning of the dry season, when rivers and swamps run low, they resort to catching fish with spears, traps or nets for their food supply. After all, cows are too precious to be killed for daily food. They are reserved for special occasions like weddings or to welcome dignitaries like the bishop.

The land occupied by the Mundari people is a wooded savannah – lying on both sides of the River Nile. The western part, to which Tali belongs, has numerous seasonal and perennial streams and becomes swampy during the rainy season. Like other Nilotic tribes, the Mundari are very cattle-oriented. Cattle and cattle products serve a variety of important social and economic functions. Cattle is their bank, their gold, their currency as they engage in trading and, most importantly, their only way to get a wife or wives, according to the number of cows they are capable of paying to the family of the women they want to marry. In the same way, divorce is settled with cows. The very same cows or, at least, the same number, is to be returned to

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the husband, should the wife decide to leave him. This puts tremendous pressure on the women who, even in situations of abuse and violence, are forced by their own families to remain with their husbands so that cows do not have to be returned.

Livestock keepers sell cattle when they need money or buy cattle as an investment when they have extra money.

Depending on local traditions and customs, cattle may also be used for ritual sacrifices or as normal currency. Cattle produce milk which may be consumed by the family or sold in the local market. Since the local market of Tali and surrounding villages doesn’t offer great variety of goods – due to its remoteness and difficult road conditions, in particular, during the rainy season – people rely completely on their own products. Goats and sheep are kept for the same purposes. Also their skins are dried under the sun and made into child carriers, resembling a shoulder hammock, commonly used by women in carrying their child, leaving their hands free to do other household chores. The child carrier is also very practical because when the child

is asleep, the mother only hangs it on a tree branch. In this way, the child benefits from the shade provided by the tree as the temperature here is oftentimes above 40 degrees Celsius.

Along the rough road, we saw the marks left by the devastating war, the war that led to the constitution of South Sudan as an independent country from the North in July 2011.

It claimed many lives and still does.

Among the trees, along the road, wooden sticks and stones are painted red to signal land mine areas. Simon was very careful not to miss the trail of the road. A great number of land mines are still to be dugout and disabled. Every now and then, they claim victims, usually children who accompany the cattle to places where grass may be more abundant and swamps are with more water. Soon after, we passed the camp site of an NGO that is still carrying the dangerous job of de-mining the area.

By the roadside, one of the war tanks burned during the long conflict, was still there – rusty, but unmoved, a painful reminder of the senseless loss of so many lives.

Cattle is their bank, their gold, their currency as they engage in trading and, most importantly, their only way to get a wife or wives, according to the number of cows they are capable of paying to the family of the women they want to marry.

Dave Domingues

 LIVESTOCK. For the Mundari, cattle is as precious as gold, an assurance of their survival.

rosary was around his neck like a precious gold chain. A small child guided his steps with the use of a stick: the child holding one end and the old man the other. Once, he was the guide of this enthusiastic community of faith. Now, he accepts to be carefully guided by this child.

Still, he has the respect and appreciation of all.

Dave Domingues

Dave Domingues

 LEADER. Once the guide, the old catechist is now led by a child as he continues his mission.

My whole body shivered when I saw the old blind man. His rosary was around his neck like a precious gold chain. A small child guided his steps with the use of a stick: the child holding one end and the old man the other. Once, he was the guide... land of peace

After six hours of rough travel and covered with red dust, we finally reached our destination, our mission in Tali Post. How good it was to embrace, with brotherly love, our three confreres at the Tali mission! How great it was to gulp a couple of glasses of fresh water from a clay pot under a temperature of 41 degrees C. Under the big tree, we sat and the stories about Tali started: 4 During the time of the British rule (until 1956), Tali was a military post. Therefore, in many maps, it is called Tali Post. Indeed, part of the explanations for the word ‘Tali’ ref lect the previous presence of foreign rulers in this area of South Sudan, but the etymology remains uncertain: a) ‘Tali’ comes from talin which, in the local language, means peace and silence; b) ‘Tali’ is derived from the name of a British officer, Tail, who was stationed here; c) ‘Tali’ comes from the Arabic word taali, which means come here.

Whatever the true root word may be, I prefer the first one and believe that

Tali is now a Land of Peace where people try to rebuild their lives from a war that not only claimed many of their relatives but also the basic infrastructures and means for their survival. Besides the common Mundari dialect, other languages spoken in the area are: Bari, English and simple Arabic.

4 The first Catholic missionaries who reached this area, in the early 1950’s, were the Comboni Missionaries coming from Terakeka.

They settled around 7 kms east of Tali Post and started there, in 1954, a mission, called today, Akennwel Simagor or Old Mission. The ruins of the church and the house of the missionaries can still be seen and the people proudly recount stories of their church (now reduced to only four walls). The parish was dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima. Today, the Old Mission, a lively community under the guidance of a now blind and old catechist, is an outstation of Tali parish. My whole body shivered when I saw the old blind man. His

4 The first period of evangelization ended between 1962 and 1964 when all foreign missionaries were expelled from Sudan. The missions built by them were left to decay. The ruins of the once big church remain as the center of that Christian community. The faith in the people’s hearts endured and is still vibrant today.

4 During his Easter visit, in March 2008, the parish priest of Terakeka, Fr. Santo Loku Pio, turned over the Tali parish, with its 30 chapels, to the pastoral care of the Comboni Missionaries. During the first weeks, Fr. Markus Koeber was alone in a small hut, built by the people to welcome him. He still calls it “my first home among the Mundari.” Now, the conditions have improved a bit: the missionaries themselves have built their simple residence with iron sheets, instead of the usual grass as roof, to avoid re-doing it every two years.

Moreover, the high demand for long and dry grass to serve as roof of people’s huts led to a price soar.

Today, it has become a rare and unaffordable commodity.

Training the young

Soon after, some other missionaries joined Fr. Markus in this place of “peace.” Later, some stayed and some were transferred to other missions.

Presently, Frs. Markus, Albino and Bro. Damiano carry on the different tasks of mission among the Mundari. Their priority was to build wells in the different

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Celebrations of life

Dave Domingues

 EDUCATION. Schools for children are badly needed in Tali where illiteracy is higher than 98%.

Even in a scenario of scarcity of food or even of great hunger, the missionaries strongly believe in educating the people for the future. South Sudan has an illiteracy rate of about 85% and, apparently, less than 5% are in primary school in the country. habitation areas to ensure potable water for the people who are still getting water from swamps where cows drink, people take their bath and practice their fish spearing skills for a better meal.

“The greatest need of the people here is basic education, to answer the real challenges of living in a very remote, abandoned region like this one,” says Bro. Damiano. The availability of water made it possible to have gardens around which became the teaching grounds of Bro. Damiano for the young people. Now, he has around 20 young men in different areas of activity. Some learn to make good use of the fertile land, cultivating some vegetables that are a rare commodity in the area and, therefore, considered a luxury for daily meals. Others learn the basics of auto mechanics and have become the reference point to fix, not only the very few cars of the mission and of NGOs working in the area, but also the motorbikes and bicycles of the neighboring villages. Others have become skilled carpenters while the rest excel in skills connected to their pastoralist background: tending the sheep, breeding rabbits and raising a number of chicken

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which, aside from the eggs they provide, are also a bonus to the missionaries' meal on special occasions. Women are not forgotten. Bro. Damiano provides them the means for some tailoring work. Overseeing all, he tirelessly coordinates the different aspects of practical jobs, motivating the people to dream of a better future.

Some of the boys are sent for special training. One of them, after two months in the Comboni Hospital of Mapuordit, now heads the small dispensary. He has no diploma. He has not even finished high school, yet, he is the only hope of many people who live around the mission area. The nearest hospital is a three hour ride away. Besides the rough roads, there is no ambulance and, during the rainy season, roads are not passable, so Tali becomes completely isolated. Many come to seek help: women to deliver their babies, people who have wounds or need medicines to cope with the terrible malaria… Resources are scarce but, with the guidance of Bro. Damiano, himself a nurse and trained in the treatment of leprosy, some situations are handled immediately and thus much suffering is avoided.

The extension of Tali parish covers around 60 kms in the north-south direction and 100 kms in the east-west.

It includes Tali and Tindilo Payams.

At the moment, the parish counts 35 chapels divided in six zones. In each chapel, normally, there are two volunteer catechists who are responsible for animating the Sunday liturgies, prepare candidates for the reception of the sacraments, visit families, sick people and try to animate the community of faith, creating a spirit of communion.

In the entire area of Tali and in the majority of outstations, there are different groups already organized: Legion of Mary, youth group, altar servers, liturgical dancers called Crusaders, and the choir group. Frs. Markus and Albino spend most of their time visiting the 35 outstations. The shared joys, pains and hopes, in the small chapel or under the biggest tree, become sacred moments always culminating in the sharing of simple food. Out of their poverty, they always find something to share.

Fr. Markus is now concerned with some areas where famine starts to be a reality. The last crops were not so abundant and the dry season has lasted too long. As the ponds are almost running dry, fishing is not possible as well. People start heading towards the mission asking for food. The supply of beans and rice in storage may not be enough for the needs. Besides, if the rains come, the roads will not be passable for months, making it impossible to bring essential goods from Juba or all the way from Uganda. barriers to literacy

Even in a scenario of scarcity of food or even of great hunger, the missionaries strongly believe in educating the people for the future. South Sudan has an illiteracy rate of about 85% and, apparently, less than 5% are in primary school in the country. In Tali area, “the rate of illiteracy may be even higher than 98%,” says Fr. Markus. Schools are only accessible to those living near Tali. Satellite

frontline • south sudan schools, if they operate, usually offer education only up to Grade 3. Furthermore, education in this area and among the Mundari is a male privilege.

“Most girls in our area are unschooled.

Others can hardly complete primary education because of early marriage.”

Fr. Markus remarked.

Primary school in Tali opened in April 2010. Initially, with 250 kids registered, classes were held under the trees. However, as of November 2011, almost 350 children had enrolled up to Grade 4. Now, each class has its own open rokuba (hut) and follows the syllabus of South Sudan, hoping to have up to Grade 8 by 2015. At the same time, effort is being made to reach out to the girls who do not report to school. Fr. Markus is fully aware that “girls’ education is crucial and he hopes families will come to discover the value of educating women.”

Teachers are chosen from among the local population who are willing to serve their community. They partici-

pate in the in-service-teacher-training of Solidarity, a Catholic intercongregational initiative in South Sudan.

In my short stay at Tali, I was invited to the morning parade of the children and their teachers. Before the national f lag, the national anthem was sung, and a message was given by the principal – appealing for good behavior and commitment to study. But, before each class moved to their rokuba (hut), time was given to share an inspirational prayer. Then, classes began under the attentive guidance of the teachers.

The efforts taken to foster proper education, despite the very limited means, do not stop here. In the evenings, the parish runs a library which is supervised by the teachers of the primary school. It is a place open to all villagers.

A lively community

Towards the end of our visit to Tali Post, I became witness to the evangelizing efforts made by our confreres

The women were busy cooking...They had learned well the lesson of sharing because, out of their own need, they can still spare enough to share and feed the crowd. Is this not what the miracle of Jesus, the multiplication of bread and fish, was all about?

Dave Domingues

 SHARED LIFE. In Tali, what litle they possess is generously shared with the community.

in this remote area. They were preparing for the visit of the bishop. It had been some years since the last visit had taken place. The excitement was evident. From the youngest to the elders, all were engaged in different preparations: the men took the task of building shades where people could gather around their church. Under the scorching heat, covered with sweat, their joy could not be contained as they put up the shades built of simple bamboo canes and dry grass.

A few meters from the church, the women were busy cooking – beans, rice and meat – all donated by the different communities. I could see they had learned well the lesson of sharing because, out of their own need, they can still spare enough to share and feed the crowd. Is this not what the miracle of Jesus, the multiplication of bread and fish, was all about?

Using the different rokuba for the classes, the teenagers, under the guidance of their leader catechists, practiced joyful and colorful dances to welcome their pastor and to animate the liturgy where many were going to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation. The smaller children were excused from work and, despite the hot weather, delighted themselves running here and there on the sandy soccer field, kicking the ball and shouting with glee – a picture of total freedom.

Yes, indeed, in Tali, I found a lively community where young and old have a place, where ‘little’ is generously multiplied and God is encountered and celebrated not in fancy church or in formal celebrations, but in a life that is shared in simplicity, embracing not only their poverty but also their eagerness to learn, to grow and to realize their dreams. For a moment, I envied my confreres in Tali. How blessed they are for being part of that beautiful journey of growth. But, then, I felt blessed, too. My visit to Tali community is one of those experiences I will treasure and re-live so that the fire of mission in me will keep burning.

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spiritual reflection • HUman rights

How nations become accountable to each other

Participation in the U.N.’s Universal Periodic Review process is an effective way to promote greater respect for human rights in one’s own country and in the world. It is an exercise of global participatory democracy in which committed Christians need to be engaged in order to promote Gospel values in this very important dimension of human life. by

FR. JOHN CONVERSET | comboni missionary

T

hrough the United Nations System, the nations of the world have articulated a vast array of declarations and conventions on human rights, explicitly recognizing the human dignity of all peoples and the practical implications of respecting our common humanity. Some of these instruments have been endorsed by nearly all nations, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. Some nations have reservations about other declarations, such as the Declaration on the Rights of the Child that, among other things, forbids the use of child soldiers. Since the U.S.A. signs up youths of 17 years of age for military training, it is unwilling to sign the declaration.

In some dimensions of human reality, there is no broad consensus on what are human rights; for religious, cultural and historical reasons, many nations do not agree with some controversial “rights,” such as access to abortion or various aspects of gender relationships.

Nonetheless, since the inception of the United Nations, a far-reaching and positive body of human rights ideals has been explicitly spelled out, and most of the rights addressed have been endorsed by most of the world’s nations.

A declaration presenting an ideal that is explicitly acknowledged by the world becomes an instrument of education, a light shining in the darkness of abusive practices or even of cultural blindness.

Gradually, these ideals work their way into international law and into national legislation. However, unless the ideal is progressively translated into practice, it

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will be of little benefit to flesh and blood human beings.

For political, cultural and economic reasons, it is not easy to foster a broad range of human rights and advance their implementation. For example, female genital mutilation (FGM) has been sustained in some cultures for countless centuries; in these contexts, efforts to inf luence public opinion against FGM must be culturally sensitive. The economic interests of multinational corporations, together with the corruption of local officials, are often obstacles to giving indigenous peoples fair control over the lands that they occupy, that is, their right to exercise “free, informed and prior consent” before large dams, extensive mining operations or large plantations can be established on their lands. Some smaller or poorer nations may lack the means to enforce the implementation of national legislation that is intended to protect human rights.

Is there a way in which the nations of the world can hold each other accountable for efforts to improve their human rights record? Nations are rightly eager to protect their sovereignty from outside “interference.” Is there a way for nations to call each other to account for the realities existing in their countries while at the same time, respecting their sovereignty?

Periodic reviews

U.N. General Assembly Resolution 60/251 of April, 2006 established the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) under the auspices of the U.N. Human

Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva consisting of 47 member states of the U.N. Under this agreement, every nation in the world voluntarily submits a periodic report of approximately 20 pages on policies and actions to protect universally recognized human rights and on efforts to improve their implementation to a “working group” of nations that are members of the Human Rights Council. This is essentially a peer to peer review. Other stakeholders, such as non-governmental organizations, may submit additional information in, what are sometimes called, “shadow reports” for consideration by the working group that facilitates the review.

The fundamental basis for the reports are the U.N. Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, other U.N. conventions and declarations that the nation under review has endorsed, International Humanitarian Law, and any additional voluntary commitments that the nation may have made.

The UPR process takes a long time.

The first cycle of reviews took place from September 2008 through 2012, and all 193 nations of the world voluntarily submitted to the review by the Human Rights Council. In the first review cycle, each nation had 70 minutes to comment on the written report that it had previously submitted regarding the domestic framework of legislation and policies related to human rights, how it is improving its efforts to implement human rights, and how it addresses known violations of human rights. A state may also choose this

moment to make new voluntary pledges. After a country presents its report, an interactive dialogue takes place in which any member state of the U.N. may intervene. The state under review receives a series of recommendations for future improvement. Representatives of the three nations that are members of the HRC then prepare an outcome document to which the state reviewed has the right to give its reactions, including accepting or rejecting the recommendations made to it.

Filipino report under way

We are now in the second cycle that began in 2012 and will continue until 2016. The nations are reviewed in small groups and the order of review remains the same in each cycle, so that each nation will undergo its second review four and one half years after the first. So far, Israel is the only nation to refuse to take part in the second cycle of reviews.

The second review of each nation also takes into account the recommendations for future improvement that were made to the state in the first cycle of reviews, as well as any voluntary pledges that the state may have made. The process is essentially the same as that of the first cycle described above. The state

under review presents what it has done to implement the recommendations that it accepted.

The Philippines was among the first nations to be reviewed in the first and second cycles; its second review was started in 2012. The final report of the HRC is not yet available online but only the preliminary report of the HRC “working group.” This report does not give the recommendations.

It does report on the human rights instruments that the Philippines has ratified and those that it has not, the Philippines’ institutional infrastructure and policies to support human rights, cooperation with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and with various international human rights mechanisms, as well as a preliminary assessment of the status regarding the efforts to improve the implementation of a wide range of particular human rights in the Philippines.

The U.S.A. underwent its first review in 2010-2011 and its second review will take place in 2015. The first cycle recommendations to the U.S.A. included that it ratify U.N. Human Rights conventions that it has not yet ratified, such as the Convention to End Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the

Participation in the UPR process is an effective way to promote greater respect for human rights in one’s own country. It is an exercise of global participatory democracy in which committed Christians need to be engaged to promote Gospel values.

 MEMBERS. At the U.N. headquarters, colorful flags of member countries wave proudly.

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR); the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC); the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families; the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance; the Statute of the International Criminal Court; those of the International Labor Organization; and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, etc.

Recommendations to the U.S.

Some of the other recommendations were to eliminate the death penalty, torture and the Guantanamo prison, improve living conditions in prisons, end ethnic and racial discrimination, reform immigration policy especially to stop criminalizing undocumented migration and the economic exploitation of migrants, end racial profiling by police forces, respect the rights of detained migrants to counsel and a fair trial, respect the rights of indigenous peoples and the necessity of taking steps to address climate change.

Any “stakeholder” (i.e., non-governmental organization (NGO), service organization, etc.) may take part in the next review of the country in which it is present in a variety of ways. A full range of information on the UPR process and how to take part is available at http:// www.upr-info.org/. This information includes the various ways in which NGOs may take part in the process, the dates when each nation is due to be reviewed in the second UPR cycle and the timeline for NGO actions.

Participation in the UPR process is an effective way to promote greater respect for human rights in one’s own country. It is an exercise of global participatory democracy in which committed Christians need to be engaged in order to promote Gospel values in this very important dimension of human life.

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Missionary vocation • Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

Healing of memories

In the cathedral of Speyer, Germany, near the baptismal font, there is a bust of Edith Stein with the inscription: Jew, atheist, Christian, martyr. This summarizes “the young woman’s search for the truth, with a heart that long remained restless until finally it found peace in God” as John Paul II said in his homily for the beatification of Sr. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Edith Stein (1891-1942), threatened of annihilation, together with her whole Jewish people by Hitler’s madness, saw herself like the biblical Esther, giving her life like Jesus on the Cross, to make sense of the suffering of her people. Her canonization is a kind of healing of memories, preceding John Paul II’s historic visit to the museum of the Holocaust Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and his repentant prayer at the Wailing Wall, during the 2000 Great Jubilee Year. by

Fr. Lorenzo Carraro | comboni missionary

I

t was early morning, sometime in May 1942, when Rosa Stein and Edith (now a Carmelite nun by the name of Teresa Benedicta of the Cross), a veil covering her face, set out from the convent of Echt in Holland, boarded a train and travelled to Maastricht, where they were required to register as Jews. “Praised be Jesus Christ!”, a proud and defiant Edith called out as she entered the office of the Gestapo, overf lowing with frightened Jews, a weeping Rose following close behind. Orders were screamed, the Jewish nun was insulted and humiliated. No one was waiting at the railway station late that night to welcome the Stein sisters back. They had to walk alone through the streets, yellow stars of David prominently displayed on their habits.

More than three years after the Nazi occupation of Holland, on Sunday, July 26, 1942, the Dutch bishops publicly condemned the deportation of the Jews.

The German authorities, stung by the Catholic bishops’ courageous intervention, increased their determination to do away with all the Jews, including those who had converted to Christianity. During the last year of her life and up to the last moment, Edith Stein had tried to find refuge for herself and Rose, first in the Carmelite Convent in Bethlehem

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and then in Switzerland, but in vain.

The dreaded moment finally arrived.

It was a beautiful, clear day with blue skies. A real summer day. The sisters were having their lunch. The door bell rang. Mother Antonia went to open and coming back said: “They are here.”

A small crowd was gathering on the pavement opposite the convent’s door.

The Gestapo car was parked around the corner, engine idling. Edith and Rose were shoved into the van. In that moment, to her sister who was crying, Sr. Teresa Benedicta said: “Come, Rose, we are going for our people.”

Survivors of the following days describe the nun’s courage and composure despite the clear certainty of the fate that awaited her. She occupied herself with prayer while caring for the terrified children and consoling mothers separated from their husbands. Someone described her as “a Pietà without a Christ.”

From the detention camp in Holland, she followed the same route as millions of others: the wretched journey by sealed railway carriage, the arrival, halfstarved, at a strange camp amid snarling dogs and cursing guards, the infamous “selection,” the stripping, then the brisk walk to the shower rooms, from which no one ever emerged.

Edith Stein died in a gas chamber, together with her sister Rose, at Auschwitz, on August 9, 1942. In 1987, she was beatified as a confessor and martyr of the Church by Pope John Paul II, an event that provoked controversy. Many Jews complained that Edith was killed as a Jew like millions of others and not because of her Christian faith. “But what is remarkable about Edith Stein’s death is not the manner of her death but her understanding of it: in solidarity with her people, as an act of atonement for the evil of her time, and as a conscious identification with the Cross of Christ” (Robert Ellsberg).

Long before, Stein had understood the terrible storm that was approaching and she felt, in some way, that her Jewish-Christian identity imposed a unique vocation on her. While praying at the Carmelite convent in Cologne, she later wrote: “I spoke with the Savior to tell Him that I realized it was His Cross that was being laid upon the Jewish people, that the few who understood this had the responsibility of carrying it in the name of all and that myself was willing to do this, if Jesus would only show me how.” She was proclaimed saint on October 11, 1998.

The search for the truth

The facts of Stein’s life are these: she is the youngest of seven children of an observant Jewish family and was born on October 12, 1891. It was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, a detail that became very dear to her at the end of her life.

Her father died when she was two, leaving the mother run the family’s lumber business. “In my dreams, I always foresaw a brilliant future for myself,” she writes in her unfinished autobiography, "Life in a Jewish Family."

At 14, she left school and home to join her older sister in Hamburg. It was in this time and setting that she declared herself an atheist. She returned home to Breslau, graduated from the gymnasium, and after a semester or two studying psychology, moved to Gottingen to study philosophy with the

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phenomenologist, Edmund Husserl.

“Little by little, I worked myself into a state of veritable despair,” she writes in her autobiography.

From reading the works of the reformer of the Carmelite Order, St. Teresa of Avila, especially her autobiography, Edith was drawn to the Christian faith.

She was baptized on January 1, 1922 into the Roman Catholic Church. Edith’s mother wept when she heard the news of her daughter’s conversion. Faced with Edith’s resolution, however, she had little choice but to acquiesce. Edith continued to accompany her mother to the synagogue feeling that, in accepting Christ, she had been reunited, by a mysterious path, to her Jewish roots.

A passionate young woman

Edith Stein had a rich, complex temperament. She was brilliant and planned an academic career, but was also a passionate young woman and dreamed of love and marriage. She stepped aside when she saw that her beloved sister Erna became engaged to Hans Biberstein, a dashing medical student both sisters had befriended. But when Erna and Hans got married, Edith had a mental breakdown, as she admits in her autobiography. “There is no doubt that Edith loved my father very much,” declares Suzanne, the Bibersteins’ daughter.

Later on, Edith was inconsolable when her fellow student, the handsome Hans Lipps, did not return her love. Even after her conversion to Christianity and when she was considering consecrating herself totally to God, she still kept a photo of Hans Lipps: her dream of a life with Hans Lipps was not easily forgotten.

“That won’t do,” a close friend scolded her. “You cannot plan to give yourself over to the Lord and have a photo of the man, who refused to marry you, on your desk.”

Actually, her friend was wrong: it is the passionate quality of Edith’s friendships that made her a mystic, a lover of God. She had a very long, close friendship with Roman Ingarden, a fellow student who was to become one of the professors of Karol Wojtyla, the future

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 NAZISM. The outspoken Sister Teresa Benedicta fearlessly denounced the oppressive regime.

For weeks, not only Jews but also thousands of faithful Catholics in Germany and, I believe, all over the world, have been waiting and hoping for the Church of Christ to raise its voice to put a stop to this abuse of Christ’s Name.

John Paul II, and with Adolf Reinach, Husserl’s assistant, who volunteered to the front in World War I and was killed in the eastern front. Dr. Stein took over his position as assistant to Husserl and the example of Reinach’s widow, Anna, was instrumental to her conversion.

She narrates of her visit to Anna and how she found the young woman unexpectedly serene and composed because of her newly-found Christian faith.

Another man occupied a great place in her life: during the years of her militancy as a Catholic teacher and speaker, she developed a warm and emotionally rewarding relationship with Raphael Walzer, the young, dynamic archabbot of the Benedictine monastery in Beuron who became her spiritual director.

Unheeded prophecies

In 1933, both Stein and Dom Walzer were alarmed by the rise of Hitler. Politically astute and farsighted, Edith feared the impending Vatican alliance with Germany. Daringly, she requested a private audience with Pope Pius XI and sent him a letter when that was denied.

“As a child of the Jewish people who, by the grace of God, for the past eleven

years has also been a child of the Catholic Church, I dare to speak to the Father of Christianity about that which oppresses millions of Germans… For years, the leaders of National Socialism have been preaching hatred of the Jews...Everything that happened and continues to happen on a daily basis originates with a government that calls itself 'Christian.'

For weeks, not only Jews but also thousands of faithful Catholics in Germany and, I believe, all over the world, have been waiting and hoping for the Church of Christ to raise its voice to put a stop to this abuse of Christ’s Name”( Letter to Pope Pius XI ).

Stein's letter received no answer, and it is not known for sure whether Pius XI ever even read it. The Concordat agreement between the Vatican and Berlin took place. Four years later, however, the Pope issued an encyclical, written in German, Mit brennender Sorge (With burning anxiety), in which he criticized Nazism, listed breaches of the Concordat signed between Germany and the Church in 1933, and condemned anti-Semitism. But it was too late.

In the meantime, Stein had lost her teaching job because of the racial laws.

Missionary vocation • Teresa Benedicta of the Cross Only then, the spiritual adviser Abbot Walzer finally granted Edith’s request and she entered the convent in Cologne.

She wrote movingly of her farewell to her beloved Orthodox Jewish mother in her native Breslau. None of her family was present on April 15, 1934, to witness her formal clothing of a Carmelite habit.

She took, as her religious name, Sister Teresa Benedicta a Cruce – blessed by the Cross. It was a name, she later explained, chosen to refer “to the fate of the people of God, which even then was beginning to reveal itself.”

She had come to feel that the measures against the Jews were God’s heavy hand upon His people and that the Savior’s Cross was now been placed upon the Jews. “The fate of this people would also be mine,” she writes with prescience.

In April 1938, a plebiscite concerning the annexation of Austria took place.

Stein implored the nuns of the convent to vote “no.” Mother Renata, then head of the convent, recalls: “She lobbied indefatigably, raising her otherwise gentle voice.

She said: “Hitler is the enemy of God and will ruin Germany.” Nobody listened.

Later, they will regret it, but in vain.

Edith had entered the Carmelite convent in Cologne when she was 42, in October 1933. After Kristallnacht, the pogrom of November 9, 1938, it was no longer safe for the nuns in Cologne to associate with, let alone harbor, a non-

Aryan nun. And so, hastily, asylum was found for her in the Carmelite convent at Echt, in the neutral Holland.

Her letters from that time show her sorrow and increasing worry about her siblings’ fate. She learned of the deportation of her sister Frieda and her brother Paul and his wife. Her sister Erna had mercifully booked a passage for the United States at the last hour, but didn’t dared to visit Edith and Rose to bid farewell. And, in November 1941, news reached her that her very special friend, Hans Lipps, had been fatally shot at the eastern front. The final sacrifice was approaching.

The healing task of the Saints

There is no doubt that the Catholic Church is embarrassed about the compliant role of many of her members during World War II, especially during the holocaust. On the other hand, Pope John Paul II visited Auschwitz to seek pardon, and the reconciliation between Jews and Catholics continues. The canonization of Edith Stein may positively be seen as a powerful symbol of this rapprochement, in the eyes of both Catholics and Jews.

Pope John Paul II, during Edith Stein’s beatification, said: “Today, we greet, in profound honor and holy joy, a daughter of the Jewish people, rich in wisdom and courage, who gave her life

 THE DREADFUL GATE. The main entrance to Auschwitz Birkenau's extermination camp.

for genuine peace.” The Pope acknowledged Stein’s Jewish roots and asserted that her baptism “was, by no means, a break with her Jewish heritage,” but he added: “The life of this heroic follower of Christ was illuminated by the cross.”

Edith Stein had no thought of escaping the fate of her people. In fact, she prepared a solemn prayer which she delivered to the prioress: “I offer myself to the Heart of Jesus as a sacrifice of atonement for the Jewish people, for the aversion of war and for the sanctification of my Carmelite family.” Having contemplated and faced the reality of death, she was delivered from further anxiety, and thus prepared to await the end.

Four years before her death, in October 1938, Edith had written to a friend: “I keep thinking of Queen Esther, who was taken from her people so that she could represent them before the king. I am a very poor and powerless little Esther, but the King who chose me is infinitely big and merciful. That is a big consolation.”

The figure of Esther reminds us of the role of individual saints and heroes confronted with the historical sinfulness and shame of particular periods and circumstances. In the Bible itself, during the tragedy of the Exile that is seen as a punishment of God, the memory is healed by the beauty and courage of individual persons: Tobit, Judith, Esther.

The same pattern is applied here for the holocaust with Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross as well as Saint Maximilian Kolbe and others as it was applied to the shame of the slave trade with Saint Peter Claver and Saint Martin de Porres.

Edith Stein found the end of her search in Christ and in Christ Crucified. This was the discovery she made, when she read the autobiography of Saint Teresa of Avila, as she wrote: “That was the moment when my disbelief collapsed, Judaism faded, and Christ rose radiantly before my eyes: Christ in the mystery of His Cross.” In Saint Peter’s Square, on that morning of October 11, 1998, the grace and truth of her life shone brightly as an extension of the Crucified Christ’s glory.

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the last word

CHRISTIANS BY WORDS ONLY OR BY DEEDS? by

Fr . SILVANO FAUSTI, s.J. | BIBLIST & WRITER

“Aeneas, rise and make your bed! (…) Tabitha, rise” – Read Acts 9:32-43

A

fter Paul’s conversion, the attention goes back to Peter. The latter, from the beginning, undergoes an arrest together with John (Acts 4:1-22). A second one follows, together with the entire Apostolic college, that ends with a miraculous liberation and, again, an arrest with scourging. The defense by Gamaliel stops the persecutions against the Apostles (Acts 5:17-42). The persecutions that follow are against Stephen and the Hellenists, because they open the Christian faith to those who do not go to the Temple.

The Apostles instead are peaceful, undisturbed until Paul arrives. His preaching unleashes a new persecution.

Then the brothers accompany him to Caesarea and dispatch him back home to Tarsus. At last, a period of peace comes back again for the Church. Now Peter can move. He visits and encourages the new communities that are growing bigger and more numerous.

During this pastoral visitation, his “apostolic palace” will be the house of Simon, the leather-tanner. Here, as if following the scent, even the envoys of the centurion, Cornelius, will be able to find him, in order to bring him to the house of a pagan. Tradition has that Peter stayed around 12 years at Jerusalem. His previous “palaces” had been the Upper Room (Cenacle), the courthouse, the prison where he will go back before disappearing completely from the stage (Acts 12:1-17) From then, he will be like Jesus, his Lord and Lord of the universe, who did not have “territorial sovereignty” even on a stone where to recline his head.

The images of that time represent Peter and Paul mostly together. They are the protagonists of the Acts. The intertwining of the two figures underlines their unity and complementary nature. They have different gifts. Peter is the shepherd. His experience in denying Jesus who, in His turn, doesn’t deny Peter, makes him witness of the certainty of faith: it is the Lord’s faithfulness to him, in spite of his unfaithfulness.

Paul is the scholar. The light of Damascus, together with his high intelligence and formation, makes of Paul a witness of the certainty of faith: it is God’s love for every person, His son or daughter. In the Church, nobody has all the charisms. Our different kinds of poverty, if welcomed and welcoming, put us in communion. Thus, we become

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the only body of Christ, assumed by God, who is the unity of love in His infinite otherness.

The miracles of the Acts, like those of the Gospels, are signs that lead us to faith in the Crucified and Risen Christ.

The first miracle performed by Peter was “programmatic” (Acts 3:1ff ): he freed the man from paralysis so that, walking towards the Father and the brethren, he might become God’s son. Now we see two other “pastoral” miracles of Peter while visiting the recently born communities. They are about two baptized people: Aeneas – the man bedridden for eight years – and Tabitha, the woman rich in good deeds.

They are two different models of Christian life: the former, negative to cure, and the latter, positive to imitate.

Aeneas is the average Christian: after the fervor of the beginnings, he carries on a lukewarm life in the bed of his easygoing ways. Lying in his daily selfishness, he expects to be served by others. Without this “pastoral” miracle, he would have lived as a dead weight until his actual death. Fruitless branch, he is a Christian in words, but not in deeds and in truth (1 John 3:18).

Perhaps Aeneas is the figure of Peter. He was lingering in Jerusalem and roundabout, without risking dangers, living at the same time as a good Jew and a believer in Jesus. Persecution keeps the Church alive and faithful to her mission.

Tranquility tends to put her to bed like Aeneas or make her die like Tabitha. Peter’s function, as a shepherd, is to stimulate those who are dozing off in their sweet doing nothing, and resurrect the spirit of those who witness to Christ with a concrete love towards their brothers and sisters (1 John 3:14).

The true pastor must not be like Aeneas, but like Tabitha.

He should not lord over the flock but become a model for it (1 Peter 5:3): he must take away from himself, in his way of life and acting, everything that doesn’t conform to Christ. © Popoli – www.popoli.info

REFLECT AND PRAY – Do you experience joy in speaking about your faith? Do you do it often with knowledge and passion or are you shy and embarrassed about what you believe?

– Is your faith the leaven of your life? Does Jesus inspire your actions and commitments, your whole life or do you rather listen to the masters of our money-oriented, consumerist society?

– Do you give your generous and loyal collaboration to your Christian community or you rather prefer to be an onlooker from the sidelines?

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