ACN Mirror August 2019

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No 6 • August 2019 Published eight times per year

© Ismael Martínez Sánchez/ACN

www.acnmalta.org

“So what is it you are holding in your hands? A piece of literature? A collection of charming old tales? No. Through the Word of God, light has come into the world, and so what you are holding in your hands is something divine – a book like fire!

A book through which God is speaking to us.”

Pope Francis Foreword to the YOUCAT Bible

That great saint Don Bosco once said: “So many souls have been saved by good books; so many shielded from error and encouraged to do good! Whoever gives someone a good book, even if it does no more than awaken the thought of God in them, has performed an incomparable service in the sight of God. And in reality how much more it usually achieves!”

Yes, along with the proclamation of the Gospel and the living witness of the Church, good spiritual books represent a major contribution to the transmission of the Faith. First place, needless to say, belongs to the Book of Books, the Holy Scriptures, which springs from the very source of divine revelation and through which God himself speaks to us. That is why ACN, as a pastoral charity, also places particular emphasis on the worldwide dissemination of Sacred Scripture and catechetical and religious books. And even if no book can replace the personal proclamation of Jesus, the living Word of God, nonetheless a good book can greatly help us to find our way to God and grow in knowledge and understanding of

The Bible endures. On returning to their village, Iraqi Christians found the Holy Scriptures still there.

the Faith. How many people have had their lives changed, or even begun a completely new life, as a result of reading a religious book or the biography of a saint. We need only think of Saint Ignatius of Loyola who, lying wounded in hospital as a soldier, read the lives of the saints and said to himself: “If they can do it, then so can I!”

theological, catechetical and spiritual writings. All these publications serve the pastoral mission of the Church, and many of them are also essential to the formation of priests and religious.

Another special priority of ACN is the religious formation and catechesis of children and young people. To this end, ACN has established the YOUCAT Foundation, with its own publishing “Good books can inspire house. The foundation proour prayer and actions and duces, publishes and dissemiteach us the truth about nates catechetical publications that are attractive and accessiGod and man.” ble to young people and that The Bible and the Catechism, the writings help them to discover the Catholic Chrisof the saints, spiritual literature generally tian Faith as the foundation of their lives. and indeed every good book, can be a Through publications such as these, we are signpost through life for us. They can in- helping millions of people to come to spire us in our prayers and actions and know Jesus Christ and discover true life in teach us the truth about God and man. A Him. So help us, dear friends, to save more good spiritual book can strengthen the souls through good books! soul and make you ready to give an answer to every man who asks you the reason for My grateful blessing on you all the hope that is in you (cf. 1 Pt 3:15).

Since its foundation, ACN has disseminated over 51 million copies of its Child’s Bible throughout the world. And we continue to support numerous projects for the Father Martin Maria Barta translation and printing of bibles and other Ecclesiastical Assistant 1

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T The Faith on your phone: the YOUCAT as a mobile App.

To the ends of the earth

There are some 7,350 different languages in the world. So far, the complete Bible has been translated into 692 of these languages and the New Testament into 1,547. So, until the Good News of the Gospel has reached all nations, and even to the ends of the earth (cf. Mt 28:19), we can only say, together with Father Werenfried, “There is still a great deal to be done.”

Again and again we receive requests to supply the Catholic faithful, who cannot afford it themselves, with the words of Scripture in a form approved by the Church. And not only in places where it is dangerous to even possess a Bible – as in Islamist dictatorships such as Saudi Arabia – but also where people have for decades been brought up under atheistic ideologies in godless and anti-Christian dictatorships – such as China – and so urgently need religious literature today.

Bibles for Cuba. The longing for God hasn’t died, not even after decades of atheism.

Cuba has been a communist state for almost 60 years. However, following two papal visits, interest in the Faith has re-awakened. The Archbishop of Havana wants Catholics to learn the practice of lectio divina, or prayerful meditation on the Scriptures to help overcome the sense of helplessness among many Cubans at their political and economic situation, by countering it with the Good News of the Gospel and inspiring new courage. One Bible costs €3.91, and

15,120 bibles can fit into a container. This would also be enough to supply the other ten dioceses in Cuba with this primary instrument of the new evangelisation. ACN has already promised the €63,960 they need.

Very often we need to convey the Catechism and the Scriptures not just in new languages but in the language of today.

This is what has been done with the new youth catechism YOUCAT, and with other texts in this series, including the preparation for First Holy Communion and Confirmation. Over 5 million copies of YOUCAT alone have already been published. But the other way to reach young people today is via the Internet. So now the plan is to digitalise all YOUCAT publications, so that young people can download the Catechism and other texts onto their smartphones.

This is a real investment in the future. In this way the Good News can truly reach the ends of the earth. As we have said, there is still a great deal to be done.

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Making Bible learning fun To believe, we must first know. We part. They are all given a bible to study, with must first study, before we can bear the emphasis above all on the New Testawitness and proclaim. ment. In the first month it is St Matthew, folThe Coptic Catholics in Cairo, Egypt, have found a way to make this learning fun and motivate thousands of children at the same time. They have organised a Big Bible Quiz.

The competition is taking place this year for the third time; it lasts six months and the top 100 contenders are eligible for the grand final.

Altogether some 3,500 children and young people aged between 12 and 18 are taking 2

lowed by Sts Mark, Luke and John. The enthusiasm is tremendous. In September, shortly before the beginning of the new school year, the finalists will attend a long weekend together, showing off their knowledge of the life of Jesus and the Gospels. But of course the books, the organisation and above all the accommodation for the decisive final weekend all cost money – money the impoverished Catholic community cannot find

So what did Jesus say? Practising for the Bible quiz. alone. ACN is contributing €5,000. For “You will be my witnesses…to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

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Any donation you kindly give will go to support these, or similar

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Living according to God’s plan

All in it together: marriage programme for couples in Bangladesh.

“God Himself is the author of matrimony” states Gaudium et Spes (1965), and Pope Benedict XVI has said “The sacrament of marriage is not an invention of the Church; it is really ‘con-created’ with man as such, as a fruit of the dynamism of love in which the man and the woman find themselves and thus also find the Creator who called them to love.”

This truth is valid for all cultures, but each culture has its own problems. In Africa it is often AIDS, the result of infidelity and prostitution. AIDS always has more than one victim – the one who dies and the orphans, widows or widowers left behind. And so, in the Archdiocese of Kisumu in Kenya, Archbishop Philip Anyolo is promoting a family programme, including natural family planning (NFP), “so that families in Kisumu can live

Belarus: with the Church, on the side of the family. lar

according to God’s plan”. This is a revival of an earlier programme, abandoned for many years for lack of money, with the number of victims now rising as a result. Today, married couples are trained with the necessary expertise, so that they can teach others in the 45 parishes of the diocese. The goal is to train 380 couples in one year. We are helping Archbishop Philip and his team with €14,500.

In Asia the equality of women is a major issue. Consequently, the Catholic bishops’ conference of Bangladesh has focused on married life as a priority in its three-year programme for the family. Mature married couples are chosen to explain to others how the life of Christian love can be lived on a footing of equality and how couples can overcome difficulties and crises together.

Such teaching presupposes communication skills, knowledge of the biblical foundations of marriage and the practice of the natural regulation of fertility. After three years, 95 married couples should be equipped to go out into their towns and villages as ambassadors of Christian marriage and family to promote the Catholic teachings on the family as “God’s masterpiece” (Pope Francis).

projects, and enable the pastoral work of Aid to the Church in Need.

Kenya: fighting AIDS together and promoting married happiness.

We are helping with a contribution of €6,500 per year.

In the countries of the former Soviet Union the Church must still contend with the consequences of communist ideology. Abortion is still viewed by many as a routine form of birth control, while drug addiction and suicide rates are rising, including among young people. The Marriage and Family Committee of the Belarus bishops’ conference has therefore proclaimed 2019 the Year of the Family, as a way of supporting mother, father and children. It offers practical seminars, antenatal courses and psychotherapeutic approaches. The programme includes special retreat days and a congress of family movements. ACN is contributing €7,000 to strengthen them in the fight for the Church’s saving truth on marriage and the family.

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Letting children be children in the Holy Land

© Evilázio Bezerra

4 Together we make progress: another lesson learnt on the holiday camp.

And he took a little child, and set him in the midst of them: and taking him in his arms, he said unto them “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me” (Mk 9:36-7). Children are central to our Christian faith, for they are the future of the Church.

Likewise, central to the work of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and its 180,000 Catholic faithful are the summer camps it organises each year for their children. This year around 6,000 children and young people will be taking part from 36 of the 55 parishes in the patriarchate. The 2-4 week courses in Israel, Jordan and the autonomous Palestinian territories are run by priests, youth leaders and catechists.

The programme includes sport, theatre, painting and art, community service, religion lessons and of course, time to pray together and celebrate Holy Mass. And there are also excursions to the places where Jesus taught and prayed in the Holy Land.

Many of the families however, above all in the Palestinian territories, simply cannot

afford to pay for the two or more weeks stay for their children, and so there are subsidies available to help them. The truth is, the experience these young people enjoy in the summer camps is beyond price. The 150 children aged between 4 and 14 from the Gaza Strip will learn, for example, that there are other children like them throughout the region and that in Israel there are also Christian families striving to live in peace and friendship with everyone around them.

They will learn that happiness and security are not something to yearn for in the future, but that peace of heart is something that is truly possible, here and now.

The same is true for the 60 children from Nazareth and for the 80 five to twelve-yearolds from Smakiyeh in Jordan. Whether in

the handicraft sessions or the theatre rehearsals, they will learn that patience and perseverance are needed in order to succeed, and that while playing basketball and football, we need to apologise after a foul or a push and generally be ready to bear with one another, to pardon and forgive.

This way, the children learn, through play, to see one another through the eyes of Christ, who embraces every child in love.

Learning this is the basis for peace. The patriarchate is investing a great deal in these crucially important summer camps – and we are supporting them with €30,000. For Jesus himself said: “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them. For to such belongs the kingdom of God” (Mk 10:14).

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Holy Mass: front and centre for every age, even during holiday time.

Last-minute instructions: Sister Cecilia talks about the excursion.

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© Evilázio Bezerra

le hild’s Bib C N C A e h ft 40 years o A companion for life: children in Mexico with the Child’s Bible in Tzeltal, their mother tongue.

Pope, Bible, children: Benedict XVI at the Fazenda in Brazil.

Saint John Paul II was present and was delighted when, in 1979, the Child’s Bible was first presented at the General Conference of the Latin-American Episcopate in Puebla, Mexico. In Brazil, Pope Benedict XVI was presented by a child with the 10 millionth copy of the Portuguese edition at the Fazenda da Esperança in Guaratinguetá and Pope Francis himself, while still Cardinal Archbishop of Buenos Aires, requested thousands of copies of the same Child’s Bible.

© Andrzej Polec

With the blessing of the Popes

Kazakhstan, September 2001: showing Now, after 40 years we have reached a stag- parishes, dioceses and religious orders are Pope John Paul II her Bible in Kazakh. gering total of 51,188,209 copies published and distributed (as of June 2019). And this is not the end. Daily, requests and enquiries come in from all over the world. Many

Very close to the Holy Father’s heart: Child’s Bible and YOUCAT for Kids. lar

unable to pay the printing costs themselves.

For example, the seven dioceses in Pakistan (80,000 copies in Urdu at a cost of €48,000) or the Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine (50,000 copies illustrated with icons for €25,000). Similarly, the diocese of Tarahumara in northern Mexico cannot afford the €9,300 cost for the 10,000 copies it needs.

So we are helping – and thereby also helping the parents who attend the Bible study lessons weekly with their children.

At the same time, thank-you letters come in daily. For many children in some of the poorest countries, like Mozambique, so terribly plagued by recent natural disasters, it is the only book they have. “You cannot imagine”, writes Father Ottorino, “just what an impact such a little book can have in people’s hearts”. 13-year-old Dieudonné has written from Togo to thank us, saying “All the words of Jesus make us reflect and give us meaning to our lives.” Many people are

projects, and enable the pastoral work of Aid to the Church in Need.

deeply moved. Little Mikel in Albania feels “so sad about Jesus”. And from a Brazilian prison we received these words: “I’m in prison for killing someone. I have AIDS. God alone knows what is going on inside me. I don’t know what I am going to do with my life, but one thing is certain: this little Bible will help me.”

Nobody knows what fruit these 51 million ‘grains of wheat’ in the form of the Child’s Bible will ultimately bear or how many million of souls will be saved by them in the decades to come. There is a blessing on this little book, ever since Father Werenfried first launched it in 1979 with these words: “Children need something like a child’s Bible, so that the image of Jesus may become a living one in their hearts.” The seed has surely taken root in the hearts of many children and, thanks to your generosity, will not cease to flourish.

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Inspired to action Palina, Krystyna and Valeria had a particularly long way to travel. Together with four other girls from Vitebsk in Belarus, they had travelled to Panama and soaked up every second “in the world of youth and of faith” into the depths of their hearts. The World Youth Day in January 2019, with its shared prayer, discussion and catechetical sessions, had, so they write, “endlessly enriched” them and “inspired them to action”. They are “so, so, so grateful” to God and to you for having made this experience possible for them. Now back home, they want to infect their friends with this contagious joy “that comes from love of God” and which they experienced in Panama. “The world is experiencing a crisis of love”, they write. “And young people can overcome this.”

Need, love and thanks − your letters Profound solidarity I’ve put aside some of my savings in order to help our Christian brothers and sisters who have to fear for their lives on account of their faith in Jesus Christ. I feel a sense of profound solidarity with them, as living witnesses who are suffering a daily martyrdom and many of whom have even given their lives. And so I’ve decided to pass over other appeals and am sending you this cheque from my vacation money. I rejoice to share with my suffering brothers and sisters in this way. Please use it to support the poorest churches in their most basic necessities.

A benefactress in Portugal The source of all Christian action From a very early age my mother made us aware of the needs of persecuted Christians. She always sent donations to ACN, even when she had virtually nothing left to spare. Since her death in 2011 I have felt the desire to take up where she left off. I want to thank you for all the things your aid

makes possible. But at the same time I want to thank you for your letter in the Mirror, which is a powerful reminder of the very heart of our faith, the source of all true Christian action. Of the various phrases highlighted on this front page of the Mirror there are two I want to quote: “It is not the elimination of the need that ultimately counts, but loving to the limits.” And “All light, all spiritual strength, all reason for hope, everything comes from the Cross.”

A benefactress in Belgium Thank you for your mission I want to thank you and encourage you with my donation for the wonderful mission with which you are comforting the hearts of our persecuted brothers and sisters, drying their tears and rekindling their hope, with a warmth so urgently needed in the darkness of the present time, and also for bringing to others the torch of the Gospel light, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Light of the world.

A benefactor in France

Thomas Heine-Geldern, Executive President, ACN (International)

Dear Friends,

It is always a joy to us ‘oldies’ to see pictures of joyful and committed young people whenever we read reports of a World Youth Day for example, or a big meeting of one of the spiritual movements. It is proof that our mission of guiding the next generation to God and to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is indeed achievable.

To help attain this goal still more successfully, ACN has been committed for many years now to supporting the family and youth apostolate. We are helping with a range of formation programmes of this kind with our project partners, and in particular of course with our popular Child’s Bible, still so sought after over 40 years and on every continent. Added to this are the rapidly spreading books of the YOUCAT series. These are available not only to our brothers and sisters of the Church in need, but to each and every family that strives to spread the Gospel word.

Thanks to your generous help we can in this way build solid bridges of shared knowledge of our faith and so inspire young people with enthusiasm for God and His love.

My heartfelt thanks to you all.

Editors: Jürgen Liminski & Stephen Axisa Please use the envelope. Aid to the Church in Need, 39B Mdina Road, Publisher: Aid to the Church in Need, 39B Mdina Road, Attard ATD 9038 Attard ATD 9038; Tel: 21487818; Fax: 21586257 APS Bank, IBAN: MT72 APSB 7705 7008 5772 2000 1771 733 Printed in Malta BIC: APSBMTMT De licentia competentis auctoritatis Email: info@acnmalta.org – facebook//Aid to the Church in Need Malta ecclesiasticae Pass this leaflet on to your neighbours, friends or leave it at the Parish www.acnmalta.org Church for others to review.

Where to send your contribution for the Church in Need

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