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Mexican bishops call out drug cartels, politicians
Nov. 20, 2009
Soldiers escort a drug hitman as he is presented to the media in late October in Monterrey, Mexico. (CNS/Tomas Bravo, Reuters)
CUAUTITLAN IZCALLI, Mexico -- The Mexican bishops' conference rebuked narcotics-trafficking cartels for their murderous ways and demanded that Mexico's politicians crack down on the corruption and impunity that permits the illicit drug industry to flourish.
The bishops' Nov. 12 letter -- a long-anticipated response to the issue of violence in Mexico -- also called on all Mexicans, including senior Catholic leaders, to take responsibility for abating the drug- and crime-related violence that has claimed more than 13,000 lives over the past three years.
After 20 years, Salvadorans remember slain martyrs
Nov. 17, 2009
Salvador vigil commemorates slain martyrs (CNS photo)
San Salvador, El Salvador
Salvadorans from every segment of society gathered here Nov. 14- 16 to commemorate the 1989 murders of six Jesuits, and their housekeeper and her daughter.
Many used local events to reflect on El Salvador's progress since the end of the country's civil war in 1992.
It was 20 years ago that a Salvadoran military unit broke into the grounds of Central American University, brutally killing Jesuits Ignacio Ellacuría, Ignacio Martín Baró, Segundo Montes, Joaquín López y López, Amando López and Juan Ramón Moreno, as well as their housekeeper, Elba Ramos, and her daughter, Celina.
At the entrance to the university, only a short walk from the courtyard where the priests and the women were executed and where they are buried in the university's chapel, students collected supplies to contribute to disaster relief efforts after heavy rains Nov. 8 that led to mudslides, killing 160 people and leaving more than 12,000 homeless.
Carrying out the university commitment to social justice, several noted, is one way students could remember the Jesuits. “This is what they stood for, helping the poor,” one said.
Number of hungry in the world tops 1 billion
Oct. 26, 2009
Afghan refugees wait to receive free food at a distribution area in the troubled Bajaur tribal region in Pakistan Oct. 17. (CNS/Reuters/Adil Khan)
GENEVA and ROME -- Despite record high grain crops, the number of undernourished people in 2009 reached the historic high of 1.02 billion, about 100 million more than in 2008, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and a coalition of religious, human rights and development groups.
The increase in hunger, the coalition said, was caused by governments’ and international institutions’ failure to act.
Honduran bishops hope talks bring just, peaceful solution
Oct. 12, 2009TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras -- One day after the start of talks in the Honduran political crisis, the country's Catholic bishops appealed for calm and called for a "just and peaceful" solution.
"We cannot continue in uncertainty, personal and social tension, and economic breakdown," the bishops said in a statement dated Oct. 8. "The people of Honduras have placed great hope in this national dialogue, and those hopes cannot be frustrated, because it would lead to great disillusionment and increased personal and social tension."
A consistent ethic of life, Africa-style
African Catholics often don’t fit into Western ideological categories
Oct. 08, 2009
Archbishop Robert Sarah, left, secretary of the Vatican Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, talks with Bishop Larry Silva of Honolulu Oct. 7. (CNS)
Rome
Though this is perhaps a terrible over-generalization, Catholics in the United States and Europe sometimes fall into the trap of listening to only half of what the African church has to say. When African Catholic leaders condemn poverty, war, and racial injustice, Western liberals cheer; when those same Africans decry abortion and homosexuality, conservatives feel validated.
The hard truth for both left and right, however, is that African Catholics often don’t fit into Western ideological categories. They can be ferociously traditional on matters such as sexual ethics, and yet remarkably progressive in areas such as economic policy and ecology.
If a label is needed for all that, one might it call “a consistent ethic of life, Africa-style.”
Irish seminarians reach 10-year high
Sep. 29, 2009DUBLIN -- The number of Irish men entering the seminary to become Roman Catholic priests has risen to a 10-year high following years of dwindling vocations.
The Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors for the Catholic Church in Ireland said that 36 new seminarians were about to begin studying for the priesthood in Irish dioceses. The announcement came against the backdrop of a recent damning government report about the abuse of children in Catholic institutions.
Lay missionary: Conflict in Honduras between poor, wealthy
Sep. 23, 2009
Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya greets supporters inside the Brazilian Embassy after his arrival in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Sept. 21. (CNS/ Reuters)
Although ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya returned to his country, the situation is not simply a matter of a conflict between two politicians, said an American lay missionary in Honduras.
The real conflict in Honduras is between the poor and wealthy, said John Donaghy, assistant director of the church charitable agency Caritas in the Diocese of Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras.
Guerrillas abduct 17 Catholics from Sudan church
Sep. 18, 2009LONDON -- A Sudanese bishop has appealed for international help to stop roving bands of guerrillas kidnapping and murdering villagers in his diocese.
Bishop Edward Hiiboro Kussala of Tambura-Yambio, Sudan, said his government appeared powerless to prevent attacks by members of the Lord's Resistance Army, a guerrilla force based in northern Uganda.
Theology in the age of migration
Seeing the image of Christ in the eyes of a stranger
Sep. 14, 2009
Undocumented migrants caught in the United States are lined up along a wall at the border crossing between Tijuana, Mexico, and San Diego in 2008. (CNS/David Maung)
Essay
Migration has always been part of human history. But because of widespread changes caused by globalization, more people are migrating than ever before, prompting some to call our own generation “the age of migration.”
In the last 25 years the number of people on the move has doubled from 100 million to nearly 200 million people. One out of every 35 people around the world are now living away from their homelands. This is roughly the equivalent of the population of Brazil, the fifth-largest country on the planet.
In Brazil, a Catholic Mass you'll never forget
Sep. 11, 2009
Padre Marcelo Rossi
São Paulo, Brazil
I realize this is a bold claim, but I'm going to make it anyway: If you haven't been to Mass with Padre Marcelo Rossi, you haven't really been to Mass.
Theologically, of course, that's ridiculous, because every validly celebrated Mass has the same spiritual value. Sociologically, however, I guarantee that a Mass with Padre Marcelo is an experience you won't soon forget.
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