News Bytes
Caritas Internationalis still helps tsunami victims
By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- One year after a series of deadly tsunamis devastated Indian Ocean nations, Caritas Internationalis is still on the ground helping local communities rebuild and improve their quality of life.
While Caritas offered immediate emergency relief in the wake of the Dec. 26, 2004, disaster, it has more than $450 million earmarked for post-tsunami relief and recovery aimed at leaving people "in a better situation than they were in before" the tsunamis struck, said Mary Healy of Caritas Ireland.
"For us as Caritas, it's not just about rebuilding houses, it's about rebuilding communities, homes and people's lives."
Building more decent, safer homes, providing quality fishing vessels and boat engines, and offering training in new skills and loans for new start-up businesses for people in coastal communities are some of the projects Caritas has been funding.
Denis Vienot, president of Caritas Internationalis, said helping fishermen diversify their source of income and helping them market their products better has "already started to improve household incomes and prospects."
Vienot said local Caritas members were also helping protect the rights of poor fishermen who risk being overrun by the tourist industry as it seeks to rebuild and expand along the recovering coastlines.
Vienot said one Caritas member, a young, local priest, has been accompanying fishermen to the Phuket courthouse "to defend the rights of these people to live on public land" and have close access to their boats, he said.
Local fishermen have "nothing against tourists," he said, because they "can sell fish for double the price" when tourists are in town. But there needs to be a balance between helping revive tourism and protecting small, local industries, he added.
"Defending the rights (of the poor fishermen) is as important as giving them boats and building them homes," Vienot said.
Healy said some had criticized Caritas and other international nongovernmental organizations for their slow pace in rebuilding and providing long-term assistance.
The Caritas approach is not haphazard and seeks to take many things into consideration, she said.
Local Caritas members get local communities involved in deciding what they need most. Then they buy supplies that will not cause problems in the future.
For example, "we ensure we are not building houses with illegally logged wood," said Healy. Illegal logging is destroying rainforests in Indonesia, leading researchers to predict that at the current rate of cutting most of the country's tropical forests will disappear by the end of this decade.
China Investigating Attack on Nuns
ROME, DEC. 14, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Public security authorities in Xian, China, have opened an investigation into the beating of 16 nuns who tried to save a school from demolition. Officials have arrested 11 suspects.
Meanwhile, one of the nuns, who risks permanent paralysis as a result of the assault, is recovering from surgery. The government has offered to pay for all medical expenses.
On Nov. 23, about 40 assailants beat 16 Franciscan missionary nuns who tried to stand in the way of the destruction of the diocese's School of the Rosary.
As a result of the attack, Sister Dong Jianian, 41, suffered a fraction to her spinal column. Another nun, Sister Cheng Jing, 34, was blinded in one eye. Three other nuns were hospitalized, including Sister Zan Hongfang, 34, who was discharged from the hospital with her broken shoulder in a plaster cast.
Initially, government officials had done everything to cover up the incident. The police responded late to the sisters' call for help, and news of the attack was censored from newspapers and Web sites.
The incident, however, garnered international attention. The U.S. bishops' conference even wrote a critical letter to the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C.
Thanks to this and to the spread of news locally -- by word-of-mouth, text messaging and e-mail -- government authorities decided to take action by opening an investigation and detaining 11 of the assailants.
Carjacked nun helps her attacker By Sam Lucero
MILWAUKEE (CNS) -- In a few minutes one night last April, Sister Mary Jo Kahl's life changed.
The 66-year-old Franciscan Sister of Mary went from being an innocent bystander to becoming the victim of a carjacking. She also began a new journey of faith that has made her a promoter of restorative justice, pushing for a lighter sentence for one of her attackers and working with him to change his life.
When she arrived home from her job as a nurse case manager at Convent Hill Public Housing in Milwaukee, all the well-lit street parking spaces in front of her apartment were occupied, so she parked her 2001 Chevrolet Prizm a block away.
Then she spotted two men next to the car. "They opened the car door and shoved a knife to my throat and said, 'Car keys and money or you're dead,'" she recalled.
"So I just gave them my car keys and said, 'I have no money.' Then (one of the robbers) just shoved me out of the car, which was really a blessing, and said, 'If you scream you're dead, too.'"
Sister Kahl ran home and called 911. At 10:30 p.m., after visits from police detectives and a victim-witness advocate, she went to bed. She was awakened by a telephone call from the Milwaukee police at 4:30 a.m., telling her the two carjackers were apprehended after a police chase.
Sister Kahl learned that the two men were young Hispanics, in their 20s, who had been on the lookout for a car to steal and drive to Chicago. Raul faced criminal charges of robbery with threat of force and operating a vehicle without consent. His accomplice, Luis, faced other minor charges.
Over the next few months, Sister Kahl struggled with flashbacks. She lost sleep and suffered a bleeding ulcer. But she was also concerned about Raul.
"Initially my conscience said, 'I can't judge this man. Only God can judge him,'" she said. "But the more I got to thinking about it, I knew this man had to make restitution to me and to the community for what he did."
She had not heard of restorative justice, even though her plan for restitution had all of the elements of this modern response to crime.
Restorative justice is now part of the criminal court process in more than 300 U.S. cities, including Milwaukee. It usually involves healing, reconciliation and rehabilitation for victim, offender and the community.
In 2000, the Milwaukee County district attorney's office launched the Community Conferencing Program, which is based on the principles of restorative justice. It is directed by Assistant District Attorney David Lerman.
In May Lerman told Sister Kahl that carjacking was a serious felony and no such case had been handled through a restorative justice process in Wisconsin.
The first step in the process is for the offender to admit guilt, which Raul, 23, did during court appearance. Lerman and Sister Kahl then met with him. He learned about the impact of his crime on her and she learned about his troubled past. He has been on drugs and alcohol since age 14. He doesn't know where his father is, and his mother has served time for drug dealing.
On Aug. 11, Raul agreed to a contract drawn up by Sister Kahl, which outlined steps he must take to avoid a long prison sentence. At a Sept. 7 sentencing hearing, Sister Kahl pleaded Raul's case and said that simply imprisoning him would not change his behavior.
Raul's contract included drug and alcohol rehabilitation; commitment to a community support program, such as Alcoholics Anonymous; attainment of a high school equivalency diploma; and job training. He also had to take a pledge of nonviolence through a program to be administered by Sister Kahl.
The judge was skeptical and told Raul, "This woman, for some reason that I don't understand, has hope in you. You are one lucky man."
Raul was initially sentenced to 10 years in prison but the judge ordered him to serve one year at a correctional facility, followed by four years of probation. If he violates his contract with Sister Kahl or the terms of his parole, he will go back to prison to complete the 10-year sentence.
In sessions with Raul, Sister Kahl encourages him to reconnect with his religious upbringing and turn to God for guidance.
"After we finish working on this, he's no longer going to be the same person and I'm no longer going to be the same," she said.
SWISS GUARD CELEBRATES 500TH ANNIVERSARY
VATICAN CITY, NOV 22, 2005 (VIS) - Holy See Press Office presented the calendar of commemorative events for the fifth centenary of the foundation of the Pontifical Swiss Guard, the world's oldest active military corps.
In 1505, with the Bull "Confoederatis Superioris Alemanniae," Pope Julius II ordered Peter von Hertenstein to recruit 200 Swiss soldiers and lead them to Rome. The guard, with 150 members, crossed the Alps and the Italian regions of Lombardy and Tuscany, arriving in Rome on January 22, 1506.
The celebrations for the fifth centenary will begin on January 21, 2006 with a gala reception, followed the next day by Mass in the Sistine Chapel presided by the Cardinal Secretary of State. A guard of honor in St. Peter's Square for the Angelus prayer and the papal blessing will recall the historic arrival of the first guards.
On March 29, 2006, an exhibition entitled "The Pontifical Swiss Guard, 500 years of history, art and life," will be inaugurated in the Charlemagne Wing at the left colonnade of St. Peter's Square.
On April 7, 2006, around 100 former Swiss Guards will begin a commemorative march from Bellinzona in the Swiss Canton of Ticino. The march will cover various stages and, largely following the old pilgrim route known as the Via Francigena, will reach Rome on May 4. On that day, as 500 years before, the former Swiss Guards will cross the city of Rome where they will be welcomed by the local authorities, then proceed to St. Peter's Square, where they will receive the Holy Father's blessing.
May 6, 2006, the main day of the fifth centenary celebrations, will begin with a commemorative Mass in St. Peter's Basilica. A wreath of flowers will then be laid in the Square of Roman Protomartyrs inside the Vatican to recall the Swiss Guards who fell during the sack of Rome in 1527. At 4.30 p.m., the annual swearing-in ceremony for new recruits will take place; for the first time in history it will be held in St. Peter's Square, rather than in the San Damaso courtyard where it normally takes place. In the evening, a firework display over Castel Sant'Angelo will conclude the day.
The May celebrations also include three concerts, all in the Paul VI Hall. On May 3, the Swiss Army Concert Band will perform a selection of popular music. On May 4, the united choirs of the Olten Cantonal School together with the Swiss Army Concert Band will perform the oratorio "Nicholas de Flue," by the Swiss composer Arthur Honegger with words by Denis de Rougement. On May 5, the choir and orchestra of the Collegium Musicum of Lucerne, with soloists from the Higher School of Music, also of Lucerne, the choir of Freiburg Cathedral and the Vokalensemble of the Swiss Canton of Schwyz will perform the "Carmen Saeculare" by Fr. Theo Flury O.S.B.
The Swiss Army Concert Band will also play a concert of music on Sunday May 7, following the Angelus in St. Peter's Square.
Mob Sets Churches Ablaze in Pakistan
SANGLA HILL, Pakistan, NOV. 13, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Hundreds of Christians worshipped in the open air a day after a Muslim mob burned down churches over unfounded claims that a Christian had desecrated the Koran. The mob set ablaze three churches, a convent and a priest's house in the Punjab province on Saturday. The archbishop said 1,500 people took part in the attack, which seemed organized.