2 October 2012
Despite his busy schedule, Father Jose is always available to his parishioners. (photo: Sean Sprague)
For decades, the people of Kerala have suffered from high poverty rates, exacerbated by high rates of unemployment. The Indian government’s Ministry of Labor and Employment recently released a report revealing that against India’s average rate of 3.8 percent, unemployment in Kerala currently hovers at 9.9 percent. Though lower than a decade ago, this is still very high in absolute terms.
In such an environment, people like Father Jose Thottakkara are a godsend. In the May 2008 issue of ONE, Jomi Thomas reported:
“Once priests start to think of themselves as sacrament machines, they lose the real sense of what they do,” said Father Jose Thottakkara, a Syro-Malabar Catholic priest working in suburban Ernakulam.
A highly educated 44-year-old, Father Jose epitomizes a new, dynamic breed of priest. Founder and director of Naipunya International — a nonprofit agency of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Archeparchy of Ernakulam-Angamaly that places thousands of qualified young people in good jobs worldwide — the priest also leads more than 100 families at St. George Church, a suburban Syro-Malabar parish.
For a son of poor farmers, the priest has accomplished a great deal at a relatively young age. After some eight years of advanced education, he holds degrees in business management, economics, theology and world history. Complementing these studies, he undertook formal and on-the-job training in social work and management. In addition, he has received faculties to serve both Syro-Malabar and Roman Catholic communities.
Father Jose manages a tight schedule during the week. And while his responsibilities at Naipunya take up the lion’s share of his day, the families to whom he ministers remain close to his heart.
Read more about Father Jose in A Priest With Global Reach.
Tags: India Kerala Syro-Malabar Catholic Church Economic hardships
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2 October 2012
Shelling leaves a church in ruins in the Old City of Homs, Syria, on 30 September. (photo: CNS/Shaam News Network handout via Reuters)
Syrian Christian churches urge protection of heritage (Fides) Christian leaders of all denominations and communities have filed an appeal to UNESCO, the Congregation for the Oriental Churches and the Pontifical Council for Culture. “Religious buildings (synagogues, churches, mosques, monasteries and sanctuaries) are used for military purposes, which causes their progressive destruction. We implore the belligerents to save the protected areas and not to use them for military purposes.”
Franciscan monastery in Jerusalem vandalized (BBC) Vandals have spray-painted anti-Christian graffiti on the main door of a Franciscan monastery outside Jerusalem, Church officials have said. Photographs published online showed blue graffiti denigrating Jesus at the Convent of Saint Francis on Mount Zion. Also painted on the door were the words “price tag”; Jewish settlers and extremists have been carrying out so-called “price-tag” attacks in retaliation for Israeli government curbs on settlement growth.
Poll: most Jordanians oppose admitting more refugees (Christian Science Monitor) As Syria’s civil war drags on in bloody stalemate, Jordan has maintained an open-door policy for its refugees, allowing in tens of thousands of people. But with no end to the conflict in sight, the friendly relationship between Jordan and its “guests” is showing signs of strain. According to a nationwide poll by the Center for Strategic Studies at Jordan University, 65 percent of Jordanians oppose allowing more Syrians into the country, and more than 80 percent said the Syrians already present should be confined to camps.
Austerity measures may begin to target Greek Orthodox Church (Der Spiegel) The Greek Orthodox Church has managed to cling onto many of its economic privileges, despite austerity stinging nearly all other parts of the country’s society. Now, fueled by continued stagnation and growing popular resentment in the face of scandal, the Greek government has begun scaling back its financial support for the church.
On Palestinian right of return, Israel raises matter of Jewish refugees (Christian Science Monitor) Israel is demanding that the losses of displaced Arab Jews be acknowledged and compensed in some way. In doing so, the campaign touches one of Palestinians’ most sensitive wounds, harbored since Israel’s founding in 1948: their right to return to lands and homes left in 1948-49, when at least 750,000 either fled or were expelled by Israel. Though many Palestinians recognize at least some Arab Jews as refugees, they are concerned that Israel is trying to cancel its debt to them by putting the suffering of Arab Jews on the same international ledger.
Tags: Syria Jerusalem Jordan Refugees Monastery
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1 October 2012
A volunteer jokes with a patient during a holiday party at St. Louis Hospital. (photo: Debbie Hill)
Judith Sudilovsky is a freelance journalist based in Jerusalem, covering events in the region for publishers including Catholic News Services and Ecumenical News International. We asked Ms. Sudilovsky to share her thoughts on writing for the September 2012 issue of ONE, and she had this to say:
It has been five years since last I stepped through the doors of the St. Louis Hospital, near the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City. But whenever I pass by the hospital doors on my way to one place or another, I recall my experience with this extraordinary place, which provides a haven for end-of-life care patients and their families; it was where my good friend Judy spent her last few months.
I learned about St. Louis Hospital when Judy, a bright, spunky, redheaded New York-born Jew, was hospitalized there toward the end of her battle with a brain tumor. When she wanted to continue working, the staff arranged for an internet connection to be set up in her room. When she missed seeing her dog, they arranged for me to be able to take her to visit him — today the hospital is one of the advanced facilities that allow therapy animals to come to the hospital and visit with the patients who enjoy spending time with them.
A year after Judy finally succumbed to the disease, a group of her friends took up a donation for this hospice and chronic care hospital, which has been run on a shoe-string budget by the congregation of Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition order since 1880.
When she received the checks that I had mailed to her, hospital director Sister Monika Dullmann invited me to come for a modest memorial ceremony she organized together with a few members of the staff who had been especially close to Judy. I was struck by the fact that even a year after her death, the staff that has accompanied so many people at the end of their lives, still sharply recalled Judy’s special optimistic spirit and her lovely sense of humor.
As we lit a memorial candle for Judy that day, I was humbled by the genuine affection I felt in the room for my friend, who had spent only a few short months there. I realized that for them Judy, like all the other countless patients who have passed through this place over the years, remained after her death a unique individual whose life had had worth and significance even in her dying moment.
Since then the hospital has occupied a special place in my heart.
I feel it is only fair to make a public disclaimer about my undeniable bias for the St. Louis Hospital and the staff who do the hardest work with love and respect. These dedicated people — Christians, Muslims and Jews, Palestinians, Israelis and foreign volunteers — who so lovingly cared for Judy, continue caring every day for all their 50 patients in the same fashion, regardless of their national origin, religion or financial status. This article is their story.
Tags: Unity Jerusalem Health Care Multiculturalism
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1 October 2012
Nikolay Vakulin and Melkonian Haykaz exercise in the yard of the shelter for elders run by Caritas Austria. In a 2007 Caritas Armenia survey, 76 percent of elderly respondents and 60 percent of other respondents considered adequate medical services to be unavailable in northern Armenia. (photo: Justyna Mielnikiewicz)
Poverty and unemployment rates hover around 40 percent in northern Armenia. The only hospital in the vicinity is the Catholic-run Tiramayr Narek Hospital in Ashotzk. Thanks to support form CNEWA and Caritas Italy, the hospital serves some 30,000 patients from as far away as Gyumri (62 miles south) and Vardenis (124 miles southeast) and conducts about 1,800 complicated surgeries per year. In the March 2009 issue of ONE, Gayane Abrahamyan discusses this institution:
Razmik Minasian, his face tanned from laboring in the sun, swiftly paces up and down a white sterile hallway in Tiramayr Narek Hospital in Armenia’s northernmost town of Ashotzk. Again and again, he looks worriedly at the closed door from where the cry of his 4-month-old son can be heard.
“Had we managed to get here earlier, this wouldn’t have happened,” he said as he approached his wife who sat nervously beside the door.
The Minasians live in Samtskhe-Javakheti, a predominantly Armenian region in southern Georgia near Armenia’s northern border. The couple made the three-hour journey to Tiramayr Narek because the infant’s temperature had reached a dangerous 104 degrees and the Catholic-run facility is the only one in the vicinity that offers quality care at little or no cost.
Read more in Armenian Winter.
Tags: CNEWA Health Care Armenia Employment Caring for the Elderly
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1 October 2012
In this November 2007 photo, Christians, including Catholic clergy and women religious, participate in a demonstration in New Delhi demanding an end to discrimination against dalit, or low-caste, Christians in India. (photo: CNS/Anto Akkara)
‘Untouchable’ no more (Al Jazeera) Despite a constitutional ban on India’s caste system in 1950, activists say discrimination based on social hierarchy continues. Activists are recording the stories of those deemed “untouchable” in the hopes of changing hearts and minds. Will the project work, or is caste no longer a problem?
Three days of prayer and fasting before selecting Coptic pope (OCP News Service) The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria has announced fasting and prayer for three days in preparation for the selection of the new pope of Alexandria and patriarch the Holy See of St. Mark. The period will begin Monday, 1 October, and run through Wednesday, 3 October 2012.
Georgian Orthodox Church joins Muslim board in decrying anti-Islamic film (Interfax) The Georgian Orthodox Church and the Georgian office of the South Caucasus Muslim Board consider “unacceptable the public demonstration of the film Innocence of Muslims, which has insulted millions of people and caused justifiable outrage and protest worldwide.”
Iraq sees deadliest month in over two years (Al Jazeera) September was the deadliest month in Iraq in more than two years, with 365 people killed in violence that included waves of nationwide attacks, official figures show. It was the highest monthly toll given by the government since August 2010, when figures showed 426 people killed and 838 wounded in attacks.
Aleppo fighting “destroying cultural heritage” (Lebanon Daily Star) UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova said that, as a signatory to the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, Syria was obliged to safeguard its heritage from the ravages of war. “The human suffering caused by this situation is already extreme,” she said in a statement. “That the fighting is now destroying cultural heritage that bears witness to the country’s millenary history — valued and admired the world over — makes it even more tragic.”
Tags: India Syrian Civil War Iraq Coptic Orthodox Church Georgian Orthodox Church
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28 September 2012
Jewish worshippers pray at the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site, in Jerusalem’s Old City on 13 September, ahead of the Jewish new year. (photo:CNS photo/Baz Ratner, Reuters)
This week, Pope Benedict offered his “heartfelt best wishes” to the Jewish community on the occasion of three important holidays — Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot. So what are these holidays, exactly? Here are five things you should know:
- Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year. Just as Catholics have a special religious calendar, so do Jews — and it begins with Rosh Hashanah. The holiday is celebrated over two days with prayer services where a horn called a shofar is blown 100 times. There are also family meals with symbolic foods such as apples dipped in honey. This year, Rosh Hashanah started on the evening of 16 September.
- Speaking of the Jewish New Year, it’s now 5773, according to the Jewish calendar. Tradition holds that year 1 began about a year before Creation. The first day of year 1 is equivalent to 7 October 3761 B.C.
- Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement. This is the holiest day of the year for the Jewish people. It is marked by 24 hours of fasting and repentance — no food, no drink, no nothing. Before Yom Kippur, you are supposed to seek forgiveness for your sins against God and other people. This year, the holiday started on the evening of 25 September.
- Sukkot is the Feast of the Tabernacles, which are a kind of hut covered in leaves. These huts are meant to bring to mind the fragile dwellings in which the Israelites lived during the 40 years in the desert. The feast lasts for seven or eight days, and holiday meals are eaten inside of the sukkot. Sometimes, very devout Jews sleep inside them, too. This year, Sukkot starts on Sunday, 30 September.
- “Chag sameach” is how you can greet your Jewish friends during Sukkot. It means “joyous festival” in Hebrew, and it actually works for just about any holiday.
By the way, why I am telling you this? Because CNEWA works on behalf of the Holy Father to promote understanding and friendship between all who worship the one God — Christians, Muslims and Jews. That is a very fundamental part of our mission. Chag sameach!
Tags: Ecumenism Jews
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28 September 2012
September has been a busy month for CNEWA Canada. On 5 September, the premiere of Salt + Light Television’s newest documentary Across the Divide took place in Canada’s largest city, Toronto — after premieres in Vancouver and Halifax in June. The Canada-wide tour has been an exciting partnership for
CNEWA Canada with Salt + Light, Canada’s Catholic television network.
Together, we have collaborated to tell a unique story of our Christian brothers and sisters in the Holy Land.
Shot on location in the Holy Land, Across the Divide offers a glimmer of hope for the divided region by telling the heroic stories of staff and students at Bethlehem University, a CNEWA-supported institution.
It was a joy to be present at this event in my hometown, Toronto, along with the national director for CNEWA Canada, Carl Hétu, and over 350 others. You can see an article on the event in Canada’s Catholic Register newspaper.
On 19 September, the film premiered in Ottawa, Canada’s capital city and home of CNEWA Canada’s office. The screening was attended by our staff and over 250 people. To put on this wonderful event, I had the pleasure of working behind-the-scenes with Salt + Light’s team and an awesome group of young adult volunteers from the Ottawa area.
Each film premiere began with a cocktail reception and concluded with a special question-and-answer panel discussion. The panel included Carl Hétu, along with Cardinal Thomas Collins, the Archbishop of Toronto, and Terrence Prendergast, the Archbishop of Ottawa. Both archbishops are members of CNEWA Canada’s Board of Directors. See the video below for highlights from both events.
To support the efforts of Bethlehem University, visit our website.
Tags: Middle East CNEWA Canada Bethlehem University
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28 September 2012
A little girl plays in the village of Horpyn in Ukraine. Read about the ethnic and religious patchwork of the region in this article from the March 2009 issue of ONE. (photo: Petro Didula)
Tags: Ukraine Russia Crimea
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28 September 2012
Smoke rises from buildings after a Syrian fighter jet launched missiles in Aleppo, Syria, on 4 September. (photo: CNS/Youssef Boudlal, Reuters)
In Syria: “The atmosphere is very tense” (Fides) “The atmosphere is very tense,” explained Fr. Jules Baghdassarians, Greek-Catholic priest in Aleppo and National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) in Syria, as opposition forces announced the beginning of the “final battle in Aleppo.” Fr. Baghdassarians said: “This morning armed rebel groups entered the neighborhood of Sheik Maqsoud, in Aleppo, home to many Kurds and Christians and there is intense fighting. In our Christian area in Suleimanye I counted 18 loud explosions. Groups of rebels entered in other Christian areas such as Jabrie and therefore life for the civilian population, in the crossfire, is in serious danger.”
Indian authorities say offensive scenes in Bollywood movie will be cut (Fides) The scenes considered “blasphemous” concerning people and symbols of the Christian faith in the Bollywood film “Kamaal Dhamaal Malamaal” will be eliminated before the movie is released in cinemas, according to the “Censor Board.”
Coptic Christians flee Sinai (Associated Press) Coptic Christian families have fled their homes in a town in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, fearing for their lives after receiving death threats from suspected Islamic militants, a local priest said Thursday. Father Youssef Sobhi said that Islamic militants dropped leaflets on the doorsteps of shops owned by Copts in the city of Rafah near the border with Gaza and Israel, ordering them to leave town within 48 hours and making an implicit warning of violence if they failed to do so. Two days later, masked militants on a motorcycle opened fire on one of the shops before speeding off, Sobhi said. No one was hurt in the shooting.
Patriarch Kirill defends ties to Kremlin (Reuters) The head of the Russian Orthodox Church on Friday rejected criticism of his increasingly strong relationship with President Vladimir Putin, saying that close ties between the church and state were good for society.
Christian-Muslim meeting in Istanbul this weekend (Vatican Radio) A two-day symposium on Muslim-Christian dialogue takes place in the Turkish capital of Istanbul this weekend, exploring the theme of “Being a foreigner and dialogue with the other.”
Tags: Unity Jerusalem Health Care Multiculturalism
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27 September 2012
A Benedictine priest — in Rome recently for a gathering of monastic communities — spoke with Catholic News Service and suggested that one important lesson may lie in how to pray.
Check out the CNS video below:
Tags: Unity Interreligious Christian-Muslim relations Muslim Prayers/Hymns/Saints
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