27 december, 2016 zenit

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Papal Message to Taize Community
Posted by ZENIT Staff on 27 December, 2016
A papal message has been sent to young people from the ecumenical
community of Taize, who will be participating in a European Meeting of
Young Adults taking place in Riga, Latvia, from Wednesday through Jan.
1.
Here is the full text:

—
Dear young people,
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Coming from every part of Europe, and from a number of other
continents, several thousand of you have gathered in Riga, Latvia, for
the 39th meeting organized and led by the Taizé Community. With the
theme of bearing witness to hope that will be at the heart of your
reflection and prayers, Pope Francis is particularly close to you because
he has often called you to not let anyone rob you of your hope. During
the WYD prayer vigil in Kraków he strongly emphasized this essential
reality of the Christian faith: “At the moment when the Lord calls us, he
looks at all that we might be able to do, all the love we are capable of
sharing. He always wagers on the future, on tomorrow. Jesus urges you
on toward the horizon, never toward the museum” (30 July 2016).
The Holy Father thanks you for choosing to leave your comfortable
homes to live out this pilgrimage of trust in response to the call of God’s
Spirit.
Young Orthodox, Protestant and Catholic Christians, by these days lived
in real fraternity you manifest your desire to be protagonists of history
and not let others decide your future. The Pope encourages you to stand
firm in hope by letting the Lord live in your hearts and your daily lives.
With Jesus, the faithful friend who never disappoints, you will be able to
walk along the path toward the future with joy and devote your talents
and abilities for the good of all.
Today, many people are disconcerted and discouraged by violence,
injustice, suffering and divisions. They have the impression that evil is
stronger than anything. Therefore, Pope Francis invites you to show in
your words and deeds that evil is not the last word in our history. For “it
is the time of mercy for each and all, since no one can think that he or
she is cut off from God’s closeness and the power of his tender love”
(Apostolic Letter, Misericordia and Misera, section 21).
The Pope hopes that these days that bring you together in Riga will help
you not to be afraid of your limits but to grow in trust in Jesus, the Christ
and Lord, who believes and hopes in you. May you, in the simplicity to
which Brother Roger bore witness, build bridges of friendship and make
visible the love with which God loves us.
From the depths of his heart, the Holy Father gives you his blessing, to
you young people participating in this meeting, to the Brothers of Taizé,
and to all the people who welcome you in Riga and the surrounding
region.

Bishop Barron on Scorsese’s “Silence”
Posted by Bishop Robert Barron on 27 December, 2016
I have long been an ardent fan of Martin Scorsese’s films. Taxi Driver,
Raging Bull, Goodfellas, The Aviator, Gangs of New York, The Last
Waltz, Casino, etc. are among the defining movies of the last 40 years.
And The Departed, Scorsese’s 2007 crime drama, was the subject
matter of the first YouTube commentary that I ever did. It is certainly the
case, furthermore, that the director’s Catholicism, however mitigated and
conflicted, comes through in most of his work. His most recent offering,
the muchanticipated Silence, based upon the Shusaku Endo novel of
the same name, is a worthy addition to the Scorsese oeuvre. Like so
many of his other films, it is marked by gorgeous cinematography,
outstanding performances from both lead and supporting actors, a
gripping narrative, and enough thematic complexity to keep you thinking
for the foreseeable future.
The story is set in mid17th century Japan, where a fierce persecution of
the Catholic faith is underway. To this dangerous country come two
young Jesuit priests (played by Adam Driver and Andrew Garfield),
spiritual descendants of St. Francis Xavier, sent to find Fr. Ferreira, their

mentor and seminary professor who, rumor has it, had apostatized
under torture and actually gone over to the other side. Immediately upon
arriving onshore, they are met by a small group of Japanese Christians
who had been maintaining their faith underground for many years. Due
to the extreme danger, the young priests are forced into hiding during
the day, but they are able to engage in clandestine ministry at night:
baptizing, catechizing, confessing, celebrating the Mass. In rather short
order, however, the authorities get wind of their presence, and suspected
Christians are rounded up and tortured in the hopes of luring the priests
out into the open. The single most memorable scene in the film, at least
for me, was the seaside crucifixion of four of these courageous lay
believers. Tied to crosses by the shore, they are, in the course of several
days, buffeted by the incoming tide until they drown. Afterwards, their
bodies are placed on pyres of straw and they are burned to ashes,
appearing for all the world like holocausts offered to the Lord.
In time, the priests are captured and subjected to a unique and terrible
form of psychological torture. The film focuses on the struggles of Fr.
Rodrigues. As Japanese Christians, men and women who had risked
their lives to protect him, are tortured in his presence, he is invited to
renounce his faith and thereby put an end to their torment. If only he
would trample on a Christian image, even as a mere external sign, an
empty formality, he would free his colleagues from their pain. A good
warrior, he refuses. Even when a Japanese Christian is beheaded, he
doesn’t give in. Finally, and it is the most devastating scene in the movie,
he is brought to Fr. Ferreira, the mentor whom he had been seeking
since his arrival in Japan. All the rumors are true: this former master of
the Christian life, this Jesuit hero, has renounced his faith, taken a
Japanese wife, and is living as a sort of philosopher under the protection
of the state. Using a variety of arguments, the disgraced priest tries to
convince his former student to give up the quest to evangelize Japan,
which he characterized as a “swamp” where the seed of Christianity can
never take root.
The next day, in the presence of Christians being horrifically tortured,
hung upside down inside a pit filled with excrement, he is given the
opportunity, once more, to step on a depiction of the face of Christ. At
the height of his anguish, resisting from the depth of his heart, Rodrigues
hears what he takes to be the voice of Jesus himself, finally breaking the
divine silence, telling him to trample on the image. When he does so, a
cock crows in the distance. In the wake of his apostasy, he follows in the

footsteps of Ferreira, becoming a ward of the state, a wellfed, well
provided for philosopher, regularly called upon to step on a Christian
image and formally renounce his Christian faith. He takes a Japanese
name and a Japanese wife and lives out many long years in Japan
before his death at the age of 64 and his burial in a Buddhist ceremony.
What in the world do we make of this strange and disturbing story? Like
any great film or novel, Silence obviously resists a univocal or onesided
interpretation. In fact, almost all of the commentaries that I have read,
especially from religious people, emphasize how Silencebeautifully
brings forward the complex, layered, ambiguous nature of faith. Fully
acknowledging the profound psychological and spiritual truth of that
claim, I wonder whether I might add a somewhat dissenting voice to the
conversation? I would like to propose a comparison, altogether
warranted by the instincts of a onetime soldier named Ignatius of
Loyola, who founded the Jesuit order to which all the Silence
missionaries belonged. Suppose a small team of highlytrained
American special ops was smuggled behind enemy lines for a
dangerous mission. Suppose furthermore that they were aided by loyal
civilians on the ground, who were eventually captured and proved willing
to die rather than betray the mission. Suppose finally that the troops
themselves were eventually detained and, under torture, renounced their
loyalty to the United States, joined their opponents and lived comfortable
lives under the aegis of their former enemies. Would anyone be eager to
celebrate the layered complexity and rich ambiguity of their patriotism?
Wouldn’t we see them rather straightforwardly as cowards and traitors?
My worry is that all of the stress on complexity and multivalence and
ambiguity is in service of the cultural elite today, which is not that
different from the Japanese cultural elite depicted in the film. What I
mean is that the secular establishment always prefers Christians who
are vacillating, unsure, divided, and altogether eager to privatize their
religion. And it is all too willing to dismiss passionately religious people
as dangerous, violent, and let’s face it, not that bright. Revisit Ferreira’s
speech to Rodrigues about the supposedly simplistic Christianity of the
Japanese laity if you doubt me on this score. I wonder whether Shusaku
Endo (and perhaps Scorsese) was actually inviting us to look away from
the priests and toward that wonderful group of courageous, pious,
dedicated, longsuffering lay people who kept the Christian faith alive
under the most inhospitable conditions imaginable and who, at the
decisive moment, witnessed to Christ with their lives. Whereas the

specially trained Ferreira and Rodrigues became paid lackeys of a
tyrannical government, those simple folk remained a thorn in the side of
the tyranny.
I know, I know, Scorsese shows the corpse of Rodrigues inside his coffin
clutching a small crucifix, which proves, I suppose, that the priest
remained in some sense Christian. But again, that’s just the kind of
Christianity the regnant culture likes: utterly privatized, hidden away,
harmless. So okay, perhaps a halfcheer for Rodrigues, but a full
throated three cheers for the martyrs, crucified by the seaside.
Iraqi Christians Enjoy an Excited Christmas
By Mónica Zorita of Aid to the Church in Need
This year, Christian refugees in the northern part of Iraq are twice as excited to celebrate
the birth of Christ. This is because the vast majority of the villages on the Nineveh plains,
which had been under occupation by the “Islamic State” (IS) since the summer of 2014,
have now been liberated. At the time of the invasion, 120,000 people fled the advancing
jihadist threat; they found shelter in the Chaldean Archdiocese of Erbil, in Kurdistan.

“When we received the news that IS was retreating, a spontaneous celebration broke out
in the refugee camps. The people went out into the streets to dance and sing, as though
they did not have any other problems in their lives.” These are the words of Father Luis
Montes, episcopal vicar of the Latin bishop for Kurdistan.
However, the missionary belonging to the Institute of the Incarnate Word told international
Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need that many obstacles remain before the
refugees can return to their homes. He explained: “Approximately 60% of the homes on
the Nineveh plain were burned down. The terrorists not only seized all of their belongings,
they also riddled the region with land mines,” even hiding explosives in children’s toys.
Nonetheless, the priest added that the people “have not lost the hope of being able to
return to their homes. They envision themselves living back in their houses, receiving
friends and relatives there. Because hospitality is very important to them. Despite
everything, Iraqis have lost neither their smiles nor their hope.” The missionary added: “It
is easy being a pastor here because they really live what they say. To talk about
forgiveness with them is easy because they forgive without bearing a grudge. They are
what gives us strength.”
Meanwhile, aid organizations are keeping the people going, remembering the refugees in
a particular way at Christmas time. “It’s impressive to look into the faces of the children
when they see the presents. Not only because of the things in and of themselves, but
because people who live very far away were thinking of them,” said Father Montes.
Blankets are currently in huge demand, because the walls of the prefabricated barracks in
the refugee camps are very thin—too thin to keep out freezing temperatures of winter. It’s
below freezing pretty much every day in winter, a sharp contrast with 100plus degree
temperatures in summer. People in the West tend to think it is hot in Iraq yearround, but
that is far from the truth.
Father Montes said that the refugees “know that Christians from other countries have kept
them alive,” adding that “they always pray for their benefactors.” Nevertheless, the priest
stressed that the international community should not forget Iraq once the Islamic State
has been defeated. “This country needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. The people have
lost everything,” he said.
—
Aid to the Church in Need is an international Catholic charity under the guidance of the
Holy See, providing assistance to the suffering and persecuted Church in more than 140
countries. www.churchinneed.org (USA); www.acnuk.org (UK); www.aidtochurch.org

(AUS); www.acnireland.org (IRL); www.acnaedca.org (CAN) www.acnmalta.org
(Malta)

Christmas and Hanukkah Coinciding in 2016
Posted by Thomas Rosica on 27 December, 2016

Most Christians throughout the world celebrate the Nativity of our Lord
Jesus Christ on Dec. 25, and on Christmas eve this year, Jews began
their eightday celebration of Hanukkah at sundown. These two holidays
that celebrate light occur during the darkest time of the calendar year.
The last time that this ChristmasHanukkah convergence occurred was
in 1978, and next time it will happen will be in 2027. The shared dates
happen about every 30 years. It is interesting to note that both feasts
were established under GrecoRoman rule, but 200 years apart from
one another. In the Roman Empire, around the first four or five centuries
of the Christian era, Roman sources also associated December 25 with
the date of the winter solstice.

During the eightday period of Hanukkah, Jews celebrate the Festival of
Lights and continue to long for the Messiah’s coming. Christians and
Jews celebrating these two feasts in the northern hemisphere do so
during the season of winter. Both faith communities draw on the symbols
of candles and lights that shatter the winter darkness.
Both feasts invite Christians and Jews to ask the deeper questions: How
do we continue to long for the salvation that the Messiah will bring?
What can we do to spread God’s light around us and dispel the darkness
of fear, sin and despair? The fullness of the Messianic kingdom for
Christmas and Jews still lies ahead.
While I was a student at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University years ago, I
heard a story about a certain Rabbi Menahem. When the old sage lived
in Israel, a wild man climbed a high mountain, unnoticed, and from the
top of the mountain began to blow a trumpet over the city below. There
was a great deal of excitement among the people and a rumour quickly
spread: The trumpet is announcing our liberation! When the rumour
came to the ears of Rabbi Menahem, he looked at the world outside his
window and said gruffly, “What I see is no renewal.”
At the first Christmas, there was just as little to see through the window
of the world. Outside the later Gospels, only a couple of secular Roman
historians of the time mention in passing the name of Jesus. Even today,
the questions arise: If Jesus is the Messiah “the bringer of peace” and if
he really was born in Bethlehem some 2,000 years ago, why is there still
so much sin and suffering and turmoil in the world? Why so much terror,
hatred violence and war, much of it in the name of God?
We may ask ourselves at times: “Why is there no renewal? Was the
Messiah’s project a failure?” The kingdom that Jesus preached was the
daring vision of Israel’s God of compassion, mercy, justice and
righteousness, a kingdom that involved reforming lives, adhering to the
law of love, alleviating the pain and suffering of others, building
community, worshiping God in Spirit and truth. There is still much work to
be done to realize God’s daring vision, made known to us through his
only Son.
Where do we begin? We start by working together as Christians and
Jews to protect the most important human values, which are threatened
by a world in continual transformation. Christians and Jews have a
special affinity for life and must do everything in our power to uphold the

dignity of human life, from conception to natural death. We must promote
the dignity of the human person. At the core of Christian and Jewish life
is the sacredness and centrality of the family. Christians and Jews must
be known for our efforts in the areas of social justice, peace, and
freedom for all human beings.
Another area of common understanding and work is the Jewish and
Christian concern for the created order and the care for the earth, our
common home. I have heard many Jewish groups express much
gratitude for Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Sì: On the Care for our
Common Home. Pope Francis uses many Biblical texts to explain the
essential values on which the encyclical is based. His recurring themes
of the dignity of human beings is based on Genesis 1; the origin and
connection of humanity to the earth itself is found in Genesis 2; the
interconnection and inherent value of all life comes from Psalm 148; the
connection of the degradation of the environment to the degradation of
the poor are based on the stories of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4, as well
as other quoted texts. He also uses many of the same laws in the Torah
that Jewish environmentalists have been quoting for decades: the laws
of the Sabbatical Year and Jubilee from Leviticus 25, the protection of
species from Deuteronomy 22:67 and the Sabbath imperative to rest
from Exodus 23:12.
In Laudato Sì, Pope Francis is also very focused on climate change’s
impact on the poor. His encyclical looks right at the moral and spiritual
crisis that climate change illustrates: moral, because of its
disproportionate impact on the poor, and spiritual because it highlights
our disconnection to creation. The Holy Father makes a deep and
thoughtful critique of the modern economy, consumerism, the current
concept of progress, and the way in which technology can have a
negative impact on the environment if not properly regulated. He calls for
an open and honest discussion among all people to find effective
solutions to this growing crisis. Many Jewish communities are seizing
this critical moment in the history of our planet to speak out clearly and
loudly about our common future on earth that is in jeopardy. Together as
Christmas and Jews, we must ask: “What kind of world do we wish to
leave our children?”
Hanukkah and Advent meet this year in a providential way. As Christians
and Jews, we continue to pray together to God. The Jewish “Kaddish”

and the Christian “Our Father” express a common hope: “Thy kingdom
come!”
We must utter this prayer more loudly and clearly in these days of
darkness for so many in the world, especially for the people of Syria, the
Holy Lands of the Middle East that are still struggling for God’s justice
and peace, and for all those suffering in war, poverty, famine, injustice
every corner of the earth. Our common longing for the fruits of the
Messianic kingdom invites us, Christians and Jews, to a knowledge of
our communion and friendship with one another and a recognition of the
terrible brokenness of the world.
As St. John Paul II, Benedict XVI and now Francis teach us so
powerfully through their friendship with the Jewish people, nothing and
no one can ever wrench us away any longer from that deep communion
and friendship. Pope Francis wrote beautifully about our relationship with
the Jewish people in his landmark Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii
Gaudium:
“As Christians, we cannot consider Judaism as a foreign religion; nor do
we include the Jews among those called to turn from idols and to serve
the true God. With them, we believe in the one God who acts in history,
and with them we accept his revealed word.”
“Dialogue and friendship with the children of Israel are part of the life of
Jesus’ disciples. The friendship which has grown between us makes us
bitterly and sincerely regret the terrible persecutions which they have
endured, and continue to endure, especially those that have involved
Christians.”
The ‘tikkun haolam’, the healing of the world, its repair, restoration and
redemption, including the redemption of Israel, depends upon us,
together. To our many Jewish friends who view our television network,
Hag Sameach! Happy and blessed feast of lights! Let us go forward in
shalom! We have much good work to do together to heal a broken world
and to allow God’s light to shine on those living in darkness and in the
shadow of death, to guide our feet into the paths of peace.
Have a look at Pope Francis’ last Hanukkah in Argentina in 2012 before
the momentous events of March 2013 in the Sistine Chapel. Argentine
Catholics and Jews celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas together.

Source:
http://saltandlighttv.org/blogfeed/getpost.php?
id=73284&language=&radio=
Christmas Greetings From Bethlehem: The
Incarnation Isn’t a Reality Show
Here is the Christmas message from Franciscan Fr. Francesco
Patton, Custos of the Holy Land, reprinted from the Custody’s
blog: custodia.org
—
In the Psalm that Saint Francis composed for the celebration of
Christmas he reminds us that: “the Most Holy Child has been given to
us, and has been born for us on the way and placed in a manger
because he did not have a place in the inn.” ST. FRANCIS, Office of the
Passion, Ps. XV,7.
Every day in Bethlehem we contemplate the physical place, “on the
way”, where Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. There we daily venerate

the manger where he was placed. The physical reality of this place
reminds us of the fact that the Son of God chose to share our history
and our life in a real manner. The mystery of the incarnation is not a
reality show in which common people, in front of a television camera, act
by pretending to live real situations. Jesus came from a royal lineage,
and yet he found himself being born on the way, because in a real way
he did not find a place of welcome or any hospitality. He found himself
being born on the way as a son of immigrants – as we would say
nowadays – more than as a descendent of a royal family.
This fact and this choice, which we daily commemorate in Bethlehem but
which we live once more in the whole world particularly during this
intense period of Christmas, remind us of the fact that the Son of God
has taken our human condition very seriously. Jesus identifies himself
with the condition in which he found himself “on the way” not out of a
personal choice but out of necessity. He was born on the way because
he was obliged to find work somewhere else. He was born on the way
because he had to emigrate from a situation in which he was a victim of
discrimination and which did not permit him to live in dignity in his own
house. He was born on the way because an earthquake or floods have
deprived him of his own home. He was born on the way because war
uprooted him from his own Country and made him become a refugee.
These are the ways in which the Son of God who is born in Bethlehem,
on the way, identified himself and still identifies himself, because there is
no place for him where we normally live and find our place.
This child, however, reminds us of the words of Saint Francis, who is
echoing the words of the Gospel and of the liturgy: “he has been given to
us, and he was born for us.” We can also find ourselves deprived of
everything, along the wayside, but if we have received this gift our life is
already full of meaning. Jesus is the true gift we wait for. Jesus is the
only gift that can fill our heart. Jesus is the gift that fills our life. Without
this gift all that we have will serve for our livelihood, but will not be useful
to live in a full and authentic way. Jesus was born for us. “Pro nobis” are
the Latin words, which make us grasp the reality that the entire life of
that child was going to be a life given “for us”, a life from which we have
received a great benefit: our salvation, the possibility to become,
together with him, children of the same God the Father, the possibility to
participate in the fullness of life and joy which make up divine life. He
was born for us on the way, he was given to us on the way, he became
for us the way leading to life, to happiness and to the fullness of love. Let

us gaze upon the manger in the grotto of Bethlehem, and there we can
already see in perspective Golgotha and the cross, where we will truly
understand the meaning of the expression of that child who was “born
for us.”
On behalf of the Franciscans of the Holy Land and on my behalf, I wish
you the joy to feel moved not only in front of the small boy in the crib, but
also in front of each and every child of flesh and blood, whose arms
reach out to us and who asks to be accepted. In that child we can see
how much the Son of God has become small for us. He became small in
a real way, and not in a metaphorical sense.
I wish all of you, and above all those who feel that they are living “on the
way”, in a fragile and vulnerable condition, to feel that you fall under the
maternal and vigilant gaze of the Virgin Mary, and of the vigilant and
caring presence of Saint Joseph who stands beside her.
I wish all of you to come to know how to pass from sentiment to action,
in order to recognise, in this present moment, the Son of God who is still
asking us to welcome him “on the way”, and who still risks not to find a
place among us and to have to find refuge somewhere else.
Merry Christmas to each and every one of you, to your families and
communities.

Video Brings Renewed Attention to Plight of Priest
Kidnapped in Yemen

A video has been released purportedly showing Indian priest Fr. Tom
Uzhunnalil, who was abducted in March from Yemen, asking Pope
Francis for help.

The 5minute video was uploaded on social media a day after
Christmas. The speaker appears very weak and at times gasps for
breath.
Father Uzhunnalil was abducted in the ISIS attack that brought the death
of four Missionaries of Charity.
Related: Pope’s Telegram for Killing of Missionaries of Charity, Others in Yemen
The veracity of the video uploaded on YouTube and Facebook, or the
period when it was shot, could not be independently verified. However,
relatives of the priest say that the man in the video does appear to be Fr.
Uzhunnalil.
Vatican Radio reported:
The Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia, in a statement issued on
Tuesday, has insisted on its continuous efforts to seek Fr. Tom’s release
as well as the numerous appeals for prayers.
The priest sounds dejected for lack of efforts to save him. “If I were a
European priest, I would have been taken more seriously. I am from
India. I am perhaps not considered as of much value,” says the 59year
old. “Dear Pope Francis, dear Holy Father, as a father please take care
of my life. I am very much depressed. My health is deteriorating,” he
says. He claimed his captors have made many contacts with the
Government of India, President and Prime Minister.
“I am very sad that nothing has been done seriously in my regard,” he
said. “Reports have been there in the news that everything is being done
to release me quickly. But in reality nothing seem to have happened. I
am very sad and depressed. I request also my fellow Christians in India,
the Bishops and priests, to do their might to help me to get released and
save my life,” he added.

The Union Government has said efforts are being made to secure
Uzhunnalil’s release, but such attempts take time. External affairs
minister Sushma Swaraj had informed Parliament that Prime Minister
Narendra Modi himself has spoken to various countries through which
contacts can be established in Yemen. Swaraj had said it takes more

time to secure release of people who are held captive and asked the
MPs to keep “faith” in government’s efforts to trace the abducted priest.
“I have seen the video from Father Tom. He is an Indian citizen and the
life of every Indian is most precious for us… We will spare no effort to
secure Father Tom’s release from captivity,” Swaraj tweeted on Monday
morning.
The Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia on Tuesday, has issued a
statement, saying “the features of the person speaking in the video bear
a close likeness to Fr. Tom Uzhunnalil SDB. However the source of the
video, the date of its creation and the circumstances under which it was
recorded are unknown. “
“Even though we have no information about Fr. Tom’s present
whereabouts, we have strong indications to believe that he is still alive,”
the statement says.
The Vicariate has also insisted that “since the day of the abduction of Fr.
Tom, the Church has made countless appeals from the highest levels to
secure his release as well as made concrete efforts by way of working in
close collaboration with both international and local diplomatic
channels.”
Pope Francis had made a heartfelt appeal to the kidnappers to release
Fr. Tom on Sunday April 10, 2016, “In the hope given us by the Risen
Christ, I renew my appeal for the liberation of all persons seized in areas
of armed conflict: in particular, I desire to remember the Salesian priest,
Tom Uzhunnalil, kidnapped at Aden in Yemen this past March 4,” he had
said.
Bishop Paul Hinder, Apostolic Vicar of Southern Arabia, is in touch with
the different channels who are working and are leading the dialogues to
secure a safe release. The statement added that more details could not
be disclosed at this stage.
The Bishop has led constant calls for prayer throughout the Churches in
the Vicariate for Fr. Tom and the few handful of remaining Christians in
the country.
During the Christmas Mass on the midnight of the 25th of December
2016, the Bishop and the tens of thousands gathered at the Cathedral

Parish of St. Joseph’s Abu Dhabi, prayed in silence for the safety of Fr.
Tom.
Throughout the world there have been numerous appeals, calls to action
and raising up of prayers from the day Fr. Tom was kidnapped. The
Salesian Congregation to which he belongs and the Catholic Bishops
Conference of India have been in touch with government channels.
Numerous pious associations and groups throughout the world have
called for and organized prayer vigils and other demonstrations of public
support.
US Migration Week to Focus on ‘Creating a
Culture of Encounter’
National Migration Week 2017 will take place in the United States
January 814. This year’s theme is “Creating a Culture of Encounter.”
The celebration provides an opportunity to raise awareness about the
contributions of migrants, including refugees, and victims of human
trafficking in our communities.
With over 65 million people forcibly displaced from their homes globally,
the world is increasingly affected by migration. National Migration Week

offers a time to educate Catholic communities about migration and to
come together to encounter immigrants and refugees in parishes,
dioceses, and communities.
“National Migration Week is an excellent opportunity to highlight Biblical
tradition and our mission to welcome the newcomer,” said Bishop Joe
Vásquez of Austin, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Migration. “While the observance is
only a week long, it is a vital time to show welcome, compassion, and
solidarity with our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters.”
As part of the 2017 National Migration Week celebration, the Justice for
Immigrants (JFI) coalition will be launching a new website that will
feature news, background materials on migration policy issues, and
ways for individuals to get involved.
The observance of National Migration Week began over 25 years ago by
the U.S. bishops to give Catholics an opportunity to honor and learn
about the diverse communities of the Church and the work that the
Church undertakes to serve immigrants and refugees. The week serves
as both a time for prayer and action to highlight the contributions of
immigrants and vulnerable populations coming to the United States.
Educational materials and other resources for National Migration Week
are available for download
at www.usccb.org/nationalmigrationweek. Posters, prayer cards, and
booklets are available through the USCCB publishing service
at www.usccbpublishing.org.
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27 december, 2016 zenit

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27 december, 2016 zenit