ACN News - Agency dispatches emergency aid to Ethiopia—more than 8 million people face famine

The story is not yet making headlines but Ethiopia’s worst drought in 50 years is threatenting the lives of millions of people. According to the UN, 8.2 million people are in urgent need of food aid, as close to one million have already left their homes in search of sustenance.

International Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has just dispatched $500,000 in emergency support to relieve conditions in 13 of the country’s famine-stricken dioceses.

“We are a pastoral aid agency, but we are prepared to respond to all of the needs of the Christian community and other vulnerable citizens—just as we are doing in conflict-plagued Iraq and Syria,” said ACN-USA Outreach Director Edward Clancy.

Mr. Clancy added: “Especially in this Year of Mercy, the faithful in the West must stand with the poor all around the world.”

Current conditions may rival those of 1984, when a drought killed more than one million Ethiopians.

While not all of the country is hit by drought and hunger, “the catastrophe can be felt everywhere,” Father Haile Gabriel Meleku, deputy secretary general of the Ethiopian bishops’ conference told ACN-USA.

Just before Christmas, the Ethiopian bishops released a statement blaming “climate change and environmental degradation” for the current crisis.

The prelates cited Pope Francis’s encyclical on the environment, Laudato SiI, as laying out the scenario being played out in Ethiopia: “Many of the poor live in areas … affected by warming and their means of subsistence are largely dependent on natural reserves and ecosystemic services such as agriculture …”

“They have no other financial activities or resoures which can enable them to adapt to climate change or to face natural disasters.”

Last fall, the UN launched an appeal for $350,000 in aid for Ethiopia, while an additional $750,000 is likely needed if the crisis persists.

In 2015, ACNUSA spent more than $1.2M to support a range of Church-related projects across the country.

There are some 600,000 members of the Oriental Ethiopian Catholic Church in a population of approx. 94 million.

With picture of Ethiopian faithful (© ACN)

Editor’s Notes:

Directly under the Holy Father, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need.  ACN is a Catholic charity - helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Father Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity,” the organization is now at work in over 145 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 43 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.

For more information contact Michael Varenne at michael@churchinneed.org or call 718-609-0939 or fax718-609-0938. Aid to the Church in Need, 725 Leonard Street, PO Box 220384, Brooklyn, NY 11222-0384.  www.churchinneed.org

Year of Mercy Holy Door - Hawaii

Bishop Larry Silva opened the Door of Mercy on December 13th, 2015.  He has designated the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace as a church with a door of mercy where the faithful can enter and gain plenary indulgence.  He also designated other churches in the neighboring islands with this honor.

The usual conditions for plenary indulgences apply.

One may enter these holy doors in order to gain plenary indulgence, once a day.

ACN News - In Bethlehem, then and now, ‘Jesus is the door to peace’

By Oliver Maksan

Joseph and Mary quietly rocked the child. Shepherds gathered around them. Children in costumes were enacting the Nativity of Jesus the subterranean chapels tucked away into nooks and crannies under the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. A silver star marks the birthplace in a grotto right nearby.

The young actors that played the parts of the Holy Family and the Magi were children with disabilities from all over the Palestinian Territories. They live in a house near the Church of the Nativity, which is run by nuns from the Institute of the Incarnate Word.

“Our children need strong impressions to understand the truths of our faith,” Sister Maria told international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), adding: “A nativity scene helps them understand the mystery of Christmas—that, out of love for us, God became a small and weak child just like them so that He could share our lot.”

The quiet, peaceful scene in the Church of the Nativity stood in stark contrast to the situation in the Holy Land in general. There was no sign of Christmas peace. More than 20 Israelis have been killed by Palestinian assailants since the end of September.

In most cases knives and other stabbing weapons were used. More than 100 Palestinians have been killed in defensive action or in violent clashes, with hundreds wounded.

This year, Bethlehem’s municipal administration decided to hold more modest Christmas celebrations out of respect for the victims of the recent violence.

The town’s Catholic Mayor Vera Baboun explained: “We did not just want to celebrate Christmas as though nothing were happening. We wanted to show that although we are celebrating the birth of the Prince of Peace, we are not at peace and are mourning the dead.”

The upswing in violence has hurt Bethlehem’s tourism industry; the livelihood of many Christians depends upon providing food, drink and lodgings to pilgrims and selling devotional items.

“The Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce and Industry estimates that this year the rooms were scarcely at half their usual occupancy during the Christmas season.

Given the difficult economic and political situation—as well as mounting pressure by Islamists—more and more Christian families are leaving Bethlehem and the Holy Land.

The mood has been made worse now that it appears that almost 60 Christian families in the Cremisan Valley near Bethlehem are now going to lose their land because of the separation barrier built by Israel despite years of litigation.

Father Pater Ricardo Bustos, guardian of the Franciscan monastery near the Church of the Nativity, said that “we as the church want to use this Year of Mercy to remind the Christians of Bethlehem of their calling and to strengthen them in the faith. The fact that God was made man here 2000 years ago is a sign of hope for this country and its people.”

“Jesus is the door to peace with God and with each other. God has come to change the state of affairs here. Even though the child in the manger may appear fragile: God’s promise is strong and constant,” the Franciscan Friar concluded.

With pictures of Nativity play in Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity (© ACN)

Editor’s Notes:

Directly under the Holy Father, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need.  ACN is a Catholic charity - helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Father Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity,” the organization is now at work in over 145 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 43 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.

For more information contact Michael Varenne at michael@churchinneed.org or call 718-609-0939 or fax718-609-0938. Aid to the Church in Need, 725 Leonard Street, PO Box 220384, Brooklyn, NY 11222-0384.  www.churchinneed.org

Book Review - Seven Saints for Seven Virtues

Seven Saints for Seven Virtues is well-known Catholic blogger Jean M. Heimann's new book.

Jean knows her saints. On her blog she writes about their lives, especially on their feast days.  She just doesn't share about well-known saints but she also writes about the lesser known ones.  It was inevitable that she would write a book about some of our heavenly friends.

With all the endless saints the Catholic church has canonized, it must have been a very difficult task to narrow the choices down to seven. It is clear the selection was inspired by the Holy Spirit because they were perfectly suited for their virtuous example.

Jean has a very comprehensive style of writing and she is quite a story teller.  The reader will find themselves engrossed from the very beginning with each chapter.  First we learn about the saint's life.  We then learn about the virtue attributed to that particular saint.  Jean makes each story interesting because she shares personal stories along with the lessons for the seven virtues.

I found myself taking notes as I read for future reference and to share excerpts with others.  I particularly liked the way she explains certain topics such as the deadly sin of sloth, with the definition given by holy people such as Archbishop Fulton Sheen or Father John Hardon.

I think that a reader will benefit greatly from reading this lovely little book.  In our journey to seek holiness we need more books like Seven Saints for Seven Virtues.

Mahalo nui loa, Jean!