“One cannot make war in God's name!” the Pope said during his weekly general audience on Jan. 21.
Ten people were killed and 45 churches were set on fire in the riots erupted after the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo published an image of Mohammed on the Jan. 14 front cover, an act which many Muslims deem offensive.
One week earlier, 12 people were killed on Jan. 7 when Islamic terrorists stormed Charlie Hebdo headquarters in Paris.
Pope Francis called for prayers for the “beloved Niger,” where “brutalities were committed against Christians, against children, against churches.”
Praying for “reconciliation and peace,” Pope Francis stressed that “religious sentiments are never an occasion for violence, oppression and destruction.
Five people were killed in the Niger capital of Niamey, while five more were killed in the southern city of Zinder. Around 170 people were injured in the riots.
Government officials reported seeing perpetrators carrying flags in support of Boko Haram, an Islamic group based in neighboring Nigeria. Niger is approximately 99 percent Muslim.
Before leading the crowds gathered in the Vatican's Paul VI hall in praying the Hail Mary, the Pope concluded his remarks by expressing his hope for the restoration of a “climate of mutual respect and peaceful coexistence for the good of all.”
During a Jan. 16 in-flight press conference, Pope Francis told journalists that freedom of expression has limits, but that no one has the right to kill in God’s name.
Pope Francis decries Charlie Hebdo motivated attacks in Niger
By Ann Schneible
Vatican City, Jan 21, 2015 / 03:50 pm (CNA) - Pope Francis condemned deadly protests in Niger during which dozens of churches were torched over the weekend, stressing that religious motives do not justify violence.
Hattie Stein: Providing ammunition
in the battle against addiction
By DAVID MYERS
Southwest Kansas Register
Editor’s Note: September is National Recovery Month. Please see the contact information at the bottom of this story if you need help with alcohol or drug addiction. If you think you may have a gambling addiction, call (800) 522-4700, or visit www.ksgamblinghelp.com.
The good news, says addiction counselor Hattie Stein, is that addiction is one of the “most treatable chronic diseases of our time.”
The bad news, she explained, is that the assent into addiction is like “being on an airplane that’s been high jacked.
“You think you’re going to Florida, and suddenly you land in New York. You think you’re doing okay -- seeking your career, your ideals for your life -- and the next thing you know, you’re in a whole different place.”
Could a US priest face jail for refusing to break confession seal?
Washington D.C., Jan 21, 2015 / 05:03 pm (CNA/EWTN News) - The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a petition from a Louisiana Catholic diocese that fears a civil lawsuit could force a priest to violate the seal of confession or go to jail.
The Diocese of Baton Rouge and diocesan priest Father Jeff Bayhi were disappointed by the decision, which the diocese said has “significant ramifications for religious freedom in Louisiana and beyond.”
“The diocese and Fr. Bayhi will continue their efforts to protect the guarantees of religious freedom set forth in our state and federal constitutions, and are confident that those efforts will, in due course, be successful,” the diocese said in a Jan. 20 statement.
Couples learn how to make
their 'Marriage for Keeps'
By RHONDA GOODLOE
Catholic Social Service
“Overall a wonderful class! Great [facilitators] and great information. Appreciate all the ‘tools’ provided. It has taken our marriage from ‘ending’ to workable again.”
This is what one person said about the Marriage for Keeps (MfK) program, which will soon be starting its fifth year.
In 2004 several entities partnered “with the goal of realizing a dream of promoting and supporting healthy marriage and family relationships throughout the state of Kansas.”
Research indicates that healthy marriages and family formation reduces poverty, child abuse, and neglect. It also prevents costly social service intervention and increases job stability.
Twelve hours on a boat to tell Pope Francis 'I love you'
By Elise Harris
Catholic News Agency
Manila, Philippines - Dolorosa and Joay traveled on a 12-hour boat trip from their home province in the Philippines to Manila, where they hoped to see “the image of Jesus” – Pope Francis – and tell him that they love him.
“We want to see the pope, the image of Jesus. I’m so happy now, because I see in Pope Francis the image of Jesus.... I can’t explain my emotions. I’m so happy,” Dolorosa told CNA Jan. 15.
The siblings – who were on their way to line up so they could greet the pope on his route into the city – said that if they had the opportunity to tell him something they would only say one very simple thing: “I love you.”
Dolorosa and her brother made their way by ship from their home province of Aklan to Manila in order to participate in the events surrounding Pope Francis’ Jan. 15-19 visit to the Philippines. The pontiff was slated to visit the island of Tacloban, which has been ravaged by two typhoons in the last year.
‘Open adoptions:’ Removing anonymity,
replacing fear with empowerment
By SANDY GROS, LBSW
Catholic Social Service
Billy came home from school one day very upset. His teacher had given the class an assignment to write an essay about their ancestry. Sobbing, Billy asked his mother, “What should I write? We don’t know anything about my birth family!” Billy was adopted as an infant and his adoptive parents received little information — even his race was a mystery. This true story provides one example of how secrecy in adoption affects children and their adoptive families.
Adoption has historically been a subject surrounded in secrecy. Expectant mothers often “hid the problem” until they gave birth and then pretended the child never existed. Now, many families are realizing the benefits of talking openly about adoption with their children.
CSS bolstered Migrant Worker Program
By Tim Wenzl
Southwest Kansas Register
A grass roots effort to assist the children of migrants working in the sugar beet fields in Grant County led to the involvement of Catholic Social Service in the Migrant Worker Program in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The success of the Migrant Worker Program in Ulysses can be traced to an Irish-immigrant pastor who identified challenging circumstances in his newly-assigned parish community, and mobilized his congregation through the Vatican II decree on the Apostolate of the Laity.
“While I was in Ulysses I encountered a whole new phenomenon in parish ministry – the Mexican migrant worker,” recalled Bernard Groome, laicized priest and former Mary Queen of Peace pastor, writing from his home in Ireland on Aug. 30, 2014.
“Ulysses was pretty much the centre of a vast area of sugar beet and broom corn farming, so at about Easter time every year hundreds of Mexican nationals would move into town for harvesting of those crops – a period of some four to five months. The vast majority lived in wretched conditions –poverty and squalor. They arrived in the US as illegal aliens and stayed as long as they were able to escape detection by the authorities. Because of their illegal standing, they were in constant peril of being caught so they had no recourse against unjust treatment and exploitation. Sometimes they worked in slave conditions and without redress; but they did get a salary and in spite of the shameful exploitation they suffered, they were still better off than they would be back home in Mexico.
Catholic Social Service volunteers
Love in action
By REBECCA FORD
Catholic Social Service
“Why not?”
“I just thought it would be fun!”
“It was a good way to get out and see a lot of people.”
“It was a way to help a friend” . . . “to help someone out” . . . “to help the community.”
These were just some of the responses given by the dozens of volunteers who helped out with the Catholic Social Service Wine Tasting Event which celebrated the Catholic Charity Centennial this past spring. One could judge the success of that event in many ways: the money raised for people in need; the good time had by all; the publicity for a good cause . . . .
From a coordinator’s standpoint, I must also add that, collectively, our volunteers were one of the best parts of the entire event—from initial planning to the final days of sorting, cleaning, and putting away. As an unknown author once said, “No one is more cherished in this world than someone who lightens the burden of another. Thank you.”
Migration and Refugee Services aids immigrants
By Charlene Scott-Myers
Southwest Kansas Register
Catholic Social Service opened its satellite office in Garden City July 1, 1975 with three employees. But only a few weeks after it opened, the employees realized a new need: resettlement of Southeast Asians through Fort Chaffee, Arkansas.
The Asians had fled the war-torn countries of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, and their imminent persecution under the new Communist regimes.
“Bishop Marion F. Forst requested Catholic Social Service (CSS) to assist in providing refugee resettlement to the peoples who had fled their homelands,” said Levita Rohlman Rupp.
“The parish model was the preferred method for resettlement, and parish leaders were invited to consider the task,” Rupp recalled. “In many ways it was like our adoption process as we matched refugees to parishes and their resources.”
Several parishes around the diocese sponsored refugees and assisted with all that was necessary for them to relocate to a new land and a new life. Parish assistance came in the form of housing, employment, language classes, car pooling students, grocery shopping, and learning to drive.
“It was very risk-taking for some of the parishioners who had no experience with people from foreign lands,” Rupp said. “But at the same time it was very faith-rejuvenating for parishes as they lived with new neighbors and checked in on them for weeks.”
With ‘new’ Diocese of Dodge City
came Catholic Charities
By TIM WENZL
Archivist
Bishop John B. Franz started an office for Catholic Charities in 1951, the same year the Diocese of Dodge City was established.
Father Gilbert Herrman, the director, worked out of a basement office in the chancery. He also served as director of the Propagation of Faith and locally organized the annual Thanksgiving clothing drive for Catholic Relief Service.
From the outset, Catholic Charities handled adoptions. At least five orphans from Ireland were adopted by couples in southwest Kansas early on. Because Father Herrman did not have a degree in social work, the office in Dodge City worked closely with the diocesan director of Catholic Charities in Wichita to insure the legality of the adoption procedure.