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Kafanchan, Nigeria, Jan 3, 2017 / 10:46 am (Aid to the Church in Need).- Islamist violence and terrorism has killed more than 12,000 Christians in Nigeria, destroying some 2,000 churches. Boko Haram has perpetrated the bulk of the killings, but in the past year a new source of Islamist terror has hit the country in the form of the Fulani Herdsmen Terrorists (FHT).

In just the last three months, the group – drawn from the rank of the nomadic Fulani people – has swept across half of Kaduna State, in northern Nigeria, a local bishop told international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need.

Bishop Joseph Bagobiri of the Diocese of Kafanchan gave an accounting of attacks in his area since September 2016: “53 villages burned down, 808 people murdered and 57 wounded, 1,422 houses and 16 churches destroyed.” Though little know in the West, FHT is becoming a huge menace to Christians and moderate Muslims alike.

Historically, there have been sporadic conflicts between Fulani herdsmen and farmers fighting over land, but Fulani herdsmen, the bishop said, are now using “sophisticated weapons they didn’t have before, such as AK-47s of unknown provenance.”

He added: “In addition to the social and economic that have fueled conflict since ancient times, such as the distribution of the land and shortage of grazing, the dimension of the problem has changed. The Fulani are Muslim and the land they are attacking belongs mainly to ethnic groups that are Christian; now there is religious hatred driving the violence.” Fulani aggression, the bishop said, “has turned into religious persecution.”

The prelate said that in many of the villages that have been attacked, especially the small businesses owned by Christians as well as churches that have been singled out for destruction. He added: “Nor can it be said that the violence is directed against a particular ethnic group, since the Christians belong to various different ethnic groups.”

Bishop Bagobiri expressed dismay that “the persecution of Christians in Nigeria is not given anything like the same level of international attention” as the plight of Christians in the Middle East.

Even the Nigerian government, he charged, is not paying enough attention: “the attacks on Christians meet with seeming indifference on the part of the country’s leadership – either the police do not have the appropriate weaponry to intervene, or else they have not been given orders to do so.”

Bishop Bagobiri expressed his conviction that this new terrorist threat reflects the growth of of Islamic fundamentalism Nigeria, in particular the imposition of sharia law, which has now been introduced into 12 of the 36 states of Nigeria, including Kaduna State. Sharia law, the bishop charged, is the source of “inequality and discrimination. For example, Islamic courts frequently set free Muslims who have committed crimes, such as the murder of Christians whom they have accused of blasphemy.”

You can find out more about Nigeria and the issue of religious freedom in the report by ACN on Religious Freedom Worldwide, published November 2016.

Maria Lozano writes for Aid to the Church in Need, 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.acn-aed-ca.org (CAN) www.acnmalta.org (Malta)

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Mosul, Iraq, Jan 3, 2017 / 11:55 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As villages on Iraq’s Nineveh Plain are liberated from Islamic State forces, the Christians who lived there have returned, only to find destruction and betrayal.

“(When) we went to see what happened to our hometowns, we could not believe the hatred and the revenge that ISIS has against us,” said Sister Diana Momeka, a nun with the Dominican Sisters of Saint Catherine of Siena who ministers to those displaced by ISIS.

Sister Diana had taught at St. Ephrem Seminary in Bakhdida, Iraq before ISIS invaded in the summer of 2014 and drove out the region’s Christians. The destruction, she told CNA, was “beyond imagination.”

After ISIS took over much of Northern Iraq in 2014, tens of thousands of refugees fled eastward into Iraqi Kurdistan. Many have been living in temporary housing unfit for the winter season, relying upon aid groups for their basic needs.

Some of the Christians came from the Nineveh Plain, which lies between the city of Mosul – Iraq’s second-largest city and the current site of conflict between ISIS occupiers and coalition forces fighting to retake it – to the west and Iraqi Kurdistan to the east.

Recently, towns on the Nineveh Plain were liberated from ISIS control by a military coalition that included local militia. Christians who had been living in temporary shelters headed back home with joyful hearts, Sister Diana said.

But what they saw when they arrived home broke their hearts. Evidence of ISIS’ hatred and revenge was everywhere in the destruction of their homes. Graffiti on the walls of churches made threats like “we’re going to break your crosses” and “you have no place with us.”

“It’s a total mess,” Sister Diana said. “There was some hope to have a future,” she noted, but “we feel that there’s no future left for the Christians. It’s kind of a sign for us, ‘you should leave, we’ve destroyed everything you have.’”

Christians found that even their neighbors had betrayed them. “We discovered so many of our documents and our belongings at their places,” Sister Diana said.

“It is a genocide against us because they left us with nothing at all,” she said of ISIS.

Many residents still face the struggle of rebuilding their homes and villages, reconciling with their neighbors, and establishing security. It is a race against time to rebuild their homes before everyone chooses to leave Iraq, said Fr. Benham Benoka, president of the Humanitarian Nineveh Relief Organization which Sister Diana works with.

“So many families are leaving Iraq,” he told CNA. And the situation is even worse for those families who have left and are currently stranded in Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan.

Christians in the region need housing, employment, education, and treatment for medical and mental health issues, and Fr. Benham’s organization is doing its best to provide for their needs. The relief organization has provided over 200,000 patients with free health care, as well as other types of aid.

“The faith of the people is strong, even if they are leaving the country or they are staying there,” he said.

“But they’re still praying, they still have hope in a big miracle for their lives,” he added of the patients.

Pope Francis, who in 2014 called Fr. Benoka and told him “I am with you in prayer always. I never forget you,” sent a container of medical supplies to the group in November, Fr. Benoka said.

“We thank him from our hearts,” he said.

Others displaced from their homes by violence may not be able to return home yet, or various reasons. They may fear for their security, particularly after their neighbors betrayed them to ISIS.

The Syrian Catholic prelate of Mosul recently told the group Aid to the Church in Need that Muslim neighbors burned down 75 percent of Christian homes in the villages that have been freed from ISIS control.

“We are afraid that we will have to continue to live with these people. We impatiently awaited liberation, and many wanted to return immediately, but there first need to be guarantees for our safety,” he said.

Fr. Benoka estimated that “if the situation continues as it is now,” in two years the region could be empty of Christians. “The cradle of Christianity will be empty,” he said.

His relief organization has “grown day after day,” he said, “because of the continual needs of the people who need health care.” They have received support from friends and other Christian non-governmental organizations.

“It’s not easy” to meet all the needs of the displaced families, he said. “It’s very, very difficult, and we need, really, the support of everybody.”

 

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Dennis Sadowski

By Dennis Sadowski

NEWARK, Ohio (CNS) -- For Tonya and Chuck Cooper, family isn't just those who share their last name.

When it comes to helping people in need, the couple often sets an extra plate at the dinner table for someone without food, offers a night's rest to someone without a bed or readily provides a lift to the doctor's office for a neighbor whose car broke down.

"We share a community. We share a town," Chuck told Catholic News Service in late December.

Life became more of a struggle though for the Coopers as 2017 dawned.

Chuck, 59, lost his job in the fall at a mail marketing company down the road in Hebron that paid $9.59 an hour, because he needed surgery on both of his knees and received no guarantee he could return once fully recovered. He had one surgery in November and is doing well. A second surgery is set for early 2017.

During his three years on the job, Chuck had no health insurance, however. His share of the cost through the company was too expensive, he says. So Medicaid is footing the bill.

Tonya, 57, is unable to work because of a disability. The family's only income is her monthly Supplemental Security Income stipend. The couple also receives a limited benefit under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, formerly known as food stamps.

Without Chuck's income, the Coopers have fallen two months behind on the rent. They live in a $495 a month two-bedroom, first-floor apartment in a duplex they share with their daughter Samantha, 27, and her 7-month-old son, Benjamin. Another daughter lives upstairs in a separate unit.

"Are we impoverished? From my standpoint, no. But are we under the bar or the (poverty) line? Yes, we are, and we're sinking farther under it as we go," Chuck says.

Situations like that facing the Coopers have become more common in places such as Newark, a formerly bustling Midwestern town of 48,000 located 35 miles east of Columbus that once earned the nickname "Little Chicago." Since the 1980s, Newark, like similar communities, has seen well-paying jobs leave town. In 2015, the city's poverty rate stood at 23.2 percent, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics.

In response, a group of concern citizens set in motion an effort to give struggling people a voice in changing how government and nonprofit agencies respond to their needs. They envision a venue to share stories -- and expertise -- about how difficult it is for many families to live day-in and day-out deciding whether it's best to pay the rent, keep the heat on, visit a doctor or feed the kids.

What emerged was the Newark Think Tank on Poverty, a nonsectarian project funded in part by the U.S. bishops' Catholic Campaign for Human Development through the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in the Columbus Diocese. It brings about 40 people together monthly to discuss workable ideas on how to shape the community's response to people in need.

The Coopers are founding members of the think tank. Tonya holds a seat on its leadership team.

"The think tank is important to me because over the years there's been times when we've had to reach out for assistance to other people just to make it," she explained. "So this is my way of giving back. I can listen to these people and say, 'I understand where you're coming from.'"

Lesha Farias helped establish the think tank. A former president of the St. Vincent de Paul conference at St. Francis de Sales Parish in Newark as well as the society's Columbus district council, Farias calls the think tank's low-income participants "poverty experts."

More than half of the leadership team are people experiencing poverty and appreciate having an opportunity to be heard especially because they have rarely been heard before, Farias explains.

Another aspect of the think tank involves ensuring that people who are facing challenges from being in poverty -- car repossession, eviction, lack of food -- will not be forgotten or abandoned, that they will be connected with the services they need.

"We are in relationship with them," Farias said.

The think tank also promotes the importance of having its members represented on committees and boards of local government and social service agencies. To the think tank's credit, its members serve on the Licking County Jobs and Family Services Planning Board, an Adult Court Services committee and the board of the Pat and Herb Murphy St. Vincent de Paul Center. Four Newark area parishes established the center in response to the vision of accompanying people in need as expressed by Frederic Ozanam, founder of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.

After its first meetings, think tank participants settled on three issues to address: discrimination against people convicted of felonies who are attempting to rebuild their lives but have difficulty finding work; the lack of jobs that pay a living wage; and inadequate mental health and addiction recovery services.

Convincing the Newark City Council to pass an ordinance that removes a question about felony convictions from city employment applications gave the think tank an early victory. Think tank leader Eric Lee applauds the move.

At 60 and having spent a third of his life in prison, Lee knows the challenges of trying to find gainful employment. He told CNS that people returning to Newark after time in prison struggle to find a job because employers often are fearful of hiring someone convicted of a serious crime.

Since his release, Lee has graduated from college and is working on a master's degree in management. He works side-by-side with people released from prison to help them re-enter the community and leave behind the habits that got them into trouble in the first place.

"The biggest success (of the think tank) is the relationships we form and the relationships we build in different areas of life," Lee said. "Just making a difference in individuals' lives is something I'm starting to take on and be uplifted by."

The think tank can trace its roots to the work of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in town more than two decades ago. Bill Hammond, a St. Francis de Sales Church parishioner, became involved in the society in the early 1990s and helped guide it from an organization that simply raised funds for charitable works to one that advocated for needy people.

Downplaying his role, Hammond, 84, told CNS he simply followed the directives that Ozanam established in founding the Vincentians in 1833. Among the precepts was that Vincentians were to visit families in need rather than simply provide charity and move on with life.

Under Hammond's leadership, the society's presence grew in Newark and the home visits became integral to its ministry. Hammond then became president of the society's diocesan council. For six years, he embraced the same philosophy.

"When I started reading and studying the manual and history, they emphasized that we didn't become a Vincentian really to give the poor money. It was first of all about us getting the opportunity to grow spiritually by serving and living out our faith," Hammond says.

"When we go on a home visit, it's a personal connection, not a monetary," he continues. "The money is not as important as a connection spiritually with the people we are going to visit."

Hammond's efforts made the think tank possible, said Allen Schwartz, a retired community organizer who offers his insight from years of grass-roots experience to its leadership team.

"Bill's insistence on the visits can't be minimized as social justice work because people who don't do social justice work objectify the needy," Schwartz explains. "They just write the check (and say) 'don't bother me.' It's the visits that hold back that process of objectification and created the situation where we could then take it to the next step of the think tank.

"We not only need to stop objectifying these people who are in need, but we need to act on their behalf," he says.

The think tank has one staff person. Wendy Tarr is director and lead organizer of the Vincentian Ohio Action Network, which the diocesan society established. She spends part of her time in Newark identifying people who are ready to lend their voices to changing public policy.

Her understanding of the Vincentian vision runs through her work as she addresses the need for society to broach the gulf that keeps poor people outside of society's mainstream.

"In order for our democracy to work and for our agencies and organizations to be meeting real needs in the community, there has to be participation and leadership from people who are not in the middle class, but from people who are in the working class and poor," Tarr explained.

The think tank helps people understand how power is structured in U.S. society and how the problems poor people in particular face are connected to ineffective social policies, she says.

"People (in need) have voice and answers to problems. They have solutions and insight that are really needed in order to create a working system and create new ways in society to address poverty," Tarr explained.

The Coopers said that having a voice in decisions affecting their lives is what they seek. Chuck Cooper said he hopes the think tank can help bridge the distance between "the haves and the have-nots" in Newark.

"If you're, unfortunately, in that thin line that differentiates the two, you can get lost real quick. I know. We've been there. We're still there. We make too much for (public) assistance, but we don't make enough to feel comfortable. It becomes a limbo," he said.

"Will they get better? I sure hope so. I'd love to live long enough to see a little bit of comfort. To be able to maybe go to bed some night and not worry about the next day. It's been a long time, and I don't remember what it was like."

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Editor's Note: More information on the Newark Think Tank on Poverty is online at www.newarkthinktank.org.

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Follow Dennis Sadowski on Twitter: @DennisSadowski.

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