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A prominent Catholic rights activist has had to flee Bangladesh, after months of harassment and death ‎threats from suspected Islamists, leaving her colleagues and other Christian leaders shocked.  Rosaline ‎Costa, a former Maria Bambina nun and the executive director of Hotline Human Rights Bangladesh ‎that she founded, left Bangladesh in July and now lives in New York City with her relatives. The 67-‎year old activist has been a vocal advocate of human rights, justice and tolerance in the country since ‎‎1986.  She has written against corruption, crime, terror and religious violence through Hotline Bangladesh, a ‎monthly newsletter she edited for nearly 30 years.‎

Muslim-majority Bangladesh has seen a surge in Islamic militancy since 2013. Islamic militants have ‎killed dozens of people, including secular bloggers, writers, academics, foreigners and those from ‎religious minorities.  In the worst attack, a group of Islamic militants, armed with assault rifles, bombs ‎and swords, massacred 20 hostages in a Dhaka cafe on July 1.  (Source: UCAN)‎

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More than a quarter of India's land is turning into desert and the rate of degradation of agricultural areas is increasing, according to new analysis of satellite images.  A report from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) says land degradation - broadly defined as loss of productivity – is estimated at 96 million hectares, or nearly 30 percent of Indian land.  "As a country we should be more than alarmed by this data," said S. Janakarajan, chairman of the South Asia Consortium for Inter-disciplinary Water Resources Studies. 

"There is no coherent plan to reverse this process or its impact."   Analysis of satellite mapping shows new areas in the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir and eastern Indian states like Orissa and Jharkhand turning arid, with nine states together accounting for nearly 24 percent of desertification.  In states like Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Delhi, Gujarat and Goa, more than 50 percent of land is under desertification. 

The ongoing study, initiated by the Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change, was led by the Indian Space Research Organisation and involved 19 other institutes. It analysed satellite images over an eight year period to compile the atlas.  (Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation) 

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Czestochowa, Poland, Aug 19, 2016 / 06:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Representatives from the United States military joined troops from five other countries in a walk for peace in Poland last week.

The ten-day trek culminating Aug. 15 was part of the annual pilgrimage to the Black Madonna, the common name for the icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa, Queen of Peace, the most important Marian icon in Polish Catholic history.

Auxiliary Bishop F. Richard Spencer, Episcopal Vicar for Europe and Asia of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, joined the United States delegation along with 843 troops and clergy from Poland, Germany, Ukraine, Lithuania, and Latvia at the event.

In the week leading up to Aug. 15, which is Poland's Armed Forces Day as well as the Assumption of Mary, pilgrims of all ages make their way to the shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa, located on the grounds of the Pauline Jasna Góra monastery.

This year, tens of thousands of Polish pilgrims are believed to have made the trek during the 305th anniversary of the annual pilgrimage. Its roots date to 1711, when the bubonic plague wiped out a large portion of Warsaw’s population. After the epidemic abruptly ended, a brotherhood of knights trekked from the capital to the shrine to offer thanks to the Virgin Mary, and the tradition has continued ever since.

According to tradition, the icon of Our Lady of Czestachowa was painted by St. Luke or St. John on a table made by Christ. The icon shows two slashes on the face of Mary, left from when the image was seized and attacked by a soldier of the Hussites. Repeated attempts to repair the scars have failed, as they continue to reappear on the image. The dark skin of the icon is attributed mostly to age, and to exposure to smoke from candles.

Bishop Spencer concelebrated an outdoor Mass for about 2,500 pilgrims Aug. 14 with Bishop Józef Guzdek, the Military Ordinary of Poland, and more than 60 priests. Bishop Spencer and the military representatives then drove back to Warsaw for an Aug. 15 Mass celebrating the Assumption. Polish President Andrzej Duda and his wife, along with other Polish government representatives, attended the Mass in Warsaw. Afterwards, the various dignitaries attended a wreath-laying ceremony at Poland’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

"The universality of the Catholic Church is well represented in the partnership of these two military dioceses by participating together in this pilgrimage for peace. I stand in admiration of the Polish soldiers who practice very openly and with great pride their Catholic faith and heritage. We all can also be proud of our U.S. soldiers who completed the ten-day walking pilgrimage," Bishop Spencer said following the event.

The pilgrimage came just a couple weeks after Poland finished hosting Pope Francis and as many as 2 million international pilgrims for the 31st World Youth Day. Pope Francis prayed before the icon at the shrine of Czestochowa July 28. Three days prior, Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the U.S. Military Archdiocese celebrated Mass under the icon while leading a pilgrimage of U.S. military Catholics to the World Youth Day.

The icon also was a significant place of pilgrimage for the St. John Paul II, who prayed before the icon during his historic 1979 visit to his homeland, which at the time was under the reign of communism.

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Vatican City, Aug 19, 2016 / 06:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The annual meeting of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI's former students will discuss Europe's spiritual crisis during their gathering later this month, according to the group's organizer.

The Ratzinger Schuelerkreis has gathered to discuss topics in theology and the life of the Church since 1978, shortly after their mentor was pulled from academia to become a bishop.

The theme of spiritual crisis in Europe was approved by Benedict himself, Fr. Stephan Horn told CNA.

Fr. Horn, a Salvatorian, was Joseph Ratzinger's academic assistant at the University of Regensburg from 1971 to 1977, and is now organizer of the Schuelerkreis meeting. This year the group will meet at Castel Gandolfo Aug. 26-28.

He related that this year's meeting will feature two lecturers: Joseph H. H. Weiler, a Jewish lawyer and president of the European University Institute in Florence; and Bishop Emeritus Egon Kapellari of Graz-Seckau.

Both of the conferences on the meeting's theme will be delivered Aug. 26. Bishop Kapellari's lecture is to focus particularly on “Old and New Challenges for Christians in the European Fabric”.

The 40 or so members of the Schuelerkreis form a sort of “theological family,” Fr. Horn has said. In addition to the historial nucleus of the group, there was formed in 2008 a secondary group of younger theologians who have studied Benedict's thought in-depth.

The idea for the annual meeting arose in 1977, when Ratzinger was appointed Archbishop of Munich and Freising, and when he moved to Rome in 1981 to take up the post of prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, it continued.

Benedict's former students thought that the annual tradition would have stopped once Ratzinger was elected Pope, yet he wanted to maintain the tradition and continued to meet with his former students.

Since his 2013 resignation, Benedict has not attended the Schuelerkreis, except to say Mass for the group at its conclusion.

But “this year there will be no final Mass,” Fr. Horn said. “Instead, there will be a personal meeting of a group of us with the Pope emeritus in the evening of Aug. 26.”

Nevertheless, the Pope emeritus closely follows the works of his former students, and remains involved in the selection of themes for the Schuelerkreis. In recent years, they have focused on the quest for God as a challenge for contemporary society; the theology of the cross; the question of God amid secularism; and ecumenism.

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New York City, N.Y., Aug 19, 2016 / 09:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The suicide of a seventh grade Catholic school student prompted outpourings of grief and prayers, amid disputed claims from his family that the school did not do enough to stop bullying.

“We mourn the passing of Daniel Fitzpatrick. His family is in our prayers. Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio said, according to the Brooklyn diocese’s newspaper The Tablet.

“While there are many unanswered questions, it is indisputable that this is an unspeakable tragedy,” he said, adding “We must always remain vigilant and attentive to the emotional needs of the children in our care.”

Carolyn Erstad, a spokeswoman for the Diocese of Brooklyn, also spoke in grief.

“The principal, teachers, and staff of Holy Angels Catholic Academy are heartbroken over the loss of Danny Fitzpatrick,” she said, according to the New York Daily News. “We take the issue of bullying very seriously and address every incident that is brought to our attention.”

Erstad said the diocese is reexamining all bullying prevention policies and training. Teachers at the school have undergone comprehensive anti-bullying training and intervened in any conflict between the boy and other students, a diocesan spokesperson told the Tablet. The school disciplined anyone involved in bullying and the school invited police to discuss bullying before classes, including Daniel’s.

The 13-year-old killed himself in the attic of his family’s home on Aug. 11. Several weeks before, he wrote a letter saying “I gave up.” His letter charged that the teachers “didn’t do anything.” He said he was bullied “constantly” by five boys at school and his fight with one of them caused a fractured pinkie finger. Family members of the boy said he was the target of perpetual bullying at school.

“My son shouldn’t have to die to be heard,” his mother Maureen Fitzpatrick told the New York Daily News. “There’s something wrong with the adults in authority positions when kids can’t go to them for help…No parent is supposed to bury their child.”

Family members, including a sister who attended the same school alleged that a teacher at the school known for humiliating students called Daniel “lazy” and would display students’ scores to embarrass those who behaved poorly.

The Washington Post says it obtained a report filed in fall 2015 with New York City’s Administration of Children’s Services from an investigator who said Daniel was failing his classes and engaged in angry outbursts.

According to the report, Daniel said his mother's drunkenness “affects him in everything and makes him angry.” He denied physical abuse but indicated that his father and his sister would hide him from his mother.

“Danny denies suicidal thoughts, but feels angry, sad, has thoughts of wanting to run away,” the report said. “Mother is blaming his teachers for his failures and has written several accusatory letters to school. Student is afraid of both parents anger.”

Scott Rynecki, a lawyer representing the Fitzpatrick family, told the Washington Post that the documents are part of an effort to discredit families that are problems for the Catholic school.

He showed a letter from the New York State Office of Children and Family Services to Daniel’s mother saying that the report was considered “unfounded” as the local child protective service had found “no credible evidence” to believe that children were mistreated.

“The belief is that the Catholic school themselves put in some sort of claim and spoke to the child and somehow twisted his claims,” charged Rynecki, whose law firm is considering a wrongful death suit against the school for alleged failure to have a proper bullying prevention program.

Erstad told the Post that under state guidelines a school guidance counselor was allowed to meet with the boy up to three times before his parents needed to consent to more meetings. The parents declined to consent.

The school’s anti-bullying training is based on the Olweus program. CNA contacted the Brooklyn diocese for comment but did not receive a response by deadline.

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Roman Pilipey, EPA

By Junno Arocho Esteves

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Christians must never tire of seeking dialogue with others in order to promote mutual respect and forgiveness among people with different experiences and opinions, a Vatican official wrote on behalf of Pope Francis.

In a message sent Aug. 19 to the Meeting in Rimini, an annual event sponsored by the Communion and Liberation movement, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, reflected on the importance of dialogue as placing "one's self in the other's shoes" while maintaining "the clarity of one's own identity."

"We will discover that opening ourselves to others does not impoverish our outlook but rather enriches us so that we may recognize the truth in others, the importance of their experience and the background of what they say, even when there are behaviors and choices hidden behind them," he wrote.

The choice to focus the gathering on the importance of communion and dialogue with others was a courageous choice at a time when "so many aspects of reality that surround us seem to take us in the opposite direction," Cardinal Parolin wrote.

"Too many times we give in to the temptation of closing ourselves within the limited scope of our own interests, causing others to become something superfluous, or worse, a nuisance and an obstacle," he wrote.

Such an individualistic attitude, he added, is contrary to a Christian view of human nature, which recognizes and respects other people as brothers and sisters "of the same father who is in heaven."

While people may feel helpless in facing this challenge, Cardinal Parolin wrote that Christians should see it as an invitation to "rediscover the foundations of communion among men and women for a new beginning."

"Our task coincides with the mission by which were called by God: 'the proclamation of the Gospel that now more than ever translates above all in going out to tend to the wounds of men and women, bringing Jesus' powerful and simple presence, his consoling and encouraging mercy,'" he wrote, quoting Pope Francis.

"That which attracts, that which conquers and breaks chains is not the strength of tools, but the lasting mercy of the Father's merciful love, from which everyone can draw from the fountain of grace that God offers in the sacraments, especially in the Eucharist and penance, to then give to our brothers and sisters," Cardinal Parolin wrote.

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Follow Arocho on Twitter: @arochoju.

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