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Jesuit priest Father Charles Searson, who is Zambia and Malawi Promoter of the Apostleship of Prayer has urged collaborators in the two countries to animate others into joining Pope Francis' call for Sports as a vehicle that builds world peace.

In his message to collaborators, Fr. Searson says now that the Olympic Games have begun in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sports can play a significant role in the promotion of peace.

“Sports can bring out the very best in men and women, youth and children. Healthy competition leads to a sense of personal well-being and happiness.” He asks, “Where do we stand regarding regular exercise appropriate for each one's age and health?” He then adds that it is interesting how the worlds of faith and medicine agree on this point.

“For a long and happy life, we are advised: Never retire, do physical exercise appropriate for your age and eat a healthy diet. From a more social angle, Pope Francis invites us to pray that  Sports may be an opportunity for friendly encounter between different nations and may contribute to peace in the world,” Fr. Searson said.

The Promoter of the Apostleship of Prayer then referred his associates to a video released by Pope Francis ahead of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. The video celebrates sports for building world peace.

Here is what the Pope says:

"Sports make it possible to build a culture of encounter among everyone,  for a world of peace. I dream of Sports as the practice of human dignity, turned into a vehicle of fraternity,” the Pope says in the video.

The Pope adds, “Do we exercise together this prayer intention? That sports may be an opportunity for friendly encounters between people and may contribute to peace in the world.” See video: http://thepopevideo.org/en.html.

(Email: engafrica@vatiradio.va)

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“I think my country (Central African Republic), has seen it all. We have been through difficult and trying situations in the past but in the midst of it all, we had the great joy of welcoming the Holy Father, Pope Francis between the 29 and 30 of November last year. Since his visit, we have lived a life full of grace; a life of mercy showered upon us from heaven above,” Archbishop Dieudonné Nzapalainga, speaking in French, recently told Vatican Radio’s English Africa Service in an interview.

Asked to reflect on life in the Central African Republic (CAR) today, the Archbishop of Bangui credits recent successes to Pope Francis.

“Right now in my country, everyone will tell you the same thing. Be they Muslim, Protestant, Catholic, everyone! They will say the same thing: Pope Francis brought a new breath of fresh air to our country and individual lives. Before he came, we were divided into our little camps, chained to our hatreds; isolated and busy meting out the most barbaric punishment against those we considered our enemies. From the moment Pope Francis set foot on CAR, right up to today, I really can tell you that there is a different atmosphere in our land. Yes, we still have many challenges, but those of us who live there know that things are now different and better. Nothing compares to where we were before. Now we can talk to each other in spite of our differences. People are now able to look each other in the eye and even shake hands. I see forgiveness and reconciliation every day. Relationships across communities have improved and continue to improve, ” Archbishop Nzapalainga outlined.

And the future? Does he see a day when CAR will be united as one democratic country that can protect its citizens from armed gangs, militants and bandits?

“You ask me about the future? We, the people of CAR are the ones to build the future of our beautiful country. We are a country that is blessed with many natural resources and minerals as the Holy Father, Pope Francis, himself reminded us when he visited. Before Pope Francis came, who would have thought, after what we had been through that a peaceful presidential election could take place in CAR? But we did it. We have done it,” the Archbishop of Bangui emphasised.

Faustin-Archange Touadera, the new President of CAR, was peacefully elected in February, this year. Nevertheless, Touadera’s government faces enormous challenges. The new government is struggling to disarm, demobilise and reintegrate the many armed militants spread throughout CAR.

Archbishop Nzapalainga admits that it will take a time to normalise things in CAR. But he is confident and upbeat about the future.

“We still face so many challenges, but it can be done. After the peaceful presidential election, we all know now that everything is possible. It’s our responsibility to ensure that things work out the way we desire them to be. The coming of Pope Francis has allowed us to look towards the future with hope. That’s why for his first international trip, the newly elected president (Faustin-Archange Touadera) felt duty-bound to go to the Vatican to meet and personally thank Pope Francis for his visit to CAR,” Archbishop Nzapalainga said.

Archbishop Nzapalainga wants his countrymen and women also to take a broader view of the challenges of CAR.

“The Holy Father asked us to place the love for one another as a priority among ourselves. We cannot afford to fail in our peacebuilding effort. If God forbid, we do not manage to do this; we will not only be failing the people of CAR but the international community as well. Six neighbouring countries surround us. We have already seen that when CAR as a country collapses, the virus of destabilisation does not only affect us alone but spreads to the whole region. We should, therefore, be mindful of our larger responsibility as a people,” Archbishop Nzapalainga advised.

In July, at the Kigali African Union Summit, in Rwanda, President Faustin-Archange Touadéra and CAR were warmly re-admitted into the African Union after an absence of three years. 

(Fr. Paul Samasumo, Vatican Radio)

Email: engafrica@vatiradio.va

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Caritas Vietnam organised three days of seminars and lectures from 2 to 4 August in the Diocese of Phát Di?m in order to curb the high level of abortions and educate people to respect life.

The activities associated with the event involved young people from nine northern Vietnamese provinces in nine different projects. Caritas also took action to help flooded northern parishes deal with the effects of a super typhoon.

"The groups for the protection of life have held sessions and lectures to raise awareness among young people at risk,” said Fr John Ð? Van Khoa, head of Caritas Phát Di?m. “They organised catechism courses focused on marriage, counselling and assistance for girls and young women without a family."

Abortion is a rising problem in Vietnam, which ranks first in South-East Asia and fifth in the world for this practice. Each year more than 300,000 young people between 15 and 19 years have an abortion, often in clandestine manner.

The abortion rate among high school and university students can reach almost 70 per cent. In the capital Hanoi, the number is even greater and many girls and young women have several abortions, using it as a contraceptive method.

"In past years, we have had contacts with some government hospitals, and worked together with non-Catholic doctors who have supported us in our programmes,” said Teresa, one of the volunteers.

“We buried 12,000 fetuses, who were several weeks old, or even five or six months of life. Some children,” she noted, "were aborted even at eight months of life."

Mgr Joseph Nguy?n Nang, bishop of Phát Di?m, who attended the three-day Caritas event urged young people to remember God’s mercy and congratulated the volunteers.

Meanwhile, a super typhoon recently hit the Diocese of Phát Di?m destroying rice fields, fruit trees and homes. Mgr Joseph Nguyen Van Yen, vice president of the Caritas Episcopal Council, decided to donate funds to support the diocese.

Fr John Ð? Van Khoa and Caritas staff visited some of the worst affected parishes to help families, Catholic and non-Catholics, overcome the emergency.  (AsiaNews)

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Michael Collopy

By Junno Arocho Esteves

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The poor, the suffering and those who minister to them will be at the center of celebrations leading up to the canonization of Blessed Teresa of Kolkata at the Vatican.

The main event -- the canonization Mass -- will begin at 10:30 a.m. Sept. 4, the Vatican announced Aug. 5.

A "family feast" for the poor, a musical, Masses and prayer vigils will precede her canonization, according to programs published by the Vatican and by the Missionaries of Charity, the order she founded.

Known as the "saint of the gutters," Mother Teresa was revered for ministering to the sick and the dying in some of the world's poorest neighborhoods.

Born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in 1910 to an ethnic Albanian family in Skopje, in what is now part of Macedonia, Mother Teresa went to India as a Sister of Loreto in 1929. Receiving what she described as a "call within a call," she began her missionary work with the poor and laid the foundation for what would become the Missionaries of Charity.

Following her death in 1997, St. John Paul II waived the usual five-year waiting period and allowed the opening of the process to declare her sainthood. She was beatified in 2003.

The date of Mother Teresa's canonization will coincide with the conclusion of the Year of Mercy pilgrimage for workers and ministers engaged in works of mercy.

Here are the main events planned around the canonization of Mother Teresa:

-- Sept. 1, "feast for the poor and Missionaries of Charity family," including a musical based on Mother Teresa's life.

-- Masses Sept. 2 in various languages in Rome's Basilica of St. Anastasia al Palatino and veneration of her relics. In the evening, a prayer vigil with solemn eucharistic adoration will be held at Rome's Basilica of St. John Lateran with Cardinal Agostino Vallini, the papal vicar of Rome, presiding.

-- Catechesis Sept. 3 by Pope Francis for the jubilee celebration of workers and volunteers for mercy. In the evening, a prayer and musical meditation will be held at Rome's Basilica of St. Andrea della Valle followed by veneration of Mother Teresa's relics and Mass.

-- Canonization Mass Sept. 4. Pilgrims will be able to venerate St. Teresa's relics in the evening at the Basilica of St. John Lateran.

-- Celebration Sept. 5 of a Mass of thanksgiving and the first feast of St. Teresa of Kolkata in St. Peter's Basilica with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, presiding. Pilgrims will be able to venerate the relics of St. Teresa at St. John Lateran in the evening.

-- Sept. 6, continuing veneration of the relics of St. Teresa at St. John Lateran.

-- Sept. 7-8, veneration of the relics of St. Teresa of Kolkata at Rome's Church of St. Gregory the Great, along with the possibility of visiting her room at the convent of St. Gregory.

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Kai Pfaffenbach, Reuters

By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In a personal message addressed to each of the 10 members of the new Refugee Olympic Team, Pope Francis wished them success in their events and thanked them for the witness they are giving the world.

Naming each of the team's athletes from South Sudan, Syria, Congo and Ethiopia, Pope Francis said he had read some of the interviews with team members "so that I could get closer to your lives and your aspirations."

"I extend my greetings and wish you success at the Olympic Games in Rio -- that your courage and strength find expression through the Olympic Games and serve as a cry for peace and solidarity," he said in the message, signed in late July.

The 2016 Summer Games marked the first time a refugee team officially participated in the Olympics. Team members marched under the Olympic flag and, in the event a team member wins a medal, the Olympic anthem was to be played instead of the national anthem of the athlete's home country.

Pope Francis expressed his hope that through the team "humanity would understand that peace is possible, that with peace everything can gained, but with war all can be lost."

"Your experience serves as testimony and benefits us all," the pope told team members.

Yusra Mardini, 18, was the first member of the team to compete in Rio. The swimmer is ranked 41st among women swimmers competing in the 100-meter butterfly; Mardini finished first in her initial heat Aug. 6.

Like tens of thousands of Syrians, Mardini fled her war-torn country through Lebanon and Turkey. She found a space on a rubber dingy to make her way to Lesbos, Greece, but the motor stalled. She, her sister and another woman -- the only people on the boat who could swim -- pushed the boat to shore.

From Greece, Mardini traveled on to Germany, where she was given official refugee status in March and continued her training as a competitive swimmer.

Five of the athletes -- including Rose Nathike Lokonyen, 23, the team's flag bearer for the opening ceremony -- are South Sudanese refugees who were living in the huge Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya.

The national Olympic committees of the refugees' host countries, the U.N. Refugee Agency and the International Olympic Committee chose the team members. The IOC provided the athletes uniforms and is covering their costs and those of the team's coaches and staff.

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