Catholic News 2

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(Vatican Radio) The Jesuit Refugee Service together with other humanitarian agencies and the UN are pleading with the Kenya government to reverse its decision to clamp down on refugees citing security concerns.

The government has already disbanded the Department of Refugee Affairs. It says it is the first step in closing the enormous Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps in Garissa and Turkana counties.

There are currently some 600,000 refugees in Kenya, most of them living in camps. Humanitarian organizations point out the closure of the camps would lead to dire consequences for hundreds of thousands of people.

Angela Wells, the Jesuit Refugee Service Eastern Africa communications officer, told Linda Bordoni that JRS has released a joint statement with other NGOs providing assistance to refugees in Kenya asking the Government to reconsider its plans:

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Angela Wells says that JRS has not yet seen an implementation plan for the closure of Dadaab camp or how it could  potentially be carried out,  but the organization is concerned the consequences could be dire for the 600,000 refugees that are currently seeking refuge in Kenya.

She explains that practically speaking, the fact that the Department for Refugee Affairs has already been disbanded means that all those refugees currently arriving in the nation are not being registered so “at the moment we know that there are nearly 500 refugees waiting at the border of South Sudan and Kenya who have not been able to be registered and thus not been able to transfer into Kenya”.

What’s more, Wells says, in the North, in Kakuma camp, there are presently 2.200 refugees waiting in the reception area which is not built to host large numbers of people so JRS is concerned about  health and hygiene conditions there fearing that diseases like cholera could spread.

In addition, she says, “movement passes” are not being given to refugees who are meant to live in camps (and most of them do) so in the event of a medical emergency, the sick or wounded person is  not allowed to be evacuated into Nairobi for treatment “and we know that one refugee in Dadaab camp has already died”.

“These are just a few of the immediate consequences, not to mention the long-term consequences if the decision is actually taken up” she says.

Wells explains that Kenya has a 20-year history of welcome for refugees fleeing conflict all over Africa. She says that at – only in Kakuma – there are at least 500 new arrivals every week.

The refugees come from South Sudan, Burundi, Congo, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Uganda and of course Somalia and even as far north as North Sudan. 

Many, she says – some 56% of the camp population – are women and children “who would have severe protection concerns if they were to leave the camp”.

Wells says JRS agrees that security needs to be prioritized in Kenya and that terrorism needs to be halted “however we see refugees as a consequence of insecurity”. 

“Many have fled terror groups themselves (…) and we also think refugees could be good allies in trying to alleviate security tensions” she says.

“We are very skeptical of equating the term refugee with the term terrorist”.

Wells goes on to talk about the work the Jesuit Refugee Service does in Kenya. That includes providing educational programmes, protection areas for women and girls, safe houses for boys who have undergone abuse, day care centers for children,  special needs programmes and mental health programmes.

“We would like to appeal that the government would reverse their decision to both disband the Department of Refugee Affairs as well as to close the camps. We can’t see how the government could humanely deal with 600,000 people” she says.

She reiterates that forced returns cannot and must not be seen as an option for those fleeing conflict or persecution: “that would be a violation of national and international law”.

Wells voices her hope that Kenya will not follow some of the practices recently seen in Europe and says it is important also to take in account that the bordering countries of Kenya – Ethiopia, Uganda – are already hosting hundreds of thousands.

“We would also like to appeal to the international community to continue to support these efforts, whether it is financially or with more services or with more resettlement.

The UN, she says, has said it intends to settle 10% of the world’s refugees but at the moment that number is 1%, “so looking at this from a global perspective this is very critical”.

To find out more about JRS Eastern Africa and the joint appeal click here.
 

 

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(Vatican Radio) The Institute for Religious Works (IOR), commonly known as the Vatican Bank, released its Annual Report with a press release on Thursday showing it made a net profit of 16.1 million Euros in 2015.  Speaking in an interview with Vatican media, the IOR’s Director General Gian Franco Mammì, said it’s now "impossible to launder money" there and pledged to continue the institute’s drive for reform, renewal and total transparency.  As part as that reorganization drive, the Annual Report said a total of 4935 accounts held at the IOR were closed down last year and all “suspicious” accounts have been reported to the competent authorities. Mammì said the 2015 profits have been given to the Cardinals' Commission that supervises the IOR's activities and the Commission will "make sure" they are available for Pope Francis and his pastoral mission.  

In a roundtable interview with Vatican Radio and the Osservatore Romano newspaper, the IOR’s President Jean Baptiste Douville de Franssu and Mammì, both spoke of how strong controls and governance and a major reorganization have been put in place, aimed at making “the IOR as rigorous and clean an institution” as possible.  

Whilst acknowledging past abuses by its clients, Douville de Franssu stressed that as a result of the new very strict rules governing who can open an account, it’s (now) “impossible to launder money at the IOR.” Given that “money is tempting,” Douville de Franssu said any financial institution that does not have strong governance and controls is by its very nature exposed to potential abuse. But he said the IOR has put in place a framework to ensure that some of the abuses that may have happened in the past “will never reoccur.”

During a visit to the IOR in November 2015, Pope Francis insisted on the need for the institute to adhere to ethical principles that are "non-negotiable" for the Church, the Holy See and the Pope. 

Listen to the report by Susy Hodges:  

 

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(Vatican Radio) The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said on Thursday the foundations of the common home humanity shares “should be built upon the interconnectedness of our relationship with God, our neighbour, the environment and ourselves.”

Cardinal Parolin was presenting the Latvian translation of Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato Si’ during a visit to the Latvian capital, Riga.

He said being “guardians” of “integral ecology” is a challenge “that arises from the presupposition that human beings, on the one hand, without a clear ethical orientation, run the risk of adopting lifestyle patterns leading to extremely self-destructive outcomes, and, on the other hand, have the possibility of opting for goodness and truth, and of opening themselves to beauty and the capacity to react.”

 

The full text of Cardinal Parolin’s remarks are below

 

Presentation of the Latvian translation

of the Encyclical Laudato Si’

 

Riga, Latvia, 12 May 2016

 

Your Excellencies,

Distinguished Authorities,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

It gives me great pleasure to be here for the presentation of the Latvian translation of Pope Francis’ Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’. As you know, official versions already exist in other languages, including Latin, Arabic, Chinese, French, English, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and German.

The Encyclical, which is concerned with “care for our common home”, bears the date 24 May 2015, the Solemnity of Pentecost, the day on which the Church was made manifest to the world through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (cf. Second Vatican Council, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium, 6). Since that day, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us, “the Kingdom announced by Christ has been open to those who believe in him. … By his coming, which never ceases, the Holy Spirit causes the world to enter into the ‘last days’, the time of the Church, the Kingdom already inherited though not yet consummated” (No. 732).

In this regard, it is worth recalling the passage in the Acts of the Apostles which recounts that “when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together  in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:1-4).

“It filled all the house where they were sitting”: this echoes a term which we find in the title of Pope Francis’ Encyclical, namely “home”, which, in the case of the Encyclical, is broadened into the notion of our “common home”.

In today’s brief intervention, I would like to touch on three aspects, which in a way derive from the account of the Acts of the Apostles I have just quoted: namely, the common home, the growth of our awareness of having to assume our individual responsibility and the need to extend our responsibility to the collective dimension on the basis of the principle of subsidiarity.

Let us begin with the first point: the common home.

There is a growing conviction “that our planet is a homeland and that humanity is one people living in a common home” (LS, 164). Similarly, the grave damage which our common home is undergoing is also unfortunately ever more evident. This damage is to be seen not only in the natural environment but also in the social and cultural ones. Furthermore, “the deterioration of nature is in fact closely connected to the culture that shapes human coexistence” (Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, 51). In this perspective, Pope Francis often emphasizes that everything in the world is intimately connected: “Once the human being declares independence from reality and behaves with absolute dominion, the very foundations of our life begin to crumble” (LG, 117). This is also because human existence itself is based on four relations which are profoundly interconnected, namely the relations that each one of us has with God, with our neighbour, with himself or herself, and with nature. Failure to recognize these four basic connections is one of the principal impediments to bringing about a radical change in current destructive cultural and anthropological attitudes.

Laudato Si’, especially in its first chapter, presents many preoccupying details on “what is happening to our common home”, and thus poses the urgent challenge to safeguard our common home, through effective cooperation on the part of the whole human family aimed at promoting sustainable and integral development, since, as Pope Francis says, “we know that things can change” (LS, 13). Hence, faced with this concrete concern, there is a strong sign of hope: “The Creator does not abandon us; he never forsakes his loving plan or repents of having created us. Humanity still has the ability to work together in building our common home” (LG, 13). The foundations of this common home should be built upon the interconnectedness of our relationship with God, our neighbour, the environment and ourselves. This calls for the restoration of “the various levels of ecological equilibrium, establishing harmony within ourselves, with others, with nature and other living creatures, and with God” (LS, 210).

Let us now turn to the second aspect which I would like to consider: our growing awareness of the need to assume our individual responsibility, based on the four levels of equilibrium which I mentioned. Each of us is called to overcome our indifference in the face of continuous signs of malaise seen in the natural environment and the cultural one in which we are immersed: ecological and social degradation, a sense of precariousness and insecurity, the silent breakdown of the bonds of integration and social communion, the prevalence of a throwaway culture “which affects the excluded just as it quickly reduces things to rubbish” (LS, 22), the loss of the meaning of live and of coexistence. “Let us refuse to resign ourselves to this, and continue to wonder about the purpose and meaning of everything” (LS, 113).

The theme of environmental degradation raises questions about our personal lifestyle. Laudato Si’ shows clearly that the ecological crisis derives from or makes evident the ethical, cultural and spiritual crisis currently affecting humanity; this ecological crisis “is also a summons to profound interior conversion” (LS, 217). This also requires us to recognize the errors, sins, vices and negligence in our daily lifestyle, leading to “heartfelt repentance and desire to change” (LS, 218) in order to become “guardians” of that equilibrium at the various levels I mentioned and which can be synthesized in the notion of “integral ecology”, which is so clearly set out in the Holy Father’s Encyclical.

To be “guardians” of that equilibrium is clearly “a great cultural, spiritual and educational challenge” (LS, 202) but it is not something optional. It is a challenge that arises from the presupposition that human beings, on the one hand, without a clear ethical orientation, run the risk of adopting lifestyle patterns leading to extremely self-destructive outcomes, and, on the other hand, have the possibility of opting for goodness and truth, and of opening themselves to beauty and the capacity to react. Pope Francis launches a strong appeal when he says in Laudato Si’: “I appeal to everyone throughout the world not to forget this dignity which is ours” (LS, 205).

This reflection brings us to the third point of my intervention: personal commitment is essential but not sufficient. It is necessary to extend our responsibility to the collective arena, on the basis of the principle of subsidiarity which starts out from the single individual to reach the international community, passing through the various areas of social aggregation at the community, local and national level. In this regard, special mention should be made of the family where “we first learn how to show love and respect for life ... In the family we receive an integral education, which enables us to grow harmoniously in personal maturity. In the family we learn to ask without demanding, to say ‘thank you’ as an expression of genuine gratitude for what we have been given, to control our aggressivity and greed, and to ask forgiveness when we have caused harm. These simple gestures of heartfelt courtesy help to create a culture of shared life and respect for our surroundings” (LS, 213).

It is necessary to adopt a global perspective, in space and time, which obliges us to think in terms of a common project, because “the natural environment is a collective good, the patrimony of all humanity and the responsibility of everyone” (LS, 95). This observation takes on greater significance in the light of the notion of “integral ecology”, where the term “ecology”, which derives from the Greek words oikos and logos and from an etymological point of view means “study of the home”, is understood in terms of a dynamic which integrates the various dimensions of the common home: environmental, social, ethical, economic and so on.

Furthermore, this understanding has been adopted, to a certain extent, in many international political debates. I am thinking, for example, of the processes inherent to the 2030 Development Agenda, which produced the Objectives of Sustainable Development in September 2015, and of climate change, with the adoption of the demanding Paris Agreement of last December. In both cases, there was full awareness that, in order to combat damage to the environment effectively, it is indispensable to see the struggle against poverty and ethical and social degradation as a primary objective.

In these international processes, we can see how the emphasis placed on the close connection of humanity and environment, based on the growing awareness of our responsibility towards our common home, to which Laudato Si’ frequently makes reference, finds practical expression.

This awareness of our responsibility should stimulate each of us to distance himself or herself from the throwaway culture and promote seriously a “‘culture of care’ which permeates all of society” (LS, 231).

Thank you!

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Sister Maria de Guadalupe belongs to the Religious Family of the Incarnate Word, which was founded by Father Carlos Miguel Buela in Argentina in 1988.  Sr. Guadalupe, who is from Argentina, has been a missionary in several countries of the Middle East for over 18 years.  Four of these years she has been in Syria.  A few months after her arrival in Syria in 2011, the war began, something, Sr. Guadalupe said no one expected.  

Sr. Guadalupe was recently invited to share her testimony at a special event at the United Nations headquarters in New York on April 28, organized by Archbishop Bernadito Auza, Apostolic Nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations.  The event, co-sponsored by +Libres, CitizenGo and In Defence of Christians, had as its theme, “Defending religious freedom and other human rights: stopping mass atrocities against Christians and other believers.”  Speaking in Spanish, with simultaneous translation in English, Sr. Guadalupe, with the help of a slideshow with graphic images commended the faith and resilience of the persecuted Christian community of Syria under the ISIS terrorist group.  In our edition of THE BACKGROUNDER today, we bring you excerpts from the testimony of Sr. Maria de Guadalupe at the UN event.

Listen:  

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(Vatican Radio) In a joint effort to promote understanding of Islamic teachings and the spread of moderate views, some 500 moderate Muslim leaders from 70 countries held a conference in Jakarta, sponsored by Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia’s largest moderate Islamic organisation,

The event followed the summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) held in Istanbul a few weeks ago. According to the organisers, Indonesia – the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country – must take a leading role in solving conflicts caused by poor interpretations of the Qur‘an, a fact that underlies violence in the Middle East, and attacks in Paris, Brussels, Ankara and Lahore.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo was supposed to open the summit, but Vice President Jusuf Kalla took his place. For the VP, all moderate Islamic nations must promote peace in Islamic societies, as well as respect for non-Muslim communities.

Noting Kalla’s concerns, NU President Kiai Hajj Said Agil Siroj said that Muslim leaders found themselves at odds with each other on a number of issues at the OIC summit. Nevertheless, the NU has been working for years to promote a moderate version of Islam at the national and international levels, especially in the educational and social fields, including health-care.

In 2001, it set up a similarly moderate organisation in Afghanistan, which now has branches in 22 provinces. “Moderate Afghan leaders are concerned about and reject religious radicalism,” said ISOMIL coordinator Juri Ardiantoro. On 17 January, 2016, the Sunni organisation held an interfaith rally with Catholic participation in the Indonesian capital to say no to extremism.

Almost four million students attend NU’s 23,000 boarding schools and educational centres. Its governing principle is that of Nusantara (referring to a group of islands, an archipelago) Islam, which signifies promoting an Islam of the Majority of Indonesians who hold moderate ideas of  religious tolerance. At its 33rd congress last year, NU made this a priority.

In response to President Joko Widodo’s call on NU leaders to fight Islamist propaganda at home, NU leader Agil Siroj said that his organisation is doing this through a nationwide programme called ‘Nusantara Islam Expedition’ and a joint effort with the government’s anti-terrorism agency.

This entails plans to re-radicalise at least 700 Indonesian veterans from the Syrian civil war where they fought on the side of the Islamic State group.

(Source: AsiaNews)

 

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By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The military mantra of "suck it up" and an intense love for the Catholic faith drove Cheryl Tobin to reach new heights -- the cupola of St. Peter's Basilica and a personal blessing from Pope Francis.

Despite having stage 4 cancer, undergoing chemotherapy and missing a section from both thigh muscles, Tobin traveled to Rome, climbed corkscrew staircases and did "the big wave" balanced on top of a plastic chair in order to catch the pope's attention.

"We were in the back of the crowd" at the pope's weekly general audience May 11 in St. Peter's Square, her husband, Jim Tobin, told Catholic News Service.

"I told her, 'You need to stand up on the chair and suck it up.' People were looking at me, like, 'What a thing to say.' And then I told her, 'Don't just wave. You've got to do the big wave.' That's when (the guards) pointed to her" to indicate she could come out from behind the barricades and meet the pope.

"Everyone around us cheered. They only let her go up" to the pope, Jim said.

Cheryl said the pope held her hands and then blessed her head -- bald from chemotherapy and misshapen from repeated skin grafts and operations to remove a tumor at the base of her skull.

She said she didn't want to wear her wig because she wanted the pope to see her like she was, but she did add some sparkle with a gold elastic hairband.

The pope then warmly embraced her as Cheryl cried on his shoulder. "I started crying when I saw him. I was overwhelmed with emotion," she said.

"Suck it up" is also what got Cheryl up the 200 marble steps to reach the top of St. Peter's dome, she said.

Like her husband, "I was in the army -- a master sergeant," airborne division, and "you just suck it up, and pull yourself up by your bootstraps" when facing any kind of hardship or challenge, she said.

An elevator took Cheryl and Jim most of the way up, but getting a bird's-eye view of St. Peter's Square required taking the stairs the rest of the way.

Extreme fatigue from treatments meant Cheryl used a wheelchair during most of the trip, but she steadied herself with her hands along the narrow spiral stairway, hoisting her way up, noticing many visitors around her complaining about the climb and getting discouraged.

"Then they saw her and got quiet," Jim said.

Soon, Cheryl said, "we were like a group, pushing each other on" and cheering, "We're almost there."

"My legs were like rubber," she said, explaining that sections of her quadriceps had been removed to add muscle tissue to her face.

Cheryl's pilgrimage began in 2015 when her name was picked from a random drawing of listeners of Lino Rulli's "Catholic Guy" show on Sirius XM's Catholic Channel. Only a few spots are available each year to join Rulli and other listeners on a pilgrimage to Rome and other cities in Italy.

But surgery and aggressive cancer treatments forced her to cancel that trip with an agreement to have a guaranteed spot on this year's trip, she said. Radiation therapy again interfered with those plans, but Rulli organized a personalized itinerary that Cheryl could take on her own with her husband when she was between chemotherapy sessions this spring.

With her daughter's urging, Cheryl had started a GoFundMe page to pay for the costs of the trip -- reaching the bulk of her goal in 15 months. She also curates the "Cheryl Tobin's Fight Against Cancer" page on Facebook as a multimedia journal chronicling her medical and faith journey.

"I'm not ashamed to show people what I'm going through," she said, adding that people tell her that her posts are inspiring.

Cheryl said the Catholic Channel's satellite radio programs were instrumental to her joining the Catholic Church, because she had "always believed in God," but her parents didn't take her to church when she was growing up.

"I was always looking for something but never found it," she said.

Living near Nashville in Clarksville, Tennessee, Cheryl said there were many Protestant and Evangelical Christian communities in that part of the "Bible belt," but "every church believed in something different. If you don't agree, you start your own church. So it never felt right."

She said she started reading about the Catholic Church and "liked the structure," the "set laws" in church teaching, and the fact that the order of Mass is the same wherever you go so you always feel at home. "Mass is heaven on earth," she said.

Rulli's show had a particular impact on her, she said.

"I never felt good enough, not worthy enough, not perfect enough" to be welcomed by God, she said, "and that held me back."

But Rulli and his guests "were normal" with their humorous banter about life and frank talk about their struggles. Their being upfront about being imperfect helped Cheryl feel there was a place for her, too, in the Catholic Church, she said.

After she became a Catholic in 2010, it "seemed to be a load off her chest," Jim said. It also marked the start of her dream to go to Rome someday.

When she was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in 2013 at the age of 45, she tapped into her faith to pull her through and the Christian faith of her friends and co-workers in receiving prayers and blessings.

With her poor prognosis -- from three to nine months to live -- all of her doctors said, "'Do what you enjoy.' So we decided to come here" and "pray for a miracle," Jim said.

Reliving her papal embrace from that morning, Cheryl said, "I'm relieved. I feel like no matter what happens. I'll be OK. It's like not having any fear. It's closure in a way."

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By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis told the heads of women's religious orders from around the world that he would set up a commission to study the New Testament deaconesses and he also insisted more can and should be done to involve lay and consecrated women in church decision-making at every level.

Asked if he would establish "an official commission to study the question" of whether women could be admitted to the diaconate, Pope Francis responded: "I accept. It would be useful for the church to clarify this question. I agree."

The pope spent more than an hour May 12 responding to questions posed by members of the International Union of Superiors General, repeatedly asking if they wanted further clarification and making funny asides or rephrasing his responses when it was clear they were not hitting the mark.

"I like hearing your questions because they make me think," the pope told close to 900 superiors general, representing almost 500,000 sisters around the world. "I feel like a goalie, who is standing there waiting for the ball and not knowing where it's going to come from."

Asked about deaconesses in the New Testament and the possibility of the modern church admitting women to the permanent diaconate, Pope Francis had said his understanding was that the women described as deaconesses in the Bible were not ordained like permanent deacons are. Mainly, he said, it appeared that they assisted with the baptism by immersion of other women and with the anointing of women.

However, he said, "I will ask the (Congregation for the) Doctrine of the Faith to tell me if there are studies on this."

Pope Francis also promised to have the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments send the UISG a full explanation of why women cannot give a homily at Mass. While women can preach at a Liturgy of the Word when there is not a celebration of the Eucharist, he said, at Mass the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist are parts of a whole and only one who is ordained can preside and preach.

The main part of the question was about the lack of influence women religious are given in church decision-making processes. Pope Francis said the obligation to listen to women in the parish, diocese and at the Vatican "is not a matter of feminism, but of right."

All the baptized -- women and men, lay or consecrated -- have been given gifts by the Holy Spirit for the good of the entire church, he insisted. The entire church suffers when some voices are excluded from the conversation, he said.

"Our desire is that the church talk with us -- like is happening now -- and not about us," one of the sisters told him.

"To talk about someone when they are absent is not evangelical," the pope said. In the meetings of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, "you must be present and I will tell the prefect this," he said.

"I never imagined there was such a disconnect, truly. Thank you for telling me so courageously and for doing so with that smile," he said.

However, Pope Francis warned the sisters about the danger of clericalism, which he described as "a sinful attitude," but one which is "like the tango, it takes two." There are priests who see themselves as lords of the church, he said, but there also are women and laymen "who ask to be clericalized."

On the other hand, the pope expressed concern about the number of consecrated women working as housekeepers for priests. Their work is that of "a servant, not of service," he said, and that "undervalues their dignity."

The sisters applauded when the pope suggested such priests pay local women in need of a job and let the sisters teach, care for the poor, heal the sick. "And when you superiors are asked (to assign a sister) for something that is more servanthood than service, be courageous and say 'no.'"

While warning that "the devil enters through one's pocket," Pope Francis also urged the superiors to choose their treasurers well, be suspicious of "friends" who promise to invest and increase their money and to ensure that their evangelical poverty is a life of simplicity, not misery.

But many of the women burst out laughing when the pope told them that if their congregations are in serious financial need, they should turn to their local bishop. When they laughed, he jokingly suggested that they were saying their only hope is prayer, "give us this day our daily bread."

Turning serious, Pope Francis insisted the vow of poverty is a matter of detachment from material goods and commitment to God and to the poor, "but it's not suicide."

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NEW YORK (AP) -- ABC bosses weren't sure anyone would watch....

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PARIS (AP) -- French prosecutors said Thursday that $2 million tied to Tokyo's winning bid for the 2020 Olympics was apparently paid to an account linked to the son of the disgraced former IAAF president in the months immediately before and after the Japanese capital won the games....

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The global luxury housing market lost some of its sheen last year as financial markets became unsettled and many wealthy buyers began to look for less expensive homes....

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