Catholic News 2
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Americans don't know a lot about the Zika virus that is linked to birth defects and creeping steadily closer to the U.S., according to a new poll that found about 4 in 10 say they've heard little to nothing about the mosquito-borne threat....
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) -- An inmate apparently killed his ex-wife and buried her beneath his cell in Bolivia's largest prison - with nobody taking notice for nearly a year, officials said Thursday....
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- A first-year University of Texas dance student whose body was found near the heart of campus was the victim of a "horrifying and incomprehensible" killing that was the first on school grounds since the bell tower mass shooting nearly 50 years ago, university officials said Thursday....
CATO, Philippines (AP) -- As Asian countries jostle for territory in the South China Sea, one Filipino fisherman is taking a stand....
Erbil, Iraq, Apr 7, 2016 / 03:30 pm (Aid to the Church in Need).- Six hundred Christian children whose families fled ISIS violence in 2014 have lost their homes, schools, sometimes friends, sanitary living conditions and the stability of a normal life.However, despite their many losses, there's one thing they never left behind and which continues to grow stronger everyday: their faith.When it comes to the question of how to persevere in the faith – and pass it on with terrorists just a few miles away – one woman named Carin has developed a unique form of catechesis that she is teaching to displaced Christian children in Iraq.“I think that children have the capacity to worship Jesus, to contemplate,” Carin told CNA in an April 7 interview in Erbil.Her classes aren’t intended to just teach the kids how to pray, but rather to provide them the opportunity “to meet with Jesus, to give and receive his love” on a personal level, she said.A Fren...
Erbil, Iraq, Apr 7, 2016 / 03:30 pm (Aid to the Church in Need).- Six hundred Christian children whose families fled ISIS violence in 2014 have lost their homes, schools, sometimes friends, sanitary living conditions and the stability of a normal life.
However, despite their many losses, there's one thing they never left behind and which continues to grow stronger everyday: their faith.
When it comes to the question of how to persevere in the faith – and pass it on with terrorists just a few miles away – one woman named Carin has developed a unique form of catechesis that she is teaching to displaced Christian children in Iraq.
“I think that children have the capacity to worship Jesus, to contemplate,” Carin told CNA in an April 7 interview in Erbil.
Her classes aren’t intended to just teach the kids how to pray, but rather to provide them the opportunity “to meet with Jesus, to give and receive his love” on a personal level, she said.
A French native, Carin is a volunteer at a prefabricated school run by the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena in the Iraqi city of Erbil, which provides education to 600 displaced Christian children and is sustained by funding from charitable organizations such as Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) and Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA).
Most of the children attending the school are from either Mosul or Qaraqosh, the former Christian capitol of Iraqi Kurdistan, and are among the 120,000 families who fled Qaraqosh when ISIS attacked in August 2014.
The majority of those who fled, the sisters included, came to Erbil and are now living in what they refer to as “containers” inside refugee camps the city’s Christian suburb, Ankawa.
Due to the difference in the educational system between most schools in Iraqi Kurdistan, where the materials are largely taught in Kurdish language, and the schools in Mosul and the Nineveh plain villages, where Arabic is the primary language, the majority of displaced students were unable to attend school last year.
However, with the building of the new school, which teaches classes in Arabic, the children are able to continue their education and, with the help of Carin, can continue learning and growing in their faith thanks to the lessons in catechesis they receive at the school.
Complete with readings from the Gospel, Eucharistic Adoration, prayers to the Holy Spirit and concrete advice for living the Gospel inside the camps where they live, the catechesis they receive is taught to all grades once a week inside the school’s makeshift chapel.
Each lesson is 40 minutes long and begins outside, so that the children can “prepare their heart,” Carin said, explaining that “it’s better (for the children) to prepare their heart outside” before entering the chapel.
After coming inside, the children have time for a brief “prayer of the heart” before asking Jesus and the Holy Spirit to be present during their prayer.
The Blessed Sacrament is then taken out of the small tabernacle in the chapel and set on top of then sit in silence in front of the for about 10-15 minutes, so they can “experience silence (and) meet Jesus in the silence,” Carin said.
Afterward, a passage from the Gospel is read, since that is where Jesus speaks to us “directly,” she said, explaining that when the reading is done, they discuss “how we can live the Gospel in daily life, because to be Christian is not only in the chapel, we have to continue in the camp.”
The class ends with prayers of intercession asking “for the world as we want (it to be),” and with a prayer to Mary.
Homework consists only of practicing at home what they learn in class, Carin said, explaining that when the children go back to the camps “they have to continue to put the Gospel into practice. This, and only this.”
Carin, who has eight years of experience as a missionary, developed the curriculum for the catechism class herself. It follows the liturgical calendar, and includes special activities during Christmas and Easter.
After visiting the school on her own for a two week visit in September, Carin proposed her plan of catechesis to the Dominican sisters running it.
The sisters approved, and invited Carin to return for a longer, six month period. After receiving help from the international missionary-training organization FIDESCO, Carin arrived to Erbil in January, and will move on in June when the school year is over.
She currently lives in a camp inside one of the “containers” provided for her by the Dominican sisters, and has no income. “It’s providence that takes care of me,” she said.
Carin said that while she had worked for humanitarian organization for seven years, the motivation for her missionary work comes from a personal conversion she had at the age of 25.
“I was living for 25 years without God. I started my life without God,” she said.
After she converted to Christianity she felt strongly that she wanted to give her heart to her Father in heaven, “and for this I am a missionary. I gave up my life because (now I) give my life for God.”
In addition to helping the Dominican Sisters at the school, Carin also assists another order of religious sisters, the Little Sisters of Jesus, with their ministry inside a camp they run.
Every day the Blessed Sacrament is brought to camp so that everyone, adults and children, will have the opportunity to pray.
The idea is not only to provide direct access to Jesus in the Sacrament, but also “to give hope, because the people here are very tired.”
“It’s been a long time now and now they need hope,” Cardin said, adding that “when we cannot do anything on a human level, it’s better to put Jesus, and then after Jesus, work. It’s like this.”
IMAGE: CNS/ photo/courtesy NASABy Dennis SadowskiWASHINGTON(CNS) -- On the International Space Station there's a place, while filled withrobotic equipment, where astronauts like to hang out. Called the Cupola, the small module hasseven large bay windows that give crew members a panoramic view of Earth.On hisfirst -- and thus far only -- mission into space in September 2013, astronautMike Hopkins, was eager to find the Cupola. What he saw he found amazing."Whenyou see the Earth from that vantage point and see all the natural beauty thatexists, it's hard not to sit there and realize there has to be a higher powerthat has made this," said Hopkins, who is Catholic.It wasin the Cupola that Hopkins found himself praying and at times taking Communion.Under aspecial arrangement with the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston and with the helpof Father James H. Kuczynski,pastor of Mary Queen Catholic Church in Friendswood, Texas, Hopkins'parish, the rookie astronaut carried a pyx with six consecr...
IMAGE: CNS/ photo/courtesy NASA
By Dennis Sadowski
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- On the International Space Station there's a place, while filled with robotic equipment, where astronauts like to hang out. Called the Cupola, the small module has seven large bay windows that give crew members a panoramic view of Earth.
On his first -- and thus far only -- mission into space in September 2013, astronaut Mike Hopkins, was eager to find the Cupola. What he saw he found amazing.
"When you see the Earth from that vantage point and see all the natural beauty that exists, it's hard not to sit there and realize there has to be a higher power that has made this," said Hopkins, who is Catholic.
It was in the Cupola that Hopkins found himself praying and at times taking Communion.
Under a special arrangement with the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston and with the help of Father James H. Kuczynski, pastor of Mary Queen Catholic Church in Friendswood, Texas, Hopkins' parish, the rookie astronaut carried a pyx with six consecrated hosts broken into four pieces. It was enough so that he could take Communion once a week for the 24 weeks he was aboard the ISS.
"It was extremely, extremely important to me," said Hopkins, now 47, who grew up on a farm outside of Richland, Missouri, in a United Methodist family but completed Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults classes and became Catholic just before going into space.
He said he wanted to become Catholic not just because his wife and two teenage sons were Catholic but because "I felt something was missing in my life."
Hopkins completed two spacewalks to change out a pump module with fellow spacefarer Rick Mastracchio. Before exiting the ISS, he took Communion as well.
"Those events can be stressful events," he told Catholic News Service from his office in Houston. "Knowing Jesus was with me when I stepped out the door into the vacuum of space was important to me."
Such practices of faith, especially among Catholics in the astronaut corps, is hardly unusual. In 1994, astronauts Sid Gutierrez, Thomas Jones and Kevin Chilton, an extraordinary minister of holy Communion, celebrated a Communion service on the shuttle flight deck 125 miles above the Pacific Ocean.
And long before the trio carried out their service, Frank Borman, aboard Apollo 8 orbiting the moon on Christmas Eve in 1968, read from the Book of Genesis in perhaps one of the most memorable broadcasts in U.S. space history. Seven months later, Buzz Aldrin, an elder in his Presbyterian church in Houston, celebrated a communion service for himself after landing on the moon using a kit provided by his church.
Devout Muslim astronauts follow National Fatwa Council guidelines developed in 2007 that define permissible modifications to traditional rituals such as kneeling during prayer, facing Mecca when praying, and washing. Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, who died during re-entry aboard the shuttle Columbia in 2003 when it broke up over Texas and Louisiana16 minutes prior to landing, carried a microfiche Bible given to him by Israel's president and had copied the traditional Jewish blessing Shabbat Kiddush into his diary so he could recite it, according to media reports.
On long-term missions to the ISS, schedules give astronauts blocks of private time daily, allowing them to pray, read the Bible or other inspirational works, write in a journal or reflect on God. Hopkins used some of his time to keep up with the Sunday readings and his pastor's weekly homily, both of which he received via email from the support person for his family assigned by NASA who was a member of his parish and take Communion.
"My crewmates knew I had the Eucharist with me," Hopkins said. "In fact, I coordinated with my Russian commander. He knew everything going on. They were all aware of that, but I never tried to make a large deal about it and publicize it and they didn't either. They respected my faith and my desire to follow that faith even when I was in orbit."
Astronaut Mike Good, a member of St. Paul the Apostle Parish in Nassau Bay, Texas, near NASA's Johnson Space Center, and a veteran of two space flights, spent about 12 days on each of his missions aboard the space shuttle. Taking Communion into space, he said, was not as imperative.
"But if I was going to do a six-month expedition on the ISS, I would talk to my priest and figure out what we were going to do," Good said.
From another perspective, Good, 53, and retired astronaut Mike Massimino, 54, told CNS that the opportunity to fly in space offered time to reflect on creation as they gazed upon the spaceship called Earth.
"One thought I had is that God must love us to give us such a beautiful home," Massimino said. "It's given me a view of the planet of how special it is and how loved we are to have such a great place and how we should appreciate it."
Good, Massimino's spacewalk partner on a 2009 shuttle mission servicing the Hubble Space Telescope, said he felt blessed to see the planet from high above.
"Looking back at the Earth, I can't really describe how beautiful it is from 300 miles up," Good said. "Looking down, you can tell it's a planet. The sky is black. There's just a thin blue ribbon, what we see as blue sky on Earth. You realize how small it is and how fragile the planet is.
"It just makes it so obvious that God created this beautiful place. The word awe just comes to mind. ... And looking out into space, it's just a clear view. The stars don't twinkle. It's like a high definition 3-D TV. You look out into space and feel very small."
Both men acknowledged that flying into space is dangerous and they prepared before their missions by participating in the sacrament of reconciliation. "You try to be in as good a state as you can because it's a dangerous event you're going to partake in," said Massimino, who also flew on a shuttle mission to Hubble in 2002.
Good, a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, expects that when the moment of launch comes, there's a feeling of connection with God or a higher power among just about everyone heading to space.
"Heading out to the launchpad is like being in a foxhole," Good said. "There's not a lot of atheists in a foxhole. I don't think there's many atheists sitting atop the launchpad."
NASA and Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, allow astronauts to take a little more than 3 pounds of personal items into space. Some of the Catholics who have flown have taken crucifixes, prayer cards, icons and other religious objects with them.
Among the things Massimino took on his first flight was a Vatican City flag, which he later gave to St. John Paul II. On his second flight, he took a prayer card depicting Pope Benedict XVI, which he gave to the pontiff.
Hopkins, Good and Massimino took mementos, including religious items, from their schools, parishes and friends into space.
One Catholic astronaut, Mark Vande Hei, 49, is preparing for his first mission to the ISS next March. He said he has talked a bit with his Catholic colleagues about what to expect. The next 11 months will be particularly busy as he trains in Japan, around the U.S. and at the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. For now, his spiritual preparation remains the same with daily prayer and regular Mass attendance at St. Paul the Apostle Church in Nassau Bay.
"I pray the rosary while walking the dog," he added.
To keep astronauts' spirits high, NASA arranges for occasional calls with celebrities on flights and asks each astronaut with whom they might like to talk. Vande Hei, who holds a bachelor's degree in physics from St. John's University in Minnesota, said he suggested Pope Francis.
His request may not be outside the realm of possibility. Pope Benedict communicated with the crew aboard the ISS in May 2011 in a 20-minute conversation.
- - -
Follow Sadowski on Twitter: @DennisSadowski
- - -
Copyright © 2016 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.
IMAGE: CNS photo/Anto AkkaraBy Anto AkkaraRAMAPURAM, India (CNS) -- TheIndian government might have dispelled rumors of the Good Friday crucifixion ofkidnapped Salesian Father Thomas Uzhunnalil, but Mathew Uzhunnalil stillworries."I am waiting for cleargood news. Until then, I will stay at home," Mathew Uzhunnalil, 73, toldCatholic News Service from his ancestral house in Ramapuram.For more than a month -- sincehis brother was kidnapped in Aden,Yemen, in early March -- Mathew Uzhunnalil has lived alone, with no TV or radio,in the house tucked in the midst of rubber plantations. He said he will returnto his family in Gujarat "only after I have clear news about Father Tom,"his 56-year-old younger brother.Mathew Uzhunnalil said manypeople have come to visit and have told him how the Indian foreign minister saidhis brother was safe. The government also assured a delegation from theCatholic Bishops' Conference of India that the government was exploring allpossible means for his "quick a...
IMAGE: CNS photo/Anto Akkara
By Anto Akkara
RAMAPURAM, India (CNS) -- The Indian government might have dispelled rumors of the Good Friday crucifixion of kidnapped Salesian Father Thomas Uzhunnalil, but Mathew Uzhunnalil still worries.
"I am waiting for clear good news. Until then, I will stay at home," Mathew Uzhunnalil, 73, told Catholic News Service from his ancestral house in Ramapuram.
For more than a month -- since his brother was kidnapped in Aden, Yemen, in early March -- Mathew Uzhunnalil has lived alone, with no TV or radio, in the house tucked in the midst of rubber plantations. He said he will return to his family in Gujarat "only after I have clear news about Father Tom," his 56-year-old younger brother.
Mathew Uzhunnalil said many people have come to visit and have told him how the Indian foreign minister said his brother was safe. The government also assured a delegation from the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India that the government was exploring all possible means for his "quick and safe release."
"A lot of people are coming here (to the house) and even hold prayer meetings (for the safety of the priest)," he told CNS.
"I pray, recite the rosary and read," Mathew Uzhunnalil replied when asked how he spent time in the home, where all the eight Uzhunnalil siblings were born.
"Leave everything in God's hands and trust in him. Everything is secure in God's hands," Mathew Uzhunnalil said, quoting a book his sister gave him years ago.
Reflecting on the deep faith of younger brother, Mathew Uzhunnalil said, "Father Thomas is a very cool and quiet person."
He recalled that his brother shared what he used to tell the Missionaries of Charity in the evenings at the old-age home in Aden, where four nuns and 12 others were killed when the priest was kidnapped March 4.
"We got one more day today. Let us thank God for that," Mathew Uzhunnalil said, quoting the kidnapped priest.
- - -
Copyright © 2016 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.
SEATTLE (AP) -- A man accused of torturing a woman to death but found too mentally ill for trial was on the loose Thursday after crawling out a window in a locked, lower-security unit of a Washington state psychiatric hospital already facing federal scrutiny over safety problems....
CAIRO (AP) -- A Saudi-led coalition battling Shiite rebels and their allies in Yemen used U.S.-supplied bombs in an airstrike last month on a market that killed at least 119 people, a human rights group said Thursday, further highlighting American involvement in the conflict....
PARIS (AP) -- The Latest on the publication by a coalition of media outlets of an investigation into offshore financial dealings by the rich and famous (all times local):...
