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The Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference (SACBC) is celebrating the golden jubilee of the Bishops’ Lenten Appeals.

In a Lenten message commemorating the golden jubilee, the Archbishop of Cape Town and President of the SACBC, Stephen Brislin, said over the last 50 years the Bishops’ Lenten appeal had made an enormous impact on the life of the Church in Southern Africa and on the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.

“It is with deep gratitude to God that we celebrate the 50 years of the Bishops’ Lenten Appeal. Undertaken so many years ago by the Bishops, with vision and faith, the annual collections of the Lenten Appeal has made an enormous impact on the life of the Church and the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in Southern Africa… the Lenten Appeal was set up to help those in need and the for the works of the Church in proclaiming the Good News," Archbishop Brislin writes.

(Email: engafrica@vatiradio.va)

Find below the full SACBC President’s Lenten Message

SACBC PRESIDENT'S LENTEN MESSAGE

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

With great joy and gratitude we celebrate the golden jubilee of the Bishops’ Lenten Appeal. All anniversaries are worth commemorating and are opportunities to turn once more to the Lord, giving thanks for his strength and guidance which have allowed us to reach the particular milestone.

A golden anniversary is especially important as the endeavour has stood the test of time. Gold is purified by fire and the result is precious and valuable. It is true of human endeavours as well – after fifty years they have proved themselves and their value, despite hardships that may have been encountered.

It is with deep gratitude to God that we celebrate the 50 years of the Bishops’ Lenten Appeal. Undertaken so many years ago by the bishops, with vision and faith, the annual collections of the Lenten Appeal has made an enormous impact on the life of the Church and the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in Southern Africa. Inspired by Jesus’ parable of the separation of the goats and sheep (Matt 25:31ff ), recognizing the moral imperative to serve those in need, as well as the command “to go to all nations to proclaim the Good News” (Mk 16:15), the Lenten Appeal was set up to help those in need and the for the works of the Church in proclaiming the Good News.

We are also deeply grateful to all those who have contributed through the years using mite boxes and envelopes, as well as other means of supporting the Lenten Appeal. For many, it has been similar to the “widow’s mite” (Mk 12:41ff ) – not giving from excess but truly making a sacrifice by giving from that which they need. Their sacrifice has truly been a Lenten Offering and with all our hearts we say “thank you” for your kindness and love.

Few people, even within the Church, are aware of how many programmes are run by the Bishops’ Conference itself. Taken with the initiatives of dioceses and parishes, thousands of interventions are made which alleviate the suffering of people, bringing them consolation and hope. The Gospel is proclaimed through these good works as well as though specific programmes of evangelisation and catechesis. The

Church has provided support in the fields of education, health, development, skills, advocacy and crisis relief. Catechesis, media programmes, small Christian communities, the formation and training of priests and deacons – to name a few – have ensured that there is both the proclamation of the Word and the deepening of the faith.

All such enterprises have benefited from contributions by the Lenten Appeal. The many demands made on the funds mean that no particular project can be fully covered by a Lenten Appeal grant. Some only receive a small amount of their overall budget. Nonetheless, such small amounts are important beyond their monetary value, as they also indicate the support of the local Church, making it easier to approach foreign donors.

Such local support is essential. Although we are a young Church – in 2018 we will be celebrating only 200 years of the official establishment of the Church in Southern Africa – nonetheless we need to work much harder to become a self-reliant Church. No longer should we be dependent on other countries for Church personnel or finances. In the spirit of stewardship, knowing that we have been entrusted with the faith in this part of the world and are responsible for the life and work of the Church, we must strive to generously share our resources.

In particular, we appeal to all of you to ensure that this year of the Golden Anniversary of the Lenten Appeal be a year of generosity and a year to remember. There are many needs and countless opportunities for the Light of Christ to dispel the darkness of poverty, ignorance and suffering in our beautiful countries. Your generosity will make a difference.

Archbishop Brislin

Archbishop of Cape Town and President of the SACBC

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Ex 17:3-7; Rom 5: 1-2, 5-8; Jn 4: 5-42

Rev. Randall D. Bell tells a powerful story about a pastor who stood in court beside a member of his congregation--an individual who had been “out with the boys,” and had had too much to drink. As he was driving home on the rain-soaked streets and through the dense fog, he turned a corner and heard a sickening clash of metal and breaking glass.  Two young people lay dead.  They had been thrown from their motorcycle.  He was charged with manslaughter and driving under the influence of alcohol.  He sat in court trembling after days of testimony.  The judge was about to speak.  It could mean years of prison, loss of job, and poverty for his family.  The judge spoke: The test for drunkenness had not been properly done; the motorcycle had no proper lights; the jury was ordered to render a not guilty verdict.  All that was ominous and foreboding was now gone.  He was a free man.  The court declared him “not guilty.”  His family kissed him--they could go on with their life, all because he had been declared innocent.  Then Rev. Bell adds these words, “Now maybe this story and the way it ended angers you, because you hurt over those young people who were killed.  But know this--you and I are that man.  His story is our story.  We are the sinner who finds himself in the presence of God the Eternal Judge . . . .”  You see, not only are we blinded by our prejudices against people like the Samaritan woman with her unseemly life style, we are also blinded to the fact that we are the Samaritan woman.  We, too, have fallen short of the grace of God, but the hand of grace is reached out to us as well.

Introduction: Today’s readings are centered on Baptism and new life.  Today's liturgy makes use of the symbol of water to refer to our relationship with God. Water represents God’s Spirit which comes to us in Baptism. It is the outward, symbolic sign of a deep reality, the coming of God as a Force penetrating every aspect of a person’s life. The Spirit quenches our spiritual thirst. Just as water in the desert was life-giving for the wandering Israelites, the water of a true, loving relationship with Jesus is life-giving for those who accept him as Lord and Savior.  We are assembled here in the church to share in this water of eternal life and salvation.  The Holy Spirit of God, the Word of God and the Sacraments of God in the Church are the primary sources for the living water of divine grace.  Washed in it at Baptism, renewed by its abundance at each Eucharist, invited to it in every proclamation of the Word, and daily empowered by the Spirit, we are challenged by today’s Gospel to remain thirsty for the living water which only God can give.  The first reading describes how God provided water to the ungrateful complainers of Israel, thus placing Jesus’ promise within the context of the Exodus account of water coming from the rock at Horeb.  The responsorial, Psalm 95, refers both to the Rock of our salvation and also to our hardened hearts.  It reminds us that our hard hearts need to be softened by God through our  grace-prompted and -assisted prayer, fasting and works of mercy which enable us to receive the living water of the Holy Spirit, salvation and eternal life from the Rock of our salvation. In the second reading, Saint Paul asserts that, as the Savior of mankind, Jesus poured the living water of the gift of the Holy Spirit into our hearts.  In the Gospel, an unclean Samaritan woman is given an opportunity to receive living water.  Today's Gospel tells us how Jesus awakened in the woman at the well a thirst for the wholeness and integrity which she had lost, a thirst which He had come to satisfy. The water that Jesus promises is closely linked to conversion and the forgiveness of sin.  Here is a woman who comes to faith and becomes a missionary who brings others to Jesus.  Jesus recognizes the gifts and ministries of women in his future Church. This is also a narrative about God wooing the outsider or, as Paul will say, “the godless.” The Samaritans, who were considered godless, end up in this town confessing Jesus as the Savior of “the world.” This Gospel passage also gives us Jesus' revelation about Himself as the Source of Living Water and teaches us that we need the grace of Jesus Christ for eternal life because He is that life-giving water.  

The first reading: Exodus 17:3-7: Today's Gospel is Jesus' revelation of Himself as the Source of Living Water. Hence, the passage chosen from Exodus tells of the Jews’ complaining about their thirst, a figure of human longing for God and spiritual satisfaction. The rock which Moses strikes represents God who gives the water (God’s own life), essential for our spiritual life.  This reading shows us a time when God's people literally thirsted, and God satisfied them.  The Israelites had been slaves for several generations in Egypt, and for the most part had forgotten their ancestral religion and their God’s Covenant with their patriarch Abraham.  Now their new leader, Moses, was telling them that their ancient Lord had at last heard their cries, and was now leading their escape from Egypt back to their homeland.  In spite of the mighty deeds God had done for their liberation from Egypt, the former slaves complained that in Egypt they at least were not thirsty. It is astounding to see their lack of faith.

The second reading: Rom 5: 1-2, 5-8: In the second reading, Saint Paul asserts that, as the Savior of mankind, Jesus poured the living water, or the gift of the Holy Spirit, into our hearts.  We need the Holy Spirit to sustain us spiritually, just as we need water to sustain us physically.  Through Jesus, God gave us the Spirit when we were dying of thirst.  Paul realized that he and all the Jews who kept the Law of Moses were trying to become justified on their own.  But keeping the Law is not an adequate means of justification because we are unable to make ourselves worthy of God's favor, by good works, keeping the commandments, rituals or prayers.  Grace means the gratuitous, unearned, undeserved love and favor of God for us.  By living water in today’s Gospel, Jesus is referring to this grace or relationship with God and participation in His life.  According to Paul, redemption or justification is the gratuitous gift of God manifested in Jesus’ saving death on the cross.  By virtue of his death, Jesus has made just, or put in right relationship with God, every sinner who will appropriate His saving gifts by faith.  Faith, then, is the admission that one cannot justify oneself and that it is God who will grant us justification by His grace.

Exegesis:  Jesus’ mission trip from Judea to Galilee: Palestine is only 120 miles long from north to south.  Judea is in the extreme south, Samaria in the middle and Galilee in the extreme North.  In order to avoid the controversy about baptism, Jesus decided to concentrate his ministry in Galilee.  The usual route around Samaria, normally taken by the Jews to avoid the hated Samaritans, took six days.  The shortcut (three days’ journey), from Judea to Galilee crossed through Samaria and, on the way to the town of Sychar, passed Jacob’s well.  The well itself was more than 100 feet deep.  It was located on a piece of land that had been bought by Jacob (Gen.33:18-19), and later bequeathed to Joseph (Gen.48:22).

Jesus’ encounter with an outcast sinner:  When Jesus and his disciples reached the well, it was a hot midday, and Jesus was weary and thirsty from traveling. Ignoring the racial barriers and traditional hostility between Samaritans and Jews, Jesus sent his disciples to buy some food in the Samaritan town.  It was at this point that a Samaritan woman came to the well to draw water.  She had probably been driven away, as a moral outcast, from the common well in the town of Sychar by the other women.  It was this woman whom Jesus asked for water, and it is no wonder that she was surprised, because the petitioner was a Jew who hated her people as polluted outcasts and betrayers of Judaism. The scene recalls Old Testament meetings between future spouses at wells. Jacob meets Rebekah at the well of Haran, and Moses and Zipporah meet at a well in Midian.

The background history: This mutual hostility had begun centuries earlier, when the Assyrians carried the northern tribes of Israel into captivity.  The Jewish slaves betrayed their heritage by intermarrying with the Assyrians, thus diluting their bloodline and creating a “mongrel race” called the Samaritans.  The Assyrian men who were relocated to Israel married Jewish women, thus producing a mixed race in Israel as well. Hence, southern Jews considered all Samaritan bloodlines and their heritage impure.  By the time the Samaritan Jews returned to their homeland, their views of God had been greatly contaminated.  By contrast, when the southern Hebrew tribes were carried off into captivity, they stubbornly resisted the Babylonian culture.  They returned from Babylon to Jerusalem, proud that they had compromised neither their religious convictions nor their culture.  So when the Samaritans offered to help to rebuild the Jerusalem Temple, the southern Jews who had returned from exile vehemently rejected Samaritan assistance.  Consequently, the rejected and ostracized Samaritans built their own temple on Mount Gerizim.  But in 129 B.C. a Jewish general destroyed it, a slap to Samaritan dignity that stung for centuries, deepening the mutual scorn and hostility between Samaritans and Jews.

The Divine touch and conversion: So the water-seeking Samaritan woman who faced Jesus that day belonged to a heritage rejected by the Jews.  In addition, she expected scorn simply because she was a woman, for in the ancient Middle East, men systematically degraded women.  Finally, this Samaritan woman seemed unwanted by her own people.  Since she had had five “husbands,” and was living with a sixth “lover,” she seems to have been considered by fellow villagers a social leper, and she seems to have been driven from the common well of the town by the decent women.  Perhaps she had not stopped wishing that somewhere, sometime, some way, God would touch His people — that He would touch her!  Jesus deliberately placed himself face to face with this person whom, apparently, no one else wanted.  Jesus saw in this social outcast and moral wreck a person who mattered to God.  The Samaritan woman must have unburdened her soul to this stranger because she had found one Jew with kindness in his eyes instead of an air of critical superiority.  She was thirsting for love that would last, love that would fill her full and give purpose to her life.

The conversion leading to  witnessing: Jesus not only talked with the woman, but in a carefully orchestrated, seven-part dialogue he guided her progressively from ignorance to enlightenment, from misunderstanding to clearer understanding, thus making her the most carefully and intensely catechized person in this entire Gospel.  Jesus always has a way of coming into our personal lives.  When Jesus became personal with this woman and started asking embarrassing questions about her five husbands, she cleverly tried to change the subject and talk about religion.  She didn’t want Jesus to get personal.  But Jesus wanted to free her, forgive her, shape her life in a new direction, and change her.  He wanted to offer this woman living water.  At the end of the long heart-to-heart conversation Jesus revealed himself to her as the Messiah, which in turn led her to faith in him.  This growth in understanding on the part of the woman moved through several stages: first, she called him a Jew, then Sir or Lord, then Prophet, and finally Messiah.  When the Samaritans came to hear Jesus because of her testimony, the affirmation of faith reached its climax as they declared that Jesus was the Savior of the world.  Step-by-step Jesus was leading her in her faith journey.  This marginalized woman's enthusiastic response, powerful personal testimony and brave witnessing stand in dramatic contrast to Nicodemus' hesitance (3:9), the crowd's demand for proof (6:25-34) and the Pharisees' refusal to acknowledge the hand of God in the healing of a blind man (9:24-34).

Life messages: 1) We need to allow Jesus free entry into our personal lives.  A sign that God is active in our lives is His entering in to our personal, “private” lives. Jesus wants to get personal with us, especially during this Lenten season.  Jesus wants to get into our “private” lives.  We have a “private” personal life which is contrary to the will of God.  Christ wishes to come into that “private” life, not to embarrass us, not to judge or condemn us, not to be unkind or malicious to us.  Rather, Christ comes into our “private” personal life to free us, to change us and to offer us what we really need: living water.  The living water is the Holy Spirit.  The living water is the Spirit of Jesus and his love.  We human beings are composed of four parts: mind, body, emotions and spirit.  When we let God’s Spirit come into us and take control of our thinking, our physical activity, our emotions and our spirit, He can bring harmony to the way we live with all four parts of our humanity. We can find this living water in the Sacraments, in prayer and in the Holy Bible.

2) We need to be witnesses to Jesus like the Samaritan woman.  Let us have the courage to "be" Jesus for others, especially in those "unexpected" places for unwanted people.  Let us also have the courage of our Christian convictions to stand for truth and justice in our day-to-day life.

3) We need to be open to others and accept others as they are, just as Jesus did. We have been baptized into a community of faith so that we may become one with each other as brothers and sisters of Jesus and as children of God.  To live this oneness demands that we open ourselves to others and listen to one another.  We need to provide the atmosphere, the room, for all to be honestly what they really are: the children of God.  It is the ministry of Jesus that we inherit and share.  Jesus did not allow the woman’s status, past, attitude, or anything else to obstruct his ability to love her.  And loving her, he freed her and made her whole, made her the child of God she already was.  Let us also open our hearts to one another and accept each other as God’s gifts to us.  Thus, we’ll experience resurrection in our own lives and in the lives of our brothers and sisters.

4) We need to leave the “husbands” behind during Lent as the Samaritan woman did.  Today’s Gospel message challenges us to get rid of our unholy attachments and the evil habits that keep us enslaved and idolatrous.  Lent is the time to learn from our mistakes of over-indulgence in food, drink, drugs, gambling, promiscuity, or any other addiction that may keep us from coming to the living waters of a right relationship with God.  We all have our short list, don't we?  And we all know, honest to God, what it is we need to leave behind before we come to the Living Water and the Bread of Heaven.  Let us make an earnest attempt to do so during this Lenten season.

5) We need to turn to Jesus: When guilt plagues us and we upset for falling for the same temptations again and again; when we make choices that turn out to be all wrong; when our relationships with others fall in a heap; when we feel lonely, sick and tired of the way people are treating us; when we are depressed and upset and can’t see anything good in ourselves; when our faith is at rock bottom and we feel as if the church and religion aren’t doing anything for us; when we beat ourselves up for lack of enthusiasm to be true disciples of Jesus ready to do anything for him, and for days that go by without a word of prayer; when all we feel is failure and defeat isn’t it great to read a story like this one about Jesus and his love and acceptance of the woman at the well. Let us rest assured that Jesus is there to warmly accept us and help us to see that he will give us the strength and the power we need to overcome whatever it is that is grieving us.

An incredible story of determination and success is reported about Musa Alami, an Arab gentleman educated at Cambridge. He made the Judean desert to blossom like a rose. He went beyond Jordan to the edge of Jericho to the great, bleak, arid desert of Jordan Valley. With the exception of few oases, nothing had been cultivated in this hot and weary land. Everyone said that nothing could be cultivated because no water could be brought to this place. “What about tapping the underground water,” asked Musa. Every one laughed aloud and said, “Has anyone heard of such a thing in this desert?” There was no water under that hot desert and for ages it was covered by the Dead Sea water; and now the sand was full of salt, which further added to its aridity. Musa Alami decided that he could find water there. A few poverty-stricken refugees from the nearby Jericho refugee Camp helped him in the digging. They dug, not with any drilling-equipment, but with pickaxe and shovels. Day after day, month after month they dug. For six months they dug, then one day the sand beneath was wet, and finally sweet water gushed forth. The Arabs who had gathered there, did not cheer, but wept. Water had been found in the ancient desert!

(Source: Homilies of Fr. Tony Kadavil)

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(Vatican Radio) Avoiding evil, learning to do good, and allowing yourself to be carried forward by the Lord: this is the path of Lenten conversion pointed out by Pope Francis in his homily at the morning Mass at the Casa Santa Marta. It is a conversion, the Pope said, that is manifested not with words, but with “concrete things.”

The Pope’s attempt to trace out the lines of Lenten conversion took its starting point from the words of the Prophet Isaiah from the day’s First Reading. Avoiding evil and learning to do good – the heart of Isaiah’s exhortation – are stages along this path. “Each one of us, every day, does something ugly.” The Bible, in fact, says that even “the most holy people sins seven times a day.”

Avoiding evil and learning to do good is a journey

The problem, the Pope said, lies in not getting into the habit of “living in ugly things” and avoiding those things that “poison the soul,” that make it small. And then we have to learn to do good:

“It’s not easy to do good: we must learn it, always. And He teaches us. But: Learn. Like children. Along the path of life, of the Christian life one learns every day. You have to learn every day to do something, to be better than the day before. To learn. Avoiding evil and learning to do good: this is the rule of conversion. Because being converted doesn’t come from a fairy who converts us with a magic wand: No! It’s a journey. It’s a journey of avoiding and of learning.”

You learn to do good with concrete actions, not with words

And so one needs courage, to learn to avoid evil; and humility to learn to do good, which is expressed in concrete actions:

“He, the Lord, names three concrete things, but there are many: seek justice, relieve the oppressed, give orphans justice, defend the cause of the widow… but concrete things. You learn to do good with concrete things, not with words. With deeds… For this reason Jesus, in the Gospel we have heard, rebukes this ruling class of the people of Israel, because ‘they talk and don’t act,’ they don’t know concreteness. And if there is no concreteness, there can be no conversion.”

Lift yourself up with the help of the Lord with humility, and we will be forgiven

The First Reading then continues with the invitation from the Lord: “Come [It: ‘su’ – arise], let us reason together.” “Arise” – a beautiful word, Pope Francis said, a word that Jesus addressed to the paralytics, to the daughter of Jairus, as well as to the son of the widow of Naim. And God gives us a hand to help us up. And He is humble, He lowers Himself so much to say, “Come, let us reason together.” Pope Francis emphasized how God helps us: “Walking together with us to help us, to explain things to us, to take us by the hand.” The Lord is able “to do this miracle” – that is, “to change us” – not overnight, but on a journey:

“An invitation to conversion, avoid evil, learn to do good… ‘Come, arise, come to me, let us reason together, and let us go forward.’ But [you might say] I have so many sins…’ ‘But don’t worry’ [God responds]. ‘If your sins should be like scarlet, they will become white as snow.’ And this is the path of Lenten conversion. Simple. It is the Father who speaks, it is the Father who loves us, who really loves us. And who accompanies us on this path of conversion. Only He asks us to be humble. Jesus says to the rulers: ‘He who exalts himself will be humble; and he who humbles himself will be exalted’.”

Francis concluded his homily by recalling the stages along the path of Lenten conversion: avoiding evil, learning to do good, getting up and going with Him. And then, he said, “our sins will all be forgiven.”

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On 13th March, UNICEF released a new assessment of what it calls "grave violations against children in Syria." The report comes as the conflict in Syria enters its sixth year.

Entlitled, "Hitting Rock Bottom" the report details a dramatic rise in violence against Syrian children, as well as increasing risks of them being used as child soldiers. The report goes on to details the many problems for aid agencies trying to reach children in these situations, as well as new statistics, such as the fact that over 6 million Syrian children are now dependant on humanitarian aid for survival. A further 280,000 children are also living permanently under seige.

At the conclusion of the report UNICEF renews its calls for a political solution to the Syrian conflict, as well as an end to violence against children and assistance to host governments sheltering and housing child refugees and their families. 

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Washington D.C., Mar 14, 2017 / 03:20 am (CNA).- Recent “botched executions” resulting in painful deaths for inmates have stirred controversy over the use of the death penalty. But could capital punishment also be rejected on the grounds that it amounts to psychological torture?

That is the case that University of Baltimore law professor John Bessler makes in his new book, “The Death Penalty as Torture: From the Dark Ages to Abolition.”

“The U.S. needs to start looking at the psychological aspect of the death penalty, in terms of the psychological pain or suffering, because that is part and parcel of the definition of what is torture is, as defined by the U.S. ratification of the Torture Convention,” Bessler told CNA in an interview.

Capital punishment is not legal in 19 states, and four states have a governor-imposed moratorium on the death penalty. Of the 31 states where it is used, only four – Georgia, Texas, Florida, and Missouri – account for 85 percent of executions in the U.S. since 2013, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

The overall number of executions in 2016 fell to 20, its lowest number since 1991 and down from 28 executions in 2015, the Death Penalty Information Center noted. This continued a long decline in the number of executions from 1999, when the number was 98. The Pew Research Center has also reported a continuing drop in public support for the death penalty.

Lethal injection is the primary method of execution in the U.S., but actions by drug companies and the European Union – which bans the use of the death penalty – to prevent drugs to be used for capital punishment have significantly factored into the decline in the number of executions, the Death Penalty Information Center says.

Drug companies including Pfizer, Akorn, and Par have moved to prevent or limit the sale of drugs to be used in capital punishment. The European Union has limited the export of drugs that are also used in executions in the U.S.

As a result, states are finding it harder to obtain drugs for lethal injections and they are resorting to other means of obtaining the drugs. In some cases, they imported them from a supplier in India, as BuzzFeed News found in 2015, as Arizona and Texas ordered shipments of the drug sodium thiopenthal which were blocked by the Food and Drug Administration when they reached the U.S.

States have also legalized other methods of execution if drugs for lethal injection are not available, or if that method is ruled unconstitutional.

Utah in 2015 allowed death by firing squad to be used for capital punishment. Oklahoma has legalized the gas chamber for such instances, and Tennessee the electric chair.

Arkansas recently scheduled eight executions in 10 days in April, before its supply of Midazolam, the sedative used in the execution process, expires.

However, the current processes of lethal injection have invited controversy for the physical pain they can inflict on subjects, most notably in “botched executions” like in Oklahoma in 2015 where an inmate was given a sedative and was supposed to be unconscious, but writhed in pain once the lethal drugs were administered before dying of a massive heart attack.

“The execution of Clayton Lockett really highlights the brutality of the death penalty,” Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City responded to the botched execution. “And I hope it leads us to consider whether we should adopt a moratorium on the death penalty or even abolish it altogether.”

Lethal injection is, in some states, a three-step process, with the first step involving a sedative meant to render the patient unconscious before the following lethal drugs are administered.

If their sedative does not work properly in the lethal injection process, the physical pain that these inmates could endure from the chemicals would definitely constitute torture, Bessler argued.

In the 2015 case of Glossip v. Gross, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 against the inmate Richard Glossip who claimed that the sedative Midazolam, used by Oklahoma in executions, was not certain to work properly and could result in a painful execution that violated the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

Justice Sonya Sotomayor dissented and argued that Midazolam might not work as intended and thus would not sufficiently dull the pain inflicted on the subject’s body by the ensuing drug potassium chloride.

As a result, the painful effect of the drugs could essentially result in “the chemical equivalent of being burned at the stake” if Midazolam does not work, Sotomayor stated. The inventor of Midazolam, Dr. Armin Walser, has stated that he does not want it used for executions.

Recent Supreme Court cases on the death penalty have shown an “obsession with will there be physically excruciating pain” for an inmate at the time of death, Bessler noted.

However, the psychological state of inmates awaiting death could also be torturous, he added: “the helpless of the condemned person on the gurney is one of the elements of torture.”

And it was Justice Stephen Breyer’s dissent in Glossip that “really does start thinking about the psychological aspect of what we’re doing with use of the death penalty,” Bessler noted.

First, Breyer wrote of how prisoners on death row are kept in solitary confinement for most of the day – a practice that, if carried out over weeks or months, could damage the psyche of an inmate. Breyer cited studies that show prolonged solitary confinement to cause serious psychological problems like hallucinations and stupors.

And inmates on death row can often be kept in solitary confinement. However, “the dehumanizing effect of solitary confinement is aggravated by uncertainty as to whether a death sentence will in fact be carried out,” Breyer wrote.

And this condition can be prolonged for years or even decades due to modern policies regarding death sentences. Laws require reviews of death sentences and evidence of crimes, and appeals can be filed, but this extends the time inmates spend on death row waiting for their execution.

The average time between sentencing and execution has steadily grown to its peak of 198 months in 2011 – or 16 and a half years – before falling slightly to 190 months in 2012, the Death Penalty Information Center noted. In one case of Brandon Jones, executed in February of 2016 by Georgia, he was on death row for 36 years after receiving a death sentence in 1979.

“Psychologists and lawyers in the United States and elsewhere have argued that protracted periods in the confines of death row can make inmates suicidal, delusional and insane,” the Death Penalty Information Center says, noting that some experts have even called such a condition the “death row phenomenon.”

Breyer, in his dissent, had referenced an 1890 Supreme Court opinion that found “when a prisoner sentenced by a court to death is confined in the penitentiary awaiting the execution of the sentence, one of the most horrible feelings to which he can be subjected during that time is the uncertainty during the whole of it.”

When considering whether the death penalty meets the criteria for cruel and unusual punishment barred by the Eighth Amendment, the Supreme Court must also consider the possibility that it is psychological torture, Bessler insisted.

“Even if you could guarantee a pain-free execution,” he said, “the concept of torture includes psychological torture in the modern era, and that’s something that the courts in the United States have not yet wrestled with head-on, and they need to.”

Bessler argued that in private cases, under “common parlance” when a murder is described as a “torture murder,” the factor “turns a first-degree murder into a ‘torture murder’ is the awareness of one’s impending death.”

One example of this is the 2008 case of ex parte Donald Deardorff, he said, where a murder victim had been “threatened with death,” bound, confined in a closet, and forced to walk with a hood over his head before being shot to death. The Alabama Supreme Court said that the whole ordeal preceding the murder was “psychological torture.”

With the death penalty, “you kind of have that issue on steroids, because the person has an awareness of their impending death for literally decades,” Bessler added. “And in a lot of cases you’re seeing multiple death warrants being issued. There’s cases where more than ten death warrants have been issued for a given individual.”

Article 1 of the United Nations Convention Against Torture defines torture as “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person,” and the purpose of which includes their punishment.

The inclusion of severe “mental suffering” in this definition, as well as any such suffering inflicted as punishment, makes it clear that the psychological anguish an inmate can experience on death row qualifies as torture, Bessler insisted.

South Africa, European countries, and 19 states do not use the death penalty, he said, and the rest of the U.S. is “really kind of behind the times in terms of thinking about this as a human rights violation.” The countries that are routinely executing people, he added, mostly make up “kind of a rogues gallery of human rights abusers,” including Iran, Iraq, Yemen, and China.

And, he added, both international law and U.S. law regard a “mock execution” as an “act of torture.” If this is the case, he said, “it’s hard to see how a real execution should not also qualify under that legal rubric.”

 

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Nashville, Tenn., Mar 14, 2017 / 05:56 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Aquinas College in Nashville announced last week that it will be restructuring to focus primarily on education degrees, and will drop its other majors, as well as residential life.

“The decision to reconfigure Aquinas College was made only after a process of careful discernment, as we considered the College’s long and persistent history of difficulties in finances, fluctuating enrollment, and development, as well as other complexities related to operating a traditional college in today’s world,” stated Sister Mary Sarah Galbraith, president of Aquinas College.

“We have sought to reach the most financially responsible decision possible, both for the short and long term,” she said in a March 10 press release.

Aquinas College was founded in 1961 by the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia in Nashville, Tennessee. It was originally a two-year, liberal arts college but later, it converted into a four-year school. Over the years, the college has offered a variety of academic majors, including arts, sciences, business, and nursing, as well as a graduate school of education.

Last fall, the college added new residence and dining halls to its campus, with hopes of growing its student population, and also offered new majors in marketing, math, and psychology. At the time, they had 344 enrolled students.

“Over the years, Aquinas has educated thousands of teachers, nurses, and health care professionals, as well as those engaged in business and law enforcement. These individuals now serve the Nashville community and beyond,” noted Sister Galbraith.

“We love Aquinas College, and are proud of the accomplishments of its graduates.”

Starting in the fall of 2017, Aquinas College will reconfigure its current system to focus primarily on offering bachelor and master degrees in education. The school will cut most of their other majors, and will only continue forward with philosophy and theology course offerings, as well as the School of Education.

Residential life will also discontinue, and student life activities will no longer be offered.

Sister Galbraith expressed that this decision was the most fiscally responsible path for the school to take, and noted that this move will have no impact on other schools involved with the Dominican Sisters.

However, the shift will also mean the drastic downsizing of faculty, students and staff.

Since the shift, Sister Galbraith said that the school is helping more than half of Aquinas students find other suitable colleges. The school is additionally laying off 60 of its 76 employees, while also trying to help them find other employment.

The Dominican Sisters, filled with a rich history and passion for education, believe that the new spotlight on education at Aquinas College will prepare future “teachers to serve the Church in its mission of education.”

“This decision to focus Aquinas College on the preparation of teachers primarily for Catholic schools is consistent with the 157-year heritage of the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia,” Sister Galbraith stated.

Although the school’s president noted that the decision would surprise many people close to Aquinas College, she did express gratitude and hope for the school’s future.

“We look forward to its future, grateful to the City of Nashville and the wider Catholic community whose friendship and loyal support continue to be a source of strength for its life and mission,” Sister Galbraith noted.

“We are grateful for your prayers and support as we do everything in our power to assist and walk with those whose lives are affected by this decision.”

 

 

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Mexico City, Mexico, Mar 14, 2017 / 12:08 am (CNA/Europa Press).- The Mexican Bishops have launched a #elmigranteesundon (the migrant is a gift) campaign on social media to show their dissatisfaction with the immigration policy of United States president Donald Trump.

Bishop Alfonso Miranda Guardiola, auxiliary bishop of Monterrey, called on Mexicans “to protect the dignity of migrants not just with economic resources, but also with time and actions they can take within their different spheres.”

The bishop warned that Trump's immigration policy, especially its deportations, will cause families and communities to be separated.

Bishop Miranda also indicated that the Church in Mexico “is seeking to strengthen relations with the U.S. bishops in order to mutually support one another.”

“Mexico is a transit country, a temporary or permanent place for migrants coming from other countries, but it is also a place of return which takes in our compatriots who have be repatriated; we're not going to get into a fight, but we do have to defend the dignity of our people,” he stated.

During a March 1 press conference, the prelate  highlighted the 70 migrant centers in Mexico that provide temporary lodging and assistance to people seeking to pass through the country

“Economically, the migrant centers are supported with donations from the communities where they are located, but the disposition to build peace and the common good among us is the best way to strengthen our unity,” he added.

Bishop Miranda estimated that in the coming days there will be a greater number of migrants and so the way forward “must be that of peace, justice and solidarity to intelligently and creatively solve the great challenges that are going to be presented.”

The permanent council of the Mexican bishops' conference encouraged the faithful to take advantage of “this time of grace in Lent to be sensitized to the difficult situation we are going through.”

In a March 8 statement, the bishops on the permanent council expressed their concern about the social situation the country is going through, “particularly regarding the migration issue that many of our compatriots are facing as a result of the policies implemented by the government of the United States, including the unacceptable possibility that Mexican families maybe separated when returning to this country.”

“In face of a possible humanitarian emergency,we bishops repeat our invitation to faithful Catholics, and society in general, to join the work being done in the parishes, in the more than 70 migrant centers, administered by the Catholic Church or in those supported by sister Christian churches, civil organizations or the government. This is the time to get involved in this great effort and service and brotherhood,” they encouraged.

The bishops informed that “the will soon broaden their stance on the consequences of the immigration policies adopted by the government of the neighboring country.”

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