Where do you start?

There is a very moving article by Fiammetta Cappellini from the Meeting at Rimini, "Is the world still remembering our tragedy?", who works for the AVSI aid organization in Haiti.  I have been following her story at ilsussidiario.net since the earthquake hit.  In each of her letters she gives insight into how to keep starting again in the face of every imaginable obstacle.  What I learn from her is not to imagine that we can solve problems in any comprehensive way, because it doesn't belong to us to do this but to Another, and that presumption only paralyzes us.   Instead, it's about taking steps and following the provocation.  In this case, a teacher and some schoolchildren took a step which gave Haitian children living in tents a chance to continue their studies.

It is difficult to land here from Haiti to a world without cracks, to Western life, and to succeed in building a speech with iron logic and meticulous explanations that people expect. I got a bit troubled, I didn't feel up to it. I still have the impression of not being able to make people understand the most important thing: that Haitians have found hope, and trust again, and that the desire for great things that is hope in tomorrow, has taken force, and has returned to life. I thought I did not find the words to tell about the long road made of small steps which has carried us from the tragedy to a window on the future.

Thanks and Giving

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

The Credo blog documents earlier Thanksgiving events in our nation's history.

An interesting bit of trivia is that the first American Thanksgiving was actually celebrated on September 8, 1565 in St. Augustine, Florida. The Native Americans and Spanish settlers held a feast and the Holy Mass was offered.

A second similar "Thanksgiving" celebration occurred on American soil on April 30, 1598 in Texas when Don Juan de Oñate declared a day of Thanksgiving to be commemorated by the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

The Catholic origins of Thanksgiving don’t stop there. Squanto, the beloved hero of Thanksgiving, was the Native American man who mediated between the Puritan Pilgrims and the Native Americans. Squanto had been enslaved by the English but he was freed by Spanish Franciscans. Squanto thus received baptism and became a Catholic. So it was a baptized Catholic Native American who orchestrated what became known as Thanksgiving.

Today we're preoccupied with preparing food and feasting. And food is a big story this season, as grocery prices continue to rise and with the economic crisis more people are going to food pantries. Some Los Angeles charities are finding that former donors are now themselves in need of assistance.

In a new survey of 44 charities that provide food, shelter and financial assistance, Catholic Charities USA found that 52% reported an increase in middle-class clients, up from 43% in June.

"I receive a call or two every week from people who have been contributors for years who find themselves unemployed," said Paul Martodam, chief executive of Catholic Charities Community Services in Phoenix. "They feel terrible. They never pictured themselves as being on the receiving side of charity."

These new recipients have added to the Phoenix agency's mounting troubles. In October, its emergency shelter turned away 161 families and its food pantry had to send away 198 families. Meanwhile, 526 families couldn't get help with utility bills, Martodam said.

It's a reminder to stop and put something in the Salvation Army kettle or to pick up some extra cereal and canned goods for the food shelf.

The Bush Administration's Success Story in Africa

President Bush's success story in Africa deserves to be known and remembered, by critics and fans of this administration alike. This was not business as usual in terms of aid, but an innovative and forthright policy to help this suffering continent with multiple humanitarian crises.

Some five years and $15 billion after its inception, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief continues to provide health and hope to millions who might otherwise have died.

It's by far a more ambitious and effective assault on the disease plaguing Africa and the Caribbean than any previous administration has undertaken or advocated. African governments, which oversee the distribution of PEPFAR funds and supplies, say the program has been instrumental in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

What's more, widespread attention to the epidemic has helped reduce the stigma of the disease, leading to an increase in the number of support groups and testing centers. The funding has also provided for the care of AIDS orphans and has made great strides against malaria.

Eric Goemaere, the top official in South Africa for Doctors Without Borders, initially criticized Mr. Bush for resisting the use of generic drugs and failing to integrate its AIDS effort with national health programs. But he now acknowledges what the initiative has accomplished. "Five years down the line, they have been much more promising than many other funders," he said.

Even Bono and Bob Geldof, the celebrity consciences of the world, have praise for Mr. Bush and his determination to make a difference in Africa. (The Times, NJ, 2/21/08)

Bob Geldof , the musician activist who heads Live Aid with the help of U2's Bono, praised President Bush's work in Africa in 2003:

You'll think I'm off my trolley when I say this, but the Bush administration is the most radical - in a positive sense - in its approach to Africa since Kennedy," Geldof told the Guardian.

The neo-conservatives and religious rightwingers who surrounded President George Bush were proving unexpectedly receptive to appeals for help, he said. "You can get the weirdest politicians on your side." (Guardian, 5/28/03)

Geldof has also given surprising credit to the chastity-based programs in the fight against AIDS because they restore dignity, particularly to women:

"Pepar, which is Bush's almost personal response to the Global Fund, is a highly effective Aids combatant mechanism.

"It works. It's uncomfortable for people to speak these unspoken truths but a lot of that stuff is working."

He continued: "In general in rural Africa women have no power. They also cannot refuse sexual favours. I've seen marked in chalk on these rural huts - 'safe sex, fidelity' ".

He added: "It's giving women a weapon they can use."

Geldof was speaking during a question and answer question with the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, and the International Development Secretary, Hilary Benn.

He told the audience: "I'm not saying that we should go down that route.

"I'm not saying that anyone should do it. But nonetheless, in some parts of Africa I have seen that this has become a weapon for women to use where they can stabilise a relationship and indeed perhaps their own health." (Telegraph UK 9/28/06)

Our Valuable Children. -- III

OVC Progetto AVSI in Kenya



For more information, go to The Association of Volunteers in International Service

Our Valuable Children. -- II

AVSI project: Our valuable children - Rwanda



For more information, go to The Association of Volunteers in International Service

Our Valuable Children. -- I

AVSI Progetto OVC in Uganda



For more on AVSI, go to the AVSI USA website.

A Witness

I share this story of Vicky's, who shared it with us. From Traces. There is nothing to add to this witness. This is simply the way to live.

There will be a Rhythm 'n' Soul Benefit Concert in New York on January 19th which will take place at the Cooper Union Great Hall. The proceeds from this event will be used by AVSI for the HIV/AIDS project "Meeting Point Kitgum" in Uganda, the center that was available to Vicky.

My name is Vicky. I am 42 and I come from the eastern region of Uganda. I
want to thank you and God for the precious life that He has given me. In 1992,
when I found out I was pregnant with Brian, my last child, my husband gave me
the choice of giving up the pregnancy and remaining his wife, or separating from
him if I wanted to keep the child. At the time, I only had two children, and I
decided to carry on with the pregnancy, a choice that marked the end of my
relationship with him. I truly couldn’t understand why he was so cruel and
unyielding. Then, in 1997, when I lost my job because of sickness and, at the
same time, my son Brian manifested the initial symptoms of tuberculosis, I began
to have my first suspicions. The next year, I got worse. In the Nsambiya
hospital, I was examined and tested for AIDS, and showed up HIV-positive. That
was when I understood why my husband hadn’t wanted the pregnancy with Brian,
because back then he had known that he was HIV-positive.

Life at home with my three children became even more difficult. The two
older boys were healthy, but we didn’t have enough money for school. We didn’t
have food or money for medicine and, worst of all, we didn’t have love from
anyone anywhere in the world. I really didn’t know whether God existed. In 2001,
someone directed me to the International Meeting Point, where I encountered
women with such joy on their faces, even though they too were sick with AIDS,
that I found it hard to believe. They danced and were glad, and I wondered how
anyone with this disease could sing and dance. At the Meeting Point, they
welcome all with music and songs from different peoples–African, European, and
Indian; I even heard some from my own tribe. After a long time, I began to see a
glimmer of light shining on my ruined life, so I continued spending time with
them.“An important thing I’ll never forget is the day someone looked at me with
a gaze shining with hope and love. In all the time I was bedridden, all my
friends, relatives, and even neighbors looked at me and my children with
rejection and contempt. This gaze of love and hope showed me something that
brought life to my spirit and my ruined body. It told me, ‘Vicky! You have a
value, and your value is greater than the weight of your sickness, greater than
death."

In 2002, I began buying medicine for my child, who was on the verge of
death, after taking him out of school because of the seal of discrimination
they’d set on him: they’d nicknamed him ‘skeleton.’ In 2003, I began buying
medicine for myself as well. I weighed 99 pounds, and now I weigh 165. Now Brian
is truly healthy, and has begun going back to high school. My oldest son is
attending the university, and the second is in the fourth year of high school.
Where is the power of death? It is in the loss of hope and the lack of love. Now
I am a volunteer at the Meeting Point, and every time I receive people I tell
them that the value of life is greater than that of the virus they carry within
their bodies. This affirmation nurtures the hope of people who are suffering and
about to die, and brings them back to life. All these results have been possible
because I have taken on the garment of something beyond death–in particular,
love. I want to thank all the people who have educated us, even if we’ve never
met them in person. Today, in the name of Fr. Giussani, Fr. Carrón has come
among us, who were poor and forgotten. Who is richer than us now? We are the
richest people in the world, because someone has brought a smile to the face of
at least one person.

The Newest Missionary Venture

Don't miss this week's article by John Allen on a fledgling missionary operation in Mongolia. It's a fascinating subject: a brand new territory for Christian evangelization, Mongolia, just started in 1992 by a Filipino priest, now bishop. To date there are about 400 Christians.

The attraction for the new Christians has come simply from the liturgy (in the vernacular) and from the social relief programs.

Padilla said that when he conducts interviews with Mongolian converts to understand what attracted them and made them decide to join the church, most will say they first came into contact with Catholicism through one of its social programs – a school, soup kitchen, or relief center. What “hooked” them, however, was the liturgy.

“They say it’s the singing, the liturgy,” Padilla told an audience at the Oratory of St. Francis Xavier del Caravita in Rome. “They say it’s more worthwhile than what they experience in the Buddhist temple. They’re active in the prayers and in the singing, It’s not just the monks doing all the singing.”

Padilla said that even though the four parishes in Mongolia (and four parochial sub-stations) use largely Western liturgical music, it’s translated into the vernacular, and most of the liturgy now is also said using the Mongol language. That, too, he said, is a major point of entry for new converts, most of whom are young and from the middle class or below.

“We cater mostly to the young and to the very poor,” Padilla said.

Bishop Padilla also found a strategy to soften up the local officials to get church building permits.

[A] Belgian missionary who had served in Inner Mongolia explained to him how to get things done.

“He told me that when you’re in difficulty, the thing to do is to invite these officials to dinner and get them drinking, especially vodka,” he said.

“It worked, but it was rough. At one point, I was drunk at least once or twice a week. One time I had to leave my car behind because I was too drunk to drive … but God will forgive, and anyway I wasn’t a bishop yet!”

Actually, Jesus attended a lot of parties from all accounts.

Building the Kingdom may not be so complicated as we tend to think.

Powered by ScribeFire.

A Night of Rhythm and Soul for AIDS Relief

A Night of Rhythm ’n’ Soul
A Journey through American Music

A Benefit Concert with
The David Horowitz and Friends Band featuring Vaneese Thomas

Date: Saturday, 19 January, 2008
Location: The Great Hall at Cooper Union venue information
7 East 7th Street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenues) New York City
Time: 8pm

Tickets: $50

The proceeds from the event will be channeled by the international NGO AVSI-USA to the HIV/AIDS project "Meeting Point International" in Uganda. Meeting Point is a program whose goal is to accompany, support and value the person affected by HIV/AIDS, regardless of tribe or denomination.

New York has always been a city of music. While it is undeniable that jazz constitutes the soundtrack of the City, it is also true that New York is the crossroads of all genres. However, since most bands do not take you through all of the American musical traditions it is extremely difficult to experience this musical melting pot.

This is where the David Horowitz and Friends Band and Vaneese Thomas come in.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Who do you belong to?

"I went through a time of panic and fear, like I had never known before, during the Ebola epidemic. The fright came to me when Dr. Matthew died (cf. Traces, 2001, No. 2, p. 19). I felt my life and the lives of those in my house to be in danger. Even the problems at work increased. I began to “argue” with Jesus. I found myself repeating the phrase from the Psalms, “From the end of the earth I call to you with fainting heart.” This was the right phrase to describe the state of my soul. I saw myself destroyed by my weakness, by my nothingness. I saw the house [of Memores Domini] become, again, the locus of the covenant, of the promise that everything that is in me is made secure, saved. I saw the tenderness of Jesus who forgives me in the face of Clara, of Corrado, when I returned home, and this gave me peace. Through that gaze I realized my imperfection, I realized that I am wanted precisely for this reason, because Jesus came to fulfill me. I belong to this tenderness because He has a plan for me. And I felt strong because of this. If there were not this certainty that continues in our houses, everything that is in me and in the world would truly be nothingness, ashes. Instead, when I come home there is a smile waiting for me; I find a smile. At times I wonder, “Why do they smile, truly? Why do I see so many people who have nice jobs, beautiful children, husbands, wives, but no one is truly content with what he does and what he has?” It is an attraction that moves us, this is the condition for happiness, for smiles. I absolutely agree with Father Giussani on everything he is teaching us. I have seen people destroyed by ideology, destroyed by exalting a particular, but in the end nobody is satisfied with this either and they are too afraid to cry out. We are lucky, because even I saw myself drowning in this ideology, but with humility I cry out in that place where I belong, I cry out to God with secure certainty.
For me, this is not feeling or being greater than they are, but being moved by the fact that my nothingness is not lost. Moved before the mercy that generates me. There is nothing that corresponds to me more than this."

This testimony from Rose was published in 2001 in Traces. Rose is the director of Meeting Point, an NGO working with AIDS patients and their families. I was able to hear She talk about her experience at the last International Assembly at La Thuile, in a presentation on Vocation and Charity. One of the thing that touched me most was her saying that (I am paraphrasing here) she was just responding to need. Not just a general need, but concrete need of persons. But, ultimately, you have to come from a place where you can answer the question "who do you belong to?" You have to belong to someone who says that "even the hairs on your head are all numbered." It is hard for us to belong to someone. When growing up one of the questions I was asked, to see who I was, was "who's (child) are you?" If you are not coming from 'belonging', its all just work, just futile.

Belonging is a funny thing: it is hard to do, but we do belong. Also, if you belong to someone who thwarts our freedom, life becomes unbearable.

The latest issue of Traces has a letter from Vicki, who is a member of Meeting Point. Fontanavivace has the text in Italian. I will update the link when it becomes available in English.

In the mean time, here is a write up about Meeting Point.

You can Support MP through AVSI. You can also support MP by going to a concert. So, what are you doing on January 19th?

And Lastly, Rose's speech at Vatican:

ROSE'S SPEECH BEFORE THE VATICAN'S PRESS-GALLERY

Friday February 9, 2001

I would like to begin by thanking the Holy Father. Allow me to say that he is also the Father of everything that I have been doing from the very beginning. Throughout my life no one has ever shown me such a way of giving witness to human value, the value of the person. I have learned from his untiring and constant insistence on the conscience of what man is. I would like to thank You Holy Father, not so much because You are helping us with funding, but rather because You allow my own person to be whole.

If faith determines my work, then the unity of my person is safeguarded. Faith, that is to say the sense of responsibility in the face of something much larger than myself.

As all my work pivots on the human being, it is necessary that faith permeate the way I act, thus generating the correct subject so that you know how to treat the other person well.

At present, it is popular to undertake various projects and it is quite easy to confuse or substitute man with that which we must or can do for him. And then when things do not go as expected, we become violent to him and to ourselves as well.

What really matters is positive value, which technical development has utilised, so that man is not a mechanical object, a cog in the machine.

Man is a composition of needs. If we cannot perceive that, if we do not possess this sensitivity, it is like passing him by with indifference.

In Uganda many have undertaken projects to distribute condoms, defend human rights, overcome poverty, defend women and children, etc. However, these simply pertain to projects and never to the person. The person is nobody, reduced to his problems.

For example, a person has AIDS or a headache, I am dealing with AIDS, not with the person suffering from AIDS. It is not possible to cure a piece of a human being, you have to cure the person. Touching only a part of the person implies touching whole of his body.

I work with the AIDS victims, children, adults and orphans. It is an adventure and it is even entertaining, since I face wishes, characters, needs, traditions and attitudes which are totally different. It is interesting to work with what is called "man and his needs".

Why help people? Who are they to us? And who am I?

"Meeting Point" is the concrete experience of a group of friends who have found themselves in the position of facing the HIV/AIDS issue, either because they are personally suffering or someone in their family or amongst their close friends is affected by AIDS and they desire to discover a sense of suffering and death.

The purpose of "Meeting Point" is not to allow AIDS victims to face alone their sickness and death. This is possible only through a mature and daily companionship which takes all needs into account.

First of all we offer a human relationship, a friendship which with time deepens and whereby the children and the sick discover how to face reality with liberty and joy unknown before and along with them we grow.

Alice, 46 years of age and suffering from AIDS for 10 years, was desperate, looking for drugs to hasten her death. I did not know what to do about her. Before going to work, I would go visit her and sometimes stayed there without saying a word, I could not even comfort her. After a week, crying she told me: "You know, I had my husband, I have six children, the relationship with my husband was the only relationship which meant something to me, it filled me with meaning. Now he is no longer there, it is as if everything has lost its meaning, I lack consistency, I feel lost, I just want to die, help me die now. I will not tell anyone." That was eight years ago. Many people accuse me of having given her some special medicine, she now weighs around 90 kilos and she says: "You simply have to look up to someone having a sense of life, and you also will live." Now she is a volunteer at "Meeting Point", since she wants to do what I do.

Our friendship with the sick and their families is a school where we learn how to realistically and truly love the life of others and their destiny. Condoms and fear are a negative approach, proposing no solutions to cope with the challenge of the epidemic.

We offer our patients and young people psychological support, along with

advice on basic health and proper sexual behaviour. I have already told you that it is an adventure working with adults, youth and children. There is a lot to discover and it cannot all be said today: "I have understood what man needs".

It so happens that I was happy about the time, the money, the food and the medicines that I gave my patients. Then, the opposite occurred. In spite of everything, at a certain time the children, instead of going to school began spending their time in the trash, they refused to talk or pretended they were sick so as not to go to school, or they would hide under their beds or behind the house, or they would not eat. The sick refused medicine, nor did they want to eat. I felt like leaving everything and running away. That is how the question came to me: "But who are these people to me?" and "But who am I to them?"

Up until a short time ago everybody in Uganda knew that they belonged to a tribe, a clan, a family: one knew that he was someone. Now that has lost meaning: families have disintegrated, tribes no longer are concerned with the general interest, but only for their particular interests. Once a child used to belong to the whole tribe, to a whole people, and that gave him consistency and dignity.

Now children and women find themselves without defences, without dignity, and they become melancholy, without any will to live and without expectations.

They do not have a value for their families, after all this wives do not have value for their husbands, nor husbands for their wives. For whom do we live? For whom do we get married? For whom do we procreate?

Losing the very idea of ourselves has made us lose the sense of everything. Having lost the point which gave meaning to them, they no longer know why they must go to school or why they must take medicine, or talk, or whatever. In the end, they do not trust anyone.

What we have tried to do is basically enter into a relationship with them. It is apparent that we are not there to replace their parents, but it is apparent that we love them, that they are important and that they are valued by us. It is not possible to give the idea of the dignity expressed by the formula "being someone" if not one within a relationship.

"Meeting Point" is present in the suburbs of Kampala, Hoima and Kitgum. Kampala is a town built upon seven hills and there is a slum at the foot of each one of these hills. We go through the slums every morning. In the city many people suffer from AIDS. As a result the problem of orphans continually grows. If orphans are not cared for, they will end up living in the streets.

As the population grows, so also the more the disease spreads and this causes great confusion about judgements and feelings, among which are dominant fear, shame and rejection by relatives for their sickness. This adds up to great difficulty. There are no families welcoming orphans, whose numbers are growing.

Women and men between the ages of 20 and 45, that is to say the most active section of population, are the most affected by the sickness. Most of them die in great poverty after long suffering, with a sense of helplessness and having had to give up their employment.

At present we are giving assistance to about 600 sick registered at "Meeting Point" and nearly 1,000 orphans throughout Kampala.

We care for the sick from a medical viewpoint visiting them at home and taking medicine to those who cannot afford the costs of hospitalisation. Of major assistance to orphans is the paying of their school fees, so that they can at least attend primary school. We distribute food and other goods of primary importance: blankets, soap, pans, etc.

We also care for widows and the sick also from the legal point of view - (problems pertaining to heritage, adoptions, etc.).

I am not here to describe all that we do. But what I do want to tell you and that is really close to my heart is the human person, that which concerns man. I know that you know this but as I work with them in Africa, my frailty appears more vividly before my eyes. Since I cannot stand alone, it is much easier to have an intuition of man's greatness and of how much the human being is worth, an absolutely unassailable value.

The human person is something which internally contains a complexity or mixture of emotion, wrath, reaction and tenderness which is inconceivable in any other natural phenomenon. Therefore the things we use such as time, money, food, medicines are but a tool an expression for telling the person that they are worth more than the whole world is worth and that they are responsible for this and for their own lives. It is not a collective responsibility. If it is not belonging to every single man, then it is not necessary, but completely useless. That is why we need responsible people to look up to. To be precise when using instruments on a person you need to love that person, and have consideration for that person.

In the face of the drama of the life we lead in Africa - diseases, wars, conflicts - to be part of our happiness, we need someone having passion for our dignity, and respect for our person.

My teacher used to tell me that the novelty in the world is when man belongs to something, for it is within the experience of belonging that everything changes. From this a new society, a new civilisation can be generated.

This is what I have seen happen in my life and in the lives of the people I care for. It seemed something abstract, but then I saw people change, I saw the sick that I thought would never change, change - and they have changed me, too.

The children who call me Mum - because they have found life. The prostitute Vicky who says, "I do not know what 'Meeting Point' is, but what I do know is that there are people who care for me, and that I want to live for them - Akello's children, a woman at the refugees' camp.

Well, I have already said that belonging to someone appears as something abstract, instead it is the awareness of what the human person is. The responsibility toward the dignity of that person can change the face of the world and go as far as tearing down the structures that frame it. What I wish is that the object of my work is One, that is to say the relationship with a friend. It is this position that can make me change and create something new within the existing structures.

Thank you.