English
Communique #15 08/08/2020
Communique #15 08/08/2020 St Dominic
Chers abonnés francophones (qui êtes une petite minorité encore parmi tous nos abonnes !)
Nous regrettons de ne pas proposer une traduction de ce 15e communiqué, mais tout le contenu ci-dessous fait référence à des ressources qui ne sont disponibles qu'en anglais. Nous essaierons de compenser cela dans un prochain communiqué, mais nous ne sommes pas aussi compétents pour trouver des sources francophones. Si vous êtes en mesure de nous aider à le faire, nous vous en serions très reconnaissants ! Visitez quand même le site pour voir les derniers éléments postés.
Dear SAFCAM.org subscribers
Happy feast of St Dominic. We are happy to know that Fr Alphonse Ouwoudou, our regional, has finally made it back to Africa for the first time since GC28, and intends to start visiting our provinces as soon as the lifting of travel restrictions permit him to do so.
This week we draw your attention to a few items on the website and elsewhere on the net!
Recently, the admission by the UN that the population of the world would peak by the end of this century – 2100 – and not exceed 9 or 9.5 billion, made the news. The same UN and its ‘experts’ have been constantly ringing alarm bells through the media about population explosions to justify their heavily funded birth control campaigns. Now the alarm is that population implosion will cause major crises in many parts of the world, except in Africa(?). Anyway, we recommend that you read a very interesting article on the National Security Study Memorandum which we have posted on the website, by Brian Clowes (PhD). It summarizes a secret/confidential memorandum by the US government in 1974, with the objective of reducing the population growth in Africa and LDCs (Less-Developed-Countries as they called them then) so as to ensure the supply of raw materials from these same parts of the world would not be jeopardized.
The original NSSM-200 memorandum (137 pages) is also posted on the website for those who wish to verify that what Brian Clowes states is not fake news! It is worth browsing through the last section where the Memo recommends the (unethical) strategies that the USA govt should adopt! This document which should be a source of major outrage for its blatant racist, eugenist and unscrupulous principles, does not even receive any attention at all from the media sadly.
Another posting on our website is the Maputo Protocol. Like the above document, this 2003 agreement signed by leaders of African countries ought to be familiar to us as we minister on this continent. Its objective is to protect and promote the rights of women, and eliminate various forms of discrimination against women, and for the most part can be useful in our need to educate to good citizenship… It is a pity that it introduces at article 14 #2c the following:
“States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to:
protect the reproductive rights of women by authorising medical abortion in cases of sexual assault, rape, incest, and where the continued pregnancy endangers the mental and physical health of the mother or the life of the mother or the foetus.”
Even if it appears restrictive, once any country introduces legislation of this sort on abortion, it is the thin edge of the wedge to unconditional legalisation of it. Caution therefore is called for regarding such international accords, but for the rest, much of the Maputo Protocol is worth referring to, even in sermons.
Well worth watching
A 30-minute presentation of Bosco Boys, Nairobi, produced by Shalom Media USA - https://youtu.be/881_qiXReNE - heart-warming and inspiring testimonies of the mission of Don Bosco to very needy youth under the title – Illuminating the dark streets of Africa
Also, Fr Glenford Lowe sdb has begun his own YouTube channel – easy to find by a search for
‘Bosco Bytes’. Here is a link to one of his clips: (Don’t forget to click “Like”!)
https://youtu.be/v0Mp-5SSh8I - Don Bosco Meets Felix Reviglio
Because of the pandemic, very few were able to participate in the annual youth festivals from the 1st to 6th August this past week in Taizé and Medjugorje – but some of the programs were livestreamed. Highlights are available and found by simple search on Google or YouTube for:
‘Taizé Livestream’ and/or ‘Medjugorje Livestream’
Also discovered online this week – an incredible digital library of thousands of downloadable pdf versions of classical books, ancient to recent. Just clicking on ‘Free Traditional Catholic Books’ will lead you to the site.
Last week we recommended an online leadership course run by DePaul University.
Another training course - https://learn.ecubed-dbe.org/ - secular based South African education department. It is a basic educators’ course but it changes attitudes and mentality and it teaches a new language. Worth following together with staff of a school, TVET or project of any kind.
God bless
Camiel and Francois
PS – In case you wonder, here is the translation of the lines in French above!
“We regret that we do not offer a translation of this 15th communique, but all the contents refer to resources which are only available in English. We will try to make up for that in a future communique, but are not as proficient in finding Francophone sources. If you are able to assist us in doing so we would be most grateful!”
