English
SAFCAM Communique #38 English
06 February 2021
SAFCAM Communique #38 06/02/2021
Dear Subscribers
Two days ago, the celebration of the world day of Human Fraternity was declared by the UN, in commemoration of the signing of joint document by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar,
Ahmad Al-Tayyeb two years ago on the 4th February. Sadly, it attracted very little attention. Instead, the focus remains the pandemic and the battle of the vaccines. It is also distressing that prominent fighters for liberty, justice and peace in various parts of the world, are being severely persecuted under trumped up charges: Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar, Alexei Navalny in Russia, Bobby Wine in Uganda, Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong, among many others. Thousands get arrested for just voicing their disagreement against autocratic powers. The message of Fratelli Tutti has fallen on deaf ears. Another tragedy this week was the political assassination of Lokman Slim, who was among a small group of political activists from Lebanon’s Shiite Muslim minority who openly criticized Hezbollah, a Shiite extremist group, for its violent role in the country and the wider Middle East. A phrase from the movie – The Mission – keeps echoing in my mind: “If might is right, then there is no place for love in this world, and in that kind of world, I’d rather not live.”
As the world prepares to celebrate LOVE again on Valentine’s day next weekend, let us strive to promote a clear understanding of God’s call to love our neighbours inclusively! Maybe there is a need for weekly Valentines’ days!
A parable for our time… (Just as valid a year after we first published it!)
Once upon a time there was a leper colony. The strange thing about this leprosarium is that almost all its patients were not lepers. The vast majority were not even carriers. Stranger yet, the non-lepers had to live like lepers taking care not to spread the disease they did not even have. Moreover, they had to treat all others like lepers, and were to patiently accept to be treated like lepers in turn by them.
Thus, each person was presumed to be infected, even after testing negative.
Everyone had to keep a certain distance from others, as if each were diseased.
Some non-lepers were also labelled “non-essential,” which meant they had to remain idle inside to “reduce the danger of contagion.” The basic rule was to avoid contact with everyone. Failure to treat non-lepers as lepers, carried high penalties. The only way out of the leper colony was in fact to become a leper!
The minute someone caught the disease, the person was taken out of the crowded neighbourhood and brought to hospitals, full of beds, to be isolated from the non-lepers.
Inside the hospital, they were taken care of by heroic doctors and health workers who worked scientific wonders, curing many lepers who, once discharged, were presumed immune from contagion.
However, those who were cured and discharged, still had to return to the leper colony!
The colony included a huge majority of non-lepers who had almost no chance of ever becoming lepers.
Children and teenagers were locked up behind the leper colony’s walls, to protect them from a disease that could only harm older folk. Science and statistics showed that children ran almost no risk of death and ran far greater risks from accidents, poverty, and other consequences of what were called “lockdowns”. However, no exception was made for them.
Inside the Grand Leprosarium, not only people, but even objects were assumed to be infected and contagious. Thus, everything non-lepers touched was not to be trusted, and had to be sanitized.
No measure was too strict or caution too great to be implemented, even if it meant wrecking almost everything in the leper colony. This colony’s idiosyncrasies might have been bearable if the place were administered competently and efficiently. But instead, confusion reigned! A panel of experts ruled, but loudspeakers blasted contradictory messages regularly.
One day they said masks were good and effective. The next that they were bad and useless.
They argued over how long surfaces might remain infected: one hour, one day or even one week.
They established how far infected droplets could spread. Other experts presented distorted projections that predicted catastrophes one day, and drastically reduced their projections the next. In the many zones of the colony, a variety of rules applied, which ensured all non-lepers were still treated like lepers.
Some ward chieftains inflicted draconian measures. Others were a little more reasonable. No consensus could be reached about when it would be safe to declare non-lepers to be healthy citizens again.
The least politically risky course was a complex set of “phases” or lockdown levels, which gradually returned everything to a new, undefined and less than normal state. Inside the wards, the non-leper patients waited around, somewhat dazed over what was happening. Rumours, conspiracy theories and reports of fake remedies circulated. One theory sounded so reasonable one day, while a contrary one seemed more plausible the next. Alarmists predicted an apocalypse; minimalists described the disease as little more than the common flu. One of the most disputed norms was the universal banning of Church services. Most administrators and even chaplains agreed that gathering to pray in common was to be forbidden. It was as if God too was treated like a leper. His people were to be kept away from Him, to avoid spreading the plague.
Slowly but surely, the leprosarium’s regulations disintegrated, since no one could work or live under such unstable conditions for long. Trillions in finances had been wasted, and tens of millions of jobs vanished, many never to return. This was the crazy state of that leper colony. Non-lepers pretending they and everyone else were lepers! A place where people pretended to be what they were not!
Ultimately this was not really a leprosarium but an insane asylum! - adapted from a John Horvat blog
Coming up next weekend - The WORD 2021 International Catholic Bible Summit.
More than 70 of the most gifted, beloved, and effective voices in the Church (including the likes of Scott Hahn and Fr Mike Schmitz) will be showing how to use the Bible to find answers, hope, and peace no matter the circumstance. This unprecedented event is FREE to attend and you will have access to all 75+ presentations from Feb. 11-13th – evening of Friday to midnight of Sunday. Just google ‘WORD 2021 International Catholic Bible Summit’ and it will lead you to the site where you can register.
Have a look at this short Sky-TV report on Northern Mozambique: “Escaping 'the land of fear' - Crisis as half a million people flee Islamist insurgency”. Another immense tragedy which the world is ignoring:
Have a look also at the interesting Jesuit website! www.jesuits.africa
God bless
Camiel (who is awaiting his discharge from hospital) and François
