English
SAFCAM Communique #42
06-03-2021
SAFCAM Communique #42 06/03/2021
Dear Subscribers
Each week the media provide us with tons of sad news. Currently it is Myanmar, Senegal, Yemen, Tigray… but at least this weekend, the world is focusing on one great news event!
Yesterday Pope Francis landed in Bagdad for a 3-day historical visit. His pilgrimage to Iraq is the boldest and riskiest of his eight-year pontificate. Yet the more difficult the trip, the greater the impact to be expected.
“It is in the countries that have suffered the most that people are in greatest need of the healing balm of a visit from the Pope. This is a motivating factor in Francis’ decision to embark on the trip despite some Holy See officials arguing privately that it might be wiser to postpone. Covid-19 cases are on the rise and rocket attacks have taken place just two days before Francis was due to board the papal plane. The Pope is also likely to use an armoured vehicle when he is in Iraq, something he has never done before.” (The Tablet).
For years, the news coming from Iraq has always been about war, bloodshed or Christians being forced to flee - they numbered over 1,5 million 20 years ago. They are at most 300,000 remaining. The papal visit offers them a ray of hope. Many Iraqis were hugely disappointed when John Paul II wasn’t able to make it in 2000. Let us pray many fruitful outcomes will result from this voyage by the pilgrim of peace.
The SAFCAM website
After exactly 11 months in existence, the website has proven useful and attracted a fair amount of cyber-traffic, but not as much as we hoped! We have posted 529 items so far, in English and in French, although only some postings are replicated in both languages. Some articles have received over 500 views but some have only received a dozen visitors. One post about Carlo Acutis has attracted 903 clicks, and the next highest is an article by Don Arokiam on Spiritual Direction with 851 clicks! We would like those of you who are subscribers to encourage the confreres of the region to use this resource and subscribe as you have done! Much obliged!
Recommended Novena Prayer to St Joseph – starting this coming week on Wednesday:
Saint Joseph, Master of interior life,
help us to be attentive listeners to God’s Word,
docile to the action of the Spirit,
and to abandon ourselves in trust to divine Providence.
Teach us to live each day in intimacy with Jesus and Mary.
Saint Joseph, we entrust to you the present
and future of our Salesian Congregation.
May our communities be true images of your family in Nazareth.
Help us, as fatherly guides and faithful custodians,
to imitate your care for Jesus,
and to bring up young people in a Christian way.
Saint Joseph the Worker, we entrust to you our daily work.
We pray for the dignity of all workers,
and for the many young people who are still jobless.
PATRON SAINT OF OUR CONGREGATION,
obtain for us the help we need in this present time.
Saint Joseph, faithful Guardian of the Church,
inspire all Confreres, always and everywhere,
to be faithful witnesses to the Gospel, in the heart of this world,
which is in such great need of justice, peace and harmony. Amen.
Welcome back Don Guillermo Basanes
He will be installed as provincial of AFC on the 19th March in Lubumbashi.
He is already pretty well known to us all due to the six years he spent as our Regional.
But to discover further details, see his CV summary on www.safcam.org !
Recommended viewing:
With the feast of St Joseph coming up, here is a 15-minute talk from YouTube by Jason Evert:
https://youtu.be/Kp9hv0TMqNM - St Joseph, Guardian of the Virgin Mary
This is his Jason’s 38th talk on his YouTube channel. Most of his topics deal with sexuality and relationships. He is a theology of the body promoter and very catholic, married with 8 children!
A 40-minute documentary – Covid,Tango and the Lagom Way - analyses one year after the world was hit with the pandemic, the different ways countries have coped and tried to beat the coronavirus, comparing especially Sweden and the UK’s approaches. This doccie raises many different issues and is worth watching with a group and discussing the alternative scientific, political, economic, medical answers as it challenges what has generally been the only politically correct views on Covid matters - https://youtu.be/Ri_yU_gHLcA
Wishing you a blessed third week of Lent,
Camiel and François
