CHRON2504

Saint Lucia

	July 2004 47th Year No7 Internet Edition Page 2 Click below for Page 1 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Home

Editoral

Crime and Violence, Of Course We Care!

How dare anyone suggest that the Catholic Church in Saint Lucia is not concerned about crime! This was my immediate reaction when a reporter from Radio Caribbean called for a comment on remarks by a platform speaker at the Organization of National Empowerment’s (ONE) march against crime on July 5th. According to the reporter, one speaker said that the absence of the Catholic Church was a sign of lack of concern for the rising criminality in the society. I guess by “Catholic Church” the speaker was referring to church leaders.
This was a very unfortunate statement, I told the reporter, and misinformed. The speaker was evidently unaware that the Catholic Church in Saint Lucia had been one of the worst victims of criminality in this country. Two Catholic religious sisters , Sr. Theresa Egan SJC and Sr. Francis Teresa Keenan SJC, and a Catholic priest, Fr. Charles Gaillard had been brutally murdered in this country. Hundreds of Catholic worshippers had been attacked during Mass at the Minor Basilica. The Catholic Church has tasted a quality of violence we hope the speaker will never have to endure. ONE and organizations of similar ilk, should be more careful about the kinds of accusations they permit from their platform.
It so happened that at the very time of the march, the hierarchy of the Catholic Church along with the Minister of Education, his Permanent Secretary, the Political Leader of the Opposition United Workers Party and many distinguished St. Lucians were supporting the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny in celebrating 150 years of service in education in St. Lucia and the Caribbean. The same Cluny Sisters who had lost two of their members through violence in St. Lucia. They had brought together some fifty (50) nuns, principals, teachers, students and board members from their schools in Ireland, Guadeloupe, Trinidad & Tobago, St. Vincent, Grenada, and St. Lucia for a symposium on education which opened at 5.00 p.m. July 5th. Of course, this event had been planned over a year ago, and the Catholic Church and others justly gave priority to it. Our platform speaker was evidently unaware of these activities (which were all over the news) or perhaps unconcerned about 150 years of service to education in St. Lucia!

The Church has spoken on crime and violence

What was most pathetic about the platform speaker’s remarks is the evident ignorance about the Church’s public statements and position on crime and violence. Where has this person been since the Cathedral attack and now? Perhaps just landed after visiting the rings around Saturn! In 2000, the twenty-two (22) Catholic Bishops of the Caribbean brought out a public document or pastoral letter “On Capital Punishment,” looking at how society deals with crime and violence especially those which cause death. The public debate on the Church’s position continues to this day in St. Lucia.
On the 20th January this year, Archbishop Kelvin Felix, Bishop Gabriel Malzaire (Dominica) and Bishop Vincent Darius (Grenada) launched another pastoral letter, this time specifically on “Crime and Violence” during a press conference here in St. Lucia. Copies of the document signed by 19 Catholic Bishops of the Caribbean were distributed to all media houses and received extensive press coverage. The entire document was also published in the Catholic Chronicle (January/February, 2004, 47th Year, Nos.1-2). Perhaps our platform speaker was still in orbit!
This document looks at all forms of violence in society : (a) Criminal, the violence that violates the constitutional rights of others protected by law; Political, including international wars, civil disturbance along party lines, community divisions, gangs; Economic violence such as slavery, colonialism, class structure, inequality; State violence through the actions of the police, security forces and the judicial system; Institutional violence through education, health, church; Domestic violence between couples and against children; Racial or ethnic violence directed against nations, peoples, or minorities; Religious violence against peoples of other faiths; Gender and sexual violence such as abuse of women and discrimination against homosexuals; Ecological violence or destruction of the environment.
The document also examines such issues as the negative effects of globalization, the drug trade, and the proliferation of guns. It states in part “It is clear…that the problem of crime and violence in the Caribbean has many and complex causes. It is not just a question of psychological or moral disorder on the part of a few disturbed individuals. It is related to a network of sources and causes ranging from the social origins of our societies to the social conditions of poverty, unemployment, exclusion and exploitation that we see all around us. It is fuelled by an illegal narcotics trade and reinforced by the influence of the media”(art. 24).

What can be done ?

The bishops make several suggestions about what can be done in the face of rising crime and violence. Among them : (a) individual and group counselling with conflict resolution programmes for students and parents; (b) the promotion of youth service programmes including media education on the power and influence of the mass media; (c) poverty alleviation and employment generation (both short-term and long-term); (d) support for family life;(e) review of the strategy of aggressive law enforcement and severe punishment as part of reform of the enforcement and penal agencies;(f) monitoring of the security forces to avoid promotion of the police as a quasi-military force or the use of the military for domestic peace-keeping.
Finally, in the document there are useful exercises and questions for group discussion which our platform speaker may find interesting. One such exercise reads : “Go through the newspaper, or watch a news programme then (i) count the number of stories about violence in your community or nation; (ii) identify the form of abuse that is described ( physical, verbal, sexual, etc.); (iii) try to place the violent act in one of the categories of violence discussed (criminal, political, domestic etc.); (iv) why was the violence done (to punish, to take something, to protect something, etc)? what was the motivation (hatred, greed, fear etc.)”.
As for group discussion questions there are many: What is the relationship of poverty and unemployment to criminal violence? What is the relationship of some aspects of poverty (like overcrowding, stress, lack of self esteem) to violence in the home ? Do the current practices of the police and defense forces (such as the use of excessive force, extra-judicial killing) bring peace, or contribute to the cycle of violence? Do the judicial and penal systems of our Nations effectively reform criminals? Perhaps all this will enlighten those who were of the impression that the Church is not concerned about crime and violence.

Theo's Corner
by
Msgr. Theophilus

Rastafarianism and
the Roman Catholic Church

Roll On

Roll on, roll on sweet moments,
Roll on, And let these poor pilgrims go home, go home.
When I was blind and could not see,
King Jesus brought that light to me.
The heavenly land so bright and fear ,
There are very few seem going there.

King Jesus Is A-Listing

King Jesus is a listing,
All day long, King Jesus is a listing,
All day long, King Jesus is a listing
All day long to hear some sinner pray
Hm, Hm, Hm, Hm, Hm
That gospel train is coming,
’Tis rumbling thro’ the land ,
I heard them wheels a-humming,
Get ready for that train.
I know I’ve been converted,
I ain’t goin ‘t make no alarm,
My soul’s been anchored in Jesus,
And devil can’t do me harm.

The Old Ark A-Moverin ‘ Along

The old ark a moverin,’ a moverin ‘ along,
The old ark a moverin,’ a moervin “ along.
Oh the old ark a moverin,’ a moverin,’ a moverin ,’
The old ark a moverin ‘ along, Old ark a moverin’
A moverin ‘ along.
Just wait a little while I’m gwine to tell you ‘bout the ark
The Lord He told old Noah for to build him an old ark.
Then Noah and his sons they went to work upon dry land
They built that ark according to the Lord’s command
Old Noah and his sons they went to work upon the timber
The proud began to laugh, the silly point their finger.
And when the ark was finished all according to the plan
Old Master Noah took in family, animal and man.
Now when the rain began to fall the ark began to rise
The wicked they hung all around with groans and cries
For forty days and forty nights the rain it kept a falling
The wicked they climbing the trees and loud for help they
That awful rain it stopped at last the waters subsided
And that old ark with all on board on Ararat rided”

True liberation comes when the African crosses over from slavery to freedom. They are songs not of despair, but of hope and they portray the deep spirituality of the African in the Diaspora. They portray an eschatological liberation from oppression - They portray a movement from physical slavery to spiritual freedom.

ii. Searching for Answers

In this conclusion I have tried briefly to seek out another historical context going much further afield, perhaps at times being lost in the facts of history, but I am seeking an understanding -a theological understanding of why those young men sought to destroy persons and property at the Cathedral on December 31 st 2000? Did they want to be martyrs for the cause of liberation? Were they simply posturing as Rastafarians as the leaders of the Rastafarian suggested? Or did they genuinely feel they were doing the work of God? Did they feel that their greatest enemy is the Roman Catholic Church? Did they feel that the Church must die so that they can rise? Were they popularity seekers knowing that the eyes of the world would be focused on them? These are questions which I am sure will engage my reflections for many years, yet as one involved in the Pastoral Ministry, I cannot but seek within my own faith experience and my experience as one in the Diaspora a basis for my own understanding of the incident.

iii. The NewApproach

While reading the’ Autobiography of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ‘ and the book of Bryan Stone entitled “Compassionate Ministry” the answers began to flow, -answers which have given me a revised pastoral approach. When Bryan Stone speaks of the Story of Jonah and likened Jonah to an effective preacher whose words motivated the people of Nineveh to change their ways, but ended there, he had no compassion for those now changed people In fact we read in his book, that he sat down in the hot sun being regretful that the Ninevites had been converted. Stone points to the example of Jesus especially the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:23-37) and shows Jesus, not only as a preacher but as a man of compassion -as a fully human model of God’s compassion. The parable shows Jesus stepping into the circle of those who suffer and are marginalized. Jesus shows solidarity with the human predicament, one must always link theology to spirituality. In fact there can never be a Theology which does not flow from a Spirituality. In the same way there cannot be a Ministry which does not embrace both Spirituality and Theology. Martin Luther King Jr. had this insight when he wrote the following, which I would consider foundational to my revised Ministry.

“It has been my conviction ever since Rauschenbusch that any religion that professes concern for the soulof men and is not equally concerned about the slumsthat damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion only waiting for the day to be buried. It well has been said: “ A religion that ends with the individual, ends. “
I feel that preaching is one of the most vital needs of our society, if it is used correctly. There is a great paradox in preaching: on the one hand it may be very helpful and on the other it may be very pernicious. It is my opinion that sincerity is not enough for the preaching ministry. The minister should possess profundity of conviction. We have too many ministers in the pulpit who are great spellbinders and too few who possess spiritual power. It is my profound conviction that I, as an aspirant for the ministry, should possess these powers.
I think that preaching should grow out of the experiences of the people. Therefore, I as a minister, must know the problems of the people that I am pastoring. Too often do educated ministers leave the people lost in the fog of theological abstraction, rather than presenting that theology in the light of the people’s experiences. It is my conviction that the minister must somehow take profound theological and philosophical views and place them in a concrete framework. I must forever make the complex the simple.
Above all, I see the preaching ministry as a dual process. On the one hand I must attempt to change the soul of individuals so that their societies may be changed On the other I must attempt to change the society so that the individual soul will have a change. Therefore, I must be concerned about unemployment, slums, and economicinsecurity. I am a profound advocate of the social gospel”
Those too are my concerns as 1 continue to reflect with the victims of the incident. Each Visit does convince me that I must proclaim more loudly than ever the message Arise, Shine out, Be free.

Saint of the Month
by Sr. Theresa Corbie, S.J.C.

St. Maria Goretti, Virgin and Martyr
1890 - 1902 Patroness of Youth
Feast Day: July 6th

Maria Teresa Goretti was born in Corinaldo, Italy on 16 October. 1890. She was baptized and confirmed the next day. Her parents, Luigi and Assunta Goretti were poor peasants. Seven children were born to this union, a familv happy in their love for God, Mary and each other. Because of their acute poverty, Maria did not attend school. She was a cheerful child, always ready to help her mother and look after her younger siblings.
When Maria was eight years old, the family moved to the Pontine Marshes - a mosquito infested area where disease was rampant. Here Luigi Goretti and his partner, Signor Serenelli, became tenent-farmers to Conte Mazzoleni.
The two families moved to Ferriere di Conca where they
lived in premises above an old dairy farm. In this unhealthy land Luigi fell victim to multiple diseases. During his last illness, while Assunta remained at his bed-side, ten year old Maria ran the house -a helpful, attractive child, intelligent, selfless, prayerful.
Before his death in May 1900 Luigi begged Assunta to return with the children to Corinaldo, but Assunta felt the need to take over Luigi’s job so as to support her family. Maria was thus obliged to do the household chores for both families. Because of Signor Serenelli’s stinginess, the family became poorer. Assunta complained to the landlord but this turned Serenelli against her.
Maria taught the children what she had learnt in church. She was the support of her mother, often counseling her to be totally dependent on God and Mary to provide for and protect them.
Because Maria could not read nor write and because of the family’s destitution, Assunta felt that Maria would have to wait long before she received her First Communion. Maria, however, found someone to teach her Christian Doctrine. Throughout the spring of 1902, eleven-year-old Maria seemed to grow spiritually as she prepared to receive her Lord. Her love of God showed itself in her willingness to work even more lovingly for her family. In May 1902, dressed in clothes supplied by poor neighbours, Maria received her First Comunion. The sermon at the Mass was “purity at all cost.”
On Saturday morning July 5, 1902 while the two families were working in the field near the house, 19 year old Alessandro Serenelli returned to the house where Maria was alone with her baby sister. Armed with a sharpened 9 1/2” pointed blade, Alessandro dragged Maria into a room and tried to rape her. She fought against him crying out that what he was doing was sinful and he would go to hell. Angered by her refusal, Alessandro stabbed her repeatedly. Drawn by the noise and the baby’s cries Signor Serenelli and Assunta rushed to the house and discovered Maria dragging herself toward the door. She explained that Alessandro had stabbed her. “He wanted me to do wrong and I would not.” Maria was taken to the hospital where she died at 3 o’clock on Sunday July 6th She received Viaticum and died forgiving Alessandro asking God to forgive hjm.
Alessandro was sentenced to 30 years in prison in Sicily. After eight unrepentant years, he was finally moved to conversion through a dream he had of Maria On l0th November 1910 he wrote to the bishop asking for forgiveness.
In 1947 Pope Pius XII beatified Maria. She was canonized on June 25, 1950. Her feast is kept on 6th July.

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