Daily Archives: February 26, 2016

Brazil

New documentary on life of Sr Dorothy Stang

Independent Catholic News

Amazonia: Dorothy Stang’s Struggle tells the story of US-born Dorothy Stang (1931-2005), who joined the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur and then lived Laudato Si’ long before it was written. With every breath, Sister Stang made the protection of the poor and respect for creation her life’s mission – and she did it in one of the most essential, most threatened, and most coveted ecosystems on Earth.

As a result of her support for the indigenous peoples of the Amazon – and of the environment in which they lived – she was assassinated in February of 2005 by the hired gunmen of prominent landowners whose abuses Sister Stang had denounced again and again.

“We made this film in the spirit of Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’,” Fr Gabriel Roussineau, Net for God’s Director, told Catholic Ecology. “We wanted to demonstrate an authentic witness to the commitment to ‘integral ecology’ advocated by Pope Francis. Sr Dorothy Stang’s life continues to bear fruit today, inspiring many local initiatives for the protection of biodiversity.” Continue reading New documentary on life of Sr Dorothy Stang →

Church

As pope winds up Mexico trip, thoughts on the big picture

Crux
By John L. Allen Jr.
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EL PASO — Pope Francis’ Feb. 12-17 swing through Mexico reaches a crescendo on Wednesday in Ciudad Juárez, just across the US border from El Paso. So far history’s first Latin American pontiff has been a sensation, drawing rapturous crowds and saturation media coverage.

In the United States, Wednesday’s border stop is likely to be viewed through the prism of the politics of 2016 and debates over immigration reform, but Mexicans value the gesture for another reason, too: Ciudad Juárez is also associated with their country’s epidemic of gang- and drug-related violence. Continue reading As pope winds up Mexico trip, thoughts on the big picture →

Zimbabwe

Groundwater Crisis Worsens Food Insecurity

InterPress Service

By Ignatius Banda

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BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Feb 23 2016 (IPS) – Sijabuliso Nleya has been kept busy in the past few weeks digging up sand. He is not a sand poacher like scores of people who local district councils across the country say are digging along dry river beds for sand used in the construction of houses. “The situation is terrible,” said Nleya, who owns a plot in Douglasdale, a small farming community on the outskirts of Bulawayo.

Together with other men, he has been filling up dry wells and boreholes, as groundwater increasingly becomes an unforeseen casualty of climate change, thanks to the absence of rainfall for long periods across the country. “The dry wells have become dangerous when in the past they were a source of our livelihood. It’s better to fill them with sand than dream that they will provide us with water one day,” Nleya told IPS. Continue reading Groundwater Crisis Worsens Food Insecurity →

South Africa

South Africa: Zuma delivers “no hope” State of the Nation

African Arguments
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South African President Jacob Zuma has delivered his annual State of the Nation address in the country’s parliament. After more than an hour of disruptions and interruptions, mostly by members of the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters, Zuma finally got down to business. Or did he?

The Conversation Africa’s Politics and Society editor Thabo Leshilo and Voice of Wits presenter Tsholofelo Semenya put some questions to Professor Susan Booysen. You can listen to the audio or read the transcript below.

(Download) Continue reading South Africa: Zuma delivers “no hope” State of the Nation →

South Sudan

Catholic Bishops of Sudan, South Sudan call for more to be done to honour peace agreement

Independent Catholic News

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Catholic Bishops of Sudan and South Sudan, in a pastoral letter, have said that the suffering and misery caused by “insecurity and wars” must end. “People are hurting beyond bearable proportions. This unacceptable situation cannot go on forever,” they said in a statement after meeting in Rome last month.

The conflict that erupted in South Sudan two years ago, according to the UN, has left 6.4million people in need of emergency aid, 1.7 million people without homes to return to, and more than 640,000 South Sudanese living as refugees in neighboring countries. Continue reading Catholic Bishops of Sudan, South Sudan call for more to be done to honour peace agreement →