AN AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM AGAINST DRUGS

The Community of Saint Paul starts an after school program in Pesebre, a neighborhood in the south of Bogotá

Since last January, members of the CSP have worked in La Resurrección Parish, located in the southern part of Bogotá. The parish territory includes La Resurrección, Granjas de San Pablo and Pesebre neighborhoods: these are humble, working-class areas of the Colombian capital, mostly layer 2 on the socioeconomic classification of the City of Bogota (which lists the neighborhoods of the capital from 1 to 6, with 1 being the areas with least resources and 6 the wealthiest).

These sectors face a remarkable variety of challenges, from the overcrowding of people in homes of poor quality to the difficulties of families in obtaining quality health services; from the few job opportunities for young people to the abandonment of many elderly. However, after listening in various meetings to the population of these neighborhoods, we soon found that one problem concerns them more than any other: the insecurity prevailing in the streets, directly related to the consumption of narcotic substances by many young people, who commit crimes to obtain resources to be able to use drugs. Drug dependence, in turn linked to the lack of opportunities that many young people face, is a real epidemic in these neighborhoods, where everyone recognizes the existence of several "ollas"—literally, “cooking pots”, that is, spots where drugs are sold in the streets of the capital by the nets of trafficking.

Many people have told us about a dramatic new concern: increased drug use among children of progressively younger ages. If a few years ago those who fell into drug dependence were generally kids older than sixteen or seventeen, the need of the drug dealers to expand the sale of their substances has now made it common that children aged nine, ten and eleven may start using them.

While recognizing the magnitude of the problem, and that all our efforts will just be a drop of water in a great ocean, we considered what to do to help, even in a modest way, to curb this trend. We decided to offer tutoring classes in the evenings, on the premises of the parish in the Pesebre neighborhood. We started in late July: fifteen children between 8 and 12 years were enrolled on the first day, and we hope that this service will keep growing. Part of the problem is that many children who go to school in the morning are by themselves when they come home at two or three in the afternoon, since their parents are away at work, many until late into the night. These children then have no one to help them do their homework or to prevent them from leaving and wandering the streets until dusk, which obviously makes it easier for them to end up falling into the networks of consumption. Our proposal is very simple: to provide a space where these children can go after school, and where they will be helped to advance in their studies, with tutoring and room assignments, and thus perhaps prevent drug dependence from taking over their lives. We have just started. We hope that this becomes a long-term project that may bear some fruit!

A PILGRIMAGE OF FAITH TO A PILGRIM COMMUNITY

La Sagrada Familia Parish in the Dominican Republic receives visitors from Milwaukee

This year Catholics in Southeastern Wisconsin commemorate the 35^th anniversary of the twinning relationship between the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and La Sagrada Familia parish in Sabana Yegua, Azua, in the Dominican Republic. During all of these years, priests from Milwaukee have run the parish, sharing their faith and love with the people of Sabana Yegua and its surrounding rural communities. Since 2003, members of the Community of Saint Paul, lay and ordained, have been in charge of the parish on behalf of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

In order to commemorate these 35 years of partnership, different activities have been organized, so that people can participate and experience this partnership of faith. In late June and early July we have had two groups of pilgrims from Milwaukee visiting the parish.

The first was a group of 25 young adults, plus 7 seminarians from the archdiocese, who spent a week in the parish and were immersed in different activities with children, youth and the community at large. It was a great experience for the young adults coming from Milwaukee and the youth from the parish who came together to interact and share their talents and faith. The group was a coordinated effort put in place by the World Mission Office of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, Catholic Financial Life Insurance company and, also, the archdiocesan office for Young Adult ministries. These three organizations came together and worked hard to make a wonderful pilgrimage of faith for the young adults participating on the trip. The seven seminarians held reflections and activities while sharing with the 25 young adults, who expressed that they were going back home transformed by this pilgrimage.

The second was a group of six men, five of whom are in training to be ordained permanent deacons in the archdiocese of Milwaukee. They visited La Sagrada Familia parish as part of their formation plan. They stayed with families in their Sabana Yegua homes, got to know the different ministries and then in the evenings reflected theologically about what they were seeing. It was a wonderful combination of theological reflection, prayer and sharing faith and love with the local community.

NEW APPOINTMENT IN THE ARCHDIOCESE OF MILWAUKEE

In June, Fr. Javier Guativa, from the CSP, became the new Administrator of two parishes in Racine, Wisconsin

After five years of pastoral work on the Southside of Milwaukee, Javier Guativa, a priest of the Community of St. Paul, was appointed by Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki as the Parish Administrator of Saint Lucy and Saint Sebastian parishes in Racine and nearby Sturtevant.

The parish of Saint Lucy, located in southeastern Racine, is the largest parish in Racine with 5,550 members and a school of 282 students. It has a variety of ministries for youth and adults as well women’s groups and a men’s Bible group that meets every Saturday to discuss the Sunday readings. Saint Sebastian parish is located to the west of Saint Lucy. It is a rural parish with 1,254 members, many of whom are local farmers.

The two parishes have been operating together as a cluster for the past two years, sharing the priest and the various ministries, which helps make the two communities grow together in faith.

We are pleased that Javier will now work pastorally in Racine, where Ricardo Martín and Antony Thomas, also priests of the CSP, are already pastors, and where our Community has its international headquarters.

ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Bishop José Grullón celebrates 25 years of episcopal ministry in the Diocese of San Juan de la Maguana

On June 22 we celebrated the silver anniversary of Bishop José Grullón’s service to the Church in the diocese of San Juan de la Maguana. Ordained a priest 45 years ago, our “Brother José”, as he likes to be called, has guided the diocese in which La Sagrada Familia Parish of Sabana Yegua is located since 1991.

In the moving celebration that took place a few weeks ago for that occasion, those attending were invited to remember the personal itinerary of this   kind, unassuming bishop, a tireless worker who is also very close to his people. Emphasis was drawn to his congeniality and apostolic zeal in all areas of pastoral life, as well as to his great work for human development in the diocese, which is the biggest of the country in territory (more than 7,000 square kilometers), and is located in one of the most disadvantaged areas of the Dominican Republic. The construction of aqueducts, bridges, latrines, and rural roads as well as many educational and health projects throughout his 25 years attest to the sensitivity of this pastor regarding the needs of those the Church placed under his care.

On his annual visits to all the parishes of the Diocese, Bishop Grullón goes to even the most remote communities, riding a donkey if necessary, when visiting a village that lacks access to vehicles. He greets each family and devotes his time to all who want to talk with him. He also he encourages everyone with his optimism and ideas.

We participated with gratitude in his celebration. Grateful for everything Bishop Grullón has done for this region and also because it was thirteen years ago that he welcomed with affection the Community of Saint Paul in his Diocese. Since then, he has been both our bishop and friend. May we all learn to follow his example and dedicate ourselves to the Gospel of Jesus with the same vision, faith and enthusiasm.

REFLECTION

Francis: Just a change of tone?

Martí Colom

Quite often the tone of a message says more than its actual content. Sometimes, in fact, the tone is the message, almost above its substance.

Therefore, to focus our attention on the tone with which we communicate with one another is never a superfluous exercise, and it does not mean that we are avoiding the substantive issues. We must always pay attention to the tone, because using the wrong one can ruin an exchange of information, just as hitting the right tone to express an opinion can enable the articulation of the most difficult messages, even messages that might generate opposition in their recipients.

In fact, as receivers, we first capture the tone, rather than the substance, of what we hear, and at the end of the communicative exchange we remember the tone even more than its substance, because it is the tone that has touched our emotions, and has largely determined our reaction, either positive or negative, acceptance or rejection.

The emotions experienced while we hear or read a message tend to have a greater impact on us than the purely intellectual stimulus caused by the ideas raised, and usually stay with us longer. In the end, therefore, the content of what was said can be diluted or even lost and forgotten between this reception of the tone that occurs before the assimilation of the message and the memory of the tone that lingers in our memory after its reception.

Furthermore, the tone is also fundamentally inseparable from the substance, and so we find that there are tones that prevent certain ideas from being properly expressed. A nervous tone will not serve to accompany a call to serenity, an aggressive and haughty tone can hardly convey an empathic message, an anguished tone will be useless in order to transmit hope, and an exhortation to peace cannot be delivered in a resentful tone. Similarly, it will be very difficult to use a jovial tone to convey a reproach or an antagonistic tone to effect reconciliation, a disgruntled tone to convey joy or a comical tone to talk about violence. There are tones that, quite simply, hinder the process of transmitting what needs to be communicated.

The tone we use will be especially important when attempting to share ideas and considerations about faith and spirituality, because these are realities where the subjectivity and the personal experience of the speaker have much relevance, while at the same time are topics which touch an intimate dimension of those receiving the message.

All this may help us understand what is happening around Pope Francis. Some critics, speaking from their desire to see significant reforms in the Church, and perhaps out of frustration with what they perceive as the absence of such reforms, censure the pope for changing only the tone of the ecclesiastical discourse. What they mean is that they recognize a novelty in Francis' style, and they admit that his speeches and writings have lost the severe, moralizing, haughty and even arrogant accent that often characterized the magisterium until recently. However, they believe that this does not change anything, because they do not observe any transformation in the substance of what the Pope says. It is the same lyrics with different music, some have said: the melody is now more modern, but we have heard the words before.

These critics forget that—as we mentioned earlier—a change in tone is already a change of substance. It seems to us that Francis knows quite well what he is doing: if gentleness, humility, and simplicity become the new tone with which the Church expresses herself and makes her voice heard in the world, it will be quite difficult to keep communicating certain ideas, or at least they will have to be profoundly rethought. His non-authoritarian tone—and his emphasis on the need to dialogue with everyone—not only offers a new face of the Church, with a decisive emphasis on mercy, understanding, and joy: his new tone actually calls into question a more rigorous, “black and white”, narrow and inflexible interpretation of the truths of our faith.

If it is true that the tone is already part of the message, then the conclusion is that Francis is indeed saying new things. Using a new tone, he opens the door to new content, very aware, we dare to suggest, that the inevitable consequence of his change of tone is the discovery of a new light that necessarily impacts the living of the faith.

Obviously, something else (perhaps the most relevant point of this brief reflection) needs to be added: that using the style of tenderness and choosing the tone and the language of mercy, Francis is simply recovering Jesus’ own tone. The “new” style of this pope is nothing but a return to what is more typical of the Gospel; a return to the voice that again and again encouraged people to stand up, to discover that their own faith had saved them. It is the voice that told the woman, “Neither do I condemn you” and the disciples, “I call you friends.” The “new” style of Francis is simply a return to, as well as an open door into, the more authentic core of the Christian message, something that maybe the magisterium had forgotten for quite some time by fostering an abstract, grave, defensive and often irritated tone to talk about the things of God.

INAUGURATION OF A NEW WATER PIPELINE AND BASKETBALL COURT

On April 29 we celebrated the inauguration of two new infrastructures in our parish in the Dominican Republic: a water pipeline for the rural community called Km. 8 and a basketball court in the neighboring village Km. 7.

With the completion of these two infrastructures a project that lasted for three years reached its final goals. It has been an integral project for the development of five rural communities, carried out by the Community of Saint Paul, FUNDASEP (the development agency of the Diocese of San Juan de la Maguana, DR), Manos Unidas and Nuevos Caminos (these two organizations are from Spain).

The project benefits over 2,000 people and it touches on education, health, income generating initiatives and, specially,infrastructures—such as the basketball court and two community water pipelines, one in Cañada de Piedra/Altagracia, that was already completed last year, and this one we just finished in Km. 8.

For these rural communities the endemic lack of water is over, as is the harsh task of having to carry water in five gallon cans, weighing over 40 pounds, for long distances under the scorching hotsun. Now the water reaches each and every home thanks to many people’s efforts, particularly that of the beneficiaries of this project.

The inauguration ceremony included music and songs, dancing, a blessing by the bishop, food and much joy. Thanks to all who worked in this endeavor, now the lives of many families have significantly improved.

THE “CATHOLIC HERALD” FROM MILWAUKEE ECHOES MICHAEL’S WOLFE PATH TO THE PRIESTHOOD

On May 19^th, just two days before the priestly ordination of Michael Wolfe—a member of the Community of Saint Paul, whose ordination we celebrated in this blog a few days ago—the “Catholic Herald” published a story on his path to the priesthood.

The “Catholic Herald” is Milwaukee’s weekly archdiocesan newspaper. Here is the link to the article:

http://catholicherald.org/news/local/deacon-wolfes-indirect-path-led-priesthood/