Shoulder to Shoulder to Improve the Sight of Many

Each year during the month of January, a group of volunteers from Kenosha, Wisconsin, USA, come to the Dominican Republic to conduct an ophthalmologic clinic in the parish La Sagrada Familia in Sabana Yegua. The group is composed of surgeons, ophthalmologists, nurses, and others of good will. These people, already busy with their own lives, make a significant and inconvenient commitment to journey far from home to provide advanced medical services, not readily available or affordable, to the local people of the parish. 

When the medical specialists and their aides arrive, they are joined by an enthusiastic group of Dominican volunteers who generously and attentively support them with translations and other logistical activities during the hectic week of nearly non-stop work. Standing shoulder to shoulder, the two groups meld into a dedicated and efficient team. In the clinic, the sight of many people, with a variety of different ailments and conditions, is examined, evaluated and treated. Many surgeries, already planned during the months before the clinic, are performed.

OPENING OF THE DIVINE MERCY CHILDREN’S CENTER, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

In January we inaugurated the new Divine Mercy Children’s Center in the community called “El Alto de Ganadero.” It serves 50 children aged 2 to 5.  Before this center, we ran the service out of a small building that belonged to the local community, where we served 35 children a day.  However, the conditions were far from ideal, such that it was necessary to obtain a place that was more suitable for the center.

The new building was built thanks to the generous collaboration of many people, but especially of group of Dominicans that reside in the United States.  The Missionaries of the Divine Mercy, who return annually to their native country to see their families and to promote evangelization in small communities, decided to back this beautiful initiative in one of the poorest places within La Sagrada Familia Parish.  We wish to thank them for their solidarity and dedication to their fellow Dominicans.

REFLECTION

THINKING ABOUT POPE FRANCIS: NOTES ON FAITH, TRUTH AND MERCY

Martí Colom

Francis’ pontificate, and especially the issues that the Pope wanted to include in the agenda of the Extraordinary Synod on the Family, have caused uneasiness in some sectors of the Church (no doubt that at the same time they have been received with great joy by many others). And it has become common to hear among those who look with some doubts at the direction of this papacy the opinion according to which, in their estimation, the Pope’s message will eventually force us to choose between truth and mercy, between right teaching and compassion, between doctrine and a welcoming spirit. 

Certainly, the Pope and those who are in tune with him insist in the need to make of mercy the mark that would identify Christians. Those who hesitate about this attitude accept, obviously, that compassion is desirable and rooted in the Gospel, but they listen to the call to build up a more welcoming and merciful Church (the famous “war hospital” of which Francis has spoken about) and then ask themselves: Will we have to end up giving up the truth in exchange for the pastoral and welcoming style that Francis is asking of us?

It seems to me that to frame the issue in these terms (truth or mercy) is a mistake. Perhaps we have to reach the point where we can declare that our truth, our right teaching and our doctrine are first of all mercy, compassion and hospitality.

No truth should ever weigh more for us than the respect towards the dignity of every human being and the promotion of his or her wellbeing. When we forget this and we begin to think about mercy as an aspect of our faith that is desirable but somehow secondary, then we have emptied Christianity of its very essence.

To be Christian is not to follow a collection of finished, intellectually understood religious and moral truths as much as it is an attitude in life, grounded in the example of Jesus of Nazareth, a way of being in the world and to relate to others; an attitude which has an enormous potential to transform our reality and to help us be open to God. Our faith resembles more a search for the Divine, a slow and humble approach to the Mystery, than the mandate to guard an unchanging body of truths. In fact, it is when we believe the latter that the defense of these truths ends up justifying the exclusion and even condemnation of those who do not accept them.

Therefore, it is simply false that we are moving towards a dead end where we will have to forget about truth in order to be able to practice mercy. What we will have to forget are partial understandings of the faith, easy suspicions, simplistic dichotomies and legalistic reduction-isms of the Gospel that so often disfigure the merciful and welcoming face of Christ.  

REFLECTION

SOLIDARITY: A POWER WEAPON AGAINST INJUSTICE

Juan Manuel Camacho

In September 2013, the Constitutional Tribunal of the Dominican Republic passed the law 168/13, which snatched away citizenship from people who had been registered as Dominicans for eight decades (since 1929), but whose parents and/or grandparents were “irregular migrants” in the Dominican Republic. The law above all directly affects thousands of people of Haitian descent who until now were under the protection of the Constitution and of the laws in place at the moment of their birth. It is estimated that this law has affected about 2.3% of Dominicans and its implementation means the loss of citizenship (they became country-less). For many of them this law has a retroactive consequence based on the “alleged crime” of their parents and/or grandparents who came to and lived in this country. For these Dominicans, who are for the most part young, this law makes them criminals just for the fact of being born on this side of the island.

The law has not only hurt thousands of Dominicans, but is feeding the rest of the population with an anti-Haitian ideology that is deeply rooted in complex historical and social events. This ideology has been latent, but now is made explicit and legal, therefore creating more discomfort and social conflict. Self-proclaimed “nationalistic” sectors have taken to the streets to support the law of the Constitutional Tribunal, denying the injustice that this decision entails. Once again, what looms in the background is the resentment towards the Haitian people and their presence in the Dominican Republic. This injustice should be strongly condemned. It is a grave injustice that is being committed to this group of Dominicans of Haitian descent, in that they are all Dominicans born and raised in the Dominican Republic. Their parents and/or grandparents were the ones who crossed the border, not them.

THE IMPORTANCE OF HAND WASHING: MEKI, ETHIOPIA

Dr. Gemma Regales tells us of her experience in the health and disease prevention program that she conducts with the student population of the Apostolic Vicariate of Meki.

“The illnesses that we see daily, like diarrhea, intestinal parasites, skin problems, eye and respiratory infections, are the result of poor hygiene.  All of these illnesses, especially diarrhea, can be prevented by simple hand washing. There are five critical moments when we should all wash our hands:  before and after eating; after going to the bathroom; before, during and after preparing food; after touching animals; and after coughing and sneezing.”

Although in many countries, hygiene habits are regularly practiced, it is not that way where water is a scarce commodity, like in many parts of Ethiopia.  It is difficult to wash one’s hands correctly (and regularly) when one has to go all the way to far away fountain, stand in line, and carry the water on one’s head ...after the school day or after many other obligations... as in the case of mothers of families.
The health program in Meki Catholic School insists on prevention as the foremost way to have better health.  A good state of health increases the ability of school age children and adolescents to learn, decreases days absent from school due to sickness, and generates an important positive impact.  It also diminishes the cost of medical care for families, and the children influence the whole family with the new habits that they acquire from the health program.

reflection

BLIND, AT THE SIDE OF THE ROAD

Martí Colom

The three synoptic Gospels tell the story of the healing of a blind man in the vicinity of Jericho. The stories have important differences between them, as they respond to the particular literary project of each evangelist. In Mark, for instance (10:46b-52) the blind man has a name (Bartimaeus), while the blind in Matthew (20:29-34) and Luke (18:35-43) are anonymous. On the other hand, in Matthew there are two blind people who ask Jesus to heal them –not just one as in Mark and Luke. At the same time, there are some fundamental features of the episode that are repeated in the three Gospel accounts. Here our purpose is not to make a comparative study of the differences but to focus on the fact that the three passages describe, at the start of the section, the blind person (or people in the case of Matthew) sitting by the roadside; and at the end, after talking with Jesus and having their eyesight restored, they decide to follow Jesus. Mark specifies “on the road” (10:52).

Without going into a detailed analysis of all the nuances and levels of significance of the episode, we want to concentrate on this simple point: initially seated by the road, when the blind man has regained his sight he follows Jesus on the road. It seems important to us to understand that for the blind man being on the edge of the road was the cause of blindness, not its consequence. In other words, the blind man was not at the edge of the road because he was blind; he was blind because he was on the edge of the road.

A BIG PARTY: WATER FOR CAÑADA DE PIEDRA AND ALTAGRACIA (DOMINICAN REPUBLIC)

It has been eleven years since Florinda Ramírez and Bienvenido Mancebo (who everyone affectionately calls El Ciego, “the blind man,” because of his droopy eyelids), set about to realize a dream to bring water to their communities. These villages, two little settlements called Cañada de Piedra and Altagracia, are located within the territory of La Sagrada Familia parish. Five hundred people live there. These people have never had accessible potable water for drinking, cooking and washing. Instead, while the men work in the nearby fields as day laborers, the women walk up to four miles round trip to get water from a well. In the process they must cross a main highway, with the danger of accidents and injuries, which they have suffered on multiple occasions. They carry 5 gallons buckets of water which, when full, weigh over 40 pounds.  At home, they carefully preserve the water because they know that the faster they use it, the sooner they will have to walk again under the Caribbean sun.

Today the dream has been made a reality. After years of visits to institutions and authorities, letters, commission trips and meetings, the communities have achieved their goal. A few years ago the Foundation for Development of the Diocese of San Juan de la Maguana (FUNDASEP), together with Manos Unidas and Nuevos Caminos, two development agencies from Spain, and La Sagrada Familia parish in Sabana Yegua established a comprehensive development plan in which accessibility to water was an essential component. The Cañada de Piedra-Altagracia aqueduct was identified as the most pressing necessity.

It has been 18 months of hard work for brigades of volunteers building protection for the existing well, laying foundations, installing pipes, and building the elevated water tank of 50,000 gallons. 18 months of technical supervision by FUNDASEP and parish personnel and 18 months of much struggle.

Now both communities, totaling 123 families, have a sink and faucet at each home. They know the effort and money that the aqueduct has cost and have organized a system to assure its prudent operation, such as the distribution of water only every two days for limited hours. Everyone will fill all of their pitchers, pails and containers to make use of this precious resource and not let the water run uselessly. The water will change their lives and those of future generations.

We thank Florida, “El Ciego” and all of the community members for their tireless effort and faithful dedication to this beautiful project. And so today we are celebrating, with songs, dances, skits, and joy, the blessing of God who wants a dignified life for all. A great party to celebrate this wonderful achievement.