Two exciting developments have recently taken place in one of our communities in Nigeria.
St. Francis Hospital purchased a new x-ray machine earlier this year.  On the feast of St. Francis (4th October), patron of the hospital, the new X-ray Department was officially opened and blessed. 

The English/Scottish Province has published information about Prisoners Week 2009.  The Province Website gives details of the themes for this year:
 ‘Hold Fast To Hope’ (England) and …
‘Dreams For Our Children’ (Scotland). 
Visit their website for more information about how this week will be marked in both countries.

Under Sr. Bernadette Moran's leadership at St. Columban's Parish in Garden Grove, the issue of human trafficking has been brought to the fore.  Over the last few years, as part of the Adult Faith Formation Program, Sr. Bernadette has arranged workshops for parishioners on different aspects of trafficking to increase awareness of the reality of this issue. 

Sr. Carmel Somers RSC reports on some of the practical aspects of ‘Care For The Earth’ in California.
"Zero Waste is reporting that we are now the most environmentally responsible area in the USA.   Again car emissions are down and more and more people are recycling. 

Archbishop Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel, Metropolitan Archbishop of Addis Ababa urged the recent Synod on Africa to take concrete action against human trafficking.  "I hope this Synod on Africa shall study the root causes of human trafficking, internally displaced persons, abused domestic workers (especially women in the Middle East), refugees and migrants, especially the African boat migrants and asylum seekers and come up with concrete positions and proposals to show to the world that African lives are sacred and not cheap, as they seem to be presented and seen in many media channels.

It is slightly over two centuries since the whole human family rejoiced over the abolition of slave trade. It was then hoped that no human being would be subjected to such inhumane treatment and over the centuries this kind of thinking has been emphasised in the human rights discourse. However, what the world is witnessing now is “history repeating itself”. Slave trade is back but in a different form; the form of human trafficking. Just as slave trade was terribly offensive to human dignity and to God, so is human trafficking. According to the 2006 US Department of State Trafficking in Persons Reports, about 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders with many more within national borders annually. Most of these are women and children. Human trafficking therefore is a growing worldwide phenomenon which requires that every opportunity that fosters it, be fought ruthlessly so that human dignity is promoted for everyone.

On 1st September 2009 the Sisters of Charity in the English/Scottish Province celebrated an important event in the life of the Province as they gathered to lay the Foundation Stone for their new Convent in Hackney, London. The Sisters have been in Hackney and served the people in the East-End of London since 1900.

Many Zambians are anxiously waiting to see the end product of the current Constitution Making Process and are hoping against hope that this end product will truly reflect their desires which are well expressed in the Mungo’mba Draft Constitution. Hence, departure from these desires will certainly mean imposition and will perhaps render the Constitution inadequate.

The USA’s largest Religious Education Congress will be taking place from 18th-21st March 2010 at the Anaheim Convention Center, 800 West Katella Ave., Anaheim, Calif. (just across from Disneyland).  The Congress is sponsored by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles Office of Religious Education and is the USA's largest annual gathering of Roman Catholics!

 

On 22nd September a resolution was passed  in the US House of Representatives honoring the historic contributions of Catholic women religious to the history of the United States.