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Mannar Bishop and Over Two Hundred Tamil Catholic Priests and Sisters Call For International Investigation of Sri Lanka Human Rights Abuses March 4th, 2014
“…we are concerned about the post war intensification of systematic efforts to destroy the identity of the Tamil community.”
The bombing of the safe zone, March 4, 2009. Some 40,000 Tamils were killed in the final stages of the war.
Two hundred and five Tamil Catholic Priests and Sisters from the North and East of Sri Lanka, including the Rt. Rev. Dr. Rayappu Joseph, Bishop of Mannar and many Oblates, have written to the members of the UN Human Rights Council calling for an international investigation into Sri Lanka’s war crimes and human rights violations. The religious have called for the adoption of a strong and action-oriented resolution on Sri Lanka at the 25th session of the UN Human Rights Council. That session opened this week in Geneva.
Below is the statement in full:
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Oblate Auxiliary Bishop in Crimea Calls for Peace March 4th, 2014
The following is an official statement from Bishop Jacek Pyl, omi, the auxiliary bishop of Odessa-Sinferopol of the Crimea region of Ukraine. Let us pray for peace!
STATEMENT OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP IN CRIMEA
Auxiliary Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Odesa-Simferopol, Bishop Jacek Pyl, OMI
Since many weeks now the Roman Catholic Church with her prayers accompany whole of Ukraine praying for the peaceful solution of the problems, which the country is struggling with. In our prayers we ask God for his mercy for all Ukrainian people and we also offer voluntary fasting on bread and water in the same intention. Today when the unrest has encompassed the Crimean territory we want to pray especially for our peninsula. With our prayer we reach out to all the people without concern for their religion, political views or ethnic background. We pray that the people, who for tens of years live in peace – do not start fighting today and that the bloodshed of the kind we have seen in Kiev Maidan may be avoided here.
I am calling on all the people both faithful and the others that in the name of the solidarity with the heritage of our Fathers, who cared for the development of our Autonomous Republic of Crimea, to stay away from extremisms and in this hard time do not let the brotherhood among Crimean people to be broken. In ARoC we have Ukrainians, Russians, Crimean Tartars, Armenians, Poles, Germans, Czechs and many others living peacefully together. For many centuries we had the Orthodox, Muslims, Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Caraims, people of other denominations together with atheists living in Crimea. We cannot let our ethnical background nor our religion to divide us now. We are children of the same God; the only God, who is our common Father. The motto of the Republic of Crimea which is inscribed into our coat of arms is „Процветание в единстве” (Blooming in unity) and may this words be our motto for the difficult time now.
I would like to reach out with my words to the faithful of all denominations that they keep praying for peace, and those who has decided so keep voluntarily fasting. May the Good God free our hearts from all evil temptations and may he bless our good intentions.
+ Jacek Pyl, OMI Auxiliary Bishop of Odessa-Simferopol Diocese
We would like to thank Fr. Warren Brown, OMI and Fr. Charles Hurkes, OMI for sharing this information with the JPIC Office.
The Inequality Debate Heats Up! February 14th, 2014
What started out as a slogan that surfaced at the height of the Occupy movement — the 1 percent vs the 99 percent — has morphed into the hotly debated issue of inequality, especially income inequality. Across a broad spectrum ranging from Pope Francis to billionaire Tom Perkins, a variety of reflections, analysis, explanation and apologies have been offered.
The executive director of the International Monetary Fund, Ms. Christine Lagarde, entered the conversation at the macroeconomic level when she stated recently at Davos, “The gap has been widening tremendously, particularly over the last ten years and it has widened in all corners. You look at the U.S. economy. You look at the Brazilian economy. You look at some of the developing countries although to a lesser degree, but it does… that inequality has expanded.”
Read Fr. Seamus Finn’s latest blog on Huffington Post….
Consistent Life Joined Thousands at the March for Life on Wednesday January 24th, 2014
Consistent Life members joined the March for Life in Washington on Wednesday, and shared their broad message of protection of life with other participants. Some thirty seminarians bunked down at the Oblate offices in Washington for a couple of days, while attending the March. A group of seminarians stays each year in the JPIC office space and other common areas of the OMI headquarters. We trust they stayed warm! Official Washington was shut down on Tuesday due to snow, and many area schools were still closed on Wednesday. The March for Life, however, proceeded as planned.
Here are some Roe Anniversary Events in the Media:
CNN offered an opinion piece by Christopher Hale, “Why Progressives Should Be Pro-Life.”
CL Endorser Shane Claiborne commented on the Roe anniversary in the Red Letter Christians blog.
BuzzFeed Politics did a photo essay on the Consistent Life contingent at the March for Life (CL and member groups Feminists Choosing Life of New York, Secular Prolife, and the Prolife Alliance of Gays and Lesbians, as well as friends at Life Matters Journal).
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Consistent Life Information Tables
Consistent Life exhibited at the Cardinal O’Connor Conference, the Students for Life of America National Conference and the March for Life Exhibit Hall, reportedly receiving a lot of favorable responses at all of these.
Sign up for the Oblate Earth Literacy program: “Exploring the Sacred Universe” January 24th, 2014
Daily, all of us, members of the Earth community, are reminded that we live on a rare, precious, threatened planet. At the same time we realize that at its root, ecological devastation is a spiritual issue. Our weeklong “Exploring the Sacred Universe” program addresses our current situation in a spiritual context. Past participants consider the program to have been a transformative learning experience, as they were invited to broaden their vision and include our numinous Universe in all aspects of life.
The dates for the 2014 Earth Literacy Program are August 3-10. Information is available here, or on the La Vista website.
Interested in learning more about a different perspective now? Watch “The Known Universe”, a marvelous video from the American Museum of Natural History in New York. It will help you experience the awesome scale of the known universe, as mapped through astronomical observations. In the video, you start at the Himalayas, move through Earth’s atmosphere and the black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang.
