U Matuna Si Yu'os: Vol. 66 No. 12, March 18, 2012

SUNDAY, MARCH 18, 2012

VOL. 66, NO. 12

www.umatuna.org

FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT

Number of Abortions on Guam Rose in 2011 Chamorros, 18-27 year old women most likely to procure an abortion (USY) The number of abortions on Guam rose in 2011 to 295 from 269 in 2010, according to statistics provided by the Guam Memorial Hospital Authority Medical Records Department.

Accounting for the majority of abortions on Guam were Chamorro women with a total of 168, or approximately 57% of all abortions. This percentage, as noted by the Esperansa Project, is far disproportionate to the overall population since Chamorro women only make up about 1/3 of the population on Guam. In addition, Filipinas — the second most abortionprocuring ethnicity on Guam—had only ¼ as many abortions as Chamorros.

However, contrary to conventional wisdom, the segment of the child-bearing population least likely to procure an abortion were young women under 18. This demographic procured only 6% of abortions on Guam with at total of 19 during 2011. This relatively low percentage does indicates that—considering the very high rate of teen pregnancy on Guam—young women want their babies and have a strong grasp of the sanctity of life as well as the seriousness of the horror of abortion.

In contrast, women from 18-22 and 23-27 accounted for most abortions, with 83 recorded for each group during the last calendar year. These numbers demonstrate that women in their mid-20s are responsible for more than 50% of the abortions procured on Guam.

Additionally, married women were responsible for 1/3 of abortions, although this figure does not factor in “common law” marriages—a fact which would likely increase that percentage.

Number of Abortions on Guam by Ethnic Origin: 2011 57%

168

CHAMORRO 15%

43

FILIPINO 9%

27

WHITE 6%

19

KOREAN 6%

19

CHINESE RSM BLACK PALAUAN

3% 1%

9 4

1%

3

1%

2

VIETNAMESE

0%

1

INDIAN

0%

JAPANESE 0 0

20

40

60

80

100

Number of Abortions on Guam by Age for 2011 90

83

80

350

83

160

327

300

180

266

269

2009

2010

295

250

60

47

50 40 30

200

39

150

24

19

20 0

140

Number of Abortions on Guam 2008-2011

70

10

120

50

0 Younger 13-17 than 13

100

18-22

23-27

28-32

33-37

38+

0

2008

2011

ITALY

Bishop Receives Pope's Praise for Reordering Sacraments ROME, Italy (CNA/EWTN News) — Bishop Samuel Aquila of Fargo [North Dakota] said he is delighted to have first-hand papal approval for changing the order by which children in his diocese receive the sacraments.

“I was very surprised in what the Pope said to me, in terms of how Bishop Samuel happy he was Aguila CNA/EWTN Photo that the sacraments of initiation have been restored to their proper order of baptism, confirmation then first Eucharist,” said Bishop Aquila, after meeting Pope Benedict on March 8.

Bishop Aquila was one of five bishops from North and South Dakota to meet with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican as part of their March 5-10 “ad limina” visit to the Rome.

Over the past seven years the See SACRAMENTS, Page 8

Archbishop Apuron Undergoes Surgery

T

his week, His Excellency Anthony Sablan Apuron, OFM Cap., DD, Archbishop of ­Agana, underwent quadruple bypass surgery at Anaheim Memorial Medical Center in California.

The surgery took place at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, March 13 (PST), and lasted approximately 4.5 hours, according to Deacon Steve Martinez, who is the Personal Secretary to the Archbishop. The procedure was considered successful, and the Archbishop currently remains at the hospital recuperating.

He is expected to be released soon from Anaheim Memorial.

Archbishop Apuron wishes to convey his thanks to the people of Guam for their prayers for his speedy recovery and return to Guam.

TOKEN

FA ITH

“Humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less.”

C.S. Lewis

LOCAL Guam Sister Enters Carmelite Monastery Jacquelyn Christine Cruz Mendiola becomes Sister Sarah Rayah of God. See story and photos on PAGE 2

Catholic Church is Growing Number of faithful, bishops, priests, deacons and seminarians increasing VATICAN CITY (AsiaNews) — The Catholic Church appears to be in good health, with a global increase in the number of faithful, bishops, priests - especially in Asia - deacons and seminarians. The decline of men religious seems to have halted however that of women religious continues, even if contradicted by their growth in Africa and Asia.

These are the figures that emerge from the Pontifical Yearbook 2012, which was presented this morning to Benedict XVI, along with the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae annual Church statistics.

The Yearbook has revealed some impor-

AsiaNews Photo

tant novelties regarding the Catholic Church in the world, since 2011. During the year 8 new episcopal sees were built, 1 Personal

CHRISM MASS CHOIR

See NUMBERS, Page 5

Singers are invited. Rehearsal schedule on Tuesdays: March 20 & 27 & April 3 from 6:30-8:30pm. Please contact Karl Sotto:ksotto@sbparish. org or Sister Marian Arroyo, RSM: ministry@archagana.org or call the Office of Worship @ 472-6116. Rehearsals will be held at the John Paul the Great Center for Evangelization (Chancery Office). Chrism Mass will be celebrated on April 4 at 6:30pm.

ARCHDIOCESAN

www.umatuna.org

2

SUNDAY, MARCH 18, 2012

MATUNA SI YU’OS

STAY CONNECTED

With Your Catholic Community

umatuna.org

R O M A N C AT H O L I C N E W S PA P E R

Tune in for Mass every Sunday at 9:30am on Channel 8 or 11

Tune in for Mass every Sunday at 9:30am on aganacathedral.org

Listen to KOLG 24 hours a day on 90.9 FM (Sunday masses at 9:30am)

facebook.com/ umatuna.org

youtube.com/ vatican

Another Guam Sister Enters Carmelite Monastery

By Heather Leon Guerrero For the U Matuna Si Yu’os

In January 2011, Jacquelyn Christine Cruz Mendiola entered the doors of Carmel in Morristown, New Jersey, to join the community of sisters there. Now, one year later, friends and family traveled from Guam and abroad back to Morristown to witness Jacque’s Clothing Ceremony, a Rite in which a Postulant receives her white veil and is giv- Jacquelyn Christine en her new Cruz Mendiola (Sr. name. Prior Sarah Rayah) to Jacque’s entrance last year, she had been seriously discerning her vocation to the cloistered religious life for the past five years, during which time she had traveled to Morristown twice to do an experience with the Sisters – to live as the Sisters do.

It was truly a solemn, joyous day for everyone who had gathered to witness Jacque, now 26, take this next step, which took place on January 1, the Feast of the Solemnity of Mary. The celebration began with a mass presided by Fr. Paolo Tanzini, the Sisters’ confessor, and ­concelebrated by Fr. James ­Starasinich (Fr. Jim), a priest who used to be on Guam, Fr. Alberto Rodriguez, the Pastor of San Vicente/ San Roke Parish in Barrigada, and other priests who used to be on Guam as well. In his homily, Fr. Paolo talked about how important Mary’s “yes” was and likewise in our lives, how important it is to give our “yes” to the will of God. After the mass, Fr. Paolo conducted the “scrutiny” , where he asked Jacque if she was ready to leave her mother, father, brothers, and sisters, and seek only the Kingdom of God; if she was ready to truly leave her country and forgot her old customs and follow the cus-

TOP: Sr. Sarah Rayah and her family (from L to R): Ricky Mendiola Jr (brother), Mae Mendiola (mother), Sr. Sarah Rayah, Christine-Danielle Leon Guerrero (niece), Benjamin Leon Guerrero II (brother-in-law), and Heather Leon Guerrero (sister). Photos courtesy of Heather Leon Guerrero

RIGHT: Father Alberto, Pastor of San Vicente/San Roke Parish in Barrigada proclaiming the Gospel. Behind him on the left is Fr. Paolo Tanzini, the Carmelite Sisters’ confessor and Fr. James Starasinich former Rector of the Redemptoris Mater Archdiocesan Missionary Seminary of Guam.

Photos courtesy of Heather Leon Guerrero

toms of Carmel; if she was ready to accept the poverty of the desert; if she ready to learn to serve the Lord in silence and in obedience; if she was ready to learn to be satisfied with Jesus alone and live with Him in solitude; if she was ready to learn how to pray and meditate on the law of the Lord day and night; if she was ready to learn to love God and neighbor in this religious family of the nuns of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Morristown; and if she was resolved to persevere in the Order until death. Jacque responded YES and that she hopes and desires all this through the mercy of God and the prayers of the Sisters.

Then, Jacque brought her garments to a window in the grille for

Fr. Paolo to bless. She was given a white garment symbolizing our baptism, a belt symbolizing chastity, a rosary with a medal of Our Lady on the front and St. John of the Cross on the back, Our Lady’s scapular, a coif (a tight-fitting cap worn under a veil), similar to what knights wear, symbolizing that they are “knights of the Church and of Our Lady”, and a white veil. Fr. Paolo blessed the garments, saying, “May the Lord free you from the old man and give peace and may He make you a new man”.

After the garments were blessed, her hair was cut and she was dressed in her new attire. She then prostrated herself, symbolizing that she gives her life to God

for the Church. Rose petals were sprinkled over her body, like at a funeral, because her old self – Jacque – dies and she becomes a new man.

After her prostration, she was given her new name by Fr. Pius Sammut, the itinerant Catechist of the NeoCatechumenal Way in Guam, and Jacque’s catechist. A “new man” must be given a new name. “Your name identifies you with your mission in the Church.” He explained that her new name will now be “Sister Sarah Rayah of God”. Why this name? He further explained that Sarah is an important person in the Bible. She is the mother of Isaac.

She was barren, but God gave her a son. She could not bear fruit, but God made her fruitful. The name “Sarah” means “Princess” and “Rayah” is Hebrew for “Beloved”.

So she will be a “Princess” of God and she will always be “Beloved by God”. He said to keep this in her heart and that God will fulfill her name in her mission for the Church.

At the end of the ceremony everyone gathered was able to greet Sr. Sarah through the open window in the grille for the last time. It was truly a touching moment, as friends and family were able to finally embrace her after one year. After that, everyone moved to the speak room, where a feast had been prepared and the people were able to visit with Sr. Sarah and the rest of the Sisters.

Two days later, the family was able to have a private visit with Sr. Sarah before leaving New Jersey. It was nothing but tears and laughs as we filled her in on things that had happened in our lives over the past year. We passed along prayer intentions from people back home and also asked for prayers of our own. We shared with her how many times we encountered people wondering why she was making such a decision, and how did she know, and other things like that. She just smiled and said, “I am happy. Here, it is possible to know that Jesus Christ is enough”.

Heather is the sister of Sr. Sarah Rayah

Catholic School 6th Graders Pray, Play Together at Conference

By Kevin AN Delgado, Conference Committee Member For the U Matuna Si Yu’os

Realizing that our children continue to grow in a world that is often too ‘ungodly,’ seven of our Catholic Schools’ 6th Grade Counselors and Youth Mentors came together to plan a spiritual ‘counter-attack.’ After months of planning and reflecting, all 6th Grade Catholic School

students were able to engage in our first-ever Archdiocese of Agana 6th Grade Family Conference.

This conference took place on Tuesday, February 21st at the Father Duenas Phoenix Center. During the conference, different topics were discussed and provided opportunities for reflection. Speakers included John Joseph Bautista who talked about Life, Infatuation, Friendship, and Exploitation, as well as Court representatives Joleen Respicio

and Danielle Rosete. Sr. Trinie Pangelinan, RSM, talked about being peacemakers in the world. Lastly, keynote speaker W. Joy Lopez talked about safety in this digital age. Throughout the duration of the conference, students were able to ask questions, as well as share their thoughts on these issues. After lunch, parents were welcomed and were able to share in the talks as well.

In addition, during morning

break and lunch, students from all seven Catholic middle schools were able to engage in fellowship-making new friends and rekindling friendships of the past. These Catholic middle schools included Bishop Baumgartner in Sinajana, Dominican in Yigo, Mount Carmel in Agat, San Vicente in Barrigada, St. Francis in Yona, Saint Anthony in Tamuning, and Santa Barbara in Dededo.

See CONFERENCE, Page 5

is an entity of the Archdiocesan Development Group 207 Archbishop Felixberto C. Flores Street Hagåtña, Guam 96910 PUBLISHER

Most Reverend Anthony Sablan Apuron O.F.M. Cap., D.D. DIRECTOR

Reverend Monsignor James L.G. Benavente EDITOR

Jeffrey L. Fitzgerald GRAPHIC ARTIST & WEBMASTER

Sedrick S. Serisola STAFF

Luz S. Oberiano CONTACT

Phone: 671.989.6391 Fax: 671.472.1729 news@umatuna.org NEWS DEADLINE

Deadline for news stories and photos is noon Tuesday prior to the date of ­publication. Please note that the U Matuna reserves the right to select and prioritize content based on relevancy and editorial discretion.

ADVERTISING DEADLINE

Deadline for reserving advertising space is 3 pm Tuesday prior to the date of publication. Camera-ready copy is due at the U Matuna Si Yu’os office no later than noon Wednesday prior to the date of publication.

The office of the U Matuna Si Yu’os is now located on the second floor of the Dulce Nombre Maria Cathedral-Basilica in Hagåtña.

MISSION The U Matuna Si Yu’os is published every week by the Archdiocese of Agaña, Guam. Our mission is to print and distribute a true report of the Roman Catholic Church’s ministry of changing lives though the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

By offering news and commentary about issues impacting the Catholic Church, it aims to serve as a focal point for the ­expression and discussion of the Catholic faith on Guam.

ONLINE

Connect with the U Matuna Si Yu’os by visiting our website at:

umatuna.org

DID YOU KNOW? U Matuna Si Yu’os is committed to bringing news to Catholics on Guam, but ­without taking funds from the ­Archdiocese or its parishes. Please ­support our ­advertisers who help make our weekly editions possible.

GOSPEL & REFLECTION

SUNDAY, MARCH 18, 2012 ANNOUNCEMENTS ACADEMY OF OUR LADY OF GUAM Mar. 22: Early Dismissal, 2:15 pm Mar. 23: NO CLASSES, Parent-Teacher Conference Mar. 24: PLACEMENT TEST, 9:00 a.m. to Noon, AOLG Campus

PLACEMENT TESTING will be held on Saturday, March 24, at the AOLG campus from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. A $35 Application Fee and $45 Placement Test Fee are due prior to testing. Payments must be made at the school’s Business Office.

Applications are available at the school’s Business Office or can be downloaded online at www.aolg.edu.gu.

Please visit the school’s website at www. aolg.edu.gu or call 477-8203 for more information.

ST. THOMAS AQUINAS CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL Mar. 23: STA Songfest at Guam Reef Hotel from 6pm to 10pm Mar. 24: STA Third Annual Golf Tournament at GICC Mar. 30: End of third quarter Open House for prospective students Wednesday, March 28, 2012, from 5:00pm- 7:00pm. Meet our faculty administration, tour our campus and learn why St. Thomas Aquinas is a good choice!

Please call the school office at 473-7821 for more information.

MASS FOR AN INCREASE OF VOCATIONS All those interested in the vocation to the priesthood or religious life are invited to attend a weekly Mass for Vocations offered every Wednesday, at 7 pm at Santa Barbara Catholic Church. For more info, please contact Fr. Paul Gofigan at 488-0613. Those interested in the permanent diaconate ministry are also invited to attend.

GUAM ARCHDIOCESAN WORLD YOUTH DAY (AWYD 2012) April 1, 2012. FD Phoenix Center & Chalan Pago Catholic Church young people age 14+. Email: awyd2012@gmail.com Register Online Online Registration available at http:// guam2012awyd.tk, a signed liability waiver must be turned in to your parish or catholic school, registration fee is $5. Late registration begins March 18; the late reg. fee will be $15.

Please send all announcements to ­ news@umatuna.org or contact 472-6201 or 989-6391.

ARCHBISHOP

Anthony Sablan Apuron, O.F.M. Cap., D.D. Sisters and Brothers: We are all familiar with the various artistic renditions of the Pieta or Mater Dolorosa, the grieving Mary receiving Jesus’ lifeless body after it is taken down from the cross. The most famous is Michelangelo’s Pieta which is enshrined in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

Some medical artists dared to depict another kind of pieta: God the Father, TODAY’S GOSPEL represented by ScripJohn 3:14-21 tures, is a God with his people, a God who grieves, laments and suffers. And if we believe that Jesus Christ, God-made-man, is the definitive manifestation of God, then we have to give room for a loving, suffering, and saving God. In his conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus declares that God so loved men and women that he would give up his “only Son,” the most precious “treasure” God has.

This brings to mind the sacrifice of the patriarch Abraham. Isaac is the sum of all of Abraham’s dreams and hopes. He is the son that he has prayed for, the one for whom he now lives for. To ask him to give up this beloved son is to ask for everything that he has. Without Isaac, Abraham, with all his possessions and hopes, has nothing.

As the story goes, Abraham trusts God enough to obey him and

3

www.umatuna.org

offer his son Isaac in sacrifice. God Michelangelo ni gaigi gi Basilikan then spares Isaac and restores him San Pedro giya Roma. to Abraham. But God does not spare Guaha man antiguyan na pintot his “only Son.” He allows him to be mana’a’annok otro klasen pieta’: si offered on Calvary.

Yu’os Tata, ni ma ripresenta ni EsThe cross, therefore, sends a kritura, Yu’os gue’ para i taotao-na, powerful message. It shows us the un Yu’os ni masasapet, kumakati, extent of God’s love for us. God kumakassao. Ya yanggen ta hongge loves us so much that he does not al- na si Jesu Kristo, si Yu’os-mama’low us to be condemned for our sins, taotao, i mas magahet na manifestabut takes the initiative to reconcile sion Yu’os, pues debi di ta na’i lugat us to himself. para i man guaiya, i masasapet yan i St. Paul proclaims this saving sasatba na Yu’os. power of God: “God was reconciling Gi kumbetsasion-na yan si Nicothe world to himself demus, ha diklara si in Christ, not countJesu Kristo na si Yu’os God’s ing their trespasses ha sen guaiya i taotao against them and kosaki u na’in-naihon gift of entrusting to us the i uniku na Lahi-na, i his Son is the message of reconcilisen guaguan na ‘tisoation.” God’s gift of run’ Yu’os. clearest proof his Son is the clearest Hana’hahasso hit that God loves i sakrifisiun i patriproof that God loves humankind, sinful atku as Abrahan. Si humankind, though we are. This Isaac kumumple todu ­sinful though gift is totally undei guinifi yan tinanserved. gan Abrahan. Guiya we are.

This gift St. Paul is so overi patgon ni hagas ha whelmed by this realis totally unde- tayuyuti, guiya i para ization; this, for him, u la’la’yi pa’go. I para served. is the ultimate cause ma faisen para u na’inof our gladness, even naihon i guaiyayon in the midst of trana lahi-na un fafaisen vails: “If God is for us, who can be todu i guinaha-na.Sin si Isaac, si against us? He who did not spare his Abrahan yan todu i guinah-na yan own Son but handed him over for us onra-na, taya bali-na. all, how will he not also give us evSigi mo’na i istoria, manangoko erything else along with him?” si Abrahan as Yu’os para u osge This gospel reflection is taken gue’ ya ha ufresi i lahi-na as Isaac gi from St. Paul’s 366 Days With The sakrifisiu. Si Yu’os hana’libre si Isaac Lord. May your day be filled with ya hana’na’lu’ gue’ tatte as Abrahan. love and may Almighty God bless Lao si Yu’os ti hana’libre i uniku na you in the name of the Father and Lahi-na. of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Ha sedi gue’ para ma ufresi Amen. giya Katbariu. I kilu’os, in fin, hana’hahanao metgot na menPinagat Atsubispo Anthony sahi. Hana’lili’e’ hit i tinaddong Yu’os para hita. Ha sen Sablan Apuron, Kapuchinu guinaiyan guaiya hit si Yu’os na ti ha sedi na Mane’lu-hu, i aksion Jesu Kristo ti ta fan makonden put i isao-ta gi Ib Mane’lu-hu, mampayun hit siha, lao ha chule’ i bentaha para u lumi’e’ i diferentes klasen figuran na’fanafa’maolek hit yan guiya.

Si San Papblo ha pruklama este Pieta pat Mater Dolorosa na buttu, i pininiti na Maria ha risibi i tai na sasatba na nina’sinan Yu’os: “si lina’la’ na tataotao Jesus despues di Yu’os ha na’a’afa’maolek i tano’ ma na’tunnok papa’ ginen i kilu’os. I yan guiya gi as Jesu Kristo, ti ha mas matungo’ na buttu ayu i Pietan tutufong i isao-niha kontra siha ya

ha intretrega giya hita i mensahen inafa’maolek.” I rigalun Yu’os nu i Lahi-na sen klaru na sinat na ha guaiya si Yu’os i taotao siha, maseha man i’isao hit. Este na rigalu ti ta miresi.

Si San Papblo tinetemba ni este na dangkolon hinasso; este, para guiya, i sen taddong na rason para agradesimiento-ta, maseha manmasasapet hit: “Yanggen manhihita yan si Yu’os, hayi sina kumuntra hit? Guiya ni ti hana’safu i mismo Lahi-na lao ha intrega gue’ para hita todu, adda ti hu na’i hit lokkue todu sumisiha yan guiya?”

Este na pinagat machuchule’ ginen i lepblon San Papblo 366 dihas yan i Saina. Ohalara ya u bula guinaiya i ha’anen-miyu ya i todu hana’sina na Yu’os infambinendisi gi na’an i Tata yan i Lahi-na yan i Espiritu Santo. Amen.

Ibangheliu (Juan 3:14-21) Ilek-na si Jesus as Nicodemus, “Taimanu ha si Moises ha kahat hulu’ i bronsi na buttun kulepbla gi haligi gi disietto, taiguennao ha’ lokkue i Lahen i Taotao debi di u makhat hulu’, kosaki todu ayu siha i manmanhongge u fanla’la’ taihinekkok. Sa’ put ha sen guaiya si Yu’os i tano’ na ha intrega i uniku na Lahi-na, kosaki ayu i manmanhongge giya guiya ti u matai, in lugat para u la’la’ taihinekkok. Ti ha na’hanao si Yu’os i Lahi-na para i tano’ para u kondena i tano’, sinoki para u masatba ginen guiya. Maseha hayi ni manhongge gi Lahi-na ti u makondena, lao maseha hayi ni ti manhongge pues esta gue’ monhayan makondena, sa’ put i ti manhongge gue’ gi uniku na Lahen Yu’os.

Estague’ i sentensian kondenasion: matto esta i inina gi tano’, lao i taotao siha ga’on-niha i hinemhom ki i inina; sa’ manailayi bidan-niniha.

Sa’ ayu i chumocho’gue i tailayi na kosas ha chatli’e’ i inina; ya ti u fatto guatu gi inina, sa’ ma’anao na u annok i tailayen bida-na. Lao hayi chumo’gue i minagahet mafatto gue’ gi inina, kosaki sina i ininan u nina’annok na ha cho’gue i che’cho’na siha sa’ ubidiente gue’ as Yu’os.

March 21: World Down Syndrome Day

By Michael J. Miller Catholic World Report

Translator’s note: For many years several European countries have observed “Trisomy 21 Day” on March 21 to raise awareness about the genetic condition also called Down Syndrome. Several months ago the United Nations instituted a “World Day of Trisomy 21”.

The following article is translated from the website of the Jerome Lejeune Foundation in Paris, which has pioneered research into and treatment of the mental deficiency associated with trisomy 21.

Treating Trisomy 21: Time For Clinical Trials In observance of March 21, World Down Syndrome Day, which was just recently recognized by the U.N., the Jérôme Lejeune Foundation is preparing a report on the latest significant advances in therapeutic research on mental deficiencies of genetic

origin. Fifty years after the prestigious Kennedy Prize was awarded to Professor Jérôme Lejeune in 1962, the remarkable progress made in recent years confirms that it will be possible to treat trisomy 21. Since it was created, the Jérôme Lejeune Foundation has played a decisive role on the international scene, making France a leader in the field of research on trisomy 21.

International Trisomy 21 Day recognized by the U.N.: Wednesday, March 21, 2012 On November 10, 2011, the United Nations declared March 21 “World Down Syndrome Day”. The purpose of this day is to inform the public and to raise awareness about trisomy 21. The date “3/21” is highly symbolic, referring directly to the 3 copies of chromosome 21 that is the cause of the syndrome and of the mental deficiency of patients with trisomy 21.

Giant steps forward in therapeutic research: the era of clinical trials Several scientific research teams in different countries of the world work on trisomy 21 with the financial support of the Jérôme Lejeune Foundation. For the first time, clinical trials on trisomic patients have been launched. Today there are five of them, as compared with only one last year.

What seemed unthinkable ten years ago has become possible today, and the promising results that have been observed suggest that treatments could be discovered within a decade. The therapeutic objective is to develop preventive care or treatments that would improve and then normalize the mental functions of the patients. Not long ago a new era began, the phase of therapeutic research. Research teams working in parallel continue to explore the greatest possible number of avenues for potential treatments

and are now conducting clinical trials on a larger scale.

This year Professor Mara Dierssen is launching the second phase of her clinical trial on a larger sampling of patients in Barcelona. This Spanish researcher was the winner of the 2010 International SisleyJérôme Lejeune Prize; the 2011 award went to a great American neurologist, William Mobley, who originated the clinical trials currently being conducted by the Swiss laboratory ROCHE. These two researchers had also participated in the International Jérôme Lejeune Days in April 2011, a scientific congress attended by 200 experts and interdisciplinary researchers, which was quite successful.

In 2012 an affiliate of the Jérôme Lejeune Foundation will be established in the United States. This transatlantic project will allow the Foundation to follow more closely several very effective and innovative research teams.

www.umatuna.org

4

CATHOLIC SCHOOLS

SUNDAY, MARCH 18, 2012

Induction of STA Lions of the National Honor Society

Kyoto Notre Dame students arrive in Talofofo. Photo courtesy of Jessica Perez-Jackson Back Row (L -R): Aaron Quitugua, Sarahgin Dumaroag, Teryn Catahay, Regina Mandanas, Audrey Benavente, James Losongco, and Joseph Tamayo Front Row – New members (L to R): Daniel Creppel, Ken Park, Pilar Shimizu, Stella Bae, Janielle Cuala, Kyra Rocco, Shana Yang, Audell Sabeti, and Aziz Sabeti STA Photo On March 2, 2012, STA Lions’ Chapter of the National Honor Society (NHS) inducted nine new members, to bring the total membership to sixteen young scholars, equipped with leadership and service skills who display outstanding character. Congratulations to STA Lions, their parents and the NHS advisor, Ms. Tina Lizama.

Photo courtesy of Marilyn Manibusan

Students from Notre Dame High School perform a Chamorro cultural dance for the Kyoto visitors.. Photo courtesy

Paula Marie Cepeda, 2011 Academy Graduate, Accepted in the National Society of Collegiate Scholars

of Jessica Perez-Jackson

By Marilyn Manibusan

Notre Dame High School Guam Welcomes Kyoto Notre Dame

By Jessica Perez-Jackson ‘96 Notre Dame High School (NDHS) welcomed its sister school from Kyoto, Japan, for a day of cultural exchange on Tuesday, March 8, 2012. The Kyoto Notre Dame students were hosted by Notre Dame’s Japanese I and II classes.

Principal Satsuki Takikawa, who led the Kyoto Notre Dame group, addressed Notre Dame’s student body, and shared a video montage of Kyoto Notre Dame’s academic, spiritual, and extra-curricular student life. Students from both NDHS and Kyoto Notre Dame entertained the assembly with speeches in both English and Japanese, student-made videos, and several choreographed dance numbers.

Kyoto Notre Dame offers a Peace Study trip to Guam, Okinawa, or Hokkaido, as part of its curriculum for first year high school students (the equivalent of our 10th grade). The Peace Study is geared toward educating students on the atrocities of war. This year marked Notre Dame High School Guam’s and Kyoto Notre Dame’s sixth cultural exchange event.

Front Row (L-R): Saxon Isim, 6th grade and Johnny Rosario, 7th grade Back Row (L-R): Sister Joseph Ann Quinene, SSND, Principal and Mrs. Michelle Calvo, Teacher SVCS Photo

San Vicente Catholic School Spelling Bee Representatives Saxon represented San Vicente Catholic School in the recently concluded 2012 Howard Scripps Regional Spelling Bee competition.

Johnny served as the Saxon’s alternate.

San Vicente Catholic School congratulates Saxon and Johnny for a job well done!

Paula Marie Cepeda, a 2011 Academy of Our Lady of Guam graduate attending the University of San Diego (USD), was accepted into The National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS), USD Chapter. She is the daughter of Paul and Jonifer “Joni” B. Cepeda (AOLG ’79) of Tamuning.

NSCS is a member of the Association of College Honor Societies and is the nation’s only interdisciplinary honors organization for first- and second-year college students.

Membership is by invitation only, based on grade point average and class standing. NSCS has more than 850,000 lifetime members and 300 chapters in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

“NSCS is more than just a symbol of academic achievement. Membership gives students access to a number of amazing benefits including career and networking resources, scholarships, travel and service projects both on campus and in the community,” says Stephen E. Loflin, NSCS Founder and Chief Executive Officer.

SUNDAY, MARCH 18, 2012

CATHOLIC SCHOOLS

Front Row (L-R) New Members: Taylor Sablan (8th), Daryl Damian (7th) and Sala Jo Celestial (6th) Second Row: (L-R): Ms. Jeannie Aevermann(Adviser), Jenine Cabrera, Paulo Dela Cruz, Jenny Kim, Christiana Quichocho, Rylee Sampson, Mrs. Belen De Fant(Adviser) Back Row (L-R): Christian Soliva, Shane Healy, and Leah Angoco SVCS Photo

San Vicente Catholic School Recognizes Student Excellence Wednesday, February 29, 2012 was an exciting day for 3 San Vicente Catholic School students who were inducted into the National Junior Honor Society. The National Junior Honor Society (NJHS) is a national organization established to recognize outstanding students. Membership into the National Junior Honor Society requires excellence in Scholarship, Citizenship, Character, Service and Leadership.

Congratulations to the students and their parents. For more pictures of the San Vicente Catholic School NJHS induction, view our website at svcsguam.com

5

www.umatuna.org

6th Grade students from Guam's Catholic Schools discuss and reflect on different topics at the first-ever Archdiocese of Agana 6th Grade Family Conference. The event took place on February 21st at the Father Duenas Phoenix Center. Photo courtesy of Kevin AN Delgado

Conference CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2 The day concluded with a closing prayer service, during which prayers for mothers, father, and children present at this year’s Conference were offered. In addition, holy water was distributed. At that time, parents were able to bless their children in the presence of His Excellency Anthony S. Apuron, OFM Cap., DD. At the beginning of our earthly lives, God created us and placed a heart in our bodies.

With that heart, the soul finds its home. It is at that moment that our bodies are then ani-

Numbers CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Ordinariate and 1 Military Ordinariate; 1 archdioceses and 8 dioceses in metropolitan locations were erected; 1 prelature, 1 apostolic vicariate and 1 apostolic prefecture were elevated to diocese and 1 mission "su iuris" to apostolic prefecture.

The statistical data for the year 2010, provides a summary analysis of key trends in the Catholic Church in the planet's 2,966 dioceses.

In 2010 there were just under 1,196 million Catholics, compared to about 1.181 million in 2009, for a total increase of 15 million faithful at 1.3%. The territorial impact of Catholics suffered noticeable variations between 2009 and 2010: they have reduced their importance in South America (from 28.54 to 28.34 per cent) and especially in Europe (from 24.05 to 23.83 per cent).

They reclaimed position in Africa (from 15.15 to 15.55 per cent) and South East Asia (from 10.41 to 10.87 per cent).

From 2009 to 2010, the number of bishops in the world increased from 5,065 to 5,104 with a relative increase of 0.77%. The increase was in Africa (+16 new bish-

mated… to work, to serve, to live. Often times, however, our hearts get consumed with the things of the world… things like the noise of sin, the booming of temptation, and the deafening sound of evil all around us.

After a full school day of sharing, it was evident that the efforts of this conference were indeed effective and sincere. It is our prayer that the 400+ students were able to gain much about being strong in this everchanging world. It is our hope that these students are faithful in all their decisions today and always. Most importantly, it is with faith that these students are now re-energized… marching to the rhythm of the Church, and allowing the music in their hearts to be played by the greatest of all musicians…God.

ops), America (+15) and Asia (+12), while a slight decrease occurred in Europe (from 1,607 to 1,606) and Oceania ( 132 to 129).

The growth trend in the number of priests, which began in 2000, continued in 2010, for a total of 412,236 priests, 277,009 of which are diocesan clergy and 135,227 religious clergy, but in 2009 there were 410,593 priests divided into 275,542 diocesan and 135,051 religious. Overall, the number of priests have increased from 2009 to 2010 by a total of 1,643 units.

The increases are recorded in Asia (+1,695 priests), in Africa (+761), Oceania (with +52) and America (with +40 units), while the decline has affected Europe (with -905 priests).

The number of permanent deacons, both diocesan and religious, continues to show a trend of high growth in 2010. In fact, this year saw an increase of 3.7%, compared to 2009, rising from 38,155 to 39,564. Permanent deacons are present mainly in North America and Europe with a respective share of the global total of 64.3% and 33.2%,.

The decline that has affected the category of religious seems to have halted somewhat in 2010. In 2009 they counted 54,229 and

the number reached 54,665 in 2010. In sharp decline in South America (3.5%) and in North America (0.9%), stationary in Europe, vocations to religious life has increased in Asia (+4.1%), which increase its share of the world total, and Africa (+3.1%).

Even the number of professed women religious is undergoing a profound transformation characterized by a strongly decreasing dynamic. Globally, the number dropped from 729,371 in 2009 to 721,935 in 2010. The decline has focused on three continents (Europe, America and Oceania), with significant negative changes (-2.9% in Europe, in Oceania -2.6% and -1.6% in America). In Africa and Asia, however, the increase was very significant, at around 2% for both continents.

The number of students of philosophy and theology in diocesan and religious seminaries has steadily increased over the last five years. On the whole, it is up 4%, from 114,439 units in 2005 to 118,990 in 2010. The number of students in the major seminaries is down in Europe (-10.4%) and America (-1.1%), up in Africa (+14.2%), Asia (+13.0%) and Oceania (+ 12.3%).

www.umatuna.org

6

ITE MISSA EST

From the Mass to the Market: Engaging the World Beyond the Church Doors

The Real Losers

By Tim Rohr

Imagine hearing the following story in the very near future I am a professional young man in his 20's. I just met this girl and she is quite attractive. We meet to have a few drinks. One thing leads to another and, well, you know. We talk a few times after that but it just doesn't seem to be working, so I don't call her back anymore.

A few weeks later she calls me at work and says we need to talk. "What for?"

"Just meet me."

I met her at Starbucks's after work and she looks like she might have been crying. After an awkward hug and a kiss, we sit down with our drinks and then blammo...

"I am pregnant."

I paused for a moment and then said, "Ok. Why tell me?"

"Well, its your baby and I thought you would want to know. After all, you are responsible."

"Whoa, hold on there. I am not responsible for anything. This was your choice."

"It takes two, or don't you remember?"

"Sorry, but this is only your healthcare issue."

"It's not a healthcare issue, it's a baby!"

"Oh no it's not. It's a healthcare issue and not my problem. You have access to government mandated and subsidized free birth control.

There was no reason for this to happen. This is entirely up to you."

"You never asked me if I was on birth control. We got caught up and..."

"I am sorry you feel this way but it is not my problem. You are responsible for your own healthcare, not me. You get birth control for free, there is no impediment to you getting it. If you choose not to use it or use it incorrectly, I can't be held responsible for that. If you have a healthcare problem now, don't blame me, blame yourself."

"It's not a healthcare problem, it's not a disease, it's a baby!"

"Sorry, not according to the government. This is a preventable health condition, the cure for which you get for for free courtesy of my tax dollars. How can I possibly be held responsible for your negligence in the prevention of a freely preventable disease?"

"Stop saying that! You can't do this! I will sue for paternity!"

"Go ahead and try. Dozens of cases just like this have already been heard around the country in the last 2 years. In each and every case the court has found that given the government mandated and pervasive free access to birth control, men have a reasonable expectation that women are able to protect themselves from this disease. You can't punish me with a baby because of your negligence. You do remember that I am a lawyer, right?"

"You are a monster!"

"Listen. It has been real. Do me a favor, lose my number."

(This story is reprinted from www.creativeminorityreport.com) Of course, I am neither in my 20’s nor the guy in the story. And the scenario is nothing new. Women have been on the losing end of the sexual revolution since The Pill first made sex without consequences possible, mostly without consequences for the male.

However, the HHS mandate, by classifying contraception as “preventative care”, has officially made pregnancy a preventable disease like smoking and diet-related diseases.

In so doing, the mandate provides the basis for a legal challenge to the normal responsibilities associated with paternity, responsibilities many men already try to avoid, but soon may have the law on their side!

Even the most chauvinistic male couldn’t have planned things out this well. No, it took a genius like President Obama and HHS “Field Marshall” Sibelius, to make women officially the sexual revolution’s legal losers. And they say the Church is waging war on women??

I’m sure the guy in the story (and lots of guys like him) will be casting their vote for Obama in November.

This column reflects only the views of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of the staff and management of the Umatuna. Hyperlinks to supporting data can be found on the online version at www.themassneverends.com The author can be contacted at timrohr.guam@gmail.com or “friended at facebook.com/timrohr.guam

CHURCH & SOCIETY

SUNDAY, MARCH 18, 2012

Those Who Fear the Crucifix (L’osservatore Romano) The theme of religious freedom in the U.K. continues to attract attention, specifically referring to the prohibitions (penalizing those who disregard them) by some employers about their employees wearing religious symbols, like the Crucifix.

Currently two cases of discrimination against working Christian women - after having been examined in the national courts – are the subject of appeals to the European Court of Human Rights, but as reported in The Telegraph, the British Government itself seems to be in favour of the position of employers. One of those cases concerns a British Airways flight attendant, Nadia Eweida, who wore a crucifix around her neck during a flight several years ago; the other concerns a nurse, Shirley Chaplin, who risked even being fired in order to wear a small cross around her neck while caring for a patient.

The European Court of Human Rights is close to ruling on the two cases in question, meanwhile in the country controversy is mounting. According to the article, the Government, summoned by the Court, seems to think that RELATED STORY Christians do not have the Christians to right to wear be Banned religious From Wearing symbols, as it is not a reCrosses at quirement Work. Page 10 of their faith (unlike other religious communities, such as some Muslim communities, which require that women, in order to express the appropriate religious attitude, cover themselves entirely wearing the traditional burqa or leave only the eyes uncovered wearing the niqab). The position of the Government, according to the newspaper, is stated in a document in which it considers it legitimate for employers to sanction their employees.

The Government's position has been stirring, just as the controversy has. The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord George Leonard Carey, accused British authorities and the courts of “dictating” to Christians and said that the position was another example of the tendency to sideline religiosity in official life. A member of the House of Lords, David Alton, observed, “And again it is Christians who are being unjustly targeted, not members of other religions”. For the Government, specifically, the question of the two Christian women would not fall under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights which formally recognizes the right to openly express his or her religious faith, save in a few particular cases. The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, in another article from The Daily Telegraph, called it idiotic not to respect the cross as a symbol of faith in the

CNS photo/Stephen Chernin, Reuters

workplace.

Many bishops and other representatives of the Anglican Communion have underlined their opposition to the attempts to discriminate against Christians, proposing a public condemnation by the General Synod. It has been observed by the Catholic Episcopacy too that some cases involving workers were examined by the British courts in a manner contrary to that established by the European Convention. In a 2011 document from the Department for Christian Responsibility and Citizenship in the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales,

it was emphasized inter alia that the EU regulations provide that any further restriction to the expression of faith that is not necessary should be considered illegal and the term “necessary” should not be confused with “desirable”, leaving room for broader assessments. Other cases of discrimination on religious grounds are being considered in English courts. Among others, in the Country in force now – on the topic of workers' rights - is the Religious Discrimination provision of the employment Equality Regulations, now incorporated in the Equality Act.

For all your property needs BLUE PACIFIC REALTY Tel: 671-483-0467 Fax: 671-648-1962 www.bluepacguam.com Tim Rohr, REALTOR ® timr@bluepacguam.com

EUROPE HIGHLIGHTS TOUR

France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Austria & Italy June 13 ~ 29, 2012

BRITISH ISLES TOUR England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland July 11~ 25, 2012

Eiffel Tower, Paris, France

SOUTHEAST ASIA TOUR

St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City, Rome

Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Cambodia Departure date: July 10, 2012

CANONIZATION OF PEDRO CALUNGSOD with PRAGUE (Sto. Nino), KRAKOW(Divine Mercy &hometown of JPII) Plus ROME, ASSISSI, VENICE, VIENNA and BUDAPEST October 9 ~ 25, 2012

All the above tours include roundtrip airfare from Manila-Europe/Asia-Manila, all hotel accommodations including one night stay in Manila, breakfast and dinners throughout, all sightseeing tours and guides and all transfers

FOR MORE Mario Celis Jr., INFO CALL: Guam Travelplan

Tel: 646-7476 Cell: 788-1628

Email: travelplan@guam.net Website: guamtravelplan.com

SUNDAY, MARCH 18, 2012

NATIONAL

www.umatuna.org

7

The Noise-To-Signal Ratio at the USCCB- Updated

By Phil Lawler The following column is reprinted in USY with the express permission of Mr. Lawler.

During the past several weeks, the US bishops have been engaged in a critical political battle over the HHS contraceptive mandate, and the USCCB has issued a series of strong statements on that subject. Good.

During those same weeks, however, the USCCB has also issued statements on tax cuts and unemployment benefits, the consumer bill of rights, US policy in the Middle East, nuclear weapons, and now agricultural policy.

Here I am including only statements released by the episcopal conference. Individual bishops have added their own opinions on publicpolicy matters ranging from immigration to climate change.

It is not obvious why the bishops feel obliged to speak on all those subjects. Is there a clear “Catholic” position on agricultural policy? No. Are American Catholics united in their views on agricultural policy? No. Do bishops have any special teaching authority regarding agricultural policy? Again, no.

But because the USCCB keeps cranking out policy recommendations, politicians can tune in and tune out, listening to the bishops whenever it suits their own partisan interests. A legislator can tell his bishop: “I might have disappointed you on the contraception mandate, but remember, I was with you on unemployment benefits and on the consumer’s bill of rights. So I was with you more often than I was against you.”

The bishops’ Faithful Citizenship guidelines compound the problem by encouraging both politicians and voters to consider a broad range of issues—some absolutely critical, others relatively minor; some clear moral imperatives, others questions of prudential judgment. Someone who reads the bishops’ statements carefully, honestly looking for guidance, will recognize that some questions take precedence. But someone who has already made up his mind, and combs through Faithful Citizenship looking for ways to justify his decisions, can easily pluck out quotations to cite in defense of his choices.

By speaking so often, on such a wide variety of public issues, the American bishops are watering down their own teaching authority. If they issued public statements

less frequently, and confined themselves to important issues on which they could speak with clarity and authority, they would have far more impact. Toward that end, I have two suggestions: 1. On important moral questions, when the teaching of the Catholic Church is clear, a statement prepared by the USCCB should be stamped with a message that reads: On this issue, Catholic bishops speak with authority, and the faithful are bound in conscience to follow the guidance that follows.

2. If a statement prepared by the USCCB staff does not qualify for that authoritative stamp, it should not be released.

Update: It seems that I wrote too quickly.

As soon as I pointed out that the USCCB is-

... because the USCCB keeps cranking out policy recommendations, politicians can tune in and tune out, listening to the bishops whenever it suits their own partisan interests. sues opinions on too many debatable political issues, a new USCCB statement appeared to give us the bishops’ perspectives on the federal budget, taxation, deficits, welfare, defense spending, housing assistance, foreign aid, job training, tax credits, Pell grants, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Oh, yes, and school choice, which is an issue on which the Church has a clear and distinctive teaching. But most lawmakers probably won't even notice the bishops' comments on the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program, because they'll be too busy plowing through the rest of the rhetoric. So another opportunity to make a precise point, on an issue the USCCB could possibly affect, was sacrificed for the sake of a prolix catch-all approach.

Phil Lawler is the founder of Catholic World News, the first online Catholic news service.

Pennsylvania Bishops Declare Day of Fasting for Religious Liberty (CWN) The bishops of Pennsylvania have declared March 30 to be a day of prayer, fasting, and abstinence for religious liberty.

“The assault by the federal government on constitutionally guaranteed religious liberty continues,” the bishops said in a letter to the faithful. “Our concern and alarm flows from a mandate of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) which punishes the Church for its firmly held beliefs and consistent teaching.”

“Recognizing the efficacy of prayer and fasting as well as the challenges we

face in overcoming the recent attack on our religious freedom, we, the Bishops of Pennsylvania, request that all Catholics dedicate the regular Lenten Friday practice of prayer and abstinence as well as the additional practice of fasting on Friday, March 30, to the preservation of religious liberty,” the letter continued. “On that day, offer your sacrifice for the cause of religious liberty, that the Church may be granted the basic right to practice what she preaches, and for our political leaders, that their eyes may be opened to the rights of all Americans, including those of faith.”

8

www.umatuna.org

Defend Marriage, Oppose Same-Sex Unions, Pope Urges US Bishops (CWN) Attacks on the institution of marriage—and in particular the drive for legal recognition of samesex marriage—call for “a reasoned defense of marriage as a natural institution,” Pope Benedict XVI told a group of visiting American bishops on March 9.

The Holy Father told the America bishops, who were concluding their ad limina visits, that the US is deeply affected by “the contemporary crisis of marriage and the family, and, more generally, of the Christian vision of human sexuality.” He continued: It is in fact increasingly evident that a weakened appreciation of the indissolubility of the marriage covenant, and the widespread rejection of a responsible, mature sexual ethic grounded in the practice of chastity, have led to grave societal problems bearing an immense human and economic cost.

Noting the “powerful political and cultural currents seeking to alter the legal definition of marriage,” the Pope said that the Church must explain that true marriage consists “of a specific communion of persons, essentially rooted in the complementarity of the sexes and

oriented to procreation.” “Sexual differences cannot be dismissed as irrelevant to the definition of marriage,” the Pontiff said. “Defending the institution of marriage as a social reality is ultimately a question of justice.”

The Pope said that in his conversations with the visiting American bishops, he had frequently heard expressions of concern about the decline in the number of young people entering marriage. He suggested that the problem is due in part to “deficiencies in the catechesis of recent decades,” and encouraged the bishops to review the marriage-preparation programs in their dioceses to ensure that they present an adequate explanation of Church teaching.

Pope Benedict also mentioned the widespread cohabitation prior to marriage, and asked the bishops to “develop clear pastoral and liturgical norms” to combat the practice.

He said that early education on the virtue of chastity is important to provide young people with a vision “more sound and appealing than the permissive ideologies exalted in some quarters.”

NATIONAL

SUNDAY, MARCH 18, 2012

14-Year-Old Gets Death Threats for Speaking Out on Marriage A schoolgirl in Maryland USA has attracted a storm of vitriol after testifying in favor of traditional marriage.

(UCA News) A 14-year-old Maryland girl received unexpected attention after testifying against a homosexual “marriage” bill that was later passed.

Sarah Crank testified before the Maryland Senate on her 14th birth-

Sacraments CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Diocese of Fargo has changed the typical order of the sacraments of initiation. Instead of confirmation coming third and at an older age, it is now conferred on children at a younger age and prior to First Communion.

Bishop Aquila said he made the changes because “it really puts the emphasis on the Eucharist as being what completes the sacraments of initiation” and on confirmation as “sealing and completing baptism.”

day. She was clear in her testimony about her feelings regarding samegender marriage. ”I don’t want more kids to get confused about what’s right and okay,” said Crank in her testimony. “I really don’t want to grow up in a world where marriage isn’t such a special thing anymore.

“People have the choice to be gay, but I don’t want to be affected by their choice,” the home schooler continues. “People say that they were born that way, but I’ve met really nice adults who did change. So please vote ‘no’ on gay marriage.”

Crank received compliments from some members for the Senate for well-articulated testimony — but she has also been subjected to death threats against her and her parents and has been the target of cyber-bullying.

The Senate ultimately passed the legislation, and on Thursday March 1 Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley signed it, making the state the eighth in the nation to legalize same-sex marriage. A petition drive, however, is already under way to overturn the bill via voter referendum.

When the sacraments are conferred in this order, he said, it becomes more obvious that “both baptism and confirmation lead to the Eucharist.” This sacramental assistance helps Catholics live “that intimate relationship of being the beloved sons and daughters of the Father in our daily lives,” he added.

The Bishop of Fargo said the changes have also distanced the Sacrament of Confirmation from “some false theologies that see it as being a sacrament of maturity or as a sacrament for ‘me choosing God.’” Instead, young people in Fargo

now have “the fullness of the spirit and the completion of the gifts of the spirit” to assist them in “living their lives within the world,” especially “in the trials they face in junior high and high school.”

Bishop Aquila explained his theological thinking to Pope Benedict during today’s meeting.

In response, he said, the Pope asked if he had “begun to speak to other bishops about this.” He told the pontiff that he had and that “certainly bishops within the Dakotas are now really looking towards the implementation in the restoration in the ordering of the sacraments.”

Catholic Laity Urged to Bring Faith-Based Convictions to Public Square

By Beth Griffin Catholic News Service

HICKSVILLE, N.Y. (CNS) — Catholics have a duty as American citizens to bring faith-inspired convictions to politics, and they can never allow politics to trump principles articulated by the bishops in their role as official teachers, according to Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York.

Informed political action is a particular charism of the laity, he said in the keynote address March 3 in Hicksville at the annual Public Policy Convention of the Diocese of Rockville Centre.

Cardinal Dolan said Catholic involvement in the public square is based on Catholic social teaching, which articulates bedrock principles and the actions that logically follow from them. "We root for the underdog in Catholic social justice," he said.

The innate dignity of the human person is the central tenet of Catholic social teaching, Cardinal Dolan said. Each person is a reflection of God and a "spark of the divine," he said, and human life is unquestionably sacred and deserves protection and respect.

More than 700 people participated in the program at Holy Trinity Diocesan High School in Hicksville.

Cardinal Dolan, introduced by Bishop William F. Murphy of Rockville Centre, spoke on the event's theme, "Catholics in the Public Square: Our

Role in Shaping Public Policy."

Other presenters described the 2012 legislative agenda of the New York State Catholic Conference and discussed preparations for the March 13 "Catholics at the Capitol" event, where constituents will meet with their legislators in Albany to provide a Catholic perspective on pending legislation.

In his address, Cardinal Dolan said the centuries-old principle of solidarity teaches "we're all in this mess together" and are called to work for the common good, Cardinal Dolan said. "We are called to construct a society of virtue and responsibility where human dignity is sacred and human life is revered.

Thus, informed political action is a duty. It is not some tawdry distraction."

Catholic teaching is based on natural law, "which is hard-wired into us as part of our moral DNA" and provides the basics of right and wrong, which human beings disregard at their peril, he said. Natural law does not belong to any religious group alone, but is "available to everybody by reason and discoverable by reflection and long experience based on common sense," he said.

"Human laws must always flow from and never contradict natural law. Politics and policy can never trump principles," Cardinal Dolan said.

Catholic teaching promotes stewardship of people, environment and creation, he said.

Addressing subsidiarity, Cardinal Dolan said the common good is best served by agencies and institutions close to the human person, with the primary ones being "marriage and family," he said.

"Jesus always had radar for those at the side of the road," which is the basis for the preferential option for the poor, he said. "Responsibility trumps rights and we are never free from the duty to serve others, particularly those in need."

God instilled rights in the human person that must be cherished and guarded by society and government, Cardinal Dolan said. "The highest must be freedom of religion, because all others come from this belief that there is someone outside of us giving us those other rights," he said.

Catholics have an obligation to bring values into public dialogue, the cardinal said. Politics is a noble call and patriotism is a virtue exhibited not only on the battlefield.

"We serve not only our faith but our country when we bring a religiously faith-formed conscience to the public square," he said.

Cardinal Dolan said it is unwise to yield to the temptation to be frustrated by politics and leave it to others, because that leaves a vacuum that will be filled by "the religion called secularism." Secularism has a creed, dogma, adherents and a strong belief that "our religion should not be involved in the public square," he said. "They'll be happy to

take over for us and we can't let that happen."

He said the bishops' role is to preach principles, but the laity's charism is to be involved in politics and bring a religiously informed conscience to the public square.

"We can be political without being partisan. We ought to bring values and convictions to politics. We will not be misled by people who say we shouldn't be involved," he said.

Church-state separation is not a separation of religion and morality and politics, and Catholics are not trying to impose doctrine on others, Cardinal Dolan said.

Referring to the federal mandate on contraception coverage, he said to applause, "Who's trying to impose what on whom?"

"Politics is the art of the possible," he said, adding that compromise and strategy are licit and important, as long as one doesn't sacrifice principle.

Cardinal Dolan said the church is the middle road between rights and responsibilities. "Rights must be balanced with responsibilities," he said.

Catholics should defend the rights of others, specifically the right to free exercise of religion, he said, explaining that the current fight over the federal mandate on contraceptive coverage is about religious freedom.

"We Catholics hardly need to be lectured about women's health.

Thanks to the religious sisters, we

run the largest private health care for women and children." He said the ruling is "an unwarranted, unprecedented, radical intrusion into the interior life of integrity of the church's ability to teach, serve and sanctify on its own."

At a news conference after his address, Cardinal Dolan said the bishops would accept help offered by constitutional scholars, legal experts and others passionate about protecting religious freedom.

Cardinal Dolan said bishops speak for the truths of the faith, not for Catholic popular opinion. "We got our Irish up when leaders in government seemed to be assigning an authoritative voice to Catholic groups that are not the bishops. If you want an authoritative voice, go to the bishops."

According to the cardinal, the bishops have suggested to the Obama administration that it widen a narrow religious exemption to its mandate that all employers, including most religious employers, provide contraceptive coverage or that it drop the requirement altogether and trust the church to define its own ministry and services.

He said the bishops cannot compromise on principle and will continue to speak out with a prophetic voice against what they regard as an unjust law forcing the church to obey something it can't.

SUNDAY, MARCH 18, 2012

REGIONAL

CHINA

AsianNews Photo

pitals. Over 89 dissidents are in real prisons, 72 were sentenced to criminal detention, in the prison's special units and 60 condemned to hard labour. Of all these cases, 86% has no legal basis, 6% has a basis, but uncertain.

Another alarming fact regards freedom of expression. Again afraid of the spread of Arab-type riots, mostly conducted over the Internet, Beijing imposed the registration of personal data on 260 million Internet users: the cancellation of online privacy, however, has not stopped the criticism of the regime on Weibo, the popular domestic micro blogging site. Yet, 30% of users were identified during the year and told to "stop spreading false and anti-state" information.

Although not present in the Report, religious freedom is one of the most affected in this 2011. The self-immolations in Tibet, the crackdown against Protestant house churches, the illegitimate ordinations of Catholic bishops and the harassment of priests, the military presence in Muslim Xinjiang have all increased to impressive levels. The government fears the religious freedom that helps people to emerge from the regime's indoctrination, and has always tried to limit it by every means available.

PHILIPPINES

Filipino Cardinal Sanchez Dead at 91 (CWN) Cardinal Jose Sanchez, the former prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, died on March 9 in Manila, just short of his 92nd birthday.

Born in the Philippines and ordained to the priesthood in the Sorsogon diocese, the future cardinal was named auxiliary bishop of Caceres in 1968. He became coadjutor Bishop of Lucena in 1971, becoming head of that

Communists say Businessman’s Crimes Warranted ‘Death Sentence’ (UCA News) Communist rebels today claimed responsibility for the killing of a Swiss-Filipino businessman they say was involved in the murder of an Italian priest in Mindanao last year.

The New People’s Army (NPA) said they “punished” Patrick Wineger, 48, for his alleged close links with “fanatical and anti-NPA groups” and targeting Italian missionary Father Fausto Tentorio.

Wineger was shot dead early on Wednesday morning by two men on a motorcycle at a fleamarket in Kidapawan City.

NPA spokesman, Rigoberto Sanchez, said

9

VIETNAM

Beijing Imposed a 2011 of Repression and Torture to Stop Arab Spring "Contagion" BEIJING (AsiaNews) — The terror caused by the Arab Spring in the Chinese leadership has made 2011 the worst year in over a last decade in terms of human rights. While the whole world condemned the arrest of the architect and activist Ai Weiwei, 3,832 other dissidents were jailed. Of these, 159 were tortured repeatedly resulting in long term disabilities. In addition, 86% of these arrests have no legal basis. This is just some of the data in the Annual Report on the state of human rights in China published by the Chinese Human Rights Defender, an organization that monitors the state of dissent in the country.

According to the group's international director Renee Xia, "the Jasmine repression " - the name given by Chinese activists to Beijing's reaction against any activity similar to that of Arab and Middle Eastern countries - has led to "the lowest level ever recorded in the freedom of expression, religion and speech in China. Such a fierce policy has not been seen since the Movement for the Defence of Rights launched in early 2000. " The most alarming case is of the "forced disappearances" of dissidents and human rights activists. The Chinese government approved last August, a new amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedure, which in fact allows the authorities to detain any citizen for an indefinite period in a hidden place: although it is an open violation of the Constitution, the amendment was implemented since the first days after approval. Changes are due to be made in the course of the ongoing National Congress, but the text is still hidden.

With this new tool, in 2011 the police took 2,795 dissidents into so-called "black jails", hidden prisons, without notifying family or lawyers of the accused, 163 were forced to house arrest, 25 were forcibly removed to another province than the one in which they live 7 were forcibly hospitalized in psychiatric hos-

www.umatuna.org

diocese in 1976, and then Archbishop of Nueva Segovia in 1982.

In 1985 he was appointed by Pope John Paul II as secretary of the Congregation for Evangelization. In 1991 he was elevated to the College of Cardinals and appointed prefect of the Congregation for Clergy. He retired from that post in 1996 at the age of 76.

Pope Benedict XVI paid tribute to the deceased cardinal, noting his “dedicated service to the Lord as a priest and bishop in his native country, as well as our service together in the Roman Curia during the pontificate of Blessed John Paul II.” several text messages found on Wineger’s mobile phone revealed he was in close contact with paramilitaries linked to Fr. Tentorio’s murder.

“The swift and timely punishment of one of the principals behind Father Tentorio’s killing stands as a fitting and just retribution amid the false justice dispensed by the USAquino regime,” Sanchez said in a statement.

“With strong evidence suggesting Wineger committed grave offenses against the revolutionary movement, the NPA military tribunal handed down a death sentence against him,” he said.

Father Tentorio was killed on October 17 last year inside the compound of a convent in Arakan town in North Cotabato.

Two suspects have been arrested but church people and rights groups still believe the military had a hand in the murder.

Against Abortion, for Life Vietnamese Catholics mark International Women's Day Ho Chi Minh City (AsiaNews) - For Vietnamese Catholics, International Women's Day (8 March) provided an opportunity to reiterate the non-negotiable values of human life, from conception, and to renew the fight against abortion. Recently, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee launched a family planning campaign (similar to those in other Asian nations) to encourage poor and young women to end their pregnancy in exchange for US$ 50 and health care insurance.

However, in schools, offices and families, International Women's Day, the day was used to promote traditional values and culture, listen to Bible readings and remember that "God created human beings as males and females," with equal dignity to "complete one another."

In today's Vietnam, men still rule. Women are relegated to marginal roles, often discriminated, victims of violence and abuse behind the walls of home. The country's pervasive socialist culture has led to a moral collapse, and values have imploded, especially among young people who are the first victims of the omnipresent materialism. The latter leads youth to live and work under a rigid political ideology whose ultimate goal is the accumulation of wealth, as confirmed by professors, sociologists and educators.

"To deal with social problems, the government and the education system need

to have programmes of sex education that promote human dignity," said Maria H. T., a catechist in Ho Chi Minh City. "On behalf of the Catholic Church in Vietnam, we must talk with teens and parents that abortion is murder and a felony" In the former Saigon, Catholics are against the government's family planning policies. The current five-year plan (20112015), which aims at imposing population controls, includes the possibility of going to hospital for sterilisation in exchange for US$ 50 and a two-year free health care card.

Such policies lead young women to kill their foetus for money. For every 100 live births, 75 have no chance to come into this world because they are "unwanted".

A recent survey shows that 51 per cent of students and young people who live in the cities are in favour of abortion. Many also think that it is normal for young men and women to live together before marriage. For many, it is acceptable that teenage girls have legal abortions.

Figures from local health agencies indicate that each 1,400,000 abortions are performed. That includes 500,000 among women under the age of 18.

According to the most recent data (2009), Vietnam has a population of 85,789,573, 43,307,024 of whom are women.

Some 25,374,262 or 29.6 per cent live in cities; the rest, 70.4 per cent, live in the rural areas, which are often poor and backward.

The fertility rate is 19.58 per 1,000 women. The infant mortality rate is 29.88 per 1,000.

10

www.umatuna.org

INTERNATIONAL

SUNDAY, MARCH 18, 2012

PAKISTAN

Pakistani Police Officer Rapes 14 Year Old Christian Girl Crime Committed on International Women’s Day LAHORE (AsiaNews) — A 14 year old Christian girl was raped by a policeman with an accomplice, at gin point, while in the next room, bound and gagged, her grandparents felt powerless to intervene. The incident occurred on the night between 7 and 8 March in Sheikhupura district, Punjab province, while around the world events were held to celebrate International Women's Day. Even in Pakistan seminars and meetings were held, even President Asif Ali Zardari, yesterday, signed a law to protect women.

On the evening of March 7, 14 year old Kiran (*), originally from Jaranwala, paid a visit to her grandparents who live in the village of Malowal, in a small house not far from the property of a superintendent of police. On the night Nawaz Wahla, a law enforcement official, along with an accomplice Mehboob, a milkman, jumped the fence and broke into the house. According to the newspaper The Express Tribune reports they tied up the grandparents and repeatedly raped the girl, at gun point.

Once she had escaped, Kiran released the grandparents who have accompanied her to the hospital for medical treatment, however, neither the doctors nor the police wanted to bring relief to the Christian girl, or take action to catch the perpetrators of violence. Only the official opening of the investigation, initiated by a diligent judge allowed the detention of

Mehboob - the accomplice - while Nawaz has so far eluded capture.

Yesterday, March 8, meanwhile, across Pakistan events to commemorate International Women's Day were held. In the capital Islamabad, women's organizations sponsored a seminar to enhance the value and role of women in the world. Simultaneously, President Asif Ali Zardari ratified the Law on the National Commission, to assess the status of women's rights in the country, and he ensured that the body will play a crucial role in safeguarding and protecting the rights of women.

However, women's associations contest the claims of institutions emphasizing that laws are not enough, if they are not enforced.

In a public meeting held yesterday in Faisalabad, organized by the Association of Women for Awareness and Motivation (Awam), activists pointed out that "new and more laws are not enough", but it is the government that "in practice must ensure" the protection of women and their equal rights. Peter Jacob, executive secretary of the National Commission for Justice and Peace Commission of the Catholic Church (NCJP) was also among the participants and noted that "the number of attacks against women in Pakistan is four times higher than the cases that reported "and many crimes" based on sex pass in silence. " In Multan, organizations of Catholic women - along with other women's movements - have sponsored a demonstration in the streets. Sr. Margaret, among the participants at the event, stressed that "to celebrate woman, we must also recognize the importance of

JERUSALEM

CNS photo/Mohammed Salem, Reuters

JERUSALEM (AsiaNews/ Agencies) — Israelis and Palestinians agree to a truce after four days of Israeli shelling and Palestinian rocket launches. The ceasefire came into effect last night. Sources say that Egypt offered to mediate. Sources note that both sides agreed to stop the violent escalation; a period of calm should follow.

The death toll now stands at 25, mostly members of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) and Islamic Jihad but also some civilians, including a 15-year-old boy.

According to Israeli authorities, more than 40 rockets were launched against Israeli settlements, some falling 50 kilometres from

women". The nun adds that "although there are rules against domestic violence and acid attacks", so far "measures against men" have not been taken. And many women do not even know the existence of the law."

Among the representatives of Pakistani women celebrated today, are 13 year old Malala Yousafzai, a young activist who has fought against aggression of the Taliban in the Swat valley, awarded by the civil society and government. On the Catholic front honors go to

Zenobia Richards, a victim of the demolition of a Catholic institution Gosh-e-Aman in Lahore, where she lost her home and many of her possessions. Thanks to the Masihi Foundation she has found a new home.

Pope Benedict XVI’s prayer intention for the month of March is for greater awareness and appreciation for the contributions of women in society. USY asks for your continued prayers for this victim and for the Holy Father’s intention.

ENGL AND Palestinians survey a kindergarten destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza Jan. 8. Israeli warplanes continued to bomb targets across the Gaza Strip and tanks advanced on Palestinian guerrillas as U.S. backing for a truce proposal raised expectations o f an end to the offensive.

Israel and Palestinian Muslim Extremists Agree to Gaza Truce

AsiaNews Photo

Tel Aviv, wounding 35.

The latest violence was triggered by an Israeli air strike on Friday that killed a senior PRC leader. Israeli sources said the action had been planned for some time.

Muslims extremists responded by launching 42 rockets against southern Israel, triggering an immediate response from Israel.

Israeli attacks occurred at a time when the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations were meeting to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The US has condemned the rocket attacks as "cowardly"; the Arab League called the Israeli air strikes "a massacre".

Using a more diplomatic language, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed concern over the flare-up in violence, describing rocket attacks on Israeli civilians as "unacceptable" and urging Israel to "exercise maximum restraint".

Christians to Be Banned from Wearing Crosses at Work (UCA News) In a highly significant move, ministers will fight a case at the European Court of Human Rights in which two British women will seek to establish their right to display the cross.

It is the first time that the Government has been forced to state whether it backs the right of Christians to wear the symbol at work.

A document seen by The Sunday Telegraph discloses that ministers will argue that because it is not a “requirement” of the Christian faith, employers can ban the wearing of the cross and sack workers who insist on doing so.

The Government’s position received an angry response last night from prominent figures including Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury.

He accused ministers and the courts of “dictating” to Christians and said it was another example of Christianity becoming sidelined in official life.

The Government’s refusal to say that Christians have a right to display the symbol of their faith at work emerged after its plans to legalise same-sex marriages were attacked by the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church in Britain.

A poll commissioned by The Sunday Telegraph shows that the country is split on the issue.

Overall, 45 per cent of voters support moves to allow gay marriage, with 36 per cent against, while 19 per cent say they do not know.

SUDAN

Hundreds of thousands of Christians ordered to leave Sudan (CWN) The government of Sudan, an overwhelmingly Muslim nation, has stripped between 500,000 and 700,000 Christians of their citizenship and ordered them to leave for the new nation of South Sudan, according to a report from Ecumenical News International (ENI).

Two million lost their lives in the long Sudanese civil war (1983-2005) between the Muslim north and the largely animist and Christian south. The civil war ended when

President Omar Hassan Ahmad Al-Bashir, indicted by the International Criminal Court, granted the south limited autonomy. South Sudan gained its independence in July 2011.

According to the ENI report, the government of Sudan declared that all whose “parents, grandparents or great grandparents [were] born in the South Sudan or [who] belong to any southern ethnic group” are no longer citizens of Sudan and must leave the nation by April 8.

“We are very concerned,” said Auxiliary Bishop Daniel Adwok of Khartoum. “Moving is not easy ... people have children in school.

They have homes ... It is almost impossible.”

“We want the rights of these people addressed by the two parliaments,” he added.

“Everyone has a right to

FEATURE

SUNDAY, MARCH 18, 2012

www.umatuna.org

11

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA

Dying of Cancer, Reborn in Christ

By Fr. Mario Ghezzi

A

story of faith and pain that comes to us from Cambodia through the story of a PIME missionary. Saet, a young man in his early twenties, a brilliant mathematics student at the University of Phnom Penh, diagnosed with a brain tumor in a terminal phase, without any hope of recovery. But his anger and despair gave way to solace, to the discovery of a relationship and friendship with the missionary fathers who guided him - he was born and raised in a Buddhist family - to convert to Christianity just weeks before his death. Because in Christ, he confided “I am reborn to new life.”

Thanks to the PIME priests he spent the last stage of his illness in the St. Elizabeth of Hungary hospice for sick in Phnom Penh, a center for the poor especially from rural areas founded and run by Paola Maiocchi - of the lay missionary community - together with a Fr. Mario Ghezzi. In this testimony written by the priest, Saet - who chose the name Albert at his baptism - retraces the steps of his illness, his physical suffering and inner peace, happiness at his encounter with Christ and the choice of conversion.

Saet Albert died Tuesday, February 28 at 21:23. But his memory is still alive and emerges from the pages of this story. A witness of life and faith in Christ that overcomes death.

Saet, 22 years of age "tall and as handsome as the day is long" those who knew him when he was healthy would say, came to our center for patients in mid-December, his left eye badly swollen. He had been in Vietnam and had already received the diagnosis of fatal brain cancer. He returned home not knowing what to do, while the pain was getting stronger along with the desire to end it all. Before falling ill, he had arrived in Phnom Penh full of hope, Saet was intelligent and had won a scholarship for an undergraduate degree in mathematics. Only one week into his university life and then his dreams begin to shatter, the first sign: a simple headache.

His story is similar to that of many other young Cambodian poor. Once junior high finished he gave up on continuing his studies because his widowed mother could not afford to pay the fees. So Saet became a shepherd and farmer. One day a friend told him that there is a new high school in Prey Veng where they help poor kids. It is the high school that Fr. Alberto Caccaro, PIME, had just opened. So, Saet begins to dream once more of going back to school. The boy attended the school and graduated in August of 2011. He later won a scholarship in mathematics to the University of Phnom Penh. But in October continuous headaches cast a shadow over his future, the trip to Vietnam and diagnosis: brain cancer, only a few months of life left. Thanks to Fr. Alberto's contacts, Saet was brought to our center for sick, otherwise he would have died without any medical care whatsoever and without the help of pain relief. The missionary brought him into contact with Paola and Saet arrived, light as an angel, ill and in pain but still an angel.

His condition declined rapidly, the pain getting stronger, but the pain and the awareness of inevitable death opens the barrier of

his heart to a deluge of questions, real and inevitable, those questions that can be relegated to the margins over the course of an entire lifetime but with which we all sooner or later must also reckon. Saet, of Buddhist tradition, decided to start with this request and turned to Fr. Gustavo Benitez, also a PIME missionary: "help me know Jesus." And Gustavo timidly begins to read him the Gospel of Mark. On December 31, 2011 at one o'clock in the afternoon, he called Fr. Gustavo, and told him: "Father come get me because today I have a bit of strength and I want to see your church." I was passing by and see from the windows Gustavo pushing Saet in his wheelchair within the church, although at the time Saet and I did not know each other well yet. All of a sudden Saet asks me: "I want to be baptized now because I do not know if I'll still be here tomorrow."

Conversion and Baptism Obviously we tried to dissuade him from this thought because it was not true and we convinced him to wait until the next day.

On the afternoon of January 1, 2012 Saet was baptized and confirmed, taking the Christian name of Albert as a sign of his deep bind with Fr. Alberto Caccaro. And here his life begins!

He had already abandoned thoughts of ending it all. He used to say: "Father, when I found out I had cancer, I thought about suicide, but then I got here and I found a love that is so great - he adds - that I never imagined could exist: Paola, you fathers, the young people of the parish who come to see me every day and then, above all, I met Jesus".

At that moment Saet had already lost the use of both eyes, because the cancer was spreading to the eyes and nose. Blind, his nose completely closed by the tumor Saet said: "Father, I have the greatest joy in my heart, a joy that I never knew before, how nice to have known you father and Jesus Although we'll be together for a short time I will never forget the precious treasure that I found here. Thank you father. " He kept repeating these words even to Gustavo and Paula. And I would think to myself ... "What is there to be happy about? You are only 22, in a few weeks you will die, and you know what, your you have headaches that could split you in two and you say you are happy? ". Yet every evening after the mass at 18.30 I would abandon all my other duties to spend time with him, hoping he was okay and could speak, because people who are ill like him have no words to waste and can only say things that are deeply meaningful and true.

As a result the time spent with Saet became a mystical experience: talking, touching, seeing, hearing Jesus. His young and increasingly frail body was one with whom I had just celebrated the Eucharist at the altar, and his words became full of meaning as the word that I had just heard during mass. The liturgy continued in worship, sometimes silent sometimes spoken of the suffering body of Christ with which Saet identified himself immediately without delay. Kissing his hands meant kissing those of Jesus, kissing his face was to kiss that of Christ. I told him: "Saet, your suffering is valuable because offered to God it becomes a means of purification for you but also for the whole world. You, like Jesus, become an offering and sacrifice to purify the world." And he'd say, surprised and pleased: "Really, father?".

In exchange for the offer of his pain Saet received a serenity and peace that already spoke of heaven in the last days of his life.

In Christ, Life After Death He spoke of the day of his death as the most natural thing possible. He immediately asked and wanted to see the urn where we put the ashes of the dead and then he started asking questions about the afterlife: heaven, life in Christ and the communion of saints, eternity, and these were the themes of our conversations. He had come to say: "I will not say that I die, I want to say that I must be reborn to a new life with Jesus."

Then even the conversations disappeared when the cancer took possession of the palate and mouth. It tried to take everything of him, the damn cancer, but failed to take his heart, his peace and serenity that he lived as special gifts of God when there were no more words to say, only his hands remained to communicate his affection and closeness, light and sincere in their grasp, intertwined with our own as we whispered the words of prayers he could no longer say in his ear and which a squeeze of his hand confirmed. He could say a few words, sometimes, and you could be sure he would say: "Thank you father that you came to see me, and a smile would blossom on his lips."

I would visit Saet every night because, paradoxically, in that room an amazing intensity of life circulated. Entering that room meant leaving recharged and full of inner strength, even when the time was spent in silence. How is it possible that there is so much life near death? Yet it was so! Saet has exceeded the boundaries of fear of death. He said: "Father, I am not afraid of dying, I know I will meet Jesus and that's enough." Death had no hold

nant silence reigned in the church; the eyes and ears of these "faithful" are wide open, some glances of astonishment. Then we went to the pagoda, the last look at Saet and cremation.

An earthly life has ended, but a new life in the Lord, in peace, eternal bliss has begun. A strange longing seizes me, surely I need time to mourn this death as they should, but perhaps a longing for God: "Why Saet before me?

And if I wanted to come too? Maybe a bit 'in a hurry ! ". Dear friends, but is it really worthwhile to be afraid of death?

The Last Memory of Saet Phnom Penh, February 1.

A diary entry of the last memory Saet "This evening Saet there is nothing left but the possibility of pain, pure, alone, desolate, searing, leaving no escape. Just this. No more room for a look, because for a long time now his eyes have held no life. There is no space for a dialogue, because his tongue is numb from the pain and morphine. There is no more room to drink Zenya green tea together, because 'the beast' is invading the throat and has only left space for just a bit of water. Saet says he is awful hungry, but is no longer able to swallow anything solid ... It is only a weak handshake and some sweet words, consolation, a few whispered prayers to 'ear, and he acknowledges with a wavering voice and an almost imperceptible nod of the head.

Oh yes, only the pain remains to lord it, but

‘Father, when I found out I had cancer, I thought about suicide, but then I got here and I found a love that is so great - he adds - that I never imagined could exist: Paola, you fathers, the young people of the parish who come to see me every day and then, above all, I met Jesus’. over him, he only asked to die with a smile, with dignity and without causing too much trouble to his mother and all of us. In particular he asked insistently for the gift of the consolation of heart for his mother and his brother. And what did his mother say the moment he breathed his last? "Thank you father for loving him". But who could expect a reaction like that from a mother?

When he could still speak, one evening he told me: "Father, I have something to ask, when a person dies where do you put the body?". I answer that it usually stays at the home of the deceased, or is put in a room near the church. He says surprised: "Oh, do you not put it in church?". And I reply that no, usually it is not the case. Saet replied: "Father, when I die I want to stand all night in church, can you gift this to me?" "Certainly Saet - I said - do not worry, it will be as you wish"

Saet: Longing for the Face of God And so it was, Saet left us at 21:23 on 28 February and 30 minutes after his body was already in the church before the statue of Mary, lying on a cot and covered with a white sheet. The boys hostel of the parish and those of the vocational community flocked to church to pray, then spontaneously organized themselves to ensure a vigil was held with Saet until morning. The day after one o'clock in the afternoon the funeral was celebrated in the presence of relatives, friends and schoolmates of Saet, who are all Buddhists. A preg-

in all this pain how can you find hope, joy and peace? I do not know how Saet feels, I can only attempt to imagine it, but I think that every word good and beautiful that is whispered in his ear is like a light caress, that makes him feel close to someone when he can not speak and can not do anything. Words that speak of peace, joy and hope because hope despite everything, the certainty that God is present in this damn pain, has never abandoned us or Saet.

Saet asked his mother to do away with some medicine, but this does not happen, the mother will never be able to do it. Surely Saet's pain must be something unimaginable. It is almost impossible to think of that formless mass of tumor growing, multiplying in the skull of this young man filling all the gaps, eyes, nose, mouth, now also coming to the ears, soon Saet will no longer be able to even hear the words of consolation we whisper ....

Only one thing: God lives this immense pain and is already cleansing. I beg, I implore, I implore my God, who is the God of the Cross to embrace this young man, do not leave him in despair, accompany him moment by moment, begin to show him your light.

Listen to the prayers of Saet, and grant them soon, I beg you my Lord.

Amen ".

Fr. Mario Ghezzi is a missionary with the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, ... years in Cambodia (AsiaNews)

FAMAGU’ON Yan MANHOBEN

www.umatuna.org

12

Puzzles & Games WORD SEARCH THEME Fruits of the Holy Spirit

H G U C I P N D S F B E P Q I

BENIGNITY CHARITY CHASTITY CONTINENCY COUNSEL FAITH FEAR OF THE LORD FORTITUDE KNOWLEDGE MILDNESS MODESTY PATIENCE PEACE PIETY UNDERSTANDING WISDOM

SUDOKU

C T N E R B C R P M E G A K O

T H I I I A A O I R N D T X I

MOVIE REVIEW

October Baby

I H N R F N D E M W G L E F U

C G Y R I N A H O S N W N D A

N R W T E T H T D B I O C I Y

S H M S I P Y F S X T N E T R

K Y S C J T K O I R Y K S F C

J D Z O N H S R W P E E U Z F

C O U N S E L A I H D D P N R

9 2

There is only one solution to a Sudoku puzzle.

7

Use a pencil.

Last Week’s Solution 5

2

6

1 4

7

5

6 1

8 7

3 4 6 1 1

R F L O X R B T L I Y T C U N D E E N C I A T E N P O C C E

7

1

8

3

5 3 6 4

D X H K Q A T F M C W X H U L

8

3

No region can contain any duplicate digits.

2

O U F S B C J E H O M D N N D

Catholic News Service

Fill the empty cells so that each column, each row, and each of the 3x3 regions contains all of the digits from 1 to 9.

TIPS

8 9 7

By John Mulderig

Find all the words hiding within the puzzle. Words are placed diagonal, forward, backward, up and down.

I G A A D G J L R I I E I H Z

7 8 9

8 9 3 2 5 2

9 3 4

3

8 9

4

1

5

2 7 6

4

7 2

9

3

6

5 1 8

1

2 5

3 9

9 7

4 8 2 3 6 1

8 6 4 7

6

5

7

1

4

3

6

8

3

9 7 8

6 7 1 5 3 5 4 8 9 2

9

2

9

3

2 1

6

SCRIPTURAL CRYPTOGRAM

B H

J

B N S Z N

V E K P A N L

S N Z E Z

Last Week’s Solution

J

J

K P

K P

J

K P E

A K W

S

N

K

K P L

K T

Z

A

J

C

L

G R D Z W

B F

F

G

B

D

Z

“But my trust is in you, Yahweh; I say, ‘You are my God.“ (Psalm 31:14)

NEW YORK (CNS) — "Every life is beautiful." That's the tagline -- as well as the underlying theme -- of the thoroughly honorable, if not always fully effective, drama "October Baby" (Provident/Samuel Goldwyn).

After she collapses on stage during the opening night of a college play, freshman Hannah Lawson (Rachel Hendrix) winds up in the hospital and on the receiving end of two pieces of staggering news: She learns first, that her devoted parents -- mom Grace (Jennifer Price) and dad Jacob (John Schneider) -- adopted her as an infant. And second, that she's the survivor of an attempted abortion.

As her doctor explains, the latter fact accounts for the chronic medical problems that have long plagued Hannah and that culminated in her blackout.

Devastated and bewildered by this sudden revelation, Hannah sets out in search of her birth mother, Cindy (Shari Rigby). She's accompanied on her journey by Jason (Jason Burkey), her best friend since childhood. He's arranged for them to hitch a ride with a group of fellow students who are off to New Orleans for Mardi Gras.

In their feature debut, brothers Andrew and Jon Erwin helm a strongly pro-life message movie whose import viewers dedicated to the dignity of all human beings will welcome unanimously. Opinions about the aesthetic package in which they wrap their point, however, may be more divided.

The spring break-style odyssey on which Hannah and Jason tag along is obviously intended to provide some much-needed light relief. But only some of the comedy centering on the expedition's leader, disheveled but good-hearted B-Mac (Chris Sligh), works.

Instead of being kept in sharp focus, Hannah's potentially poignant vulnerability on discovering that she was unwanted -- and that her very existence was treated as disposable by her own mother -- gets diffused amid more conventional expressions of teen angst and confusion.

Hannah's admirable adherence to Christian sexual morality, moreover -- she and Jason share an unspoken but unmistakable mutual attraction -- becomes the occasion for a mumbled apology rather than an explanation as resolute as her actions.

But the Erwins' project does have some undeniable cinematic assets: The first part

Rachel Hendrix stars in a scene from the movie "October Baby." CNS photo/Samuel Goldwyn Films

of their story, for instance, plays out against adeptly shot bucolic backgrounds. And Jasmine Guy turns in a strong performance as Mary, a retired nurse who once worked in the abortion mill where Hannah was almost killed.

Perhaps in a nod to the vital role Catholics have played in the struggle against abortion, a climactic scene is set in a cathedral explicitly identified as Catholic.

There Hannah, a self-identified Baptist, not only seeks counsel in prayer, but from a kindly priest who happens by. The advice he gives her, however, is more evangelical in tone than Catholic; he emphasizes an individual relationship with God while at least implicitly down playing the importance of the church. But there is certainly no direct contradiction of Catholic teaching, and the scene can be viewed as an informal version of confession.

Laudably, the script avoids the temptation to demonize Cindy. Though she proves unequal to the challenge of Hannah's abrupt reappearance in her life, she's also shown to have gone on to marriage and motherhood as well as to a successful career.

Those determined to be cynical may nonetheless find it a bit pat that Cindy is an urbanite and a lawyer, while Grace and Jacob maintain their red-state values surrounded by the lush pastoral landscape that makes for all that inviting cinematography.

The film contains mature subject matter and potentially disturbing references. The Catholic News Service classification is A-II -- adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

BALTIMORE CATECHISM

The sentence below is encrypted using a secret code. Your job is to break the code by substituting the correct letter for the ones given. Each letter given in the code always represents the same letter throughout the puzzle.

HINTS: K = o N = h

R

SUNDAY, MARCH 18, 2012

For decades, the Baltimore Catechism was the primary tool used by CCD teachers throughout the US to help teach young people the basics of the Faith. Presented in a simple, question-and-answer format, the Catechism also gives a citation from Scripture that help us to understand that the Catholic faith is indeed “Bible-based.”

The U Matuna Si Yu’os is please to be able to offer this weekly series as both an instruction for youth as well as a refresher for adults.

80. Why is Jesus Christ God? Jesus Christ is God, because He is the only Son of God, having the same Divine nature as His Father.

And the high priest said to him, “I adjure thee by the living God that thou tell us whether thou art the Christ, the Son of God.” Jesus said to him, “Thou has said it.” (Matthew 26:63)

F

81. Why is Jesus Christ man?

Jesus Christ is man, because He is the son of the Blessed Virgin Mary and has a body and soul like ours.

82. Is Jesus Christ more than one Person?

No, Jesus Christ is only one Person; and that Person is the second Person of the Blessed Trinity.

SUNDAY, MARCH 18, 2012

FAMAGU’ON Yan MANHOBEN

BOOK REVIEW

Roger Dubin: A Novelist in Our Ranks

By Dr. Jeff Mirus Well over a year ago, while I was in the midst of reviewing a series of new “Catholic” novels (beginning with Catholic Novels: The Big Question), a user and supporter of CatholicCulture.org by the name of Roger Dubin kindly sent me an autographed copy of his own novel. He had published The Coin of the Realm in 2008, through Tarsus Press.

The book looked intriguing, so I kept it on my desk until I could get to it. That took me fourteen months, but once I started reading it in late February, I found it hard to put down.

The story features an American merchant seaman, Rick Weisman, who inherits a coin which traces its history back to the Romanov dynasty in Russia. The so-called Zevi Coin is said to lead its bearer to whatever his soul is seeking. Rick does not really know what he is seeking, but aboard ship he gets caught up in a struggle against human trafficking which leads him to Lorraine, another fighter in the cause, with whom he falls in love. On the surface, at the level of turning pages as quickly as one can, this is a riveting adventure story. Deeper down it is a reflection on the choices we make and how we work out

our own destinies, whether with magic, by fate, or through Divine Providence.

Dubin is a fine, at times even a poetic, writer. His sense of plot, setting and character are excellent. CatholicCulture.org readers should be aware that the novel is not self-consciously Catholic. The hero is a secular Jew. The characters in general are far from perfect, and with no apologies. While concerns about the meaning of life percolate beneath the surface, they are hinted at rather than explicitly developed. But the story is compelling, the prose rich, and the themes haunting.

I found myself thinking about the book long after the leading characters had reached physical safety, wondering whether they might be on the way toward spiritual safety, too.

Clearly Dubin intended this. Tarsus Press takes its inspiration from St. Paul on the Road to Damascus, and there is a story in every journey. So it is encouraging that Roger is at work on another novel. I’ll eagerly await the result, but with no less gratitude for his remarkable first novel, The Coin of the Realm.

Dr. Mirus is president of Trinity Communications.

www.umatuna.org

13

14

www.umatuna.org

DEVOTION & SPIRITUALITY

On Line God

In today’s computer age the world has become smaller and contact with each other is much faster because people are on line with one another. Aside from our busy mind, our fingers are in constant motion over our desk and laptops sending messages, writing documents and making contacts with friends and loved ones. As technology nowadays make things easier for us, there are times too when things become harder and tougher.

As we surf and search for solutions and answers to our concerns, there are times when Fr. Joel De Los Reyes Divine Mercy Moments encounter challenges as we strive to change for the better, restore order and peace in situations where no one would dare, and right the wrong to save a friend or a loved one from moral decadence.

There are moments when we are lost and confused with no immediate answer to resolve some personal issues that adversely affect our work and family. In this kind of life situation we must be on line with God for every trial is a call to prayer. When we pray, we are talking to someone who knows best and who listens to every bit of our heart, and has the power to reverse the irreversible, and make the impossible, possible.

Every burden is a bridge to the Lord. He sends us trials not to punish us but because we need them for when we are in deep predicament then we seek His help and ask for His mercy. God does things for a reason and always for our own good. A beautiful life is not achieved just like an instant coffee. He brews it with care and lets us sipped hot with confidence in His divine providence. Successful life is never an accident. It comes with failures and hardships, it passes through rigorous tests and breakdowns, above all it is God’s reward to those who trust in Him. Let us seek God’s guidance to do things right and well. A good request from the Lord is how to get along happily whether we have much or little in life, learning how to live on almost nothing or with everything. The secret of contentment in every situation is to believe that God is enough to cover us in everything. Even if difficulty arises, let us see it as an invitation to bend our knees for when

we do, then we know who we are, and who God is; that we are dust and He is our Maker, that we are nothing and He is everything, that we are sinners and He forgives, and in spite of our grave mistakes, His love for us is unconditional.

Do not think of the few things you did not get after praying. Think of the countless beautiful things God gave you even without asking. He keeps his eye on us at all times, He’s observing, loving and encouraging us in life’s struggles. He’s there and He cares.

Although He has billions of children to observe, His gaze doesn’t wander from you.

If life seems frightening, if the opposition seems tough, if it appears that you are losing, remember that God is watching. In His loving compassion He wants to help. Remember you are the apple of His eye. That means also that as we keep ourselves on line with God He too is on line with us. Amen on that folks!!!

In her Diary entry no. 1076, St. Faustina wrote Jesus’ words; “ Everything that exists is enclosed in the bowels of My mercy”.

Tune in to KOLG 90.9 FM for the Divine Mercy prayer at 3 p.m. daily. Recite the Chaplet of Mercy for peace in the world and conversion of sinners.

Thanks to Mrs. Erlinda Limtiaco Lastimosa and family for the presentation of the Divine Mercy devotion, veneration of the relics of St. Faustina and Blessed John Paul 11 in their homes in Carlos Heights, Harmon last Sunday afternoon March 11, 2012. Likewise to the Divine Mercy apostolate for your faithfulness in our Sunday afternoon Divine Mercy home apostolate. May the Lord in His love and mercy continue to bless and reward you and your families with the abundance of His grace and mercy.

To arrange for Divine Mercy home apostolate, please contact Amy Borja at 472-7778.

Thank you.

Guam Divine Mercy Pilgrimage JOIN ME IN PILGRIMAGE TO LOURDES, PARIS, NEVERS, CARCASNNE, LYON, GEVEVA, SWITZERLAND, INFANT OF PRAGUE, CZECHOSLOVAKIA, DIVINE MERCY, KRAKOW, POLAND, HOUSE OF BLESSED JOHN PAUL 11,VIENNA, AUSTRIA. from July 9-25, 2012.

For contact please call Lou Salas at 4778079, Ann Marie 649-3221, Fr. Joel 4839464. Thank you.

SUNDAY, MARCH 18, 2012

SUNDAY, MARCH 18, 2012

THE LIFE OF FAITH

www.umatuna.org

15

Science One of the Best Ways to Know God DENVER, Colorado, (CNA) — The astronomer for the Vatican Observatory, Brother Guy Consolmagno, S.J., says that his study of the universe through science has helped him better understand the person of Christ.

Despite people often having the “crazy idea” that science and religion conflict, science is “really one of our best principles for getting to know God,” he told CNA. Br. Consolmagno – who also serves as the Vatican's curator of meteorites – spoke on March 3 at the Living the Catholic Faith Conference in the Archdiocese of Denver, Colo.

During his talk, titled “The Word Became Flesh,” the planetary scientist explained that modern atheists tend to understand God as being merely a force that “fills the gaps” in our understanding of the universe.

“To use God to fill the gaps in our knowledge is

theologically treacherous,” Br. Consolmagno said, because it minimizes God to just another force inside the universe rather than recognizing him as the source of creation.

Those who believe in God should not be afraid of science, but should see it as a an opportunity that God gave humanity to get to know him better.

Br. Consolmagno said that he believes in God, “not because he is at the end of some logical chain of calculations” but because he “experienced what physics and logic can show me but cannot explain: beauty and reason and love.”

The primary difference between him and atheistic scientist Stephen Hawking is that he recognizes that God is not another part of the universe that explains the inexplicable, but rather “Logos” and “Reason itself.”

He spoke of the faith

needed to embrace Christianity and said that although other world religions and philosophies can give us a rational view of the universe, “only the Gospel could tell us that Reason itself became flesh and dwelt among us” in the form of Jesus Christ.

The Incarnation is remarkable because it happened, Br. Consolmagno said, and also due to the way it occurred. In coming into the world as an infant, God “exercised a kind of supernatural restraint” which still respected the laws of nature.

The Vatican Observatory was established in 1891 by Pope Leo XIII near St. Peter's Basilica but was moved a few miles outside of Rome in 1935 when pollution made visibility difficult. The Vatican established a new division of the Observatory in Tuscon, Ariz. in 1980 and built its own telescope in 1987.

New Evangelization Begins In The Confessional VATICAN CITY (VIS) – On March 9, Benedict XVI received 1,300 priests and deacons who are participating in an annual course on the "internal forum" organized by the Apostolic Penitentiary.

Benedict XVI underscored the importance of adequate theological, spiritual and canonical preparation for confessors, noting that the Sacrament of Reconciliation is essential to the life of faith and is closely associated with the announcement of the Gospel. "The Sacraments and the announcement of the Word must, in fact never be seen as separate from one another", he said. "The priest represents Christ, the Envoy of the Father, and continues His mission through 'word' and 'Sacrament', in the totality of body and soul, of sign and word".

Thus sacramental Confession is an important aspect of new evangelization.

"True conversion of hearts, which means opening ourselves to the transforming and regenerative action of God, is the 'motor' of all reform and turns into an authentic force for evangelization. During Confession, the repentant sinner, thanks to the gratuitous action of di-

vine Mercy, is justified, forgiven and sanctified. ... Only those who allow themselves to be profoundly renewed by divine Grace can internalize and therefore announce the novelty of the Gospel".

All the saints of history bear witness to this close relationship between sanctity and the Sacrament of Reconciliation. New evangelization itself "draws life-blood from the sanctity of the sons and daughters of the Church, from the daily process of individual and community conversion, conforming itself ever more profoundly to Christ".

The Pope reminded his audience that, in administering the Sacrament of Penance, priests are instruments facilitating the meeting between mankind and God. The repentant sinner feels a profound desire to change, to receive mercy, to re-experience, through the Sacrament, "the encounter and embrace of Christ.

"Thus you will", the Holy Father added, "become collaborators and protagonists of as many possible 'new beginnings' as sinners you encounter. ... New evangelization also begins in the confessional, in the mysterious

encounter between man's endless plea ... and the mercy of God, which is the only adequate response to humankind’s need for the infinite".

If the faithful are truly able to experience the mercy of Christ in the Sacrament "they will become credible witnesses of sanctity, which is the goal of new evangelization".

The Pope went on to explain that these questions become even more critical when the people involved are priests who, to collaborate in new evangelization, must be the first to renew an awareness of themselves as sinners, and of their need to seek sacramental forgiveness in order to renew their encounter with Christ.

In conclusion Benedict XVI exhorted his listeners to ensure "that the novelty of Christ is always the focus of, and the reason for, your priestly lives, so that the people who meet you may, through your ministry, proclaim as Andrew and John did that 'we have found the Messiah'. Thus each Confession, from which each Christian will emerge renewed, will represent a step forward for new evangelization".

www.umatuna.org

16

Back Page

SUNDAY, MARCH 18, 2012

WRITE TO US

news@umatuna.org

CALL US

(671) 989.6391

CONNECT WITH US

umatuna.org or facebook.com/umatuna.org

I’m Just Saying

St. Patrick, the Amnesia and Our Exile

N

By Jeffrey L. Fitzgerald

ow that we’re over the hump of the St. Patrick’s Day weekend (that’s “Padraigh” to you purists out there) and this holy day’s frequently lessthan-saintly celebrations, I thought we might take a second to reflect on the saint who brought the Catholic Faith to my forefathers. Actually, nevermind.

Let’s just talk about the forefathers.

Being Irish on both sides (my father a Fitzgerald, and my mother a Dority of the clan O’Doughertaigh from County Armaugh, I have a particular affection for the Emerald Isle—a perspective that makes me a bit proud, sometimes defensive, often offended, and usually combative.

But it’s a curious thing too. As they say around this time of year, everybody gets to be Irish. That, of course, is complete nonsense. But it’s said nonetheless.

Then there’s the old standby “There are two kinds of people in the world: those who are Irish, and those who wish they were.”

Maybe in Boston, but not so much in the Marshalls, I’ll bet.

It’s weird, when you think about it. All these Americans of Irish descent revel in their ancestry for a day or so by partying their little livers off, then spend the rest of the year busying themselves with being, well, like everyone else.

And what’s strange about it isn’t that they’re of Irish descent; it’s that they’re NOT called “Irish Americans.” Why not?

There are Asian Americans, Mexican Americans, and of course African Americans. But it’s rare that we are called Irish Americans.

In my youth, I experimented with this moniker, only to be scolded by virtually everyone that “if you weren’t born in Ireland, then you’re not an Irish American.” When I countered with the implications of that logic for African Americans no longer being called African Americans, then I was “a racist jerk,” which is funny since my girlfriend at the time was of said African descent, and she wasn’t bothered in the slightest.

In the 70s and early 80s, all us post-Civil Rights Movement kids were encouraged to embrace our heritage(s) and not think of ourselves as black or white or yellow or brown. Instead, little Suzie in the seat next to you in 3rd grade was ¼ French, 1/8 Cherokee, 3/16 German, and 1/353 Belgian-Flemish (or some such concoction).

When I asked my parents about this, as I recall, my dad quoted Elvis when the King was once asked about his ethnic-racial ancestry: “I’m an American.” Simple enough.

Then again, if you’re from Charleston, SC like I am, it’s not a matter of race; it’s a matter of being Yankee or not. Color isn’t really all that important since all that mattered is that you aren’t from anywhere north of Virginia. Since Guam is south of the Mason-Dixon line (by latitude), my wife was perfectly suitable for me. And for the record, that’s not a joke.

But being anti-Yankee or plain ol’ white cracker American just didn’t cut it for me.

I needed something a bit more, and so in college—with its enthusiasm and complete

At 19 with best friend and Irish Independence supporter Joe Brace (left).

Those were good days. USY Photo lack of wisdom, discretion, or common sense—I dove head-first into the abyss that is genealogy and researched my Irish roots.

I admit to having been infected ever since.

Once I had the names and dates, I even looked at moving to Ireland, maybe marrying a local girl, settling down, growing some potatoes or some such lame-brained stupidity.

Alas, the Republic of Ireland was not particularly interested in another American “returning” to a land he had never visited, lived, or had any blood relation to anymore.

Some Irishman I turned out to be. I began to lose hope of connecting with “my people.”

Perhaps my people really are just Charlestonian upper-class rednecks. The kind of people who wear $200 loafers, but without any socks. The kind of people who go to an opera by Verdi (and understand it) but drink Pabst Blue Ribbon at intermission. “Arrogantly shabby,” as a local motto goes. My people.

But every St. Patty’s day, we Irish types in exile get brooding—or at least nostalgic-and pine for our homeland. Groups like the Hibernian Society (which helped the Irish immigrants to settle and get housing and jobs in the 1800s) helped to foster our love of our lost land and heritage beyond shamrocks, leprechauns, and the Blarney Stone.

In San Antonio several years ago, the Hibernians invited me to march in the St. Pat’s parade with them. Not a one of them smiled the entire time, and I couldn’t figure out for the life of me what the problem was.

Then, they just stopped marching in the middle of the parade and made a sharp right turn into an Irish pub right there on the parade route, and in we went. After several hours and at least two kegs of Guinness later, I figured out their sternness. These Hibernians were supporters of the Irish Republican Army, and some of them even confessed to sending money to this occasionally terrorist organization. Their rationale: “Well, as soon as those rotten English ______ leave Northern Ireland and the whole island is free to be Catholic again, we’ll stop bombing them”).

Um… It’s screwed up, but in a way, I can’t blame them, I guess—at least their passion.

I admit that in high school I sympathized with the IRA’s refusal to compromise with the British (when I wasn’t yet a Catholic), but once I knew that it had been condemned by John Paul II, I backed off any real support.

But these Hibernians weren’t even from Ireland; they were from south-central Texas. All this was just Romanticism gone awry.

In a way, it’s similar to what some of you might refer to as “stateside Chamorros.”

Many of them might live in Washington or California, and perhaps they haven’t even been here, and if they have, then maybe just once or twice. Even so, they are fanatical about Guam as their homeland, their place, their people. They wear the Guam seal around their necks, they have stickers on their cars, and they wear Fokai shirts.

It’s not coolness. It’s pride. And I get that. I really do.

But for the Irish—especially the politically minded of us with long long memories—songs like “The Wind that Shakes the Barley” bring tears to our eyes (and that includes me) and foster a hate in us. I admit it.

For 400 years, Africans were enslaved in the US. For 500 years, Chamorros were oppressed by the Spanish and Japanese, and at the minimum regarded “less-thanadmirably” by the American government, to put it mildly.

But the Irish were controlled, dominated, bullied, and murdered by the English for 900 years. That’s almost a millennium.

It was often illegal to be Catholic. Even the “Great Famine” that sent my family to the shores of the US in the late 1800s was an invention of British politics. We were starved out as a matter of policy, and Parliament got away with it.

That’s what St. Patrick’s Day is for people like me. For most, it’s an excuse to drink too much green beer. But for others of us, it’s a time to remember and to let the hate fester, even if for just once a year. Some wear green because “it’s Irish.” I wear green because it’s for the Catholics since orange is the anti-Catholic Protestant paramilitary color. The color of those who even now are proud of their hatred of Catholics. People who represent the Protestant government that crippled our land, our culture, and our family ties. Yeah, it’s a slow, deep hate. Justified or not, it’s lurking there.

A sin if ever there was one, but a sin that some of us have a hard time letting go. Even if we personally never suffered it.

After all, I don’t personally suffer if my grandmother is mugged, but I’m certainly going to be out for justice. Or at least a reckoning.

But in the end, as good with languages as I am, I will likely never learn Irish Gaelic, and even then I doubt my children would ever learn it. I won’t live in Armaugh, and I won’t grow potatoes. Nor will I know the struggles for Catholic liberty under British rule. I’ll just have to content myself with reading Yeats, drinking a pint of Guinness (one of these days, but not today), and mulling over what might have been.

The only bright note is that the Holy Mother Church in her wisdom gave us the Feast of St. Joseph the Husband of Mary two days after St. Padraigh. No green beer.

No centuries of oppression. Just a feast that brings me back to what my life is all about, and always was.

Send your comments to jeff@umatuna.org.

The Wind that Shakes the Barley

By Robert Dwyer Joyce

I sat within a valley green I sat me with my true love My sad heart strove to choose between The old love and the new love The old for her, the new that made Me think on Ireland dearly While soft the wind blew down the glade And shook the golden barley Twas hard the woeful words to frame To break the ties that bound us But harder still to bear the shame Of foreign chains around us And so I said, "The mountain glen I'll seek at morning early And join the bold United Men While soft winds shake the barley" While sad I kissed away her tears My fond arms 'round her flinging The foeman's shot burst on our ears From out the wildwood ringing A bullet pierced my true love's side In life's young spring so early And on my breast in blood she died While soft winds shook the barley I bore her to some mountain stream And many's the summer blossom I placed with branches soft and green About her gore-stained bosom I wept and kissed her clay-cold corpse Then rushed o'er vale and valley My vengeance on the foe to wreak While soft winds shook the barley But blood for blood without remorse I've taken at Oulart Hollow And laid my true love's clay-cold corpse Where I full soon may follow As 'round her grave I wander drear Noon, night and morning early With breaking heart when e'er I hear The wind that shakes the barley