Church schools and clinics seized

The Eritrean bishops are protesting against the government decision to nationalise schools and clinics:

“The schools and clinics confiscated or closed, or about to be confiscated or closed, are the legitimate property of the Catholic Church, built, established and organised in the supreme and exclusive interest of serving our people. We will never cease to demand the return of the social institutions forcibly taken from [the Church] and the right to perform all the services of which she has been deprived.”

Poverty the result of selfishness

The Vatican issued the Pope’s message for the World Day of the Poor to be celebrated on November 14:

“How can we give a tangible response to the millions of the poor who frequently encounter only indifference, if not resentment? What path of justice must be followed so that social inequalities can be overcome and human dignity, so often trampled upon, can be restored?

“Yet poverty is not the result of fate; it is the result of selfishness. It is critical to generate development processes in which the abilities of all are valued, so that complementarity of skills and diversity of roles can lead to a common resource of mutual participation.”

Warehousing of old people

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, in a recently published book, wrote: “My heart goes out to the people who worked in nursing homes and hospitals and tried their best in harrowing circumstances. A virus on the loose, people dying, families yelling at you. The lack of concern for any real reflection on this is scandalous. You and I have talked about the need for a rethink of how we care – or don’t – for our elderly. Families have all kinds of challenges, and sometimes the medical concerns require help, but the warehousing of older men and women shouldn’t be.”

(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)