BY LISE ALVES CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
SO PAULO (CNS) - When a group of laypeople were discuss- ing homelessness during the 2019 World Day of the Poor, Gregorio Ventura pointed out that although there were a few shelters for men in Montes Claros, there were none just for women. So he and others who worked with social commissions in the Archdiocese of Montes Claros cre- ated the Our Lady of Mystic Rose Shelter for socially vulnerable and homeless women. "The creation of the shelter took place during a deep moment of prayer. God stirred up strong feel- ings in my heart for a house that would welcome women," Ventura, founder and president of the shel- ter, told Catholic News Service. With financial support from the Brazilian bishops' National Solidarity Fund, the shelter houses women for a period of one to two years, rendering psychiatric and psychological support until their lives are restructured and they can care for themselves financially and emotionally. Ventura said the 12 women cur- rently living in the house come from different walks of life but share a similarity: They all ended up living on the streets. Beatriz Silva, 32, arrived at the shelter in September. "By the time I was 12 years old, I had left the orphanage, was do- ing drugs and went to live on the streets," she told CNS. "Life on the streets wasn't easy, so I shacked up with the first man who offered me a roof over my head and a plate of food to eat." Still a child herself, Silva had her first child at 13. Between drug partners and going back frequent- ly to live on the streets, she had seven more children. "I had no way to take care of them, so I gave four of them up for adoption, two died while still young and two are living with my old foster parents," she said. Since arriving at the shelter, she said, she has refrained from using drugs and has reconnected with two of her children. She said the shelter has given her the opportunity to improve her life. Archbishop Joo Justino de Medeiros Silva of Montes Claros praised the venture as well as the laity and benefactors that made it happen.
BY DAVID AGREN
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
MEXICO CITY (CNS) - During the pandemic, parishes in the Diocese of Valle de Chalco on the outskirts of Mexico City have made care packages, taken meals to families of COVID-19 patients and op- erated food banks. But they are seeing more and more problems from the pandemic. "You see poverty, you see it increasing, and what I especially see in the streets like never before is so much informal commerce," said Father Ral Martnez Arreorta. Such activity in the nontaxpaying economy - people selling homemade food and drink from their vehicles, peddling items at intersections or doing odd jobs - "is a sign of rising unemployment," he said. The COVID-19 pandemic punished Latin America especially hard. Home to 8 percent of the global population, the region ac- counts for one-third of all pandemic deaths. Poverty deepened and inequality widened, worsening prob- lems long plaguing Latin America. Schools stayed closed for longer in Latin America than any other part of the world, with the poorest unable to learn remotely over spotty in- ternet connections. High dropout rates threatened to truncate social mobility for millions. Latin American econo- mies contracted by 7 per- cent in 2020, the worst of any region, according to the International Monetary Fund. Forecasts for 2021 are mostly pessimistic - unlike other parts of the world - though recoveries are robust in some coun- tries such as Chile, which projects 11 percent eco- nomic growth. Vaccination campaigns also started slowly, but have taken hold, with rates in some countries equaling or sur- passing the United States. "The pandemic has certainly brought more poverty. There are people who have lost not only their loved ones, but have lost work (and) closed business," said Peruvian Archbishop Hctor Miguel Cabrejos Vidarte, president of the Latin American bish- ops' council, or CELAM. "One has to confront this situation. Certainly it's a call for governments and the church" to take action, he told Catholic News Ser- vice. CELAM has made ad- dressing poverty and the aftermath of the pandemic a priority. Both issues are expected to be prominent at the Sixth Ecclesial As- sembly of Latin America and the Caribbean in Mexi- co Nov. 21-28. One of the assembly's preparatory documents describes the pandemic as a "sign of an epochal change," which prompts people to consider "a ma- jor transformation of our culture toward a way of life that is ecologically, socially, economically, politically and culturally sustainable." The document also notes, "In our region, the pandemic has revealed with great force the seri-
Ghanian bishops: Families are model of church
ACCRA, Ghana (CNS) - The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all aspects of life in Ghana and caused the church to rethink its current model, the nation's bishops said at the end of their fall meeting. The pandemic, the West African prelates said, offered an opportunity to revisit the concept of the "domus eccle- sia," (the domestic church), which was the feature of the first three centuries of Christianity. "Here in Gha- na, when parishes could not meet, the family quickly reemerged as the most resilient unit of the church. A post-COVID-19 church will do well to reengage this model of church and expend the necessary resources to promote and strengthen the Christian family as the building block of the parish community and society," the bishops said in their Nov. 13 message at the end of their meeting in Wa. "The experience of COVID-19 calls for a radical appraisal of every pastoral strategy and a rethinking of every missionary engagement," they said.
Nurture hope by healing pain today, pope says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) - The gift of hope becomes tangible in people's lives through concrete actions that seek to relieve the suffering of the poor and console the downtrodden, Pope Francis said. In his homily at a Mass for the World Day of the Poor Nov. 14, the pope said that true Christian hope is not "the naive, even adolescent optimism of those who hope things may change" but is instead built daily through concrete gestures that manifest "the kingdom of love, justice and fraternity that Jesus inaugurated. We are asked to nurture tomorrow's hope by healing today's pain," he said. "The hope born of the Gospel has nothing to do with a passive expectation that things may be better tomorrow, but with making God's promise of salvation concrete to- day. Today and every day." The Mass capped a series of events marking the annual world day, including a Nov. 12 pilgrimage to Assisi with hundreds of poor men, women and children from across Europe.
Archdiocesan shelter gives Brazilian women 'strength to go on'
Latin America's bishops to confront increasing poverty after COVID-19
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THE CATHOLIC FREE PRESS NOVEMVER 19, 2021
Communion and Liberation president steps down
VATICAN CITY (CNS) - Complying with new Vatican rules placing term limits on the leadership of Catholic lay movements and associations, Spanish Father Julian Carron, president of Communion and Liberation, has announced he is stepping down from the office he has held since 2005. "I have decided to submit my resig- nation as president of the fraternity of Communion and Liberation in order to encourage that the change of leadership to which we are called by the Holy Fa- ther," Father Carron said in a statement posted on the group's website Nov. 15. In June, the Vatican Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life issued new norms for Catholic associations and lay movements, saying term limits would help promote greater involvement in lead- ership and help protect members of the groups from possible abuse by leaders who are not answerable to the membership.
Portugal's bishops create commission on abuse
ROME (CNS) - The Portuguese bishops' conference announced the creation of a national commission to support local dioceses in their investigations into cur- rent and historic cases of sexual abuse. The new com- mission, which was announced Nov. 11 at the end of the bishops' four-day plenary assembly in Fatima, was established after a discussion devoted to "the protec- tion of vulnerable minors and adults in the ecclesial sphere and in society as a whole," the conference said. "Recognizing the work of the diocesan commissions, made up especially of laypeople qualified in various areas such as law, psychiatry and psychology, the as- sembly decided to create a national commission to strengthen and expand the handling of cases and the respective follow-up at the civil and canonical level," the bishops said. The creation of the new commission comes after an independent report on sexual abuse in the French Catholic Church released last month estimated that as many as 330,000 children had been abused by priests or church workers since the 1950s. Catholics in Portugal called for a similar investigation.
Pope encourages UNESCO to build bridges
VATICAN CITY (CNS) - Pope Francis encouraged UNESCO - the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization - to continue to promote and support ed- ucation and the integral development of all people, in- cluding their spiritual life. "Building bridges between people through education and culture can be done only by taking into account the human person in his or her totality," he said in a written message, read by the Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Nov. 12, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the organization's establishment. UNESCO was founded right after the Second World War as a response to an era marked by racist, ethnic and anti-Semitic violence, prejudice and intolerance, and with an aim to promote a culture of peace through education, science and cul- ture. ous problems we have been suffering for decades: the great income inequal- ity in our societies, the unhealthy conditions for a worthy life in dignity, the limited access to qual- ity health and education services, no access to clean water, sewage and electric- ity, as well as the problem of discrimination and exclusion of millions of people." Analysts say Latin Amer- ica was already suffering economically prior to the pandemic; poverty was worsening and economies were stagnating. "The sharp rise in pov- erty in Latin America reflects the region's deep pre-pandemic economic troubles. Most of the region's big economies remain dependent on com- modity exports, and they never recovered from the fall in commodity prices in 2014," said Benjamin Ge- dan, deputy director of the Latin American Program at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Interna- tional Center for Scholars. Most notoriously in the region, the Venezuelan economy collapsed over the past decade, sending some 5.6 million migrants fleeing to other countries in the region and, more re- cently, the United States.
CNS PHOTO GUSTAVO GRAF, REUTERS
People in need enjoy a free New Year's Eve dinner at Our Lady of the Solitude Church in Mexico City during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, parishes in the Diocese of Chalco, on the outskirts of Mexico City, have made care packages, taken meals to families of COVID-19 patients and operated food banks.
CNS PHOTO GUSTAVO GRAF REUTERS
BRIEFSI
Archbishop Joo Justino de Medeiros Silva of Montes Claros, Brazil, Father Alessandro Resende Heleno and staff pose for a photo during the opening of Our Lady of Mystic Rose Shelter in Montes Claros Oct. 4. "The creation of the shelter took place during a deep moment of prayer," said Gregorio Ventura, founder and president of the shelter for women.
CNS PHOTO COURTESY OF ARCHDIOCESE MONTES CLAROS
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