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Archbishop Fabre prays at Mass we’ll ‘grow in our love’ for God, each other
By Catholic News Service
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (CNS) – Archbishop Shelton J. Fabre, the newly appointed archbishop of the Archdiocese of Louisville, celebrated a Mass at Holy Family Church Feb. 8, saying to the congregation that his prayer for the archdiocese – his new home – is that “we will grow in our love for God and grow in our love for each other. To do so is a response to God who is laboring in every moment to love us first,” said Archbishop Fabre.
During the liturgy, Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz – who has led the archdiocese since 2007 – welcomed Archbishop Fabre, calling the news of his appointment “joyous.”
Archbishop Kurtz said he has known Archbishop Fabre for many years. “He’s a good friend of mine and he will be a good friend of yours,” said Archbishop Kurtz.
During the homily, Archbishop Fabre shared that between leaving his Louisiana home and coming to Louisville, his heart is divided.
“It delights me to be here today to greet this new home that is mine. It’s my honor and privilege to serve you, the good people of the Archdiocese of Louisville,” he said.
“I welcome this opportunity to meet you and yet my heart is divided for my family in Thibodaux who is learning today of the news that I am not with them. So my heart is divided today and I acknowledge that.”
Archbishop Fabre is not only leaving the members of the clergy, religious and faithful in the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, Louisiana, which he has led since 2013, he’s also leaving his siblings, he said.
Following the Mass, Archbishop Fabre held a news conference at the Archdiocese of Louisville Pastoral Center, where he spoke to members of the media and answered questions.
He will be installed as the fifth archbishop of Louisville March 30 at the Kentucky International Convention Center in downtown Louisville.
Louisville, Ky., archbishop retires; pope names Black Bishop as successor
By Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) – Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, and appointed as his successor Bishop Shelton J. Fabre of Houma-Thibodaux in southeastern Louisiana.
Archbishop Fabre, 58, is one of 12 of the U.S. Catholic Church’s African American prelates and he will be the first Black archbishop of Louisville. The newly named archbishop has headed the Louisiana diocese since 2013. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New Orleans from 2006 to 2013. He is chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism.
Archbishop Kurtz turned 75 Aug. 18, 2021, and as required by canon law, he turned in his resignation to the pope when he reached 75. He has headed the Louisville Archdiocese since August 2007.
The changes were announced Feb. 8 in Washington by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio.
Archbishop Fabre’s episcopal motto is “Comfort My People,” which he chose when he was ordained a bishop in 2007 as an auxiliary of New Orleans. He helped with rebuilding efforts that followed the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Eight years later, he was appointed the bishop of Houma-Thibodaux. In August 2021, his diocese and other parts of southern Louisiana suffered devastation wrought by Hurricane Ida.
Regarding his motto, he said in a Feb. 8 statement that the words “are dear to my heart because they capture what I have always desired to do as a bishop, as a pastor of souls. I sincerely believe our Lord is communicating these words to his people right now.”
Shelton Joseph Fabre was born Oct. 25, 1963, in New Roads, Louisiana, the fifth of six children. He graduated in 1981 as valedictorian of Catholic High School of Pointe Coupée, Louisiana. He entered St. Joseph Seminary College in St. Benedict, Louisiana, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in history in 1985.
He continued his studies in Belgium at the American College in Louvain, a seminary that was affiliated with the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. He earned a bachelor of religious studies degree in 1987 and a master of religious studies degree in 1989 from the Catholic university.
He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Aug. 5, 1989, and went on to serve as a pastor and associate pastor. He also served as a chaplain at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, defender of the bond for the diocese’s marriage tribunal and dean of the diocese’s Northwest Deanery.
He also served on the diocesan priests’ council, college of consultors, school board and clergy personnel board. He was chairman of pastoral planning and director of the Office of Black Catholics.
As chairman of the bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism, Archbishop Fabre led the writing of “Open Wide Our Hearts – The Enduring Call to Love,” approved by the body of bishops in 2018.
In March 2021, Archbishop Fabre discussed the pastoral with about 150 people in the Archdiocese of Louisville when he led an Archdiocesan Leadership Institute on the subject.
During the event, conducted online due to the pandemic, he centered his talk on “witnessing to the dignity of the human person as an antidote to the grave sin of racism.”
The following month, he and Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development in a joint statement urging Catholics to “join in the hard work of peacefully rebuilding what hatred and frustration has torn down.”
“This is the true call of a disciple and the real work of restorative justice,” Bishop Fabre and Archbishop Coakley said. “Let us not lose the opportunity to pray that the Holy Spirit falls like a flood on our land again, as at Pentecost, providing us with spiritual, emotional and physical healing, as well as new ways to teach, preach, and model the Gospel message in how we treat each other.”
The two chairmen’s statement followed the jury’s April 20, 2021, verdict finding former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty in the death of George Floyd.
Archbishop Fabre is a former chairman of the USCCB’s Subcommittee on African-American Affairs and currently serves on the board of Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops’ overseas relief and development agency.
As the archbishop of Louisville, he will shepherd about 156,000 Catholics in 24 counties of central Kentucky, from the Ohio River to the Tennessee border. The archdiocese, which dates to 1808, has 110 parishes that cover 8,124 miles. About 20,000 students are served by 48 schools from kindergarten to high school.
(Contributing to this story was Marnie McAllister, editor of The Record, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Louisville.)
Lent 3.0: Third Lent in pandemic offers chance for spiritual reset, healing
By Carol Zimmermann
WASHINGTON (CNS) – Lent, the spiritual season of prayer and sacrifice, has an extra pull to it this year because once again – and now for the third time – it will be under the cloud of the coronavirus pandemic.
And even though the third Lent in a pandemic can feel like a lot like a Jesus’ third fall on the road to Calvary, people who spoke with Catholic News Service focused more on the season’s path to Easter and how this year’s Lent also coincides with an optimism around COVID-19 cases dropping in the U.S.
“It’s a perfect storm: lower (coronavirus) numbers just as Lent approaches,” said Mary DeTurris Poust, former communications director for the Diocese of Albany, New York.
Poust, who teaches yoga, leads retreats and writes a blog called “Not Strictly Spiritual,” said that during recent virtual retreats she has led, it’s obvious how much people want to reconnect in person.
And maybe this Lent, which starts on Ash Wednesday, March 2, is the time to do just that, she said about being with the parish community: gathering for Mass, prayer services and also for the returning soup suppers and fish fries.
After the tremendous losses of the past two years, she said, this Lent could be a good time for a reset. “Lent is the perfect opportunity to recalculate the internal GPS” of where we’re going, Poust said, speaking about individuals but also more broadly about what parishes can do as they look to welcome people back.
So many Catholics like the ritual of Lent and all of its “bells and smells,” she said, which makes this season a great opportunity “to pull them back in the best way.”
Jen Sawyer, editor-in-chief of Busted Halo, a Paulist website and satellite radio program, said in times of uncertainty, people “rely on muscle memory” of traditional faith practices they are used to. But this year, she thinks Lent’s usual traditions might have a different feel.
“It seems like this is the Lent we’re most prepared for; we’ve all sacrificed so much” she said. The desert experience of Lent has already been lived out and with so many people exhausted from the past two years, she said this Lent offers new opportunities to find peace, community and faith.
Paulist Father Larry Rice, campus chaplain for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, agreed, saying the church is more than ready for Lent 2022 and he hopes it will help people “respond to all the trauma we have been through.”
“We are living with long-term, low-grade trauma,” he said, adding that for many, the pain is just under the surface and he sees Lent as the antidote. “As Christian people, we believe our destination is not Good Friday. We go through that to get to Easter,” he said.
He also said this year has the added hope that “by the time we get to Easter, the pandemic we’re experiencing will look different.” And with wisdom acquired in the past two years, he also added: “There are no guarantees; there could be new (coronavirus) variants.”
The past two Lents did not have that same thread of hope.
Lent 2020 started off without a hitch with just a small number of COVID-19 cases in the country but by the second week of Lent, in early March, some dioceses urged parishes to curtail handshaking at the sign of peace and Communion from the chalice. By the third week of Lent, many dioceses lifted Sunday Mass obligations and stopped public Masses and Lenten services such as Stations of the Cross, prayer services and fish fries.
Last year during Lent, more churches were open – although many were limiting congregation sizes and requiring parishioners to sign up for Masses. Fish fries were back, as carry-out events, and in many dioceses, ashes were sprinkled over heads on Ash Wednesday.
This year, parishes are open – with differing mask regulations and social distancing in place – and the beloved fish fries are back with both in-person or carry-out options.
“These past two years for all of us have not been easy, but God has been with us,” said Mercy Sister Carolyn McWatters, a liturgist and chair of the Prayer and Ritual Committee for the Sisters of Mercy.
Sister McWatters, who lives at the Sacred Heart Convent in Belmont, North Carolina, and is involved in ministry there with the order’s retired sisters, emphasized the need to reflect on the pandemic experience this Lent. She said it’s important to recognize how we lived beyond what we could control, the inner resources we relied on and where we saw goodness and grace at work.
“The cross is never a dead end. It points to new life. Where are the signs of life for me, my community, the country, the world?” she asked.
Spiritual growth is often about relinquishing control, she said, which was certainly an aspect to pandemic life but the coronavirus also involved the hardship of isolation which was especially experienced by the retired sisters.
The convent, part of a national center for the Mercy sisters, had been a frequent spot for meetings and gatherings and many came for Sunday Masses and dinners, which was all put on hold for the past two years.
“Everybody is looking for the end,” she said.
The view of these retired Mercy sisters echoes what many are feeling, but Sister McWatters also cautions against people focusing on being victims right now and seeing the pandemic purely as “woe is me.”
Similarly, she said, Lent is not gloom and doom but should be a “joyful embrace of what will help me to grow more deeply.”
Sawyer also stressed that faith is meant to be joyful and said that Busted Halo with its “Fast Pray Give Lent Calendar” and InstaLent photo challenge aims to get that across and will continue that this Lent particularly by urging people to try something new – a new book or prayer – and to check in with others after so much pandemic isolation.
“We don’t often think of Lent as a vibrant time of community connection,” she said, adding that Catholics are “used to the desert” experience often associated with the season. But this Lent, that might change.
Youngest head coach to win a Super Bowl is alum of Atlanta Catholic school
By Samantha Smith
ATLANTA (CNS) – Under the bright lights and falling confetti, surrounded by his team, their families and thousands of fans in SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, Sean McVay raised high the Vince Lombardi Super Bowl championship trophy Feb. 13.
To win the game feels outstanding, said McVay, head coach of the Los Angeles Rams. The Rams were behind in the third quarter and most of the fourth quarter, before scoring the winning touchdown with 1:25 left in Super Bowl LVI against the Cincinnati Bengals. The Rams won 23-20.
McVay called it “poetic.”
“You talk about a resilient team, coaches, players; I’m so proud of this group,” said McVay in postgame comments. “We talk about competitive greatness all the time, being your best when your best is required.”
McVay, 36, the youngest head coach to win a Super Bowl championship in NFL history, is a graduate of Marist School in Atlanta. He gives the Catholic school a lot of credit for instilling in him many “foundational principles” he said have been instrumental in his achievements.
Marist is an independent Catholic college preparatory school owned and operated by the Society of Mary. It is the oldest Catholic secondary school in the Atlanta area.
During his five seasons with the Rams, McVay has led the team to five consecutive winning seasons, two Super Bowl appearances and now a Super Bowl championship.
As his coaching career continues to soar, he continues to hold fond memories of his time at Marist School.
“Marist is a special place because of all the unique people,” McVay said to the 2021 Marist graduating class at their guest speaker. “I’ve been so fortunate and blessed because there’s so many of the foundational principles that were instilled in me from the time I got here, from seventh grade to 12th grade, that have been instrumental in a lot of the things that have been good in my life.”
The school honored McVay with the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2020.
McVay gravitated to football from soccer in eighth grade at Marist, following the footsteps of three McVay generations.
His father, Tim, played football at Indiana University in Bloomington. His grandfather, John, was vice president and director of football operations for the San Francisco 49ers from 1979 to 1995 and was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame in 2013.
Alan Chadwick, head football coach at Marist for more than 40 years, described McVay as explosive, agile and competitive as a Marist player.
“He brought great intensity to his preparation, workouts and had tremendous understanding of the game,” said Chadwick.
McVay was a four-year starter and quarterback his junior and senior year while playing for the Marist War Eagles. In 2003, he led the football team to a state championship and was named the Georgia AAAA Offensive Player of the Year. McVay was the first player in the school’s history to rush and throw for 1,000 yards in consecutive seasons.
Atlanta Auxiliary Bishop Joel M. Konzen, who was principal of Marist School while McVay attended, remembers him as an easygoing and friendly student.
In 2003, when Marist won the state championship, Bishop Konzen recalls McVay’s leadership.
“The team acknowledged that he was their leader,” the bishop told The Georgia Bulletin, newspaper of the Atlanta Archdiocese. “Sean gave most of the credit to his teammates for a win, making light of his own contribution. That kind of modesty was how Sean demonstrated his commitment to the Marist Way.”
After graduating from Marist in 2004, McVay attended Miami University where he played wide receiver. In 2007, he received Miami’s Scholar Athlete Award and graduated with a bachelor of science degree in health and sports studies in 2008.
His NFL career began as assistant wide receivers coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After working for one year as the quality control and wide receivers coach for the Florida Tuskers of the United Football League, McVay returned to the NFL as assistant tight end coach for the Washington Redskins in 2010.
While coaching for Washington, it was apparent that McVay was going to be a good coach, said Chadwick.
McVay was promoted twice, eventually becoming Washington’s offensive coordinator. In 2016, he coached the offensive unit to record breaking statistics for the franchise.
McVay was named head coach for the Los Angeles Rams in 2017. At 30, he was the youngest NFL head coach in history. The Associated Press named McVay the Coach of the Year in 2018 – the youngest head coach to ever receive the award.
Three years ago, McVay made his first Super Bowl appearance as head coach for the Rams against the New England Patriots when the game was hosted in Atlanta.
Chadwick and McVay have kept in touch over the years. After the Rams won the NFC championship game against the 49ers Jan. 30, Chadwick reached out to his former player to wish him luck in the Super Bowl.
“He’s done extremely well for himself and should continue to do that for many years to come,” said Chadwick.
(Smith is a staff writer at The Georgia Bulletin, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Atlanta.)
Briefs
NATION
CINCINNATI (CNS) – The Los Angeles Rams may have won Super Bowl LVI over the Cincinnati Bengals, but students in Catholic schools in both archdioceses are winners as well. Donors contributed more than $22,000 – and counting as of Feb. 17 – for tuition assistance scholarships as part of a friendly wager between Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles and Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr of Cincinnati over the game’s outcome. The donations to each archdiocese’s Catholic Education Foundation came as the archbishops invited supporters to become involved in their good-gesture wager through the Bishops Big Game challenge. In the Feb. 13 game, the Rams were behind in the third quarter and most of the fourth quarter, before scoring the winning touchdown with 1:25 left, beating the Bengals 23-20. With the Rams’ victory, the Los Angeles foundation will receive 60% of the funds raised, while the Cincinnati foundation will received 40% of the money donated.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (CNS) – From partaking in the sacrament of reconciliation to fasting to choosing what to give up, Lent is full of traditions that Catholics around the world take part in as they prepare to celebrate Christ’s passion, death and resurrection. But there’s another sacred tradition that dates back to the early days of the Crusades; one that allows them to “walk” the Via Dolorosa with Christ: the Stations of the Cross. The Stations of the Cross are a mini-pilgrimage, taking believers through the steps taken by Jesus on Good Friday, from his condemnation to his burial. The stations are a “way of prayerfully uniting oneself to the sacrifice of the Lord and his love for us,” said Father Eric Fowlkes, pastor of the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Nashville. “It’s also an invitation for us to place ourselves within that journey.” The Stations of the Cross date back to the Middle Ages during the religious wars between Christians and Muslims, known as the Crusades. “The Crusades awakened an interest in Europe in the places associated with Christ in the Holy Land. For the first time, Europeans were traveling there regularly and wanted to see the holy places where the biblical events took place,” said Father Bede Price, pastor of Church of the Assumption in Nashville.
VATICAN
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis advanced the sainthood cause of Argentine Cardinal Eduardo Pironio, the prelate who organized and oversaw the first six international celebrations of World Youth Day. The pope also approved a decree recognizing a miracle attributed to the intercession of Capuchin Poor Clare Sister Maria Costanza Panas of the Italian monastery of Fabriano. She was born Jan. 5, 1896, and died May 28, 1963. In addition to recognizing the miracle that clears the way for her beatification, the pope approved decrees recognizing that four candidates for sainthood heroically lived the Christian virtues; the decrees were signed during an audience Feb. 18 with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes. The four candidates, who are now “venerable,” included Cardinal Pironio, who had served in numerous offices in the Roman Curia from 1975 until his retirement in 1996. St. Paul VI called him to Rome as pro-prefect of the Vatican congregation for religious. When St. John Paul II named him to head the Pontifical Council for the Laity in 1984, the late pope instituted the annual celebration of World Youth Day, including huge international gatherings presided over by the pope every two years and organized by the laity council.
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – As part of ongoing measures to reform the Roman Curia, Pope Francis has approved restructuring the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the oldest of the congregations. Once comprised of a doctrinal office, a discipline office and a marriage office, the new structure will see the doctrinal and discipline offices become their own special sections led by their own secretaries; the marriage office will become part of the doctrinal office. The two secretaries will serve under the congregation’s prefect. Spanish Cardinal Luis Ladaria, who has been prefect of the congregation since 2017, will celebrate his 78th birthday April 19. The heads of Vatican offices are required to offer their resignations to the pope when they turn 75. In “Fidem servare” (Preserving the Faith), published “motu proprio,” (on his own initiative) Feb. 14, Pope Francis said the main task of the congregation has been to safeguard or “keep the faith.” The changes went into effect the same day. Over time, the congregation has seen modifications to its areas of responsibilities and how it is configured, and now, Pope Francis said, further change is needed “to give it an approach more suited to the fulfillment of its functions.”
WORLD
SÃO PAULO (CNS) – The Diocese of Petrópolis and the city’s parishes have opened their doors to assist victims of the torrential rainstorm that flooded the historic city of Petrópolis. Bishop Gregório Paixão Neto asked that priests and parishioners take in people whose houses were affected by the Feb. 15 mudslides and needed shelter. “This moment is one of solidarity, and we of the Catholic Church are deeply united and in solidarity with all families,” Bishop Paixão said in a video message released on social media. “I ask you to welcome your relatives, your friends and those who are in despair, looking for a place to stay. I, myself, already have a family staying in my house,” he added. The mid-February storm is considered one of the worst in city in the past 70 years, with rainfall surpassing 10 inches in six hours, a volume greater than expected for the entire month of February. As of early Feb. 17, 104 deaths had been recorded, and dozens were still missing under the mud and rubble. The Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro, through Caritas, launched the SOS Petrópolis campaign, asking for donations for families affected by the rains.
IQUITOS, Peru (CNS) – Oil spills on opposite sides of Peru – one near Lima, the coastal capital, and the other in a remote Indigenous village in the Amazon – brought together Catholics in the two regions for simultaneous Masses Feb. 13. They prayed for those suffering from the pollution caused by both spills as they marked the second anniversary of “Querida Amazonia,” (Beloved Amazonia), the papal exhortation issued by Pope Francis after the 2019 Synod of Bishops for the Amazon. The liturgies, accompanied by video messages exchanged by Bishop Miguel Angel Cadenas of Iquitos and Archbishop Carlos Castillo Mattasoglio of Lima and played at each of the Masses, formed the first such joint initiative between bishops in Lima and the Amazon. In January, similar disasters struck the two regions. A ship offloading oil Jan. 15 at a coastal refinery spilled about 6,000 barrels of oil into the Pacific Ocean, fouling at least 30 miles of shoreline. On Jan. 20, vandals cut an oil pipeline in a small Amazonian village, contaminating the river that people depend on for water for drinking, cooking and bathing. In his homily, Archbishop Castillo said, “We have a commitment – our city of Lima and our entire coast – to our Amazon region.”
Republicanos divididos por proyecto para legalizar a inmigrantes
Por Rhina Guidos
WASHINGTON (CNS) – Republicanos están divididos sobre un proyecto de ley de inmigración presentado por miembros de su propio partido que otorgaría la ciudadanía a millones de personas que se encuentran en el país sin permiso legal.
La congresista María Elvira Salazar, de Florida, en una conferencia de prensa el 9 de febreo, habló sobre la Ley de Dignidad, un proyecto de ley que ayudaría a aquellos que fueron traídos al país como menores sin permiso legal y otros que contribuyen a los EE. UU. mientras que también se enfocaría en reforzar la frontera.
“Estados Unidos ha sido históricamente un faro de refugio para quienes huyen de la violencia y la opresión o buscan una nueva vida y oportunidades”, dijo Salazar. “En las últimas décadas, se ha explotado nuestro fallido sistema de inmigración, lo que ha llevado a una situación que es impropia de nuestra gran nación”.
“Si bien Estados Unidos es una nación de leyes, también somos una nación de segundas oportunidades”, dijo. “A través de la dignidad y una oportunidad de redención, este legado puede continuar”.
Salazar presentó algunas de las disposiciones de la propuesta que incluyen que los inmigrantes paguen $1,000 anuales durante 10 años en un fondo como restitución y ese dinero ayudaría a capacitar a otros trabajadores.
La medida “agilizaría” el camino para los menores que ingresaron ilegalmente al país cuando eran niños y reforzaría las estructuras y los sistemas en la frontera de EE. UU. con México – también fundado por un impuesto que se le cobraría a los inmigrantes que solicitan legalizar su situación.
Pero “no tendrán acceso a los beneficios o derechos federales con verificación de recursos”, dijo un comunicado de prensa que describe el proyecto de ley.
Los miembros del propio partido de Salazar se opusieron, exponiendo las divisiones dentro del Partido Republicano entre los que quieren respaldar la reforma migratoria y los que se oponen por completo, calificándola de una especie de “amnistía”.
“Le he pedido a algunos de mis colegas que me expliquen y que me den una definición rigurosa de lo que significa (amnistía). Nadie me la ha podido dar”, dijo Salazar.
El republicano Ronald Reagan en 1986 fue el último presidente estadounidense que logró que el Congreso aprobara una legislación que legalizó, a gran escala, a grupos que habían ingresado al país sin permiso, otorgando a 3 millones de personas lo que algunos llaman “amnistía”.
El republicano de Texas Pete Sessions, así como los miembros republicanos Jenniffer González-Colón de Puerto Rico, Dan Newhouse del estado de Washington, John Curtis de Utah, Tom Reed de Nueva York y Peter Meijer de Michigan han mostrado su apoyo al proyecto de ley.
Sin embargo, otros, como el republicano de Carolina del Norte, Madison Cawthorn, dijeron que la propuesta es “peligrosa”.
Fox News Digital, en un artículo del 9 de febrero citó a Cawthorn diciendo que cualquier propuesta debería “centrarse en las deportaciones y asegurar nuestra frontera”.
Los demócratas también han hecho repetidos intentos de reforma migratoria, pero ninguno de los proyectos de ley que han presentado ha podido obtener el apoyo de una mayoría en el Congreso.
Hermanas de la Misericordia celebran la liberación de medioambientalistas
Por David Agren
CIUDAD DE MÉXICO (CNS) – Las Hermanas de la Misericordia celebraron la liberación de seis personas en contra de la minería en Honduras, quienes pasaron casi dos años y medio en detención, en un caso que la Corte Suprema del país dijo que nunca hubiera avanzado.
“Celebramos la liberación de los (defensores del Rio Guapinol) que fueron encarcelados injustamente y juzgados por proteger a sus comunidades de la minería destructiva”, tuitearon las Hermanas de la Misericordia el 11 de febrero, dos días después de la decisión de la Corte Suprema.
“La gente de todo el mundo los apoyó porque proteger el agua no es un crimen. Merecen reparaciones”.
Seis hombres, parte de un grupo conocido como defensores del Rio Guapinol, fueron condenados el 9 de febrero por los cargos de causar daños criminales y la detención ilegal del jefe de seguridad de la empresa minera, según el diario The Guardian. Dos de los acusados fueron declarados no culpables.
Apenas un día después, la Corte Suprema de Justicia de Honduras revocó las condenas y anuló el juicio de los ocho defensores, declarando que el juez anterior no tenía jurisdicción sobre el caso.
Los cargos contra los defensores, junto con la prolongada detención y las breves condenas, generaron condena internacional y expusieron los estrechos vínculos entre las élites políticas, económicas y judiciales del país centroamericano.
Honduras ha tenido mala fama en los últimos años por los asesinatos y la persecución de los defensores del medioambiente, quienes a menudo se oponen a la construcción de represas o minas cerca de sus comunidades sin su consulta.
“(Los defensores) simbolizan la solidaridad de los pueblos en defensa de la vida y la libertad. Ellos fortalecen nuestra esperanza y dan sentido a nuestras luchas”, tuiteó el padre jesuita Ismael Moreno Coto, fundador de Radio Progreso en Honduras.
Los medioambientalistas se habían opuesto a la construcción de una mina de óxido de hierro en un parque nacional, lo que contaminó el río y la fuente de agua de su comunidad. La mina es propiedad de un individuo poderoso con conexiones políticas, Lenir Pérez, según los investigadores, quienes cuestionaron las supuestas irregularidades en el proceso de aprobación y la falta de consultas comunitarias.
“(Son) las élites económicas trabajando con las élites políticas”, dijo en una entrevista Jean Stokan, coordinadora de justicia de las Hermanas de la Misericordia de las Américas.
Las Hermanas de la Misericordia, quienes han tenido presencia en Honduras durante 60 años, abogaron por la comunidad de Guapinol antes de la detención y juicio de los medioambientalistas.
Las hermanas llevaron el caso a la Embajada de EE.UU. en Honduras, donde Stokan recordó que le dijeron: “Estamos hablando entre bastidores”. Las hermanas querían que la embajada hablara públicamente.
Finalmente la embajado lo hizo en diciembre, luego de que Honduras eligiera una nueva presidenta, Xiomara Castro, quien prometió justicia para los medioambientalistas y dijo que abordaría temas como la pobreza y la violencia.
Stokan dijo que estaba “extremadamente esperanzada” con la presidencia de Castro, pero le dijo a oficiales que se enfocaran en algo más que frenar la corrupción.
“Esta presidenta necesitará el apoyo de Estados Unidos para todo el proyecto que está tratando de presentar”, dijo Stokan.
NFL Hall of Famer Bettis goes back to Notre Dame for degree
By Catholic News Service
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Jerome Bettis, in his football days, got the nickname “The Bus” because he was carrying would-be tacklers along with him during his punishing runs from scrimmage.
Today, what Bettis is carrying is a full load of classes at the University of Notre Dame, as he strives to finish what he started in his college days more than 30 years ago – a bachelor’s degree in business.
Bettis, now 49, is on track to graduate this spring and get that coveted Notre Dame diploma. If he does, the Pro Football Hall of Famer will have made good on a promise to his mother, Gladys – you may remember their Campbell’s Chunky Soup commercial from 20 years ago – that he would get his sheepskin.
“I promised my mother that I would get my degree,” he said. “In my immediate family, I’ll be the first person to graduate from college,” Bettis told NBC’s “Today” show Jan. 28. And at commencement exercises in May, Bettis getting a diploma means that all 21 Notre Dame football recruits from 1990 will have graduated.
Bettis has lived much of his life in public eye as a throwback of sorts. In an era of pro football where running backs dipped, dived and swerved to avoid tacklers, Bettis was the hard-charging fullback who plunged into the line, dragging defenders with him as he motored for that extra yard.
It served him well: Bettis is eighth all-time in NFL rushing yardage at 13,662 yards, not to mention eight 1,000-yard seasons, 91 touchdowns, six Pro Bowl selections and a Super Bowl championship after the 2005 season, his final season before retiring as a player.
On campus, Bettis is another throwback. Most of the students at Notre Dame aren’t even half his age; Bettis turns 50 Feb. 16. They take their class notes on tablets or laptops; Bettis takes his notes with pen and paper.
Still, he told NBC’s Anne Thompson – herself a Notre Dame graduate: “I am a much better student at 49 because I want to learn, I want to know all of this information.”
The degree will come in handy in his post-football career, which has involved trucking, staffing, development and marketing companies as well as his career as a television personality, where Bettis is on camera for the NFL Network.
“I say to all our coaches that there are three things we should be concerned about versus integrity: Do things the right way, second is help these kids get a degree and do well in their lives, and the third is winning on the field,” said Holy Cross Father John Jenkins, Notre Dame’s president, on “Today.” “And Jerome getting a degree after all his success just underscores how important that is.”
Xavier University of Louisiana receives bomb threats Feb. 1
By Carol Zimmermann
WASHINGTON (CNS) – On Feb. 1, Xavier University of Louisiana was among a group of several historically Black colleges and universities in the United States that received bomb threats.
The threats to the university and at least 12 other historically Black colleges and universities came a day after at least six other similar schools received these same threats.
A tweet issued by the university Feb. 1 said: “Xavier University of Louisiana received a bomb threat early this morning and is cooperating with investigating law enforcement. The campus has been cleared and classes will continue as scheduled starting at noon.”
A statement from Patrice Bell, the university’s vice president and chief of staff, said that when the school received the threat “an immediate evacuation of the area and a shelter in place for our residential students were issued” until the university received clearance to from campus, local, state and federal agencies.
She also noted the university would “continue to increase surveillance and mitigation efforts to safeguard its community.”
Xavier University of Louisiana, the nation’s only historically Black Catholic university, held its classes virtually that morning.
This was the second bomb threat the university received in less than a month. On Jan. 4, the university also was targeted along with other historically Black colleges and universities.
The recent wave of threats falling just before or at the start of Black History Month, observed every February, was not lost on school leaders and others.
A Feb. 2 statement by the general council of the Adrian Dominican Sisters said they were “horrified by the series of bomb threats that have closed down historically Black colleges and universities during the past month” including those that occurred on “the first day of Black History Month.”
“Although no bombs have been found, these terrifying and disruptive threats of violence against innocent students, faculty and staff are an assault against the foundational freedoms of our democracy — and a threat to us all,” the sisters added.
They said that as women of faith, they “stand in solidarity with our Black brothers and sisters at these iconic educational institutions and call for a thorough investigation and prosecution of these despicable hate crimes.”
The sisters said they prayed that “God’s loving care and protection” would surround and safeguard theses schools and also prayed “for the conversion of all whose hearts are poisoned by hatred.”
Both the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said they were investigating the school threats.
On Jan. 31, after the first wave of recent threats, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said they were “certainly disturbing” and said the White House was in touch with federal law enforcement leadership about them.
In a Feb. 1 statement, the NAACP said it was monitoring these threats and noted that the “Black community has long been plagued by threats of domestic terrorism against them in their schools, homes and houses of worship.”
In other reaction, the leaders of the Congressional Bipartisan Historically Black Colleges and Universities Caucus said in a Jan. 31 statement that they were deeply disturbed by recent bomb threats at these campuses.
“Learning is one of the most noble and most human pursuits, and schools are sacred places that should always be free from terror,” the statement said. The group also stressed that “solving these crimes and bringing those responsible to justice should be a top priority for federal law enforcement.”
Xavier University of Louisiana opened in 1925 and currently has about 3,000 students. It got its start from St. Katharine Drexel, who opened a high school in 1915 on the property where the university was founded by the saint and the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, the order St. Katharine founded in 1891.
Follow Zimmermann on Twitter: @carolmaczim