Link – Up
Issue 61 July 2008
LOCAL NEWS
Help needed to cover PPP weekends!
Parish Promotions 2008 Diocese of Meath
A big ‘thank you’ to all those who took part in our recent PPP weekends – they
were a great success. We have now covered 41 parishes…just 27 parishes to go!
As usual, we require your help for our remaining PPP weekends on:
16th - 17th August 2008
30th - 31st August 2008
13th - 14th September 2008
27th - 28th September 2008
For further information on PPP, please contact the VC office or email
Colette@viatoreschristi.com
Reminder: Annual General Meeting
Note from President
We are having a not-so-hot summer here in Ireland this year but we are
endeavouring to enjoy the few nice warm days that come as little surprises!
We go to the beach, perhaps organise a barbecue with family and friends or sit
out in the garden reading or listening to music.
We take time out from our daily chores to open our eyes to the natural beauty
and splendour of the world that surrounds us. We open our minds to be inspired
with a new confidence and hope in the Lord and Mary Mother of God and Queen
of Viatores.
However, the year rolls on and our thoughts turn towards organising our A.G.M.
which will take place this year on Saturday 4th October at 2.00 pm.
Every year is a busy one in V.C. but this one has been particularly busy here at home.
As you know we said ‘goodbye’ to what was our much loved home at 38/39 Upper
Gardiner St. for so many years, in April 2008. We packed our bags and headed for
new horizons to our most pleasant location now which is 8, New Cabra Road.
We are endeavouring and hope fully succeeding in making this new place ‘a home’ –
a place where all our members, staff, friends and benefactors feel a sense of
belonging.
May it be too, a place where the Spirit of God continues to be upon us to guide and
lead us in the work of recruiting and preparing people for service in areas of need
overseas.
We look forward to meeting all of you who are in Ireland then, at our new abode.
Even if you haven’t been able to come to V.C. recently, please put the date in your
diary and come along. We need new blood and older blood to continue to grow
something vibrant and dynamic and pleasing to God, whose members are committed
to achieving freedom, peace and justice for all in the creation of a better world.
We have lots of issues to discuss as we plan to go forward into 2009 and we value
your participation.
As well as the business side of the A.G.M. of course, the meeting also presents the
opportunity to LINK UP with old friends and exchange news.
To our dear members who are far away on mission, we would ask you to have us
here at home, in your prayers. We welcome your correspondence through email,
letter, telephone.
Each one who is at home or abroad is very valuable to the association. We value
your membership, your opinions, your comments.
Each member has something unique to contribute.
Bigi linn in Spirit in person.
Official notice will be mailed to all members in due course.
All paid up members will be eligible to vote.
Best wishes.
Mary
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Help with Cleaning/Housekeeping
We would like to invite members/friends of VC, who may have some free time
(e.g. two hours per week), to help us with some cleaning duties in VC HQ. Our
last cleaner, who was part of the Fás Community Employment Scheme, left us in May.
Please contact Ann Waldron in the VC office or email ann@viatoreschristi.com
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Viatores Christi Information Sessions
Dublin Information Day
Saturday 30th August 2008 at 10.30pm (until 3pm)
Irish Aid Information Centre
27-31 Upper O’Connell Street, Dublin 1
Cork Information Evening
Tuesday 2rd September 2008 at 7.30pm (until 9.30pm)
SMA Parish Centre
Wilton, Cork
Belfast Information Evening
Wednesday 3rd September 2008 at 7.00 (until 9.00pm)
St. Michael the Archangel Parish Centre
Finaghy Road North, Belfast
Galway Information Evening
Thursday 4th September 2008 at 7.00pm (until 9.00pm)
Westside Community Development Resource Centre
Unit 9 Westside Business Centre, Seamus Quirke Road
Galway
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Irish Missionaries Concerned About EU Energy Policy
In a letter to Members of the Oireachtas IMU-AEFJN request the European Union
to amend the new energy policy so that food prices can remain stable and the
non developed world is not left open to exploitation by arable land being taken
over for the production of agrofuels.
World demand for fuels produced from agricultural crops (agrofuels) is pushing
up world food prices and increasing climate emissions. The Irish Missionary Union
(IMU) and the Africa-Europe Faith & Justice Network (AEFJN) say that we should
feed people not cars and join the call for global standards to clean up the
agrofuel industry.
The IMU-AEFJN requests that the directive proposal be amended to the effect:
A) That the EU Energy Policy not insist on Ireland having 16% of its transport energy
coming from agrofuels.
B) That the strategies which ensure the cultivation of crops for agrofuel production
does not deprive current and future generations of: access to good quality water,
food commodities, fertile land for food and just working conditions for all.
Each day, 820 million people in the developing world do not have enough food to eat.
Food prices around the world are shooting up, sparking food riots from Mexico to
Morocco. The International Monetary Fund and the UN World Food Programme have
warned that rapidly rising costs are endangering emergency food supplies for the
world’s least well off peoples.
IMU-AEFJN believe that any legislation concerning agrofuels must protect and
guarantee the right to food, the right to a healthy environment and the right to just
working conditions in African partner countries.
Source - IMU
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Women, Peace and Conflict
This is the theme of a conference, organised by the Joint Consortium on Gender
Based Violence, which will take place on 17 November from 9:30am –5pm in the
Radisson SAS Royal Hotel, Dublin 8. This one-day conference will explore how United
Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 can address the impact of armed conflict
on women and ensure that women are central to conflict prevention, peacekeeping,
conflict resolution and peace-building.
Keynote speaker: Ms Mary Robinson, Director of the Ethical Globalisation Initiative
and Special Advisor to the Joint Consortium on Gender Based Violence. Places for
this event are limited so please register early.
For further information please email Vivienne@dhr.ie.
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TDs / Senators to spend holidays on volunteer work in Africa and Asia
TDs and Senators from all parties are to spend some of their summer holidays on
volunteer work in Africa and Asia. Fianna Fáil Dublin South East TD, Chris Andrews
will spend time in The Gambia; Fine Gael Dublin West TD, Leo Varadkar will travel to
Mongolia; Labour's Cork East's Sean Sherlock will go to Namibia. Meanwhile, Labour
Meath-based Senator Dominic Hannigan will also go to Mongolia; Fianna Fáil
Kerry-based Senator, Mark Daly will go to Zambia.
They were all recruited by Volunteer Service Overseas (VSO) Ireland, and will help
organisations in each of the countries to improve their ability to push their cause with
local and central governments. According to Mr Sherlock he will be working with an
organisation helping AIDS victims and their families in Walvis Bay in Namibia: "I am
going with very realistic ambitions. I know that I won't change the world. "But Ireland
is a significant contributor to overseas development and it is a good opportunity for
all of us to get to know more about what is being done, and what the problems are,"
he said.
Source - Mark Hennessy Irish Times
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Comings and Goings!
Bon Voyage…to Nicole McArdle who will leave for an assignment in Guatemala on 1st
August 2008. Nicole, from Carlow, was invested at a special Mass on 25th July in
Carlow. She will work alongside David Deegan in Kano’j, an educational project for
indigenous teenagers in the highlands of Guatemala. We wish her well!
Welcome home to Brigid McCarthy, who is currently home on holidays from her
assignment in Lima, Peru. We hope that you have a lovely time, Brigid!
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Overseas Reports
Seamus Connolly - Zambia
Seamus, from Dundalk, left for Zambia on 27th February 2008 to take up
a teaching assignment in Chipata. Seamus completed the VC lay missionary
preparatory programme in 2004.
“I am teaching in the Junior Seminary of Chipata Diocese in Zambia’s Eastern
Province and near the Malawi border.
I share the house with the Rector and the other priests (in their 30’s and 40’s). They
are very friendly and the craic is good at times. They have the same unfettered
admiration for their politicians which Irish people have.
I have no problems with the food, thank God.
We are about 20km of unpaved road full of bumps, hollows, grooves and surprises
from Chipata. It boasts one set of traffic lights and in Zambia, a very liberal
interpretation is taken of the highway code. The school provides the ubiquitous pick
up truck (the minibus was incapacitated for a while) for staff and their families to do
a few hours of shopping in Chipata on Saturday mornings. That is when I post letters,
send emails and texts of course. Should the power be off in one part of town, I have
to go to another part for an internet café which has power. They are not the large
state-of-the-art premises we have at home but they suffice.
I take the third and fourth year classes for Maths and it was made clear to me that
my contribution should make quite an impact on their GCE results. Well! I teach for
an hour on Sunday mornings and a 1 ½ hour ‘maths club’ on Friday afternoon for
any student who comes to me for help.
There is no telephone contact with the outside world since there is no landline and
the mobile phone company erected a mast which people thought would serve us,
but doesn’t. Consequently I can only be contacted in case of an emergency, via the
Bishop’s house in Chipata.
The Easter ceremonies were an experience – Holy Saturday night, for five hours!
After 2 ½ hours my faith grew weak, so I left. However, it was impressive with school
children dancing on the dark altar, holding lit candles. And that night, the power
was on all the time!
Mass on Easter Sunday, out in the open and under the trees with music from a
wind–instrument, guitar and tom toms, while the congregation danced, was an
exhilarating experience. Having been bombarded by African music any time I was
in a vehicle, this made up for it.
Our Sunday Mass is usually 1 ½ hours and even on week days, not in Lent, we
have singing and tom toms. You grow used to it.
Security in large stores is something new. Your bag is checked as you enter if you
don’t leave it with the security people. Then your supermarket bag is examined
against the payslip as you leave.
I find Zambian people, even those who don’t know me, to be friendly. The only
white people I met were two Irish priests we visited one evening. They live about
60 kms from here.
I had a somewhat unusual experience on the first evening of this term. A large
maroon jeep-type vehicle pulled up beside me and a tall elegant Zambian woman,
expensively attired, got out of the motor, approached, took my hands in hers and
knelt at my feet. “Father!” she said. “I’m not a priest”, I informed her. She stood
up instantly, gave me a superior look and said, “I am a member of Parliament”. And
she is a member of the opposition. I don’t teach her son!”
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Alan Cunningham - Brazil
Alan from Roundwood, Co. Wicklow left for Brazil in December 2007 to take up
an agricultural assignment with the Missionary Community of Umburanas in Bahia.
Tara Nic Eochaidh, also from Co. Wicklow, is on assignment as a Montessori teacher
with the same project.
“All of the little plots where the fruit and vegetables are growing are all organic with
no sprays or fertilizers - only natural ones which we get from the sheep and goats.
All of the people involved in this group have their own plots with running water on
their own piece of land and their only costs each month are whatever amount of
water they use. This costs very little, even in their terms. This is up and running for
a few years and people are making a few bob every week because a big market
comes here once a week and they get to sell their fruit and veg, so i think it is
working out well but there is always room for improvement.
This group also want to get sheep in March so we have a bit of work to do before
then - like fencing to make a few fields, building of a few tanks for the sheep to drink
out of and planting of different crops for the times when there is no grass.
The biggest problem in this area is water. The rain only comes for a few of weeks
and then there is no more for 9-10 months. One great thing in this area are the
sisternas which catch all the water from the roofs of peoples houses. Sister Bride
has built over 800 in the area so far, and we have one on our house. There is
enough water in this to last a family of six for one year. I would love to build a giant
one here to have enough for the animals for the year. When Sister Bride comes back,
I hope to apply for a grant from an organisation set up through the ESB. Now and
again they give money for one off projects overseas so I’ll keep my fingers crossed
and just wait and see.”
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Maire Concannon and Marie Fitzpatrick - Brazil
Maire and Marie have sent us the following report on their annual summer trip to
Brazil.
“Greetings from the southern hemisphere! All is well here. As usual when we’re
here it seems as though we had never left the place. We are being kept busy in the
centre and involved with the various women’s groups. We have been training a
group of mothers in the Pastoral of the Child - basic nutrition and care of children
from birth to 6 years of age.
The caseloads of childrens clothes that we brought out came in very useful, as most
of the young women that attend are unemployed and penniless. The Sacred Heart
sister here has gone on holidays to Ireland so we are keeping an eye on her literacy
groups. It involves a lot of travelling to the different favelas at night. Violence as
usual is in the news every day. Last weekend, three people were murdered in our
community alone. In broad daylight - but all drug related. In the city, 18 people
were murdered the same weekend.
Hope you,re not too washed out of Ireland! It’s been raining here since April - but
mainly at night now.”
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Reflection
We can either love God because we hope for something from Him, or we can
hope in Him knowing that He loves us.
Sometimes we begin with the first kind of hope and grow into the second.
In that case, hope and charity work together as close partners, and both rest in God.
Then every act of hope may open the door to contemplation, for such hope is its
own fulfillment.
From: No Man is an Island by Thomas Merton.
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Viatores Christi | 8 New Cabra Road | Phibsboro | Dublin 7
Tel. 01-8749346 | info@viatoreschristi.com