Escolar Documentos
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Xaverian Mission
Volume 64 - No. 1 | February 2016
Newsletter
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franklin@xaviermissionaries.org
Editor
Mary Aktay
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Email & Web:
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Or visit: www.xaviermissionaries.org for online donations
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According to Jahanara
Jahanara is only five years old, but old enough to know misfortune. But nowthanks to God he also understands
Christian love, providence and compassion.
Jahanara attends first grade. With his bright eyes and constant smile, he does not seem to be aware of his misfortune.
Two years ago, when he was only three, his father, Jinarul
fell from a very high coconut tree and broke his spine. He is
now paralyzed from the waist down. In the vain hope of
recovering some movement he sold his only piece of land to
travel to a hospital in Calcutta to see if something could be
done for him. Jinarul returned home penniless to find his
young wife gone because her relatives had taken her away
to marry someone else. (This happens many times to those who can no longer
work.)
Jinarul was left with a child to support. But how could he when
he could not work? Riga, his elderly mother took them in but
she too was completely crippled. How could she care for her son
and grandson? Only Allah knows! Jinarul went into depression
and just lay in his bed. He suffered from bedsores, and he decided to let himself die, as do many in his situation.
At this point, my confrere, Fr. Sergio Targa, tireless in attending
to the poor, the sick and others left on the peripheries or
margins of society as Pope Francis has exhorted, spoke to
Jinarul about our small center for the disabled, Asharbari,Place
of Hope.
I told Sergio we were happy to welcome Jinarul, Jahanara and
the old grandmother. I started to treat his bedsores. They are
deep and are more difficult to heal in the hot, humid tropical
climate of Bangladesh.
For the festival of Eid, the biggest festival in Islam, the family wanted to go
back to their village, on the edge of the forest. There was another round of misfortune when a cow kicked little
Jahanara, badly fracturing bones in his leg. A facility nearby their village plastered it somehow. Several days later
after they returned to Asharbari, I took X-rays which showed, as I had thought, that the fracture had not healed
and the bones are welded crossed and I understood that the child would be likely to have one leg shorter than the
other for life. He would need an operation in a specialized clinic in the city to fix the problem.
Thank God for the many generous people in America who send money to help our ministry so we have the funds for
the trip and the surgery and thereby can finally provide some good fortune for Jahanara!
Otherwise he would have been poor, motherless, with a handicapped father and he himself
would have remained crippled, and never looked forward to a brighter tomorrow.
This will be a Year of Mercy for Jahanara! He perhaps will never say the Our
Father, but as a good Muslim he can raise his eyes to Allah the Merciful.
Kayap Madonna
Peace and all Good!
Even though I am in Italy for some medical treatment, I send
you my best wishes from Brazil, specifically from Redeno
in the Amazon and our work among the indigenous people
there, particularly the Kayap tribe.
Here are two photos from Christmas that will show that
world in which Providence has placed us. Its a world that
says a great deal about our Christian faith!
In the Kayap Madonna we remember the wishes of the
child Jesus in her arms. The feathers of the crown or
halo surrounding her are from the Arara Macaws, the
largest parrots of our region. Together with the starry
sky the picture illustrates another world ... where someone is waiting for us. The Kayap people say that the
feathers are used to fly ... reach for the sky, from where
they have come from and where Im convinced, they will
return!
The second photo is of Kayap toddlers running ... running
towards ustoward you full of life and hope. Let us remember them in prayer.
Thank you for your continued support.
In friendship and esteem, I remain yours in Christ,
You can help Fr. Renato ministry to the Kayap people of the Amazon. Either clip this paper and send it to the
address below or help the environment by donating online at http://www.xaviermissionaries.org/support/
Name: Donation Amount:
Address: City: State: Zip
Email or phone:
Mail to: Fr. Frank Grappoli SX, 12 Helene Ct., Wayne, NJ 07470
Interfaith in Action!
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living, thinking and speaking. We can then join one another in
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the Islamic Center of Old Bridge, NJ. The Xaverian Mist h and e le d e m d or o f t h e
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sionaries have an ongoing commitment to dialogue and
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actions which foster peace and unity in our diverse world.
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Fr. Carl Chudy SX (fourth from left in front) joins the Groundswell Movement at
the Islamic Center of Old Bridge, NJ.
Yo u r efforts of b rin gin g t h e peo p l e of diffe ren t fai t h an d e v e n n o n-b e l i e v ers toge t h e r a t a
dialogu e ta b l e to f in d co mmo n gro un d is a p erfec t re m in d e r to e v e ryon e tha t w e mus t lea rn
to l i v e i n t h e image of God an d t h e n fo l lo w o u r c reeds . I a m posi t i v e tha t t h e re a re more
s i m ila ri t ies tha n diffe ren ces amon g t h e re ligions of t h e wo rld an d if w e con t i n u e to high ligh t
wha t is co mmo n, w e wi l l b e a b l e to defea t t h e ex t re mis m of a l l kinds i n o u r soc ie t y.
S. Im ti az Al i,
Isla mic Cen t e r of Old Bridge
On
The Environment:
Our Common Ground
Michelangelos
Moses in San
Pietro in Vincoli,
Rome
December 3rd is also the feast day of our patron saint, Francis
Xavier, who died on 3 December 1552, on the island of Sancian,
very close to China, which the great evangelizer was trying to
reach. He was quite similar to Moses, who died in the land
of Moab as the Lord decreed, deprived of the joy of reaching
the Promised Land after leading the people out of Egypt. The
Lord had told him: This is the country which I promised on
oath to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I shall give it to your
descendants. I have allowed you to see it for yourself, but you
will not cross into it (Dt 34:4). Like Moses, Francis Xavier also
had to be satisfied with contemplating from afar the land he
longed to enter.
Our Institute has now reached the same age as Moses was when
he died: 120 years! In his recent biography of the Founder, Fr.
Luca writes: The new Institute was inaugurated on December
3, 1895, the feast of St. Francis Xavier, in the presence of the
bishop, many priests and friends. The new Institute was placed
under the protection of St. Francis Xavier, the apostle of the
Indies. The first group of missionary aspirants was made up of
seventeen young men who came from various parishes of the
diocese.
Dare to be Audacious...
thegym@xaviermissionaries.org
508-429-2144
Bishops are
committed
to promoting
dialogue in
view of the
2016 election
deadline
Xaverians and
friends in the
DRC
Archbishop Thomas
G. Wenski of Miami
Catholic Church
in Indonesia
Kinshasa (Agenzia
Fides) - The
Bishops of the Democratic Republic of Congo are
committed to fostering dialogue among political
parties and civil
society in view of
the 2016 election
deadline stated
Don Lonard
Santedi, Secretary
General of CENCO
(National Episcopal
Conference of
Congo) at the end
of the meeting
between a delegation of Congolese Bishops and
representatives of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), held in Kinshasa.
The Bishops, as
pastors, have begun meetings with
political actors
and civil society
to see what needs
to be done to
improve the
situation regarding
dialogue, said
Don Santedi. The
President of INEC
Corneille Nangaa Yobeluo has completed the evaluation of the electoral process and that the publication of the electoral calendar is still conditioned by
the approval of the Parliament.
INEC has assured us that it will do everything
from a technical point of view but not everything
depends on it, said Don Santedi. Because there
are things that depend on the government, the
Parliament where laws must be passed, policy makers and INEC showed us where we must commit
themselves to be able to vote.
ASIA/INDONESIA
11
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Wayne, NJ 07470
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