CNA: Catholic missionary priest nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

By Courtney Mares  Catholic News Agency

Rome Newsroom, Feb 11, 2021 / 12:00 pm MT 

Fr. Pedro Opeka. Credit: Anne Aubert/Amici di Padre Pedro via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)

(CNA).- A Catholic missionary priest in Madagascar known for serving the poor living on a landfill has been nominated for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. 

Fr. Pedro Opeka, 72, is a Vincentian priest from Argentina who has worked with the poor in Madagascar for more than three decades. He founded the Akamasoa humanitarian association in 1989 as a “solidarity movement to help the poorest of the poor” living on the site of a garbage dump. 

 Janez Janša, the Prime Minister of Slovenia, has announced that he nominated Opeka for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize for his dedication to “helping people living in appalling living conditions.” 

The Akamasoa association (meaning “good friend”) has provided former homeless people and families with 4,000 brick houses and has helped to educate 13,000 children and young people. 

Pope Francis visited Opeka’s “City of Friendship” built atop a rubbish dump on the outskirts of the capital city of Antananarivo during his apostolic visit to Madagascar in September 2019. 

Pedro Pablo Opeka was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1948. His parents were refugees from Slovenia who emigrated after the inception of the communist regime in Yugoslavia. 

At the age of 18, he entered the seminary of the Congregation for the Mission of St. Vincent de Paul in San Miguel, Argentina. Two years later, he traveled to Europe to study philosophy in Slovenia and theology in France. He then spent two years as a missionary in Madagascar. 

In 1975, he was ordained a priest at the Basilica of Lujan, and in 1976 he returned to Madagascar, where he has remained to this day. 

Upon seeing the desperate poverty in the capital city of Antananarivo, especially at the landfills where people live in cardboard boxes and children compete with pigs for food, he decided to do something for the poor. 

With help from abroad and the work of the people of Madagascar, he founded villages, schools, food banks, small businesses, and even a hospital to serve the poor through the Akamasoa association. 

During the coronavirus pandemic, Opeka has been working to help families who have fallen even deeper into poverty as a consequence of coronavirus measures. 

“The situation is difficult for families, for the poor who have many children. We do not have rice. We do not have water. We need water and soap,” Opeka told Vatican Radio in April 2020. 

Madagascar is one of the world’s poorest countries. Opeka expressed his gratitude to Pope Francis for his appeal for rich countries to cancel the debt of poor countries in light of the pandemic. 

 

“It is necessary if we want to live in dignity,” he said. 

This is not the first time that Opeka has been ominated for the peace prize. Slovenian Parliament representatives also nominated the priest in 2012. 

Among the other nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize this year are the Black Lives Matter movement, the World Health Organization, Greta Thunberg, Donald Trump, Stacey Abrams, Jared Kushner, Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, and Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. 

A Catholic lawyer who helped found the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong has also been nominated to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Martin Lee Chu-ming, 82, has been demonstrating for universal suffrage in Hong Kong for nearly 40 years. 

Lee was the founding chairman in 1990 of Hong Kong’s first pro-democracy party, the United Democrats of Hong Kong, and led the party’s successor, the Democratic Party, while serving in the territory’s legislature for more than two decades. 

Last year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner was the United Nations World Food Program. This year’s winner is expected to be announced next fall.

MAPUTO HOLY MASS WITH POPE FRANCIS

Pope Francis in Mosambique (Aftica)

African Credo - I Believe

SIGNIS Award Winning Catholic Hymn. It is a melodious song composed by Jude Nnam (The Oracle) featuring CACA.Description

We Labored for Souls in Africa Bringing Peace in the Name of Christ!

While our Catholic missionaries survived all hardships bringing the Good News to every people on earth including the continent of Africa, WOLVES come and snatch souls to Satan. Missionaries of Felix Y. Manalo's church the Iglesia Ni Cristo® - 1914 should go to places and countries NOT YET "CHRISTIANIZED" and bring their fake version of Christianity there and not to places we Catholics already labored.  We Catholics tirelessly toiled to bring souls to Christ while INC™  just come and harvest what they never labored ~ wolves in sheep' clothing indeed!

Participants of the Inter-Diocesan Conference on Cross-border Peace and Eevangelisation, Lodwar in Kenya 

The Catholic Church in Eastern Africa to spearhead disarmament

Bishops and participants attending the 6th Annual Inter-Diocesan Conference on Cross-Border Peace and Evangelization held at St. Teresa Pastoral Centre, Turkana, Kenya have resolved to begin a peaceful disarmament process of small arms and light weapons mostly used by pastoralists around Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and South Sudan borders.

Rose Achiego – Nairobi, Kenya

Vatican News

In a press statement issued to the media this week, Kenya’s Bishop of Maralal Diocese, Virgilio Pante, who is also the Chairperson for the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB)-Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Seafarers announced that that the process of peaceful disarmament would soon begin. The initiative would be an effort to wean-off pastoralist communities of their small arms that have caused so much havoc and suffering in the border areas of Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and South Sudan.

Church committed to disarmament

“We will no longer remain silent. We will no longer remain indecisive, and we will no longer be fearful. We are committed to highlighting the suffering caused by small arms in the daily lives of our people,” said Bishop Pante. He was flanked by the Bishop of Lodwar, Dominic Kimeng’ich, who is the Vice Chairperson of the KCCB-Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Seafarers.

According to the Bishops, peaceful disarmament can only be done in an environment of trust, collaboration and commitment for the respect and protection of human life.

Governments need to provide alternative livelihoods

While acknowledging the efforts of the governments of Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan and Ethiopia in their continuous peacebuilding initiatives both at the national level and across the borders, the Bishops of Maralal and Lodwar called on governments in the region to do more in sensitising pastoral communities on the need to embrace peaceful co-existence and peaceful disarmament.

“The governments should ultimately provide alternative or complementary livelihoods for the citizens living in the conflict-affected areas,” Bishop Pante and Kimengi’ch said

Religious leaders and civil society should address the root causes

The Bishops further other invited religious leaders and members of Civil Society Organisations in the region to identify and address the root causes of what has been ailing communities of the border areas over the years.

They also called upon grassroots communities to collectively reject the attraction of armed violence as a solution to their problems.

“We encourage you to work with all stakeholders to reaffirm the value of human life and work together to counter the pervasive culture of violence. It will be for the benefit of all of us to commit to peaceful disarmament,” the prelates said.

Small arms in the hands of communities have caused destruction

As reported by Regional Centre for Small Arms (RECSA) the region hosts 8 million out of an estimated 36 million small arms and light weapons. The weapons are in the hands of civilians.

As a result of the endemic conflicts, the border regions host the highest number of refugees and displaced persons on the African continent.

The proliferation of small arms heighten insecurity

According to the statement, demand for Small Arms and Light Weapons is driven by the ineffective provision of security by governments, commercialisation and politicisation of livestock raiding, marginalisation by governments, a need for the disarmed to rearm; and, cultural practices.

The proliferation of these small arms has caused thousands of deaths and injuries, displacement and forced migration of people, hampered development, loss of hundreds of livestock among pastoralist communities, heightened insecurity, loss of productivity, reduced economic output and insurgencies.

Holy Mass with the Pope in Central African Republic

POPE FRANCIS WELCOME CEREMONY IN UGANDA, AFRICA

POPE FRANCIS in KENYA (AFRICA)

African Jubilee: assessing accomplishments and planning the future - Vatican News

Vatican news - For many African nations this is the decade which marks more or less half a century of independence from colonial rule.

It’s an occasion to think back, and of course… look ahead!

That’s why professors in African studies, theologians and African ministers and politicians are travelling to Nairobi in Kenya, to participate in a five-day International Interdisciplinary Conference taking place at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa.

The title of the event is “Africa’s Golden Jubilee: Assessing 50 Years of Scholarship and Development in Africa.

The Conference seeks to highlight achievements of the last 50 years and lay down lessons for the future.

So, as Vatican Radio’s head of the English for Africa Programme, fr. Moses Hamungole explained to Vatican Radio's Linda Bordoni, the focus of the talks will be Africa’s accomplishments in the past 50 years.

Muslim mob burns Catholic church in Sudan capital

Photo Source: chron.com/AP News

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — A Muslim mob set ablaze a Catholic church frequented by Southern Sudanese in the capital Khartoum, witnesses and media reports said on Sunday.

The church in Khartoum's Al-Jiraif district was built on a disputed plot of land, but the Saturday night incident appeared to be part of the fallout from ongoing hostilities between Sudan and South Sudan over control of an oil town on their ill-defined border.

Sudan and South Sudan have been drawing closer to a full-scale war in recent months over the unresolved issues of sharing oil revenues and the disputed border.

Last week, South Sudanese troops seized Heglig, which the southerners call Panthou, sending Sudanese troops fleeing. The Khartoum government later claimed to have regained control of the town.

The witnesses and several newspapers said a mob of several hundred shouting insults at southerners torched the church. Fire engines could not put out the fire, they said.

One newspaper, Al-Sahafah, said the church was part of a complex that included a school and dormitories. Ethiopian refugees living in the Sudanese capital also used the church...

Republic of Mosambique now has diplomatic ties with Vatican

VATICAN CITY, 9 DEC 2011 (VIS) - The Secretariat of State today published a communique regarding the signing of an agreement between the Holy See and the Republic of Mozambique, which took place on 7 December at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of the latter African country.

The communique states that "the agreement, the first of its type signed by a southern African country, consolidates the existing links of friendship and collaboration between the two Parties. It is composed of a Preamble and twenty-three Articles, which regulate various aspects, including the juridical status of the Catholic church in Mozambique, the recognition of academic qualifications and canonical marriage, and the fiscal regime".

The Accord was signed on the part of the Holy See by Archbishop Antonio Arcari, Apostolic Nuncio in Mozambique, and on the part of the Republic of Mozambique, by Dr Oldemiro Julio Marques Baloi, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation.

Fresh riots in Egypt left 24 people dead

Clashes erupt at a protest of a recent attack on a
church in Cairo Egypt, Sunday, Oct. 9, 2011. Fierce clashes
erupted Sunday between Christians protesting a recent attack
on a church and the Egyptian military, leaving more than a
dozen people dead and scores injured, Health Ministry
officials said. (AP Photo/Ahmed Ali)

24 dead in worst Cairo riots since Mubarak ouster

CAIRO (AP) — Flames lit up downtown Cairo, where massive clashes raged Sunday, drawing Christians angry over a recent church attack, Muslims and Egyptian security forces. At least 24 people were killed and more than 200 injured in the worst sectarian violence since the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak in February.

The rioting lasted late into the night, bringing out a deployment of more than 1,000 security forces and armored vehicles to defend the state television building along the Nile, where the trouble began. The military clamped a curfew on the area until 7 a.m.

The clashes spread to nearby Tahrir Square, drawing thousands of people to the vast plaza that served as the epicenter of the protests that ousted Mubarak. On Sunday night, they battled each other with rocks and firebombs, some tearing up pavement for ammunition and others collecting stones in boxes.

At one point, an armored security van sped into the crowd, striking a half-dozen protesters and throwing some into the air. Protesters retaliated by setting fire to military vehicles, a bus and private cars, sending flames rising into the night sky.

The "true church" Iglesia ni Cristo donated to the Horn of Africa, but wait....

Claiming to be the "true church" the Iglesia ni Cristo of Manalo was voiceless. Eduardo Manalo, it's "little pope's" appeal to the world if he ever had done so, fell on deaf ears. No one is listening to the grandson of the "last messenger of God".  Manalo's church is busy spending its money on properties abroad and not for humanitarian aid. This is the "true" church.

BUT still the "fake" CHURCH has the loudest appeal for the suffering people of Africa. And when the Pope of this "fake" CHURCH speaks, the WORLD listens.  That is the "fake" CHURCH.  -CD2000

Caritas aids one million people in East Africa as Pope makes food crisis plea

Caritas International, Vatican City: Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday 5 October highlighted the plight of 13 million people at risk in East Africa’s ongoing food crisis. Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and other parts of the region face a severe food crisis caused by drought, conflict and social injustice. Somalia is the first famine of the 21st century, with hundreds of thousands of people in danger and one in three children suffering from malnutrition.

Pope Benedict urged the international community to tackle the humanitarian emergency. He invited everyone “to offer prayers and practical help for so many brothers and sisters so harshly tested, particularly the children in the region.”

DONATE NOW at CATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES

July 2011

Forward to a Friend

Dear , You are probably starting to hear about a humanitarian crisis unfolding in East Africa, mostly affecting Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia. Catholic Relief Services staff in the region report dreadful conditions. This just came in from a refugee camp in Kenya: They've walked for days or weeks from Somalia, and their shoes show it. Dusty and worn, the sandals of a little boy dangle in his hand as he wails in the center of the camp. Nearby, his exhausted 22-year-old mother, Momina, rocks her sobbing baby. "We had sheep, goats and cattle—over a dozen,” she says. "They all died from the drought.... Food was running out. So, we left." These terrible conditions have sparked an exodus of refugees—mostly women and children—pouring into Kenya and Ethiopia in search of food. East Africa's worst drought in more than half a century is causing extreme hunger for more than 11 million people. Severe lack of rainfall has resulted in failed crops, critical shortages in food and water, and countless numbers of livestock dying from dehydration and starvation. Further compounding the crisis are drastic increases in food prices. All this brings to mind sobering images from the Ethiopian famine of 1984. Who can forget the pictures of emaciated, listless children on TV? The full scope of such a humanitarian catastrophe was not fully realized until after so many had died. This time is different. This time, we know what is likely to come as the disaster unfolds. I am asking you to help CRS with a generous gift so that we can quickly increase the scope of our efforts there to feed and provide water to as many needy people as possible. Help us prevent another tragedy. Since 1960, CRS has provided water and agricultural programs in Kenya and Ethiopia, where current drought conditions are not as dire as in Somalia. Your previous gifts are already saving lives because those programs helped us dig deep wells that have helped lessen the drought's effects. But this drought is so widespread that our existing efforts are not enough. We need your help. I ask you to please give now and help prevent another disaster like the 1984 Ethiopian famine. Please help our brothers and sisters in East Africa, who so desperately need our help. Thank you, and God bless you. Ken Hackett, President Catholic Relief Services

Catholic Relief Services needs support for Africa drought relief

News Source: EWTN , give to donations to Catholic Relief Services

A malnourished Somali child sits next to makeshift tents at a camp for people who have been displaced by drought in Mogadishu on August 9, 2011. (Source: The Globe and Mail by AFP/Getty Images)

Two leading Catholic bishops have asked their fellow bishops to encourage pastors and parishioners to support Catholic Relief Services' emergency relief efforts in the Horn of Africa, suggesting that churches hold a second collection to address the need. 

"Every day we are seeing more and more heartbreaking news about the drought and famine in Somalia and the eastern parts of Africa. We see millions of people being forced from their homes, leaving behind what meager possessions they had, and walking for days over rough terrain," Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York and Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson wrote.

Archbishop Dolan heads the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, while Bishop Kicanas chairs the board of Catholic Relief Services.

Catholic Relief Services "can use all the help we can offer in this current tragic situation," they said.

"Through CRS our generosity could literally feed thousands and provide them clean water, shelter and other life-saving goods. Over time, CRS will be able to expand already proven drought mitigation and other development programs that unfortunately are now only available in a handful of villages." 

Over 12 million people in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia need urgent humanitarian assistance because of one of the worst droughts in decades. Lack of rainfall, attributed to the weather cycle phenomenon known as La Niña, has caused failed crops, livestock deaths and critical shortages in food and water. 

"There are parents whose little children have died, and children who have been orphaned. They are suffering from hunger, thirst, disease, and drought," the two bishops said. "It is a humanitarian crisis that cries out for help to Christians throughout the world." 

Catholic Relief Services has worked in East Africa for decades and is responding to the present emergency. The relief agency is expanding its food distribution program to 1.1 million people and is working closely with local partners to provide basic necessities to highly vulnerable displaced families. 

"The Holy Father, on several occasions, has asked Catholics to respond generously to the desperate needs of our brothers and sisters in East Africa," Archbishop Dolan and Bishop Kicanas said.

In Rome, experts discuss peace-building, church's 'best-kept secret'

By John Thavis

Catholic News Service

Website:IKV Pax Christi

ROME (CNS) -- When Sudanese Bishop Paride Taban of Torit wanted to help stop traditional cattle raiding by rival groups of young men, he turned to the Catholic peace-building organization IKV Pax Christi from the Netherlands.

The cattle raiding had become extremely dangerous and violent, and Pax Christi helped develop a program that would bring together the youth warriors from different rural communities to discuss the problem and come up with alternative ways of relating.

After two conferences, participants were able to launch a peace and sports program called Playing for Peace. It engages the young people in a platform for debate and involves them in building a sports infrastructure.

190 in Egypt sectarian clashes to face military trial

Egyptians watch as firefighters battle a blaze in a church after clashes between Muslims and Christians in Cairo. Egypt's Prime Minister Essam Sharaf called an urgent cabinet meeting Sunday and postponed a Gulf visit after the clashes which left nine people dead, state media said.(AFP)

By Jailan Zayan, AFP

CAIRO (AFP) - Egypt's military rulers said on Sunday that 190 people detained overnight in connection with deadly clashes between Muslims and Christians in Cairo will face a military trial.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which has ruled Egypt since a popular uprising toppled president Hosni Mubarak, ordered "the transfer of all those arrested in connection with (Saturday's) events, and they number 190, to the Supreme Military Court, as a deterrent to all those who think of toying with the potential of this nation."

Church spokesman: Islamic fundamentalists want all Christians out of Mideast

CatholicCulture.org - Father Rafic Greische, spokesman of the Catholic Church in Egypt, spoke with Vatican Radio about recent difficulties faced by Egyptian Christians, including the imprisonment of Christians who protested the government’s refusal to permit the construction of a church.

“This is what the Muslim fundamentalists want: they want the Christians to evacuate from the Middle East and leave (the region to them),” he said. “And this is what is happening every day… and the governments do not take serious action to relieve or solve these problems.”

Only 0.3% of the Egypt's 77.6 million people are Catholic, according to Vatican statistics; some 9% are Coptic Orthodox.

We are the Christians of Iraq مَنْ نكونُ نحنُ مسيحيو العراق؟

Adam, the Little Christian Boy Who Confronted Islamic Terrorists

Pray for us, Martyrs for the Church!

Egyptian Security Used Live Ammunition on Christian Coptic Protesters, 4 Killed

Please continue pray for our Coptic brothren in Egypt. Let's all storm heaven with our prayers that there would no more shedding of blood. Our Father.... Hail Mary... Glory be... Our Lady of Zeitoun, pray for us!

(AINA) -- Christian Copts worldwide were shocked and enraged at the use of live ammunition by Egyptian state security forces against unarmed Coptic protesters, causing the death of three Coptic young men. A four-year old child suffocated from tear gas thrown inside the chapel. Rights groups inside and outside of Egypt have condemned the use of excessive violence by security forces and the use of live ammunition against Coptic demonstrators.

Efforts by State Security to hide the use of firearms on unarmed protesters were in vain, as the rising death toll, hospital reports on those admitted, and video footage and eyewitness testimony have revealed the details of the incident. Coptic activists Sherif Ramzy and Ramy Kamel have conducted interviews with witnesses.

CSW Advocacy Director Andrew Johnston blamed the violence on "excessive" police tactics and expressed his sadness at the "unnecessary" loss of life and injuries.