JERUSALEM: 25th July 2006 -- Feast of St James the
Apostle. While James the Apostle is not the James considered to
be the first bishop of Jerusalem, he is the only one of the apostles
whose death is actually noted in the New Testament (Acts 12 - 'He
beheaded James, brother of John...') and the first of the apostles to
die. He was also one of those whose reaction to lack of hospitality in
Samaria provoked the reaction of wanting to call down fire from heaven
on the ungrateful! All sufficient context to offer some
information, thanks to Fr Francis Preston in Jerusalem, on how the
various Salesian works in the area of conflict are managing at the
moment.
First of all Nazareth: Fr Mario Morru is the Rector
there. He confirms that the confreres are safe and coping well with a
difficult situation. The school and community stand overlooking
the town of Nazareth. Around from there, on the same ridge really
but looking away from the city towards the coast, is the home of one of
our Palestinian Salesians. On Wednesday evening two missiles
landed less than a kilometre from the community residence. They
exploded on two streets often used by members of the community and the
youngsters who attend the school and Oratory. Sadly one of the
missiles killed two young boys who were playing outside at the
time. But for the fact that it was Wednesday and stores were
closed, the death toll would have been higher. The summer
programme at the Oratory has been cancelled by order of the Government.
Jerusalem is quieter, since it is out of range of
missiles, but Haifa is not - there is no Salesian House there but it is
where Mount Carmel is located (nearby) and the scene of many missile
attacks. A Retreat House and a hospital in that zone, both used
by the Salesian Community at times (including recently) have been near
misses. However, Fr Preston reports that a number of visitors,
including two Australian Salesians, have been through Jerusalem and
stayed with the remnant of the Ratisbonne Community - remnant because
it is holiday time and besides they are doing renovations, the which
are suffering from increased security and inability of workers to
report for work. The COmmunity at Ratisbonne normally hosts a number of
Salesian students from the EAO Region, especially from ITM.
Recently several of our EAO students there were ordained priest or
deacon.
ANS reports separately on the situation in Lebanon,
especially for the Salesian works north of Beirut. As well as the
constant danger of 'fire from heaven', they face the added demands of a
serious refugee crisis. The Community in Lebanon politely but
firmly declined a request to house Lebanese troops.
One imagines that the politics of the Our Father are
one thing in peacetime and quite another in war. Let's pray for
them all.
___________________
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