PROFILE • BLESSED CARLO ACUTIS

A highway to Heaven

The life of Carlo Acutis, short and intense as it was, has revealed him as an icon and inspiration for Christians all over the world, particularly to the youth. His intimacy and closeness with Jesus, through the Blessed Eucharist, his use of digital means for evangelization and his jovial spirit in the face of the acute illness which led to his death, are some of the markings of a saint in the 21st century

BY Marian Pallister | Chair of Pax Christi Scotland
The Association of Friends of Carlos Acutis

HOW MANY of us, at whatever age we have reached, could confidently say “I’m happy to die because I’ve lived my life without wasting even a minute of it doing things that wouldn’t have pleased God”? Of course, the longer we live, the more opportunities we have to waste not just minutes but days and even years of our lives doing what would surely cause God to at least wince if not despair.

The young do also have a tendency to go off track: the Internet sometimes seems to have been specially designed to distract our children and lead them where we’d rather they didn’t go.

He was a boy of perfect and upright life, of extraordinary purity, generosity, goodness

However, for the youngster who so confidently said he hadn’t wasted any of his life doing things that wouldn’t have pleased God, the Internet was a source of good, the computer a device not only enabling him to encounter Christ but to introduce Him to others—teenagers searching for some meaning in their lives and finding it with the help of a contemporary, a kid, just like them.

Only Carlo Acutis wasn’t quite like them; isn’t quite like them. He died at the age of 15, happy at the thought of not having wasted a minute. Now he is on the road to sainthood.

Children have, of course, been made saints of the Catholic Church for centuries. Some are better known to the world than others, such as Francisco and Jacinta Marto who witnessed apparitions near Fatima in Portugal in the early 20th century and were canonised by Pope Francis in 2017.

Now this new youngster is on the way to sainthood and, perhaps because of his Internet skills, is already known internationally and acknowledged in shrines around the world. The Blessed Carlo Acutis was just 15 when he died from leukaemia in 2006. Beatified in October 2020, it would seem that he could be the first saint with very 21st century skills.

A miracle of healing

Certainly, it was the Internet that enabled the miracle that was recognised by the Vatican’s Medical Council of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Carlo lived in Italy. The miracle took place on the other side of the world in Brazil where a mother, because of her Internet searches, learned of him and asked for the intercession of Carlos Acutis on behalf of her sick son, Mattheus.

Mattheus suffered from a severe pancreatic condition that made eating difficult. His mother, Luciana Vianna, asked Carlo to intercede and then took Mattheus to a prayer service. When they went home, Mattheus was able to eat. His condition was cured. The miracle led to the beatification of his fellow teenager who had lived so far away, but connected so powerfully with the world during his time on earth and has continued to do so.

Carlo’s life and faith

Carlo was born in London in 1991. He was a May baby, and although his parents—Andrea Acutis and Antonia Salzano—were not a religious couple, they had their child baptised 15 days after his birth, on 18 May, in the church of Our Lady of Dolours in up-market Chelsea. In September of that year, the well-off couple took the new addition to their family back to their native Italy, where they lived in Milan.

Antonia’s father died in 1995, and the four-year-old Carlo said that he dreamed his grandfather asked him to pray for him. He began to show an interest in the Church, and it was his Polish babysitter who nurtured that curiosity. By the age of seven, he was asking if he could receive First Holy Communion. The family organised instruction and then he was granted his wish at the convent of Sant’Ambrogio ad Nemus.

It wasn’t long before he was attending daily Mass, making a weekly confession. He made his role models St Francis of Assisi, as well as the children who had become saints: Francisco and Jacinta Marto (the two Portuguese children who saw the apparitions at Fatima), St Dominic Savio, who died at the age of 14 and was canonised by Pope Pius XII in 1954, and St Bernadette Soubirous (the teenager who saw visions of Our Lady in Lourdes) who was canonised on 8 December 1933. It was almost as if Carlos knew that he would join these children.

Digital skills for evangelization

While there were no visions, Carlo certainly doesn’t seem to have been a run-of-the-mill little boy. Yes, he played the computer games of his day—but his computer skills seemed to go way beyond those of his peers. With the skills he displayed, he might have been headed towards being a Mark Zuckerberg, a Bill Gates or a Steve Jobs. Instead of writing codes that would make millions, however, Carlo created a website that catalogued every Eucharistic miracle in the world. In the Catholic Church, these usually consist of inexplicable phenomena, with consecrated Hosts changing into human tissue, surviving disasters such as fire, or lasting for decades or even centuries.

Beatified in October 2020, it would seem that he could be the first saint with very 21st century skills

The Church has recognised many Eucharistic miracles, and Carlo began his task at the age of eleven, completing it with a record of more than 130 in 2005. He also used his website to evangelize, following the intention of the Society of St Paul to use all forms of media to this end.

We could perhaps say he wasn’t your average schoolboy in other ways too. When his friends were bullied, he stood up to the bullies. When his friends were going through difficult times—perhaps the death of a relative or a divorce in the family—he would bring them home for comfort and advice.

Illness leading to death

Then he suffered a difficult time himself. A year after he had completed that catalogue of Eucharistic miracles, Carlo passed away. The 15-year-old had developed leukaemia, the blood cancer that can lead to a painful death. Patients bleed and bruise more easily due to the low levels of platelets (clot-forming cells) in the blood and they are more vulnerable to serious internal bleeding. Carlo would have been breathless and excessively tired, open to all sorts of infections.

He said to his mother at the very start of his hospitalisation that he wouldn’t be going home, but he told anyone who asked how he was, “There are people who suffer more than I do.” His mother, Antonia, has written a book about Carlos (The secret of my son Carlo Acutis, or, in the English version, My son Carlo: Carlo Acutis through the eyes of his mother) and in an interview in Aleteia, she said that even as a child, Carlo would say that he would always stay young. More remarkably, he said as a child that he would die ‘because a vein in his brain would break’. This is, in fact, what happened—and he also correctly forecast that he would die when his weight dropped to 70 kg.

Ready for Heaven

It is, however, the sanctity of the boy that makes him different. Antonia said, “Carlo was ready and ripe for Heaven. He was a boy of perfect and upright life, of extraordinary purity, generosity, goodness. We’ve never had the slightest doubt that he’s already in Heaven.”

She also shared in a statement given to the media ahead of the launch of her book, “This was his secret: he had a constant, intimate relationship with Jesus. He wanted everyone he encountered to have this kind of relationship as he did. He did not consider it to be something just for him. He was convinced that this relationship was accessible to all.”

It is easy to believe that Carlo has appeared to her in dreams saying that he would be beatified and later made a saint. Those of us who have experienced bereavement may also have dreamed of our loved ones. Less easy to explain away is that at the age of 44, Antonia gave birth to twins, four years to the day after Carlo’s death on 12 October 2006.

That catalogue of the Eucharistic miracles has become a travelling exhibition, organised by Bishop Raffaello Martinelli and Bishop Angelo Comastri.  They have enabled it to travel the world; as an inspiration not only to young people but also to us all; statues, memorials and even new parishes have been established in Carlo’s memory in different parts of the world. A life-sized statue was placed in Carfin Grotto in Scotland in 2022. Carlo’s website has been translated into 18 languages, and whether you live in Italy, Brazil or South Africa, you can access it, and there’s a biography of the Blessed Carlo by Nicola Gori.

Carlo’s illness was so aggressive that it lasted just a few days. Carlo’s influence and inspiration continue to grow. If you go to Assisi, home of St Francis of Assisi, who was one of his great role models, you will see crowds queuing to go past the Blessed Carlo’s relics, which are on display at the church of Santa Maria Maggiore. It has been that way since 10 October 2020, when the beatification ceremony took place.

Devotion to the Holy Eucharist

At a time when many churches bemoan the lack of children and young people attending services, it is interesting to note that Carlo was the one dragging his parents to Mass rather than the other way around. He called the Eucharist the “highway to heaven” and his persistence transformed not only the lives of his parents, who gradually came to share his faith if not his fervour, but so many others who were and are strangers to him.

He began to show an interest in the Church, and it was his Polish babysitter who nurtured that curiosity

He had found his experience of his First Holy Communion overpowering, and his commitment to daily Mass wasn’t some goody-goody parading of his faith but a joyous start to his day. His prayer after receiving Jesus in the Eucharist, “Jesus, come right in! Make yourself at home!” is one we might all adopt to help us not only understand but to get so much closer to Jesus. His inspirational idea that when “you face the sun you get a tan but when you stand in front of Jesus in the Eucharist you become saints”, is certainly one to mull over and share.

“To be always united with Jesus, this is my plan of life.” A boy’s plan: a boy for whom it would seem that the “highway to heaven” was already keyed into his personal satnav at birth. Let’s never forget that the Kingdom of Heaven is made of children like Carlo and that our common home would be so much the better were we to be fired by his conviction.

PROFILE • WORK RIGHTS

CÉSAR CHAVEZ, A LIFE DEDICATED TO SOCIAL JUSTICE FOR LATINOS

César Chavez is an inspiring Catholic activist, a prophetic voice in the defence of Latino migrant workers in the USA. He responded to the Social Doctrine of the Church with his life, to protect the common good and to restore the rights of the oppressed

BY MARIAN PALLISTER | CHAIR OF PAX CHRISTI SCOTLAND

YUMA, ARIZONA, bills itself as ‘The gateway to the South West’. It sits on the borders of California and the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California, near the junction of the Colorado and Gila Rivers, surrounded by mountains and what the city’s publicity team terms as ‘lush agricultural fields’. The city was established there because it was the safest place to cross this coming together of two unruly rivers.

In the early 20th century, however, no tourists were appreciating the beauty of the area—just the miserable shacks of Latino farm workers whose conditions were deplorable. Many were descended from slaves, all were poor, and many went unpaid.

Family roots

César Chavez was born to Juana and Librado Chavez on 31 March 1927, and he was, by comparison, a lucky baby. The grandfather after whom he was named, had crossed from Mexico into Texas in 1898 with his wife Dorotea and eight children and had set up a wood haulage business near Yuma. César’s father was the youngest of those immigrant children, and he and Juana had ambitiously added to the family business a pool hall, a grocery store and a garage, but by the time little César was two years old, these ambitions had crumbled and Librado and Juana had to take the children back to their grandmother’s house to live. After all—who could afford to pay for a game of pool when labour was so badly paid? Who could shop in the grocery store when workers didn’t receive a wage for their work?

The Chavez family survived as it grew (César had two sisters and two brothers), but when the grandmother died in 1939 and her farm was sold by the local government to pay back taxes, young César saw this eviction from their home as yet another injustice suffered by Latino families. A small but significant example of the discrimination experienced by Latino’s was the fact that ‘César’ was not the boy’s baptismal name. He had been called Césario, but Spanish was a forbidden language outside the home and by the time he went to school, the name was shortened to fit the authorities’ regulations.

To hear the cry of the poor, to seek dignity for the marginalised was simply part of who he was

Theirs was a devout Catholic family, and César was growing up guided by Catholic Social Teaching. To hear the cry of the poor, to seek dignity for the marginalised was simply part of who he was. He and the family needed that faith as the Great Depression shaped the first dozen or so years of César’s life. The Depression was, of course, worldwide, and
in the United States, unemployment rose to 23 %, with trade falling by 50 %.

The family moved on, seeking work in California, picking avocados and peas, moving so regularly that the children’s education suffered badly. César was bullied at school for his poor appearance, and his low grades—although, despite it all, he remained good at mathematics. He left formal education at 15, after attending 36 different schools and became—yes, a peripatetic farm labourer.

Adulthood and social commitment

When the United States engaged in the Second World War, César joined the US Navy, returning to work on the land in A pivotal moment in his life came in 1947 when he joined the National Farm Labour Union (NFLU) and was involved in strike action, leading the picketing at cotton plantations.

There was a series of labouring jobs, and in 1948 he married Helen Fabela. As their family grew, this might have been a time when social justice took a back seat and César settled into looking after his own. However, his faith was a guiding element of his life, and meeting with
two European-American social activists whose concerns were for Mexican-Americans, gave him a wider vision of how to help the Latino community.

Fred Ross and Fr Donald McDonnell worked with César to set up community organisations, to encourage Latino’s to register to vote so that they would have a say in the running of the country, and he helped to build a church for the community—Our Lady of Guadalupe in Sal Si Puedes.

What did César get from this relationship with the two activists? Exposure to books that, not only helped his ability to read but also inspired him to take his activism to the highest heights. He was now aiming to follow in the footsteps of St Francis of Assisi, Mahatma Gandhi, and more immediately, the American labour organisers, John L. Lewis and Eugene V. Debs. Fred Ross and César grew the Community Service Organisation into a national organisation.

His family life suffered as he lived out a peripatetic campaigning existence, and there was growing opposition to what was seen as leftist activism. César not only rode the storm but also brought in the cavalry— the Catholic Church. Marco G. Prouty, in his book, César Chavez, the Catholic bishops, and the farmworkers’ struggle for social justice, explains that this struggle between Catholic workers and Catholic landowners split the community in California’s Central Valley during what was known as the Delano Grape Strike from 1965–1970. César went twice to the Catholic hierarchy for help and eventually in 1969, the bishops agreed to support the labourers and created the Ad Hoc Committee on Farm Labour.

That Committee sent five bishops and two priests to the strike scene and brought about a settlement after five years of conflict. The Church then openly supported César and the United Farmworkers Union in a battle over ill-paid lettuce production. César said the intervention was “the single most important thing that has helped us”. It was, of course, the bishops’ adherence to Catholic Social Teaching that swayed them into supporting César’s fight for farmworkers’ rights.

The farmworkers had suffered this exploitation for generations: the provision of shacks as a substitute for wages, no basic facilities, insurance, or medical provision. César’s organisation of this vast marginalised population into the National Farm Workers Association, which became the United Farm Workers, brought about a living wage and employment benefits through protest marches, strikes and boycotts and the support from the Catholic bishops. It was he who pushed forward the legislation for the first Bill of Rights for agricultural workers in the United States.

Non-violent prophetic voice

He said, “Like the other immigrant groups, the day will come when we win the economic and political rewards which are in keeping with our numbers in society. The day will come when the politicians will do the right thing for our people out of political necessity and not out of charity or idealism.”

He spent his life working to better the lives of the Latino immigrants
whose roots and faith he shared. It has been said that he is to the Latino community what Martin Luther King Jnr is to African-Americans. Perhaps the Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded after his death should have come sooner. A stamp in his honour is perhaps not sufficient recognition; perhaps the calls for his canonisation should be followed through.

This man died in 1993, having achieved so much
with the help of the Catholic Bishops

As a peace activist, for me, one of the most impressive aspects of César Chavez’ life and work is that he was totally committed to nonviolence. Those strikes and protests, those picket lines and hunger strikes were all carried out in the spirit of nonviolence and therefore all the more
impressive in that they were successful.

His people’s hardships had been his own. When the Chavez family moved to California, they had to leave their chickens, cows, horses and implements; the family treasures brought from Mexico by grannies and grandpas; from living on the family farm to living under a canvas, or Mum, Dad and five children sleeping in a car. It is unsurprising that his campaigns were for a minimum wage; unemployment insurance for farm workers; the farm workers’ right to collective bargaining; a life insurance
plan; and a credit union.

César said, “Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore. We have seen the future, and the future is ours.”

What is tragic is that there has been a reversal. Only in 2023, new legislation is being considered in the US to protect Latino workers. Although more than 62 million Latinos now live and work in the United States, contributing $2.7 trillion to the economy, there is still marginalisation, discrimination, and the need to challenge the social, economic, and political barriers that affect them.

Exemplary life

César Chavez and the Union of Farm Workers were not only supported by American bishops and Pope Paul VI but by different faith traditions, and by politicians such as Senator Robert F. Kennedy, activists such as Dorothy Day and Martin Luther King Jr. César was praised as a man of integrity. As a devout Catholic, Chavez ended a 25-day hunger strike in 1968 by receiving the body of Christ, sitting next to Senator Kennedy.

In 1974, Pope Paul VI, the Pope who told us that if we wanted peace we
should work for justice, welcomed César Chavez to the Vatican as a “loyal son of the Catholic Church and as a distinguished leader and representative of the Mexican-American community in the United States.”

This man died in 1993, having achieved so much with the help of the Catholic Bishops. Of course, César Chavez had his faults and weaknesses. These are acknowledged in Miriam Pawel’s book, The
crusades of César Chavez—so the jury is out on whether this was a hero with feet of clay or a potential saint.

He is already regarded as the latter in Mexico and there is much still said in his favour: in 2019, a US university hosted an exhibition recalling his life and work entitled, History rediscovered: the Holy Alliance of the Catholic Church, Seton Hall University, and iconic labour rights activist, Cesar Chavez; there is a state landmark in his honour; and streets, schools and libraries are still being named for him in California. Barak Obama used César’s rallying cry of “Sí, se puede” (Yes, we can) in his presidential campaign to bring together the disempowered.

One of his sisters has said that the 2015 move to begin the process of declaring him officially a saint would have been dismissed by César as too grandiose. Perhaps César Chavez’ modesty should prevail.

PROFILE • FR STAN SWAMY

THE DEMISE OF A HERO

The life of Fr Stan is a testimony to the defence of the human rights of underpriviledged peasants in India. His sentence and subsequent death in prison raised an outcry all over the world, but his inspiring witness to righteousness keeps the flame of justice alive

BY ARCHBISHOP THOMAS MENAMPARAMPIL SDB | ARCHBISHOP EMERITUS OF GUWAHATI, INDIA

BY Marian Pallister | Editor
JERRY CUTINHA SJ | PHOTOS

HE WAS 84 years old. He had Parkinson’s disease, back pain, and impaired hearing. He had been in Taloja Central Jail on the outskirts of the Indian city of Mumbai on trumped-up charges for nine months. While in jail, Fr Stan Swamy had a fall and then contracted COVID.

Just a few days before his death on 5 July 2021, Fr Stan had written to India’s National Investigation Authorities saying that he was willing to “pay the price”. He certainly paid it, and that price was high.

The authorities refused him bail on grounds that there was no “conclusive proof of his ailments”. By the time he was admitted to the Holy Family Hospital in Mumbai, it was too late for any compassion from the State. The world was shocked.

Beacon of light

This gentle man had been arrested on 8 October 2020 along with 15 others, all intellectuals and social activists, charged with promoting violence.

The Bar Association of India, a voluntary body which represents almost its entire legal profession, accused the State of “lacking in compassion and inhumane approach” by imposing pre-trial detention on a respected person of advanced age, weak health and fragile constitution. Prominent social leaders wrote to the civil authorities expressing “deep anguish” at
the foisting of false accusations against innocent persons.

He wanted to make people experience God’s love in a concrete way in the midst of harsh situations

This worldwide support for Fr Stan, an Indian Jesuit Roman Catholic priest and tribal rights activist held no sway with the authorities.

Fr Stan had spent his final months acting as a beacon of light to his fellow prisoners. They say he brought cheer and joy, courtesy and optimism to this group of falsely accused campaigners. His moral thinking, love for humanity and longterm vision of human realities inspired those heartbroken individuals to whom unfair punishment had been meted out. He wanted to make people experience God’s love in a concrete way in the midst of harsh situations. The example he left behind will not be forgotten and his ideals will surely be discussed in institutions dedicated to human welfare and intellectual circles of social commitment.

Early years

Fr Stan Swamy was born Stanislaus Lourdswamy, in Trichy in the Indian
state of Tamilnadu on 26 April 1937. He enrolled himself at St Joseph’s School run by the Jesuits, and a little later joined them in their life of dedicated service. He was eager to serve the poor and the needy in
their greatest hardship. His post was to be in the northern state of Jharkhand, an area of deprived and under-developed indigenous tribal communities. The only asset these communities had was their land, which was greatly threatened by mighty corporations eager to take
possession of areas where they found mineral resources. Tribal communities, less acquainted with the law and their rights, needed to be guided and inspired. A mighty task awaited young Stan who was still maturing in his religious convictions and in understanding the imbalances in the modern economy.

At Chaibasa, a mining hub (and interestingly, given the way Fr Stan’s life
panned out, the hometown of Birsa Munda, India’s most well-known tribal freedom fighter at the end of the 19th century), Fr Stan and his students would discuss the happenings in their neighbourhood with the villagers. He would discuss and try to evaluate situations of unfairness and explore ways of being helpful in society in a constructive way. He visited homes and sought to learn more about the cultures and values of
the smaller tribes such as the Munda’s or Ho’s. He found it an exciting topic. He knew well that missionaries become effective in their service only with a deep understanding of the tribal character of the community they work with. He understood that cultural immersion is central to apostolic fruitfulness.

Indigenous communities

The next stage of his formation was in Manilla in the Philippines, where he studied theology, giving attention to sociological themes. He quickly recognised that indigenous communities right around the world were being taken advantage of by more advanced societies; that they needed special assistance. He realised that indigenous communities are vessels of inestimable wisdom, particularly in their relationship with nature and among fellow human beings.

Back on the sub-continent, Fr Stan stayed at Badaibir, learning from village life, before going to Louvain in Belgium to continue his reflection at a theoretical level. In time he returned to the painful realities of village life in India.

Jesus’s rural life in the villages of Galilee during the years of a tyrannical
Roman Governor inspired Fr Stan to enable rural communities in India
to organise and motivate themselves to seek justice. He did yeoman service at the Indian Social Institute, run by the Jesuits, which trained thousands of young people in socially responsible thinking, reflecting on human rights, taking the side of the oppressed, and encouraging self-governance. He became well aware of the tragedy of large numbers of indigenous communities being displaced from their land without sensitivity or social responsibility.

Centre for social activists

In 2006, he opened a centre at Bagicha, Ranchi, in Jharkhand to give support to social activists. Unfair displacement was his central concern. “Defend your land rights”, was the call. The people were “like sheep without a shepherd” and Fr Stan became the shepherd, a truly motivating force. The indigenous communities looked to him for inspiration and guidance, and he emerged as an icon inspiring self-confidence in those who were too timid to assert their rights over
their heritage. However, when people began erecting the traditional stone that affirmed their right over their land, the civil authorities began to arrest activists behind the movement.

Fr Stan Swamy identified himself with people’s sufferings. He joined hands with men and women of all faiths and persuasions as long as they were genuinely committed to humanity. There was no streak
of violence in his character, only the love of humanity. In fact, he claimed to belong to a universal society.

There was no streak of violence in his character, only the love of humanity

Soon the authorities saw that his presence was a mighty force providing light and energy to the movement that he had set in motion. The powerful corporates, greedy for this mineral-rich land, wanted him moved out of the tribal belt—and so, he was arrested, with the authorities inexplicably associating Fr Stan with the Bhima-Koregaon conspiracy case in another part of India.

Why were those in power afraid of an octogenarian. This particular octogenarian had become a beacon for those struggling for justice, a role model for young people across the nation. All tribal rights activists looked up to him, so the state wanted to make an example of him.

Life rendered for the oppressed

St Rani Maria had laid down her life defending landless labourers. Was Fr Stan to follow in her footsteps? Fr Felix Raj says that Fr Stan was working for a more humane and just society, defending people and their livelihood against corporate interests and corrupt politicians who plunder natural resources. “They wanted him out of the way. He wanted, like St Ignatius, to ‘set the world on fire’. He identified himself with people’s sufferings. He joined hands with people of all faiths and persuasions
as long they were genuinely committed to humanity.”

The requests of dozens of prestigious social welfare agencies around the world fell on deaf ears. When he became ill in prison, he refused to go to a state hospital where the reports could be manipulated. By the time he was finally admitted into a Catholic hospital, Covid-19 had taken
its toll. The end came even sooner than expected. Fr Stan had the habit of invoking silence from time to time in honour of the martyrs who had given up their lives for the cause of the deprived. The world paused in his honour a brief while, struck dumb by the insensitivity of those responsible for his tragic end.

The United States Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) condemned the entire legal process in the strongest terms. Its Office expressed its distress at the death of Fr Stan Swamy in custody and called for greater respect for human rights. Rahul Gandhi lamented,
“He deserved justice and humane treatment”. There were protests from all over the country. The only reply from the authorities concerned was that “all due processes have been followed”.

A martyrdom that challenges us all

The passage of John’s Gospel read at Fr Stan’s funeral Mass narrated the scourging of Jesus. The homily referred to Pontius Pilate unable to find fault with Jesus while handing him over to be crucified: once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge
against him”.

Society as a whole had found no fault with Fr Stan Swamy. There were commemorative services in numerous institutions and prayer centres. Candlelight processions took place around the country. His remains were honoured. A documentary film was produced to pay him final homage. Fr Cutinha, the Jamshedpur Provincial of the Jesuits, said: “May the martyrdom of Stan inspire and challenge us” to work for
justice and reconciliation.

This man who was certainly no silent spectator, paid a high price. He has not been silenced because his inspiration and his work live on. Others will continue defending the marginalised and vulnerable people, speaking out against atrocities and the violation of human rights. Fr Stan didn’t work alone. He networked with others who continue supporting many initiatives for the development of Jharkhand. He made sure that there were many trained to galvanise the struggle against the brutal dispossession of land.

Fr Stan’s fight was no flight of fancy. In his quiet, well-mannered, gentle way, he wanted the people he so much cared about to have the right to a dignified life. He believed that these people, so dependent on water, forest and land, must have their dignity restored. He gave his life because he believed in the defence of legitimate constitutional rights. He was hounded because of his support of the Adivasi (tribal people) and Dalits (those once called ‘untouchables’ in the caste system).

As Fr Stanislaus D’Souza said, “He has given us an ethical mandate to be compassionate, to be the voice of the voiceless.”

Last December, according to the Vatican News agency, a new investigation conducted by a Boston-based digital forensic firm, Arsenal Consulting, concluded that incriminating documents containing false evidence were planted in the hard drive of Fr Stan’s computer to implicate him and accuse the Jesuit with charges of sedition.

PROFILE • PROF. JOHN D. LIU

Hope in Landscape Restoration

Professor John Dennis Liu is a world-renowned environmentalist. He firmly believes in the restoration of ecosystems as a solution for the future of humanity and the preservation of the planet’s diversity. His active commitment to the cause bears witness to hope and is an inspiration for the global community

BY Marian Pallister | Chair of Pax Christi Scotland

THERE ARE many definitions of the term ecosystem, and few of them serve to make the meaning clear to those of us of a less-than-scientific mindset. Yet this is a word on which the future of our common home hangs. If we don’t have successful ecosystems, we don’t have food, we don’t have water, we don’t have life.

National Geographic’s library explains an ecosystem as ‘a geographic area where plants, animals, and other organisms, as well as weather and landscapes, work together to form a bubble of life’.

Rather more dramatically, John D. Liu says, “Ecosystem maintenance, or as we call it here ‘landscape restoration’, is key to addressing all of the problems that humanity is facing at this time.”

Commonland Foundation

‘Here’ in this case is the Commonland Foundation, a non-profit organisation with its headquarters in the Netherlands, which seeks to identify the viable solutions that our world needs. John D. Liu is its ambassador, and his words confirm what his work is all about—sharing the possible answers to the mess we have made of God’s gift to us; answers that will turn us into far better stewards of the earth than we have been in the last couple of centuries.

This requires teamwork: scientific institutes, business schools, farmers and experts all working together for global land restoration. The face of the Commonland Foundation (and indeed of landscape restoration) has become that of John D. Liu, a documentary cameraman in a battered hat who has brought into our homes the idea that it is possible to halt the damage of climate change and restore forests, agricultural land, and most importantly, sources of water where lands have been badly impaired.

Of course, this presupposes that the world’s leaders will take the actions needed to allow such restoration to continue to flourish: their pledges on renewable energy and carbon footprint reduction must be kept and improved upon.

If we want hope to take the place of the despair so many of us are feeling right now, then we need only look to the films produced by Liu which are shown around the world by major distributors. Today we can see some of his work on YouTube, just by searching for John D. Liu.

Liu has dedicated himself to the task of bringing hope to the public, and in 2013 he received the Communications Award from the Society for Ecological Restoration based in Washington, D.C, USA. A film about this eco-committed film-maker, called Green Gold, produced by VPRO, an independent Netherlands-based media organisation, won a Prix Italia award, and the aptly named Hope in a changing climate*, produced by Liu was named the best ecosystem film at the International Wildlife Film Festival in Missoula, Montana State, USA.

Who is this man behind the camera, this ambassador for land restoration, determined to show the world what can be done?

Early life itinerary

John Dennis Liu is a Chinese American, born in 1953 in Nashville, Tennessee. His father was Chinese, his mother American, and much of the first half of his life was spent in the United States. Looking at the pathway of his studies, it suggests a youngster not entirely sure where he was headed.

After Bloomington High School, he studied journalism at Indiana University in Bloomington, but he also studied music at the University of Vermont. Journalism won. In 1979 he went to China for the first time because of worries that his Chinese grandmother was growing old and had not met her American grandchild, now headed for the age of 30.

There were tensions between the United States and China at that time, but the situation eased and Liu not only studied the Chinese language at Beijing Language and Culture University but also set up the CBS News Bureau there in 1981.

Opening the eyes of the world

For a decade, he worked as a producer and cameraman, but then decided to leave day-to-day journalism behind and make films. Such was his talent that he was employed by many of the major European networks to produce nature documentaries, with the BBC, Italy’s RAI, the German ZDF and CBS, screening his ground-breaking work.

He wasn’t just pointing a camera—he knew his stuff, having followed yet another study path: ecology. There was a Studies Fellowship in Applied Sciences and the Built Environment in Bristol at the University of the West in England. He stayed on in the UK to study at Rothamsted Research, one of the oldest agricultural research institutions in the world, founded in 1843 by John Bennet Lawes. Here, Liu studied Function and Dysfunction in Terrestrial Ecosystems, and we see not just his interest but also his dedication.

In 1995 Liu filmed a development on the Loess Plateau in China. The government there was funding a project to transform eroded land back into a green and productive area. It was further inspiration for Liu, and in 1997 he became director of the Environmental Education Media Project. We might say that this was when his real work began, showing the world that we can indeed restore the ecosystems we have so carelessly and wantonly destroyed. His TV documentaries have informed not just China but the world about ecology and sustainable development.

If we have realised in recent decades that since the industrial revolution, humankind has destroyed so much—in particular, biodiversity—then Liu may have been the man behind the documentary that switched on the lightbulb. He has educated us to understand that climate change’s higher temperatures are creating the desertification we see in vast areas of the African and Asian continents. But he has also taken us to Jordan, Ethiopia, and China to see where there has been re-greening of such areas—winning awards, yes, but that’s not what Liu is about. This is a man on a mission.

Landscape restoration

Liu became a visiting fellow with the Faculty of Natural Sciences and the Faculty of the Built Environment at the University of the West in England from 2003 to 2006, and in 2006 he was named the Rothamsted International Fellow for the Communication of Science. He was also an associate professor at George Mason University, Fairfax County, Virginia, USA, as a part of the Centre for Climate and Society, and a senior research fellow at the International Union for Conservation of Nature with headquarters in Gland, Switzerland. 

In 2009, he began working with the Commonland Foundation, bringing together private investments to initiate large-scale land restoration around the world. Today as its Ecosystem Ambassador he is the front man who can convince governments, corporations, organisations—and us—that habitats aren’t lost, that we can continue to grow food enough for all, that clean water and sanitation, the UN’s sixth sustainable development goal, are achievable.

In 2016, Liu founded the Ecosystem Restoration Camps movement, now grown to more than 50 camps on six continents

In 2016, Liu founded the Ecosystem Restoration Camps movement, now grown to more than 50 camps on six continents. Campers work together with local communities putting restoration strategies into practice and learning, as they work, about restoration techniques that can be applied elsewhere. Liu visualises a global network of camps supporting what Commonland calls “the emergence of a fully functional, peaceful, abundant, biologically diverse earth, brought about through co-operative efforts for the ecological restoration of degraded lands”.

Of course, landscape regeneration doesn’t happen overnight. It can take a generation to restore struggling ecosystems. However, in the Baviaanskloof and Langkloof catchments in South Africa, working with the Commonland Foundation, progress has been seen in just a handful of years. New businesses have been created, agricultural and traditional goat farming practices have improved and become more sustainable, and degraded hillsides are being restored.

Initiatives in South Africa

The South African project is just one of many that Commonland has initiated around the world. Liu has helped inspire so many people to become involved in restoring lands, especially through these Restoration Camps.

Liu sees land restoration as a lifetime commitment—and knows his lifetime is not sufficient to make the restorations our common home requires.

He has written: “We are collectively facing on a planetary scale, climate change, biodiversity loss, floods, droughts, wildfires, pandemics, inequality, food insecurity, unemployment and the potential for economic collapse.“

As chair of a peace organisation, the inseparable links that he makes between the climate emergency and peace resonate strongly with me. He says,

“As we see fault lines emerging that endanger our peace, our health, our prosperity and ultimately human civilization, it is important to learn from past efforts that we have been grappling with these questions for years and decades. It is clear that the message of hope, renewal and regeneration of natural systems and human society achieved by working for the Common Good is urgently needed and greatly welcomed throughout the world.”
As Commonland Foundation’s ambassador, Liu believes the Foundation’s approach will ensure the ecological health of the Earth in ways that are fair and sustainable for people and all life.

Prof. Liu and Laudato Si’

In 2016 he said something that chimes with Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’. Liu explained, “We have to be very careful not to commoditise nature. We need to naturalise the economy. What this means to me is that natural ecological functions are more valuable than ‘stuff.’ When we understand that, then the economy is based on ecological function.”

He added: “That is exactly what we need in order to mitigate and adapt to climate change, to ensure food security, and to give every individual on the planet equal human rights. Suddenly we are in another paradigm. It’s similar to the shift from flat earth to round earth paradigm.”

Natural ecological functions are more valuable than ‘stuff.’ When we understand that, then the economy is based on ecological function

The man behind the camera shares much with Catholic Social Teaching and with Pope Francis when he urges us to stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters.

The way Liu puts it is, “We need to realise that there is no ‘us and them.’ There is just us. There is one earth and one humanity. We have to act as a species on a planetary scale because we will all be affected by climate change. We have to come together to decide: What do we know? What do we understand? What do we believe as a species?”

Liu talks of ‘the economy of love’. It’s an economy that helps to bring the water of life to damaged communities. It’s a philosophy that politicians and captains of industry need to learn.

PROFILE • FR RONALD CAIRNS OMI

Light in the Dark City

Parish priest of St Hubert, Alexandra, for forty years, Fr Cairns made a remarkable impact on the lives of so many people in the community through his commitment in favour of justice, peace and reconciliation

BY Marian Pallister | Chair of Pax Christi Scotland

THEY CALLED it “the dark city”, perhaps not the most encouraging label which was stuck firmly to the parish where Fr Ronald Cairns OMI was posted as pastor. However, in 1981 and hardly a decade into the priesthood, at just 35 years old, that was the situation in which he found himself. Appointed to the township of Alexandra on the outskirts of Johannesburg; a challenging parish at the start of what would be a hugely confrontational decade of apartheid, Fr Cairns never let the darkness obscure his mission to create a just world.

The word discrimination is defined as ‘the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of race, age, sex, or disability’.

The fact that Alexandra had no electricity supply (hence the dark city label) was an outward symbol of the harsh, deeply ingrained injustices experienced by Fr Cairns’ new parishioners. A white priest landing in such a township could have fared badly—he might even have petitioned his superiors to remove him to somewhere safer, less violent, less subject to the police harassment suffered by a black population under that cruel regime.

Prophetic voice

Instead, Fr Cairns, or as his parishioners came to know him, “Fr Ronnie”, stayed, becoming a champion in the struggle to end apartheid and subsequently a defender of all those facing the immense challenges Alexandra continues to experience. He died while still leading that flock, forty years after his appointment to St Hubert.

It is perhaps ironic that St Hubert is the patron saint of hunters. In those early years in the parish, Fr Cairns found that his parishioners were the hunted, accused of acting under the influence of outside agitators. He would speak up for them then—in court when necessary—and in the post-apartheid years, he would continue to be a voice for those suffering the socio-economic problems and the unrest that would be ever present in the township. Before the Covid pandemic hit, he was still making headlines by bringing yet again the injustices still experienced in Alexandra under public scrutiny.

They say he wouldn’t have chosen to live anywhere else.

Background

He had been raised in Randfontein, with its ‘gold rush’ past (and a far nobler background blended from history dating back to the second half of the 16th century when the AmaNdebele lived as one nation under King Mhlanga). An only child, Ronald Cairns was born on 3 October 1946 to a Scottish Presbyterian father, Hascott Cairns, and Norah, his German-born Catholic mother. Norah became the religious influence in his young life.

He was ordained on 14 January 1972 by Right Rev. Bishop Anton Reiterer MFSC (Missionary Sons of the Sacred Heart, initials in Latin), and was quickly appointed regional director of the Christian Life Group and vocations director for the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. In the ensuing years, he became the Episcopal Vicar for Aids, Dean of the Northern Deanery and Provincial of the Oblates, Northern Province. He served in a number of parishes in the diocese before that life-changing move in 1981 to Alexandra.

Out-reaching and ecumenical approach

Parishioner Maria Maoba explains that when he arrived at St Hubert, it was at the height of the political uprisings. Under such circumstances, it would have been easy to say Mass and stay put in the parish house, but Maria says that Fr Cairns went door-to-door, visiting all Catholic families in the township, those practising and lapsed. This, she says, helped to rebuild the parish. He also put out his hand to ministers of other denominations, which led to the formation of a Ministers’ Fraternal for all clergy in Alexandra.

This young white priest made his mark early by reaching out to the whole community, not just Catholics, and standing by them in the most difficult of times. By 1984, just three years into his ministry in the parish, the community had such respect for him that they asked him to intervene in what Maria Maoba describes as a war between two taxi companies.

Alexandra’s Six Day War

In 1986 Fr Cairns’ name reached a wider audience. In February of that year, Alexandra declared war on the apartheid regime—a situation that became known as Alexandra’s Six Day War. Young people died and there were mass funerals conducted by the Ministers’ Fraternal. St Hubert was at the centre of the troubles, and Fr Cairns was harassed and detained by the regime for helping young people who sought shelter from the police.

Reports of the situation were given by Michael Parks in the Los Angeles Times, who wrote of the support offered by 300 white South African protesters —certainly a newsworthy situation at that time—who defied police orders that barred them from the ‘riot-torn black township’. They were welcomed by thousands of black Alexandra residents when they arrived to lay flowers on the graves of the victims that Fr Cairns and fellow members of the Ministers’ Fraternal had laid to rest.

One of the white organisers, Morris Smithers of the Johannesburg Democratic Action Committee, said: “These fallen comrades will never live in a free South Africa, but their sacrifice has helped ensure that future generations will.” Father Cairns responded: “We do not see colour. We see each other as brothers and sisters.”

The police had been particularly violent, and were responsible for Alexandra’s death toll and very clearly did ‘see colour’, as they merely watched this intervention by the white protestors, only firing off tear gas to disperse the crowds when the buses took the campaigners home.

Forced removals

The residents of Alexandra had no history of peace to fall back on, no solid rock on which to rebuild. The kind of violent harassment that they were subjected to stretched back for decades. There had been forced removals in the 1940s, the boycotts of the Bantu Education Act in the 1950s in which Alexandra teachers lost their jobs. There were violent attempts to wipe Alexandra off the map completely, but the township was given official status as a residential area in 1982, and there was a fancy ‘master plan’ to turn the dark city into a garden city. The Six Day War in February 1986 put an end to that, with 40 people killed. The collapse of the council was followed by the setting up of street committees and peoples’ courts.

In June of that year, a national state of emergency was declared and the apartheid regime began an Urban Renewal Plan, which in effect meant demolishing dwellings in areas of unrest. Much of the Alexandra population was displaced and there were two treason trials. Fr Cairns spoke for the defence at one of them, earning himself a place in Richard Abel’s book, Politics by other means: law in the struggle against Apartheid 1980–1994 (published by Routledge). Abel records that Fr Cairns testified on behalf of community leaders.

For Alexandra, this was the norm and the1990s brought little let-up in the violence and harassment, the poor living conditions and the displacements—a norm that nonetheless produced a president, Nelson Mandela, who was at one time a resident in the township.

Maria Maoba describes the 1990s as “one of the darkest periods of our history”. She explained that for four consecutive years, most of St Hubert’s parishioners were displaced, some seeking sanctuary in the church itself. She said, “The community came to Father and requested his intervention as the police were brutally killing people in Alexandra.”

Peace and community builder

She added that in 1993, Fr Cairns was asked to lead the process of bringing peace to local political parties as many people had been killed. A peace accord was subsequently signed, thanks to Fr Ronald Cairns OMI.

Lorato Phalatse, another of this remarkable man’s parishioners, said, “Fr Cairns had a very clear approach and outlook on life based on strong and deeply ingrained moral principles. He had a clear sense of right and wrong and good and bad that was rooted in his faith. One always knew without any doubt what his position was on any issue. Furthermore, he really had the courage of his convictions and lived by them with no fear or favour.”

Remarkable for many reasons: putting community politics aside, he was still intervening in taxi wars in 2018, mediating peace and achieving the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the warring parties. This was a priest who moulded a parish and a community.

Lorato Phalatse said, “Over the 40 years that he lived at St Hubert’s, Fr Cairns built a strong congregation of believers and a parish that in all aspects of our faith could hold its head up proudly in spite of being one of the poorest communities in South Africa. He built solid institutions on the Church campus that took care of children at St Martin De Porres Crèche and the elderly at Joseph Gerard Old Age Home, and outreach programmes such as Kgolofelo ya Josef that reached out to the indigent in Alexandra with the weekly distribution of food parcels.”

He could sort out an argument, never taking sides but bringing the complainants together to sort things out. However, he was not perfect—which saint ever was? Even at his Requiem Mass there was mention of his quick temper (that red hair, that Scottish father…). His parishioners, however, stress that his volatility was softened by the fact that once his grievance was aired, he returned immediately to smiles and laughter. Perhaps he needed that steeliness to help him address the many overwhelming difficulties faced during those four decades in Alexandra.

Positive imprint

There was clearly a Cairns charisma that worked its own little miracles, from defusing the violence during apartheid to influencing the youth in his parish. Paulos Mngomezulu explained that Fr Cairns created structure in the lives of children and young people, offering them the ear that absent biological fathers denied them, as well as creating activities and groups in which they could learn to become negotiators and leaders like him. Zakhele Lengoati said, Fr Cairns “…played an incredible part in our lives at a very crucial stage in our growing process”.

This man of mission sadly passed away after unexpected health complications on 6 February 2021. Alexandra is clearly still in mourning for a man who steered them through so much. As Lorato Phalatse explained, “He continues to be sorely missed, but he left us with strong values and principles of our Catholic faith that will sustain us for the rest of our lives.”
A fitting legacy.

PROFILE • MARCUS RASHFORD

A voice for children

A world-class football player, who has known hunger as a child, has successfully led a campaign in UK to end what he calls the “child hunger pandemic”

BY Marian Pallister | Chair of Pax Christi Scotland

DEPENDING ON which set of figures you choose, the UK ranks as the fifth or sixth richest country in the world and it has a record total of 177 billionaires, according to the Sunday Times Rich List published in May 2022. Yet according to the UK government’s own figures, there were 3.9 million children living in poverty in the UK in 2020-2021. Anecdotally, that figure has risen in the past year. According to the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), that is 27% of the UK’s children, or eight children in a classroom of 30. Almost half of all lone-parent families are living in poverty, and CPAG says that children from Black and minority ethnic groups are more likely to be living in poverty: 46%, compared with 26% of children in white British families.

Between 2008/09 and 2020/21, the number of foodbank users in the United Kingdom increased every year, from just under 26 000 to more than 2.56 million. As we move into a post-pandemic period, approximately 2.17 million people are still accessing a foodbank and that is set to rise again as the worldwide food and economic crisis bites.

There are even more unofficial places where people can access free food than the recorded UK foodbanks. It isn’t just people out of work who use them: 75% of children growing up in poverty, live in a household where at least one person works, and foodbanks report that health workers and many ‘professionals’ have had to turn to charity to feed their families.

During the pandemic there were government measures to keep people in jobs—but 2.5 million children experienced food insecurity between February and July 2021, and one million children in the UK living in poverty were not eligible for free school meals.

Challenging the government

That is when a remarkable young man stepped in and challenged the UK government. He is asking that not only would children living in poverty receive school meals during term time, but that during the school holidays—a particularly trying time for families facing economic difficulties because of the extra mouths to feed, the extra childcare costs—free school meals would be available.

That young man is Marcus Rashford, Manchester United and England footballer, who said: “We must act with urgency to stabilise the households of our vulnerable children. No child in the UK should be going to bed hungry. Whatever your feeling, opinion, or judgement, food poverty is never the child’s fault. Let us protect our young. Let us wrap arms around each other and stand together to say that this is unacceptable, that we are united in protecting our children. Together we can end this problem.”

The government’s first efforts to provide meals during the school holidays were frankly pathetic, and pictures of inadequate provisions dominated the headlines in the summer of 2020.

Marcus Rashford persisted. The publicity his campaign generated meant the UK public backed his demands (always made eloquently and with the greatest politeness), and the government had to up its game. In September 2020, just a month short of his 23rd birthday, Marcus formed the Child Food Poverty Task Force, a coalition of charities and food businesses calling on government to implement three recommendations from the National Food Strategy. In October 2020, he launched a parliamentary petition to end child food poverty, which over 1.1 million people signed.

The government reacted positively to two of the National Food Strategy recommendations, extending a holiday activity and food programme to all areas of England, to all children who qualified for free school meals (Scotland and Wales have their own more generous provision), and increasing the value of vouchers labelled ‘Healthy Start’. It refused, however, to expand free school meals to all under-16s whose parent or guardian received a particular state benefit.

“Whatever your feeling, opinion, or judgement, food poverty is never the child’s fault. Let us protect our young”

You would have thought that was enough effort by a young man busy reaching the heights of his footballing career. But Marcus Rashford was not planning to let go of this campaign. In September 2021, he was telling the nation that child food poverty was getting “devastatingly” worse. He asked the public to write to their members of parliament seeking to end what he called a “child hunger pandemic”.
Perhaps the government thought he would call it a day when they “rewarded” him with an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire medal). Perhaps they were forgetting that he knew far more than all the well-off, well-paid members of parliament what a “child hunger pandemic” meant to the children he was campaigning for.

An inspiration for many youngsters

His was not just rhetoric. Marcus Rashford and his siblings had endured all that he was now placing before the UK public and its government. He had known hunger as a child. He had seen his mother struggle to feed her family, working at several jobs yet never earning what could put enough food on the table. He was not doing this for a medal. He was doing it for every child suffering as he had done.

Marcus was born in Wythenshawe, a town near the English city of Manchester, on 31 October 1997 to Robert and Melanie Rashford. He has two brothers, Dwaine and Dane, and two sisters—Chantelle and Claire. There is a half-sister, Tamara, through his father, who left Melanie when the children were very young.
Marcus’s football skills did not take long to emerge. At the age of five, he was playing for Fletcher Moss Rangers, a little local amateur junior club. By the age of seven, he had joined the world-renowned Manchester United pre-academy programme, followed by the club’s academy programme. He has paid tribute to his mother, Melanie, for pushing to have him accepted into the academy a year early to help him escape growing up in their low-income family.

He explained, “The programme that I started at 11 years old, you’re supposed to start it at 12 years old. It basically gives you accommodation closer to the training facilities and a new school. She worked hard to push it forward, because she knew that for me it was the step I needed to take. I needed to be eating the right foods and I needed to be close to my teammates and my new school friends.”

When his campaign for today’s poor children began to succeed, he took no credit, saying it was his Mum’s day. He remembers going hungry as a child, but stresses it was through no fault of his family.

The Manchester United Academy supported Marcus in his studies for a Business and Technology Education Council National Diploma in Sport as well as turning him into a world-class player. He was still playing with the Manchester United under-18s when he was asked to join the first team. But cataloguing his subsequent football career belongs elsewhere, because this is a young man who has not been in the headlines solely because of his successes on the field, nor for the money he’s earned, nor for glamorous girlfriends—the stuff of most footballing heroes.

He has inspired many youngsters to step into his football boots also because of his plain-speaking advice to work and train hard

He has no doubt inspired many youngsters to step into his football boots, not only because of his successes but also because of his plain-speaking advice to work hard and train hard. He surely inspired many who have never watched a game of football when he said, “Political affiliations aside, can we not all agree that no child should be going to bed hungry?” and, “These children matter—and as long as they don’t have a voice, they will have mine.”

So many children facing the realities of being Black, from a one-parent family, and poor, find themselves in trouble rather than receiving a medal from Prince William. What were the influences that directed Marcus Rashford to become an activist and philanthropist? He has put his money where his mouth is, investing his own money in the projects he supports.

Openly speaking of his faith in God

Asked to speak to members of the UK parliament, he encapsulated the Rashford childhood: “The man you see before you is a product of her [his mother’s] love and care. I have friends who are from middle-class backgrounds who have never experienced a small percentage of the love I have gotten from my mum: a single parent who would sacrifice everything she had for our happiness.”

It is not easy to admit to a poverty-stricken childhood, but Marcus has spoken lovingly and proudly of his mother working at a number of jobs, skipping meals so that the children had food.

“These children matter, and as long as they don’t have a voice, they will have mine”

It is not easy to talk about the racist abuse that he and other black players regularly experience, but Marcus refuses to be riled by it. Last year after particularly offensive insults, he responded, “The communities that always wrapped their arms around me continue to hold me up. I am Marcus Rashford, 23-year-old black man from Withington and Wythenshawe, South Manchester. If I have nothing else, I have that.”

Unlike many young people in the public eye, he isn’t afraid to speak of his faith. That he is “definitely religious” comes, he says, from his mother. “The faith we have in God is shown by the people that we are,” he adds, “For me and my family, that’s definitely the case—if you could see our lives 15–20 years ago to where we are now, it’s impossible not to have faith in God and all He does for us.”

He also knows how to grab the public imagination—even if he has had to work a lot harder to convince the UK government.

He said, “You can fill 27 Wembley stadiums with the 2.5 million children that are struggling to know where their next meal might be coming from today. What is it going to take for these children to be prioritised? Instead of removing support through social security, we should be focusing efforts on developing a sustainable long-term road map out of this child hunger pandemic.”

In March 2022, his child poverty campaign won a victory when the UK government announced it would permanently allow children from families with no recourse to public funds access to free school meals.

Another step forward

Little wonder he got that medal. Little wonder Manchester University gave him an honorary doctorate. Whatever his footballing career brings, this young man—who has now made sure food is on the table for so many children—will surely be heard in the public arena for many years to come: a voice for children.

PROFILE • POPE FRANCIS

The Church Searches For New Rhythms

Pope Francis has invited the Church to engage herself in an exercise of mutual listening through a two-year long Synod on synodality—but who is the man behind this bold initiative?

BY Marian Pallister | Chair of Pax Christi Scotland

IN THE same way that we find it difficult to imagine the young lives of our parents and grandparents—did they really have those cool hairstyles, ride pillion on a stranger’s motorbike, bravely take part in that protest? The previous lives led by the incumbents of the Vatican can seem totally disconnected from the men we see in the papal role.

Who knew, for instance, that Pope Francis danced a mean tango back in the day? That shouldn’t come as too great a surprise. An Argentinian who can tango is a man who can reach out to the marginalised, the ‘other’ in society; a man who can not only hear the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth, but a man who feels those cries in his heart of hearts.

Tango

So before we explore the man, we should perhaps delve into the dance. A dance that still has the power to shock, but has a history that is much more than the sexy moves we see on TV dance competitions—South African professional dancer Oti Mabuse has won the UK Strictly Come Dancing glitter ball several times after some spectacular tango performances with celebrities.

The dance was first named—and banned—in Argentina in 1789, when it was danced by slaves and free working class people living in the port areas of Buenos Aires, the word perhaps coming to South America with slaves shipped from Nigeria. By the early 20th century, however, the music and moves of the tango stirred the emotions of thousands of young immigrant men who arrived in Argentina looking for a future denied them in a failing Europe.

Son of migrants

Indeed, Pope Francis’s father, Mario José Bergoglio, was one of those young men—an Italian from Portacomaro in the Province of Asti. He was just 20 years old when his family emigrated from Italy in 1929, not for economic reasons but to escape Benito Mussolini’s fascist regime. There is no evidence that Mario José wooed the young Regina Sivori (an Argentinian of northern Italian background) with emotive tango moves, but he won her heart and together the young accountant and his wife had five children. The eldest was Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the future Pope Francis.

The journey to the Vatican from Flores, a suburb of Buenos Aires, where he was born on 17 December 1936, was one that saw him sweep floors, work as a bouncer and as a chemical technician—and dance the tango to the traditional Argentinian and Uruguayan music that he still enjoys. On that journey, he has mingled with people from every walk of life. He experienced the joys and sadness that we all feel; the difficulties and successes that come into every life. He fell in love and had to argue with his spiritual self over whether to continue his studies to become a priest. Despite taking vows as a Jesuit, he didn’t see eye-to-eye with them over the trend of the Society of Jesus towards an emphasis on social justice rather than his own stress on religiosity and pastoral work—perhaps one of the most surprising aspects of his younger life when we see the man he has become.

Listening ear

A man with these experiences, however, is a man we can well imagine would want to question how people perceive the Catholic Church today and where they hope it is going. A man who understands that it isn’t only cardinals, bishops, and priests who ‘know’ the Church and have its interests (their own interests?) at heart, but that everyone must be offered this experience of synodality as we walk with our Church through this difficult century—from the migrant washed up on a foreign shore to the Papal Nuncio, from the divorcee alienated from her Church to the members of canonical tribunals, from the parishioner ‘nostalgic’ for a Latin Mass that disappeared before she was born to the liberation theologian seeking a Church that hears those cries of the earth and of the poor.

His life story is well documented—this Jorge Mario Bergoglio who chose to become ‘Francis’ because of his affinity with the saint who gave his life to the poor, who heard their cry and the cry of the earth.

Early age

Young Jorge attended a Salesian-run school, Wilfrid Barón de los Santos Ángeles, in a province of Buenos Aires. He went on to a technical secondary school and graduated with a chemical technician’s diploma. It was during his student days that he worked as a janitor, and as a bouncer in a local bar. Having graduated, he was employed for the next few years in the food section of Hickethier-Bachmann Laboratory.

An Argentinian who can tango is a man who can reach out to the marginalised, the ‘other’ in the society

It wasn’t all plain sailing. At the age of 21, he developed pneumonia and with his young life in the balance, doctors removed part of a lung. Like any young man, once recovered, he was back enjoying movies, football (he has supported San Lorenzo all his days), and yes, dancing the tango.

Then happened that he felt that call to the priesthood and studied at the Archdiocesan seminary, before entering the Society of Jesus as a novice in 1958. His calling was challenged when he was attracted to a young woman, but having worked through that challenge, he went on to study in Chile before taking his vows as a Jesuit in March 1960.

Teacher and psychologist

That same year, he gained a qualification to teach philosophy, and he went on to teach literature and psychology at Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepcion High School in Santa Fe. In 1966, he went to Buenos Aires to teach the same course at the Colegio del Salvador.

On that journey, he has mingled with people from every walk of life

That he taught psychology comes as no surprise. The way he deals with today’s world—with politicians, migrants, children, with people from every faith, every ethnicity—is daily evidence of someone who has studied the human mind and knows how to respond in so many different situations. Who couldn’t be moved by the social media clip of the little boy interrupting Pope Francis speaking in the Vatican audience hall? Pope Francis told officials to let the child play, and after talking to his mother, told his audience, “That boy cannot speak. He is mute, but he knows how to communicate, how to express himself. He has something that makes me think. He is free.” Adding with a chuckle that evoked laughter from the audience, “Indisciplined-ly free!” He then used the incident to remind the audience that Jesus tells us to be more like children, saying that he asks himself if he is as free with God. Good pastoral response—good psychology all round.

The priest

It was in 1969 that Jorge Bergoglio was ordained and he continued his training at the University of Alcala de Henares in Spain, making his final profession with the Jesuits in 1973. He returned to Argentina, was novice master at Barilari, San Miguel, then professor at the Faculty of Theology of San Miguel, and Rector of the Colegio Maximo of the Faculty of Philosophy and Theology. Then from 1973 to 1979 he was Provincial of the Jesuits in Argentina. He went back to working in the university in 1980, as well as serving as a parish priest in San Miguel. His superiors clearly saw promise in this man, after he had advanced his theological studies in Germany, he was asked to teach at the Colegio del Salvador in Buenos Aires, then to be spiritual director and confessor at the Jesuit Church in Cordoba. He became Bishop of Auca and Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires in May 1992, and along the way he penned three books—Meditaciones para religiosos (Meditations for Religious, 1982), Reflexiones sobre la vida apostólica (Reflections on the Apostolic Life, 1992), and Reflexiones de esperanza (Reflections of Hope, 1992).

Archbishop and cardinal

By 1998 he was Archbishop, Primate of Argentina, and in 2001, Pope John Paul II created him Cardinal. Here we get a real flavour of the man he was becoming. He had to go to Rome to celebrate this new position, but he asked the faithful in Argentina not to travel with him but instead to donate the cost of an airfare to the poor.

This trajectory of elevation did not change his way of life. That decision not to live in papal splendour in Rome continued a lifetime’s lifestyle.  He had continued to live an ascetic life despite his archbishop’s mitre and cardinal’s red hat, declining various appointments that would perhaps require a different approach. However, he was elected as President of the Argentine Bishops’ Conference in 2005 and again in 2008. Then, in 2013, he was elected Supreme Pontiff.

What we have seen in the years since then seems rooted in his time as Archbishop of the immense diocese of Buenos Aires—a diocese with over three million inhabitants in which the majority of the population has European origins; a sophisticated diocese boasting a city known as the Paris of South America yet capital of a country in which four out of ten people live below the poverty line.

And so, throughout his life, Jorge Bergoglio—son of an immigrant, nightclub bouncer, chemical technician, priest, professor, Archbishop and Cardinal— was exposed to the plight of the migrant, the cry of the poor, the melting pot that his city offered to so many different ethnic and religious backgrounds. A missionary project he initiated during his time as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, which sought to establish open and brotherly communities, emphasised that we are all brothers and sisters—the origins of Fratelli Tutti? That same project put the laity in a leading role, and the intention was to reach out to every one of those three million inhabitants—genesis of the synodality process we are now experiencing? The solidarity he urges us to adopt now that he is Pope Francis surely is rooted in a campaign he launched to commemorate the bicentenary of Argentina’s independence.

Pope of simplicity and fraternity

Pope Francis continues his simple lifestyle, condemns war (having lived through conflict in 1970s Argentina), understands migration, welcomes refugees. He offers the laity a bigger say in our Church—recognising that we are the Church. He’s the Pope who took a taxi to a Rome record store, caught out by a vigilant photographer at the taxi rank. The record store owners say he likes Beethoven, Mozart and Bach—and tango!

PROFILE • YACOUBA SAWADOGO

Transforming the Sahel into a food garden

Through his innovative farming methods, a man with no formal education has brought hope to the people whose lives were threatened by desertification and soil degradation

BY Marian Pallister | Chair of Pax Christi Scotland

BURKINA FASO is a country that does not have to seek its problems. It is small, landlocked, and with neighbours whose news headlines are frequently alarming: Niger and Mali under attack from terrorists; Benin, considered among the West African coastal countries most vulnerable to a spill-over of Islamist violence from other landlocked Sahel countries; Togo increasing its military spending in the face of encroaching terrorism; Ghana attempting to deal with corruption; and ivory Coast, the world’s top cocoa producer, facing the impact of climate change on its most important crop.

Indeed, Burkina Faso is just another kid on the block in that troubled corner of the African continent, experiencing all of the above and starting 2022 with a military coup, carried out on the grounds that the President had not contained the growing Islamist threat. Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Damiba, who led that January take-over, said in his first speech that security was the country’s first priority.

Of course, safety and peace must be the priority for countries worldwide, especially where terrorist threats exist. Leaders in any of those Sahel belt states, where desertification has for decades imposed soil degradation and increasingly frequent droughts, would have to place food security as a very close-run second on their list of priorities.

Surprisingly, on that front, Burkina Faso is blessed. It is home to one of the world’s foremost pioneers in reversing the effects of the climate emergency, a man whose methods for achieving food security have won acclaim in the United Nations’ corridors of power, and attracted eminent scientists from Europe and the United States.

A community brought back home

Yacouba Sawadogo has been described as “impressive and “inspiring” by Jim French, an agricultural advisor to Oxfam America; during Barak Obama’s presidency in the US, Sawadogo’s work was highly acclaimed by members of the Global Food Security operation.

His philosophy is that food insecurity must be addressed not only because of its immediate effects—a population facing hunger and possible starvation— but also because it causes tensions, civil unrest, and migration. The knock-on effects on future generations are immense, he suggests, because children cannot go to school if there is no food.

An eminent professor of environmental studies? A scientist specialising in sustainable agriculture? No—this is a man with no formal education, a man who wears that damning badge ‘illiterate’—a word that suggests not only a lack of education but is used as a cruel slur implying a lack of intelligence. Yacouba Sawadogo, however, oozes intelligence, know-how, imagination and foresight. His farming methods have greened part of the encroaching desert, brought a community back home to successfully grow crops—not only to feed their families but also to sell—and he has effectively disseminated his ideas to environmental leaders around the world.

A UN report has shown that desertification and land degradation cost the world US$490 billion a year. No one knows better than Sawadogo that the repercussions are severe and wide-ranging, risking sustenance for at least a billion people across over 100 countries. He has seen first-hand the effects of long-term drought and that insidious creep of the Sahel.

Sahel, from the Arabic word Sāhil, is the semi-arid region stretching from Senegal east to Sudan, creating a transitional zone between the arid Sahara to the north and the belt of humid savannahs to the south. Traditionally in Burkina Faso, at least eight months of the year were dry, and rains came in June, July and August, averaging four to eight inches. Millet and groundnuts have been the main crops. Climate change has made those eight dry months dryer and longer, encroaching on the so-called rainy season. Lack of rains and flash floods have become the norms in many parts of Africa and the world but in Burkina Faso that lack has been especially hard.

Improving traditional methods

That was until Yacouba Sawadogo put a traditional method of growing back into practice, adding some ideas of his own to the mix. As he says now, “If you practice zaï, you can eat.” Convincing people back at the beginning was never easy, however. He was not only told that he was crazy, there were extremists who felt that tampering with zaï, by adding to the method, and using it at times of the year not designated by tradition, was almost a sacrilege and they used violence to stop him.

When he was a child, however, there had been a prophecy that he would succeed—and succeed he has. The boy who was bullied at Koranic school because he was the smallest in the class has become The man who stopped the desert—the name of a documentary that charts his success.

His innovation was to make the holes bigger and deeper, surround them with low walls, and add manure

Sawadogo was born in the small village of Gourga, son of a farmer. Sent away as a seven-year-old to a Koranic school in neighbouring Mali, he spent the next few years as a lonely little boy doing hard physical labour and attempting to learn the Koran. When he went home to Burkina Faso, this picked-on child still could not read, but before he left Mali the Sheik had called for him and told him, “One day you will be a leader of men.” Desperate to get home, where he would surely get the square meal his bullying fellow pupils had deprived him of for all those years, he carried those words of the Sheik in his heart.

He confesses that his family were “sad that I hadn’t learned much”, but they saw him in a different light when he opened up a market stall in the village that was a great success. “I got a new motorbike every six months,” he remembers. “I earned a lot of money.” If a new bike every six months makes him sound like a bit of a madcap, well, perhaps—but he added that he knew this wouldn’t last and so he was putting money aside for the future. In the 1970s and 1980s, the rains became so infrequent that 75% of the people left Gourga and the neighbouring villages. Sawadogo stayed, remembering what the Sheik in Mali had told him, and feeling that his time had perhaps come.

He of course knew the tradition of zaï. This method of farming used in Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali to restore lands subject to desertification involves digging pits about 20–30 cm long and deep and 90 cm apart in order to catch the water and concentrate compost. His innovation was to make the holes bigger and deeper, surround them with low walls, and add manure—and to do this ahead of the rains. Sawadogo understood this would provide plant nutrients, and that the manure would attract termites, whose tunnels would break up the soil even more. When the rains did come, this created ideal conditions not only for growing the traditional crops of sorghum and millet but even for growing trees. Of course, the root systems of trees further break down the soil, and reaching deep, they bring up valuable water to the surface.

Crops increased by up to 500%. A small forest grew but rather than being lauded as the hero, Sawadogo found himself the target of more bullying, this time by adults. Adults who believed that traditions should be kept pure; that to dig the zaï in the dry season was wrong; that to take manure into the bush at the “wrong” times should not be allowed.

Overcoming resistance

Hoping to spread the word about the success of his adaptation of zaï, Yacouba Sawadogo dressed in his best and headed for the Northern Province’s regional capital, Ouahigouya, where he told the new governor all about these innovative methods and their positive results. The fields he had treated were full of crops and his little forest had become dense since he began the experiments. His appointment with the governor was at eleven o’clock in the morning, and at that very hour, billowing smoke could be seen on the horizon in the direction of his home. Those who objected to his tampering with tradition had set fire to his crops and forest while he was away. He recalls the feeling of devastation when he learned that the fire he could see from the city was the destruction of his ten acres of crops and newly planted trees.

It says much about the man that rather than being defeated by this act of aggression, he instead decided to expand his project, working even harder to make it succeed.

Crops increased by up to 500%

Gradually, as others saw what his variations on zaï could produce, resistance lessened, enthusiasm grew, and in time, farmers began to come from elsewhere in Burkina Faso and beyond to learn from him. He was only too happy to share his ideas and to give advice. Between 1975 and 1985, so many left his village because of land degradation. Seeing how he survived that and subsequent droughts has given a lifeline to thousands of families, and Yacouba Sawadogo himself (now in his seventies) sells top quality seeds so that others can match his success using his version of zaï.

It was when scientists and agriculturists from abroad saw what Sawadogo was achieving that things really took off. Oxfam America funded the project. Chris Reij, a Sustainable Land Management specialist and Senior Fellow of the World Resources Institute in Washington, active in its Global Restoration Initiative, is a massive fan of Sawadogo’s work.

Reij says, “He is such a good farmer. He doesn’t read or write. If he had been to school he would have been a professor. Researchers have all been impressed by what they saw. None had been able to design such a package as Yacouba.”
Which is why Sawadogo was invited to Washington DC, to the UN HQ and why he is the recipient of international accolades such as the 2018 Right Livelihood Award and 2020 Champions of the Earth Award.

There have been new threats from city expansion, but his philosophy is that “Injustice turns a man nasty. Goodness touches everyone.” He is determined to continue increasing the level of biodiversity on his land and to bring food security to his country and beyond. Who needs a string of degrees when such innate wisdom can achieve so much?

PROFILE • excellence

Educate the Future Generation to be Co-Creators

Brother Peter Mokaya Tabichi, a Kenyan Franciscan friar, has turned around the lives of the pupils and the school itself through innovative teaching. This is the achievement of the recipient of the 2019 Global Teacher Prize

BY Marian Pallister | Chair of Pax Christi, Scotland

IF WE had not realised it before the COVID pandemic, the challenges of the past two years have thrown into sharp relief the disparity in the education experience offered to children from different backgrounds. Facilities, resources, the quality of teaching—the rule of thumb is that the poorer the area, the poorer these will be, all exacerbated by the pandemic.

A United Nations (UN) policy briefing on education during the pandemic and beyond says: “The COVID-19 pandemic has created the largest disruption of education systems in history, affecting nearly 1.6 billion learners in more than 190 countries and all continents.”

It adds that as the financial strains of the pandemic increase and overseas aid programmes are cut, financing education could become even worse and the gap could grow wider between rich and poor. To bridge the gap that existed pre-pandemic and has grown wider, the UN hopes that some of the innovations used to support education and training during the COVID crisis will be taken forward to deliver quality education to all in the future, leaving no one behind.

Innovative teaching

That policy briefing says, “We have also been reminded of the essential role of teachers”, and there is no denying that excellent teachers can be found inspiring children in the poorest of schools. That was affirmed when the Nobel Prize for teaching—the Global Teacher Prize—went in 2019 to Peter Mokaya Tabichi. Br Peter is a Franciscan friar who teaches science and maths at Keriko Mixed Day Secondary School in Pwani Village, in Kenya’s Nakuru County. Before and during the pandemic, Br Peter has been employing the kind of innovative teaching that must surely meet those hopes of the UN officials.

New African magazine nominated Tabichi as one of the top 100 most influential Africans in 2019. If they revisit what he is doing now, they might place him at the very top of the list.

Yet if you met this man on his way to school, riding a motorbike that has seen much better days, you wouldn’t easily place him on a podium in the United Arab Emirates impressing an international audience as he received his Global Teacher Prize. You would not imagine him making an impression in the US State House or at the UN in New York. Yet he has been there and done that and continues to be influential despite the challenges of the pandemic.

Talking with this gentle, thoughtful Franciscan, it is much easier to envisage him in the classroom, or working together with children and parents in the inspirational clubs he has initiated. These are the backdrop to pupils achieving their own moment in the spotlight, featuring in local media and even on YouTube. This is a man who has guided his pupils’ families throughout the pandemic—advising them on everything from how to engage with their children during lockdown to how to grow food in a sustainable way that will support them even during the third drought in a row. All this and he is still to reach his 40th birthday.

Overcoming challenges

Peter Mokaya Tabichi was born in Nyamira County in Kenya—known in 1982, the year of his birth, as Nyanza Province. It is an area to the east of where he now teaches science and mathematics, and is a more prosperous countryside where bananas and tea are grown. His father, uncles and cousins were teachers and he willingly followed in their footsteps, his faith leading him to take Holy Orders because he wanted to care for others.

Prioritise education and give it the support it requires

He first taught in a well-off private school. His beliefs guided him instead to Keriko—a school that had so little that many in the ‘developed’ world might have wondered if this could be a school at all. A school, however, that would be recognised by pupils, parents and teachers throughout Africa as the norm. There he found children who could not concentrate on lessons because they were hungry, their families unable to afford breakfast. Around 95% of pupils are living in poverty and some 30% either are orphans or from one-parent families. Some walk 7 km to school on difficult tracks.

These challenges will be familiar to teachers throughout Africa and many parts of the world. How to address those challenges is another matter entirely, but Br Peter has turned around the lives of the pupils and the school itself. He says that today, despite the pandemic, the fortunes of the Keriko School and the private school where he previously taught have been reversed.

How? No miracles have happened—indeed, the pandemic has made the families’ financial situation worse. He admits, “The parents are struggling to pay school fees, so sometimes there is low attendance.”

A Kenyan government vaccination programme has helped, but the teaching team at Keriko have found more girls staying at home, early marriages taking place, and teenage pregnancies halting girls’ school careers. A factor that teachers in all countries may recognise after lockdown is that there has been “a level of indiscipline we haven’t seen before”. He added, “When children came back after lockdown it was like they wanted freedom, so it’s hard for us to give them support—but as educators that is our role, to be creative and supportive.”

Supporter of gender equity

“Creative’ could be Br Peter’s middle name. Before the pandemic, he had set up the Talent Nurturing Club, a science club and a peace club. In 2018, Keriko equalled the best schools in the country at the Kenya Science and Engineering Fair, with his students showcasing a device they had invented to help blind people measure objects. In 2019, the Mathematical Science team qualified for the INTEL International Science and Engineering Fair in Arizona, USA. There was also an award from the Royal Society of Chemistry for an electricity-generating project using local plant life. A girl who worked on that is now in America doing a science degree—and getting top grades. If only we all had a Br Peter teaching us science!

Some of these projects were halted during the pandemic, but Br Peter says lockdown came with a positive side in that the teaching team “took the initiative on how to approach the challenges. We had to reach out to them. We made some milestones.”

I believe that once they see that you believe in them, that you recognise their gifts, they work hard, working towards achieving their goal

It took some pushing to get Br Peter to admit that the prize money he received for the Global Teacher Award has financed many of the changes and innovations at the school. He certainly is very reluctant to say that 80% of his salary goes to the school and the community. It is always “We” not “I”, and so during the school closures “We took the initiative to give them low cost phones.” His excuse for using his own money is that arrangements had to be made quickly—and it comes as no surprise when he says, “When I won the award it was a chance to give back to the community.”

The phones were given to about 30 pupils, Internet connections were renewed every week, and lessons were able to continue. It has to be said that in some wealthier nations, provision of IT to help children during lockdown was not given so rapidly or with such immediate success.

Local media interviewed the young woman now studying in the US at the time of that experiment to make renewable energy and there is a video of that excited schoolgirl, so proud of her achievement. Br Peter says:
“Giving children that feeling of self-worth, whatever their intellectual capacity, is very important—you have to promote their self-confidence and raise their self-esteem to unlock their potential. I believe that once they see that you believe in them, that you recognise their gifts, they work hard, working towards achieving their goal.”

This is perhaps the most important key to teaching success that Br Peter offers—enabling children to believe in themselves. He says that the children who attend Keriko Mixed Day Secondary School come from very humble backgrounds and have very low academic entry marks. But he insists, “Every child has something they can do and shine at. They only need someone to believe in them.” That ‘something’ might be science, drama, poetry or any area of attainment.

He is also a great supporter of gender equity, despite local culture, saying, “I was very pleased to see that girls, once given the right support, can outclass the boys. They go above and beyond expectations.”

A caring heart

The quiet enthusiasm that Br Peter exudes is inspirational in itself. There are, however, those teachers, badly paid and over-stretched, who lack facilities and have any enthusiasm beaten out of them by the system. How can they imbue their pupils with self-confidence and belief?

Br Peter suggests, “It is our duty to do it. All of us are created for a reason. We are doing this to give a service.” His smile broadens. “A blessing.”

He warns, “If you are only guided by rewards, they may not happen and you will end up disappointed. I have a principle that the only one who sees what you are doing is God and if you do what you should, then God will bless you. The workload—it is a lot. The most important thing is it is a vocation, a calling, like being a religious. Then things will come. We should ask ourselves ‘Why are we doing what we are doing?’ Once we have the right vision, that will guide us.”

He believes in getting out of his comfort zone and facing and addressing challenges, achieving solutions with teamwork. Above all, he says, “You have to have that caring heart.”
At the time Br Peter received his 2019 award, he talked with world leaders. After the challenges of the past two years, what would he say to them now— what would he ask that they do for our children’s future?

Challenges can only be addressed if we educate the future generation to be co-creators, to be happy, and to make others happy. Then the world will be a peaceful place

There was no pause for thought. “Prioritise education and give it the support it requires,” he said. For Africa and other developing areas of the world, that support needs depth.

Education, he stressed, is not just about access, not just about Newton’s theory and trigonometry. It must be holistic and grounded in faith. Children must learn to be compassionate and caring, seeing themselves as part of the larger community.

He said, “If they are given support you will see them also become leaders able to deal with the challenges—so many challenges, such as the pandemic, climate change, increasing populations. These can only be addressed if we educate the future generation to be co-creators, to be happy, and to make others happy. Then you will see them shining like stars—and the world will be a peaceful place.”

PROFILE • BARTHOLOMEW, THE GREEN PATRIARCH

A PIONEER IN THE CARE FOR CREATION

In his long-serving ministry, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has unreservedly committed himself to the protection of the environment and the cause of peace, justice and unity among all peoples, ceaselessly calling for effective solutions to the climate emergency

BY MARIAN PALLISTER | CHAIR OF PAX CHRISTI, SCOTLAND

INTERGENERATIONAL INJUSTICE. It’s a phrase we will hear more of in reaction to studies such as the one entitled, Intergenerational inequities in exposure to climate extremes by Wim Thiery, among a large number of international scientists, published in the journal, Science in September 2021. According to it, children born in 2020 will endure, in their lifetime, an average of 30 extreme heat waves—seven times more than someone born in 1960—, twice as many droughts and wildfires, and three times more river floods and crop failures than someone who is 60 years old today. They will experience all this even if countries fulfill their current pledges to cut future carbon emissions. Intergenerational injustice indeed. The study also affirms that only those under 40 years old today will live to see the consequences of the choices made on emission cuts. Those who are older will have died before the impacts of those choices become apparent in the world.

Vision for the future

There’s a proverb that says ‘A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit.’ Some attribute it to the Ancient Greeks and has certainly been much quoted and adapted by everyone from Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore to a plethora of 21st-century social media philosophers. This seems an apt response to the disturbing summary of what our choices in reaction to the climate emergency must be.

The proverb—and the study—certainly would be well understood by His Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the 81-year-old spiritual leader of the world’s 300 million Orthodox Christians, known worldwide as The Green Patriarch.

In harmony with Pope Francis, whose Laudato Si’ document has become a road map for the ecological changes needed to conserve our common home, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew said: “The world is not ours to use for our own convenience. It is God’s gift of love to us, and we must return His love by protecting it and all that is in it.”

Protection of the common good, of the integrity of the natural environment, is the common responsibility of all the inhabitants of the earth.

To be very blunt, neither the Pope nor the Patriarch will live to see the benefits of the ecological campaigns they have initiated. Their faith tells them that we must act now if we are to halt intergenerational injustice, cutting emissions that will lead to the climate extremes that already affect livelihoods, food security, and peace itself.

Published in 2011, and edited by John Chryssavgis, the third volume of Patriarch Bartholomew’s writings, On Earth as in Heaven: ecological vision and initiatives of Orthodox Christianity and contemporary thought is an engaging vehicle that brings together his statements on environmental degradation, global warming, and climate change. It is surely worth emphasising that date—published in 2011. These were not new writings, but those covering the first two decades of his ministry. Too many have taken too long to catch up.

Prophet of ecological conversion

In May 2011, the Green Patriarch, wearing his ‘ecumenical’ hat, asked Churches to reflect on God’s love for the world, saying of weapons of mass destruction and of the climate crisis:

“Our present situation is in at least two ways quite unprecedented. Never before has it been possible for one group of human beings to eradicate so many people simultaneously, nor has humanity been in a position to destroy so much of the planet environmentally. We are faced with radically new circumstances, which demand of us an equally radical commitment to peace”.

This is a religious leader who is certainly no Johnny-come-lately to the issue of climate crisis. He has not jumped on the bandwagon as it trundles towards COP26, the conference seen to be the Last Chance Saloon for making changes that could save our common home. He has been talking and writing about this crisis for a very long time, and so is internationally recognised for his vigorous leadership on environmental issues. Moreover, he has not confined himself to theological arguments, but has raised the ethical aspects of the way the crisis must be addressed and offered practical solutions.

Of course, some people have been listening. In 2002, he received the Sophie Prize for his work on the environment, and in April 2008, he was included on the Time magazine list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Perhaps just not the right people have opened their ears. Those who exploit the planet and kid themselves, and the rest of us, that carbon off-setting schemes are ethical and effective, are still incredibly reluctant to take on board the realities presented by the scientists, the Green Patriarch, and Pope Francis.

Since the Patriarch was unable to attend the talks leading to the Paris Agreement during the COP21 in December 2015, his ecumenical prayer for the preservation of creation was read in Notre Dame Cathedral by his eminence, Metropolitan Emmanuel of France. The Paris Agreement was adopted by 196 Parties (President Donald Trump would later withdraw the US signature).

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, emphasising not only his agreement with Pope Francis on the issue of climate change, stressed that his words, were not just for the political leaders gathered in the French capital, but offered as “an essential spiritual commitment”. He said: “the way we treat nature and the biodiversity of creation is directly related to the way we treat our neighbour.”

If the situation was dire in 2015, it would become even more catastrophic in the next six years that bring us to this year’s COP26. With truly prophetic words, he reminded his audience the need to address the reality that: “…creation is a gift that was given to us freely and we will be held accountable, not only to the future generations but also to the Creator God who placed it in our hands. The future of humanity will remain uncertain for as long as we are collectively unable to choose the common good”. He added: “The multiple crises affecting the world today act like the distorting prism of our own irresponsibility. Environment is a whole that goes beyond the safeguarding of wildlife and flora. It is also a question of justice, solidarity, fraternity, the constituent element of a humanism that needs to be rediscovered. As the prophet Micah wrote:

‘…what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6: 8)’.”

Such powerful words—words to be expected from this man who ascended to the Ecumenical throne in November 1991 and immediately proceeded to work on his vision for a spiritual revival, Orthodox unity, Christian reconciliation, interfaith tolerance and co-existence, protection of the environment and a world united in peace, justice, solidarity and love.

Tolerance from Asia Minor

Coming from Turkey—that country on the edge between East and West—he perhaps was imbued with that spirit of tolerance, that desire for reconciliation, from his earliest years. Born on 29 February 1940 on the Aegean Island of Imvros, he was christened Demetrios by his parents, Christos and Meropi Archontonis. Is it too fanciful to imagine that he was exposed to philosophical debate from an early age in his father’s barber and coffee shop environment—those spaces where men put the world to rights?

He studied in Imvros and Istanbul, then graduated with honours from the Theological School of Halki in 1961. He was ordained to the Holy Diaconate that same year at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Imvros and given the name Bartholomew. However, for the next two years he was obliged to fulfil his military obligation in the Turkish army reserve.

He received his doctorate in Canon Law in 1968 from the Pontifical Oriental Institute of the Gregorian University in Rome before studying at the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey in Switzerland, and at the University of Munich, where he specialised in ecclesiastical law. Perhaps with this background, it isn’t surprising that Patriarch Bartholomew is fluent in Greek, English, Turkish, Italian, Latin, French and German.

When he returned to Constantinople in 1968, he was appointed assistant dean of the Sacred Theological School of Halki and the following year was ordained to the Holy Priesthood. Six months later, he was elevated to the office of Archimandrite in the Patriarchal Chapel of Saint Andrew.

Under Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios, he was appointed director of the Patriarchal Office, and on Christmas Day, 1973, Fr Bartholomew was consecrated a bishop and named Metropolitan of Philadelphia in Asia Minor. He remained as head of the Personal Patriarchal Office until his enthronement as the Metropolitan of Chalcedon in 1990. That same year, as Metropolitan Bartholomew, he accompanied Patriarch Dimitrios on a historic 27-day visit to the United States as his chief advisor and administrator.

Vocation to ecumenism

During this steady career path, he had been a member of the World Council of Churches Faith and Order Commission, acting as vice president for eight years. In January 1991, Metropolitan Bartholomew led the Orthodox delegation at the Seventh General Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Canberra, Australia. There, he framed Orthodox objections that the World Council was departing theologically from essential Orthodox beliefs —but that has not detracted from his strong advocacy for maintaining extended contacts with other Churches.

The way we treat nature and the biodiversity of creation is directly related to the way we treat our neighbour

These achievements meant that on the death of Patriarch Dimitrios on 2 October 1991, it was no surprise that Metropolitan Bartholomew was unanimously elected Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch. There followed what reads like a ceaseless round of visits abroad and meetings with religious and political world leaders. And perhaps because the Ecumenical Patriarchate has that very special geographical and spiritual position between East and West, Patriarch Bartholomew has been able to nurture dialogue amongst Christianity, Islam and Judaism, and has extended the hand of spiritual friendship to the Far East, visiting China and Hong Kong.

A peace builder

Patriarch Bartholomew has been a trail blazer in terms of interreligious dialogue. Contributing to reconciliation in the Balkans, addressing issues of terrorism, and negotiating in countries such as Iran by addressing their governments on subjects of concern—in 2002 he spoke to Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on “The contribution of religion to the establishment of peace in the contemporary world.”

Today, he and Pope Francis seem to be leading the world in their unremitting efforts to bring about effective solutions to the climate emergency. They sing from the same hymn book, with the Green Patriarch stressing that the ecological problem affects all humankind, and above all has a painful impact on the poor and the weak.

The world is not ours to use for our own convenience. It is God’s gift of love to us, and we must return His love by protecting it and all that is in it

Speaking this year on the World Day of Creation (a day initiated by Bartholomew’s predecessor in 1989 and adopted by Pope Francis in 2015), he said, “Protection of the common good, of the integrity of the natural environment, is the common responsibility of all the inhabitants of the earth”. However, given the failure of political leaders to make decisions for the good of the environment, he asked, “How much longer will nature endure the fruitless discussions and consultations, as well as any further delay in assuming decisive actions for its protection?”

We perhaps all fear, as climate activist Greta Thunberg has suggested, that all talk—all “blah, blah, blah”—and no action may be the outcome of COP26. We perhaps therefore must all pray that politicians will at last agree when the Ecumenical Patriarch says, “It is inconceivable that we adopt economic decisions without taking into account their ecological consequences”.

If we agree with him—as Pope Francis clearly does from the teaching in his encyclical Laudato Si’—that care for creation is an act of praise of God, while “destruction of creation is an offence against the creator”, then perhaps we can even yet influence the COP26 negotiators.