CHURCHES IN BRIEF" "" "
Spain: Caritas project in Costa Rica against human traffickingCaritas Spain has strengthened its commitment in the fight against trafficking in human persons with the recent approval of a project in Costa Rica, designed to prevent the dramatic effects of this phenomenon. The project, with a budget of 217,706, aims at developing actions of formation, awareness and denunciation of trafficking in persons in the territories of the Archdiocese of San José and the Dioceses of Puntarenas, Tilarán-Liberia, Ciudad Quesada and Limón. The activities will be coordinated by Caritas Costa Rica. A first step will include specific training on the issue to 200 agents, chosen from among persons engaged in development of human solidarity in the local ecclesiastical and municipal environment, and other activities for vulnerable groups. After training, the agents will work in raising awareness of respect for human rights, as well as in campaigns of prevention and denunciation of trafficking in persons. The project will develop a comprehensive strategy for social communication at all levels. The initiative, which will begin next August and will go ahead until June, 2016, was founded with the goal of finding an effective response to the problem of trafficking. Caritas Spain and Caritas Costa Rica believe that structural and wide-ranging solutions should be adopted: therefore, ecclesial and social agents must be able to raise around them awareness about violence connected to trafficking. At the same time, the project aims at making the most vulnerable groups protagonists of their own development, now and in the future. Ukraine: children reflected on faith as a key to heavenDuring the first weeks of July, summer camps for children organized by monks and nuns of the Congregation of the Incarnated Word of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church were held in Liuch, Ivano-Frankivsk region. Over 200 children from various parishes participated at the initiative under the motto “Faith – a key to heaven”, inspired by the Year of Faith. The aim of camps was to deepen the children’s faith and the participants were divided into four groups: “The God Bearers” – those who should have and bear the faith in God; “The Apostles” – called to be with Christ in order to learn faith and to preach it to others; “The Testimonies” – those who based on the examples of martyrs testified about their faith without any fear; and “The Guardians” – those who preserved unchanged the “baggage” of faith which was given to us by Jesus, informs one of the organizers Rev. Andriy Karpinets. The main game of the camp focused on the pilgrimage to Kyiv for the 1025th anniversary of the Baptism of Ukraine-Rus. Children were presented with a map of Ukraine with various routes to Kyiv for each team, possibility to gain points for correct answers to questions. At the end of the camp, all the participants received books on the lives of saints for their spiritual enhancement. Poland: more faithful approach communionMore and more Poles approach the sacrament of communion (16.2%) while the number of Sunday Mass attendants remained unchanged compared to last year (40%). These figures were announced by the Institute of Statistics of the Catholic Church in Poland. The main reasons for participation in Sunday Mass have a spiritual character: the imperative of conscience and the desire to live a religious experience. Fr. Edward Jarmoch, professor at the University of Siedlce, notes that the reasons have not changed over the last twenty years. In 2012, at the end of the statistical analyzes, one out of two of the respondents can be counted among the church-goers who participate in a systematic way in the liturgy – almost every week -, while 71.3% attend the Mass at least once a month. One in five devote themselves to religious practices only occasionally, while about a quarter does not practice at all. “It seems that the religiosity of the Poles in the future will depend upon how the pastoral approach will adapt to the signs of the times”, says Janusz Marianski, professor at the Catholic University of Lublin. This is testified by the data showing that in 2012 one in five Poles has waived individual prayer, while only one out of two still prays on a regular basis. In the years 1991-2012 the number of people who pray on a daily basis fell by almost 9%, but at the same time the number of those who pray in particular life situations grew by 9.6%. Belarus: Christian camps for the disabledA Christian summer camp for handicapped people will take place on 17-21 July in a Greek Catholic parish of St. Josaphat in Polotsk, Belarus. It is run by young people from Christian volunteering movement of St. Nicolaus who regularly help in asylum houses in Minsk, Ivantschevichi, Osipovichi and other towns. The program includes summer activities by the river, various kinds of health treatment, trips, evening discussions by the fireplace and the camp will also have a spiritual dimension. “The life of handicapped people is limited in many ways and we want them to enjoy this summer time without any limitations, enabling them to meet, share their faith, enjoy each other’s company and maybe find new friends with similar destiny”, explain the organizers.
