March 5, 2006 - Issue #9
Local News | Opinion/Editorials | Letters to the Editor
Local immigration rally draws many Catholics
Daniel Esparza of Anchorage looked over the growing crowd of brown-skinned people at the start of an immigration rally and nodded with satisfaction.
"Basically, I was an undocumented worker a long time ago, so I lived the discrimination and the abuse," Esparza said. "And me as a Catholic and a human being, I think I have the moral necessity to speak for those who don’t have the capacity to speak for themselves."
Esparza is now a U.S. citizen and an active member at Our Lady of Guadalupe, the West Anchorage parish whose weekend Spanish Mass attracts worshipers from across the Anchorage Bowl. He consulted church officials while helping a coalition of Hispanic, labor and immigrant organizations plan the rally.
The church was highly visible at the May 1 event on Delaney Park Strip, where an estimated 1,000 people gathered to support one another and protest an immigration bill under consideration in Washington, D.C.
Two of the seven speakers on the stage at the base of the Park Strip’s gigantic American flag were Catholic priests, and priests, nuns and other church workers were sprinkled through the flag- and banner-waving crowd.
The immigrants themselves seemed well aware of the church’s support.
"Mahony is helping the poor people — a lot of people don’t understand that," said Nelson Godoy, referring to Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony, who has been at the forefront of opposition to House Resolution 4437. The cardinal says the bill would criminalize not only undocumented immigrants but also church workers and others who assist people regardless of immigration status.
"People think the government and the church have to be kept on opposite sides," Godoy added. "But sometimes the church is the only one that helps the people."
The Anchorage Archdiocese has a Hispanic ministry coordinator and a handful of priests who celebrate the liturgy and hear confessions in Spanish. They are stretched thin in a city with a Hispanic population estimated at 18,000 people.
Supporting immigrants is "a case of justice," said Dominican Father Paul Scanlon, who provides Hispanic ministry in Anchorage and Kodiak. "Our economy is built on their cheap labor. So we can’t just use their labor and then say, ‘Go home, you’re a criminal.’ "
As he stood in the crowd, the tall, white-haired priest was greeted with hugs and kisses and handshakes.
"We come to contribute with our work, and we would like to be able to live here as immigrants and brothers," Margarita Fermin told the Anchor, using Father Scanlon as a translator.
Fermin, a Holy Family parishioner, is a widow who sends money from her job in a laundry mat to support her three children and elderly mother and sister in the Dominican Republic.
Father Scanlon said that common practice is an indication of the difficulties many immigrants face.
"They would much rather be back home in Mexico or wherever, but they do it for their families," said Father Scanlon, who worked with the poor in Mexico for nine years and also spent a year ministering to the heavily immigrant population of Unalaska.
Immigrants’ typical deep faith in God and devotion to family are values sorely needed in America, Father Scanlon added.
Rally spokesperson Angela Jimenez, a local business owner, said churches are critical supporters "not only because of the power they have with God," but also because they can help educate their people and encourage them to vote.
"If the church supports or disagrees with a bill the parishioners are going to pay more attention," she said.
Church leaders nationwide have been outspoken about the need for "comprehensive immigration reform," and unanimous in criticizing H.R. 4437. Other bills and numerous compromise amendments are currently being debated in the Senate.
Numerous bishops have written pastoral letters on the issue, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has pages and pages of background, position statements and church teaching relating to immigration on its Web site, www.usccb.org (see sidebar). The conference’s Migration and Refugee Services office handles immigration issues.
The Anchorage rally coincided with similar events in cities around the country.
In Chicago, Cardinal Francis George told an estimated 400,000 marchers that they were gathered in pursuit of respect for human dignity and united families, Catholic News Service reported.
"Respect means that people who have been part of this country’s social and economic fabric for years should not now be treated as if they do not count, as if their contribution can be simply dismissed and they, sent away," he said.
Similar themes sounded in Anchorage.
Anchorage Archdiocese vicar general Father Donald Bramble, a Dominican, gave the opening prayer, in Spanish and English, asking God to "guide this nation of immigrants to a newer and deeper understanding of the gifts you have generously bestowed."
Lee Stephan, CEO of the Eklutna Village Corporation, got a chuckle when he announced that he was the only non-immigrant in the crowd, which was dominated by Hispanics but included Anglos and Africans.
Alaska Native values "treat everybody with dignity and respect," Stephan said. "If you don’t like it, go back to where you came from."
The tenor of the rally was pointedly non-confrontational and pro-American.
There were a few Mexican and Guatemalan flags in the crowd, but the vast majority — hundreds of them — were American. At one point, a group of Hispanic children led the Pledge of Allegiance and then The Star Spangled Banner — and they knew all the words.
The master of ceremonies repeatedly reminded the crowd that it was a peaceful rally, and each time cheers and applause erupted. She also got an enthusiastic response when she explained that the rally was purposefully different from the protests in the Lower 48, many of which supported a boycott of school, work and purchases for the day.
The local church and the U.S. bishops’ conference opposed the boycott, as did the Anchorage rally organizers.
Women help women through local Elizabeth Ministry
Out of adversity, good things can be born, or as St. Paul says in Romans 8: 28-30, "God works with those who love him … and turns everything to their good."
So it was that out of personal tragedies, two women founded Alaska’s first chapter of the Elizabeth Ministry, an outreach in which women mentor women through the joys and pains of the childbearing years.
"You have a unique ability to minister if you’re ministering through a common bond," said Diana Farthing, Elizabeth Ministry co-coordinator at St. Andrew Parish in Eagle River.
It was late 2004 when Farthing and her husband were told that the daughter they were expecting had a profound, life-threatening disability. They were given the devastating news on a Friday, three days before they departed their home in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., to relocate in Anchorage.
In November, their daughter was born prematurely in Anchorage; she lived for less than an hour.
What do you do when you’re hit with a family crisis in an entirely new community?
Fortunately for the Farthings, their faith had led them to St. Andrew Parish in Eagle River and pastor Father Leo Walsh, who put Farthing in touch with another woman who had been through a similar crisis.
Parishioner Jo Martin’s son Dennis had died during the 20th week of pregnancy five years before.
"I call (Father Walsh and Jo) my two angels here in Alaska," said Farthing, who found that others shied away from mentioning her daughter’s death.
"People quite frankly didn’t want to even talk to me," she said. "In situations like this, people need someone to talk to."
Martin was there for Farthing, even helping her with the funeral arrangements for her daughter.
When her son died, Martin was a member of St. Andrew but had been in the area only a little over a year.
"After my loss, I went to Mass and just basically collapsed in Father Leo’s arms," Martin said. "I told him I needed to set up a memorial service. He wanted to do what he could but was new to the parish and didn’t know who to put me in touch with."
Martin found support through a Web site with a chat room where she was able to share her grief with other mothers who had lost children — but how much better it would have been to share with someone face to face, Martin said.
It was Farthing who eventually found information on Elizabeth Ministry and called Martin, and together they started the ministry here.
Elizabeth Ministry was founded by a laywoman and a priest in Wisconsin in the early 1990s. It’s named for the mother of John the Baptist, to whom Mary paid a visit after the revelation of her own pregnancy.
The ministry’s Web site explains that "the sanctity of life and power of the Spirit is revealed in the common sharing of these two women." It describes the ministry as offering "Christian support for the joys, challenges and sorrows of the childbearing years," including pregnancy, infertility, adoption, childbirth, stillbirth, miscarriage, death of an infant or child, and even the struggles of menopause.
Throughout history, women have ministered to other women about these issues, but in today’s culture, with families living farther apart and women more involved with the workplace than the neighborhood, it’s harder to establish mentoring relationships, according to the Elizabeth Ministry site.
One needn’t be in the throes of a major crisis to ask for help, Farthing said.
The ministry has what it calls "new mom" mentors who are willing to talk over some of the usual issues a new mother confronts, be it breastfeeding or a colicky baby.
People can request anonymity and can be mentored over the telephone, Martin said. Anyone experiencing guilt over an abortion is welcome.
"Our ministry is not meant to be judgmental — if they come to us with guilt, it’s still a loss," she said.
However, the ministry does not offer counseling, and someone who has experienced abortion may be referred to Project Rachel, a Catholic group that helps women heal spiritually and emotionally after abortion.
Martin and Farthing launched the Alaska chapter of Elizabeth Ministry in June, and today it has 15 volunteers.
In November, the ministry held its first "Healing for Pregnancy Loss Mass."
The next healing Mass is scheduled for 1 p.m. May 20 at St. Andrew. A light reception will follow.
For more information, visit www.elizabethministry.com, or ask about the ministry at St. Andrew Parish, 694-2170.
Byzantine Catholic Church establishes a mission in Mat-Su
The small group of Eastern-rite Catholics who gather each week in Sacred Heart Parish’s former church building in Wasilla now belong to a bona fide church community of their own. Blessed Theodore Romzha Byzantine Catholic Mission was established Feb. 16 by Byzantine Catholic Bishop Most Reverend William Skurla.
The new "mission" — a precursor to a parish — is associated with the only Byzantine Catholic parish in Alaska: St. Nicholas of Myra in Anchorage, founded in 1958.
So, what is a Byzantine Catholic?
The Catholic Church contains 23 rites, or liturgical expressions. The vast majority of people who call themselves Catholic belong to the Roman Catholic Church, which follows the Latin rite.
The Byzantine Catholic Church is one of the 22 Eastern-rite Catholic churches. It follows the liturgical traditions of the Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches, but unlike them, it recognizes the Roman Catholic pope as the head of the church.
For the last four years, the Matanuska Valley’s Byzantine Catholics have been worshiping in the old Sacred Heart Church on Wasilla’s Bogard Road.
Sacred Heart, a Roman Catholic parish, moved into a larger church on the parish grounds in 1998. The pastor, Father Kasparaj Mallavarapu, welcomed the Eastern-rite group to use the old church.
Right Reverend Archimandrite Wesley Izer, pastor of St. Nicholas of Myra Parish, originally made the 45-mile trip from Anchorage to Wasilla about once a month. He would celebrate Divine Liturgy — the Eastern-rite term for Mass — for about a dozen Byzantine Catholic families.
But about a year into the "outreach" project, Father Izer’s bishop requested that he begin making the trip every week.
The group is not vastly bigger — Father Izer said about 16 families now regularly attend — but because of the convenience factor, "now we see everybody more consistently."
The change has brought the people "closer to the Lord" and helped them "create a sense of community, too," Father Izer said.
The Byzantine church has its own system of jurisdiction, with bishops appointed to lead "eparchies," the equivalent of dioceses in the Latin-rite church. Both rites often designate a Catholic community a "mission" when it has reached a certain level of stability but isn’t yet able to support itself as an independent parish.
Becoming a mission gives parishioners a "sense of belonging," said Michelle Hand, who attends the mission in Wasilla with her husband and eight children.
"We’re here to stay and we’re growing and we’re a part of our community," she said.
The Hands used to attend Roman Catholic parishes in Palmer and Eagle River, but they continued to search for a "reverent Mass to raise our kids in" she said.
She said they found that at Anchorage’s St. Nicholas of Myra in Anchorage, but the weekly drive was time-consuming and costly.
"It’s been super-duper nice to not have to drive into town" for the past three years that Divine Liturgy has been offered weekly in Wasilla, Hand said.
The group may be small, but that has its benefits, too, she said. The survival of the mission depends on the volunteer involvement of everyone, she added.
Hand helped organize a group of about 15 people last summer to repaint the interior of the church, and families rotate vacuuming, cleaning, setting up chairs and preparing the sanctuary area each Sunday.
"The kids learn that it’s their obligation to support their church," Hand said.
It will likely be five to 10 years before Blessed Theodore Romzha Mission is ready to become a parish, according to Father Izer.
Nevertheless, nine months ago, the mission purchased land for a future church in Wasilla; the site is near East Seldon Road and North Wasilla-Fishhook Road.
Gloria Tokar said having a church of their own is important to Eastern-rite Catholics because the method of worship is very sensual and guided by the church’s atmosphere — the colors, the icons and symbols — which is meant to conjure the "beauty of heaven."
"The American dream is, like, owning your own home," Tokar said. "For a Byzantine Catholic, it’s having your own church, your own place of worship where you can contemplate God and your religion."
Art Hippler, a retired university professor, spent about a decade making the 104-mile round trip from his Wasilla home to Anchorage’s St. Nicholas of Myra Parish.
It was a worthwhile burden though, Hippler said, because the Eastern-rite Divine Liturgy is "profound, interesting, very reverent" as opposed to the "pretty sloppy and politically correct and essentially a childish version" of liturgy that he feels exists throughout the archdiocese’s Roman Catholic churches.
Now, with his wife and 17-year-old daughter, he drives only about six miles for Sunday liturgy and has time afterward to stick around and visit with other parishioners.
Establishing a parish in the Matanuska Valley was a dream of the late Right Reverend Mitered Archpriest Michael Artim, who came to Anchorage’s St. Nicholas of Myra in 1964 when it served only ten families and had less than $20 in the bank, according to Father Izer.
As the parish matured, some St. Nicholas families moved to the Valley, and by 2001, a dozen were living there. The parish soon launched the "outreach" in Wasilla to accommodate them.
Father Artim died in 2001 at the age of 85. He bequeathed funds and furniture from his private home-chapel to the mission’s development.
Now, Father Izer wears one of Father Artim’s vestments on Sunday, reads from his Book of the Gospels and is surrounded by Father Artim’s chapel furniture when he celebrates Divine Liturgy for the slowly growing mission.
Father Artim "saw a vision of the church spreading," Father Izer said.
Dutra reluctant to leave Alaska after 29 years of ministry
Sister Angelina Dutra makes no bones about it: She isn’t ready to leave Alaska, and the farewell is a hard one.
But the petite, white-haired 79-year-old’s superiors in the Sisters of the Holy Family have requested that she return to California after 29 years of pastoral work in Alaska. And always the obedient religious, Sister Dutra mailed her packages south in April, even though her departure date is June 16.
"I’m going to miss the openness of Alaska, so vast and beautiful," she said last week. "And I’ll miss the people, my friends, the sisters, especially Lorene."
That would be Ursuline Sister Lorene Griffin, with whom Sister Dutra has shared an apartment for several years. Even though the two women are from different religious orders, it’s typical of Alaska that they have formed a close bond, Sister Dutra said.
The only other member of her order in the archdiocese, Sister Marie Ann Brent, is stationed in faraway Valdez.
The tight-knit sisters’ community in the archdiocese is one of the best things about living here, she said. Sisters from various orders hold a monthly potluck and a yearly conference in Girdwood to provide one another with support and community.
She said she will also miss the snow, the birds she loves to watch, the long summers and the fishing trips Sister Griffin introduced her to.
Sister Dutra came to the state in 1976 to work as a religious education coordinator in Sitka and later traveled to small villages throughout Southeast Alaska, making home visits and holding Communion services in areas without a resident priest.
A highlight of her time there was the visit of Pope John Paul II to Anchorage in 1981, she said. Sister Dutra flew up from Southeast and was among those selected to receive Communion from the pontiff.
She also remembers coming up to help Sister Brent when she was ill, and being flown back in a small plane by Deacon Felix Maguire and Archbishop Francis Hurley — a typical travel arrangement that might seem unusual in the Lower 48.
The death in 1995 of Juneau Bishop Michael Kenny, for whom she worked, was the hardest blow of her years in the state.
"His death really affected me," she said of the bishop known for his peace-making efforts. "He was such an outgoing, caring person. I felt he saw the needs of the people and worked towards making things better."
At Bishop Kenny’s funeral, small ribbons were given out as remembrances, and it was only as Sister Dutra cleaned her things out recently that she passed her ribbon on to a friend in Kenai who had also loved the prelate.
In 1985, Sister Dutra came to Anchorage and began 20 years of work with Providence Health System. She served as a chaplain at Providence Extended Care, then known as Our Lady of Compassion Care Center, until 1997, when she moved to Providence Home Health and began ministering to the homebound.
In early 2005, shortly before her planned retirement, Sister Dutra became ill with cancer. Although her prognosis is very good, the treatment she received for the illness took a toll of its own.
Her religious community feels her age and health will be better served nearer to the other sisters, who are mostly based in California, Sister Dutra said. And her two brothers and two sisters still live in the state as well.
This is not the first time Sister Dutra has experienced the pain of separation in her life as a religious. Her father, an immigrant from the Portuguese Azores who operated a small dairy farm in California, cried when she left to join the order in 1949.
"It was the first time I’d ever seen him cry," she said.
After she took final vows in 1954, her community sent her to Hawaii, where she spent 22 years. When her father died in 1967, she was not allowed to return home, as was the custom in religious communities at the time.
Now, after more than 50 years of active ministry, Sister Dutra is coming full circle.
She will be living in Oakland with two other members of her order. She hopes to "putter around the kitchen" doing the baking and cooking she loves.
She harbors a hope that her community will allow her to return in January for two very special events: Her 80th birthday and Sister Griffin’s 50th anniversary of religious profession.
Archdiocese’s Web site has many updates, additions
The Archdiocese of Anchorage’s Web site is a behemoth of information introduced by a snappy home page featuring Alaska art, local photos and quick links to archdiocesan ministries.
Recent additions and updates on the site were unveiled April 19 for a group of about 15 people at the archdiocese’s downtown pastoral center.
The site, www.archdioceseofanchorage.org, now contains about 3,000 Web pages and hundreds of links to other Catholic Web sites, according to webmaster Peter Zografos, the archdiocese’s director of the Office of Evangelization and Worship.
The archdiocese has had a Web site since 1999 but totally redesigned it in April 2005. Since then, Zografos has solicited feedback and implemented various new features, including a search engine, lots of photos of "the people of God" from around the archdiocese and events calendars.
The site has become an "evangelization tool" as well as an information port, according to Zografos.
"You can get spiritually fed as well as informationally fed using this," Zografos said during his April 19 presentation while clicking through the site’s liturgical calendar.
The wellspring of information includes a list of all Mass times in the archdiocese, a complete directory of archdiocesan employees and a page for each parish with links to maps and driving directions.
Eucharistic adoration locations and times are listed and three different calendars of upcoming events, such as confirmation Masses or Catholic Social Services happenings, are posted.
A small blue-gray "en espanol" tab on the home page opens a Spanish-language version of the Web site, and prayers for priestly vocations have been translated into Spanish, Tagalog and Korean languages.
There’s also a "Safe Environment" section addressing steps taken to prevent sexual abuse within the church. Web pages instruct how to report abuse and outline the archdiocese’s Code of Pastoral Conduct for priests, deacons, pastoral administrators, staff members and volunteers.
The archdiocese’s Sexual Misconduct Policy is also posted and "supplemental materials" are available for download, including a cue card to have handy by a telephone to report abuse, and safe environment checklists for parishes and schools.
"People have to have access to these things," Zografos said.
One of the more popular pages on the site is Holy Cross Father LeRoy Clementich’s "Thought for the Week," the Sunday reflections on Scripture and spirituality by the award-winning Anchor columnist.
Zografos, who has a doctorate in ministry, writes and posts weekly prayers of the faithful for parishes to download if they wish.
For people carrying out their Catholic duty to put their faith into action, a broad bar with changing image of children’s faces on the home page accesses "Action Alerts" that instruct readers about the Catholic stance on contemporary issues and legislation and how to contact public officials.
On every page, there are links to two topics: "Catholic and want to come home?" for Catholics who are not active in the faith, and "Interested in the Faith?" for those exploring the possibility of joining the Catholic Church.
The Web site has answers to questions on a host of topics, including the archbishop, annulments, the archdiocese’s history and its patron saints, the order of the Mass, Catholic education, and stewardship.
Zografos suggests using the home page’s "Quick Links" bar with its simplified menu or the information icon, a blue "I," for navigational shortcuts.
After the pizza-lunch presentation, Mary Beth Bragiel, human resources director for the archdiocese and Catholic Social Services, said: "I’m exhausted. What a tour!"
Zografos said he hopes parishioners will remember to send pictures of parish activities, liturgies and other forms of ministry to be posted on the site. Send images, artwork or information to him at peter.zografos@caa-ak.org.
News & Notes
Fund-raiser for pope memorial
The Knights of Columbus are hosting a dinner, dance and auction to raise funds for their project to significantly upgrade the modest memorial to Pope John Paul II at Anchorage’s Delaney Park Strip. The event is described by promotional material as "a formal gala evening of fine dining, dancing and a great auction!" It takes place Saturday, June 17, at the Hilton Anchorage, beginning at 7 p.m. Tickets can be purchased for $100 per person, or $800 for a "sponsorship table." For more about the Knights’ Park Strip project, see the story in the Feb. 24 Anchor, accessible from the archive section of newspaper’s Web site, www.catholicanchor.org. For more information about the fund-raiser event, contact Knights Joe Reilly (351-9771), Ken Jones (333-6698), Larry Nakata (563-1729) or Peter Frost (242-7619).
AFACT forum on cops, kids
Do police target specific ethnic groups? Do they treat people of different ethnicities differently? Those and other questions are the subject of the second "Clergy/Cops/Kids Forum," a discussion of community issues among youths, church leaders and members of the Anchorage Police Department. The event is slated for 3 p.m. Sunday, May 21, at Central Lutheran Church (1420 Cordova St.). It is sponsored by AFACT (Anchorage Faith and Action — Congregations Together). Call 297-7731 for more information.
EWTN now available locally on full-time basis.
EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network) is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week in the Anchorage Bowl and surrounding area. The program, made famous by its charismatic founder, Mother Angelica, is available on GCI channel 122, MTA DTV channel 67, DishNet channel 261 and DirecTV channel 422, according to John Tobia, an Eagle River parishioner who is a big supporter of the network.
Editorials
Blame for $3 gas goes beyond big oil
With gasoline prices at almost $3 a gallon, drivers are fuming. While lots of fingers are pointing at big oil companies reaping mountains of cash from sky-high crude prices, the government and consumers share the blame.
Granted, if it was tough already to work up sympathy for oil companies that are pleading against proposals for higher taxes, it got tougher last week when it was discovered that Exxon Mobil Corp. is paying outgoing CEO Lee Raymond a retirement package worth at least $170 million. (If perks such as use of a corporate jet, a car and driver and home security are factored in, according to ABC News, the deal has a $400 million price tag.)
Exxon made a world-record $36.1 billion profit last year. Last week it announced first quarter earnings of $8.4 billion, beating last year’s first-quarter earnings by more than $400 million. Also last week, the price of oil reached a new record, $75 per barrel, which means even bigger geysers of cash for Exxon and its competitors.
There’s nothing wrong with earning a profit, and oil companies like Exxon are realizing the rewards of huge investments they made setting up the infrastructure to suck oil from beneath Alaska’s permafrost.
Nevertheless, if motorists get mad enough about $75 tabs at the gas pump, and if they connect $3 gas to obscenely high salaries for oil executives, it will increase pressure for the higher oil taxes that are being considered in Alaska and, as of last week, at the federal level as well.
We don’t feel too sorry for Exxon, and don’t mind if it is taxed to the point that it can only afford to pay the new CEO say, $1 million per year.
But we need to change, too — we being people who burn oil products in our cars, and who vote. The health of the planet is at stake, and it will take all of us to move from the present focus on finding more oil to using less.
Consumers should buy the most energy-efficient vehicle they can afford, and then leave it in the driveway whenever possible. Carpool, bicycle or walk, and when you have to drive, use moderate speeds.
Also, it could make all the difference in the world to write to your elected representatives, reminding them it’s OK to demand more of U.S. auto makers, whose products have not improved in average fuel efficiency over the past 20 years.
This country ought to be the entrepreneurial leader in such technologies as clean diesel, hybrid engines and alternative fuels, but corporate America needs prodding. The government should mandate higher fuel standards and fund research and provide tax incentives, and consumers should push with their pocketbooks.
It’s good that politicians on both sides of the aisle are finally taking a critical look at oil taxation and corporate welfare, including the hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded subsidies the federal government handed the oil industry as recently as last summer.
But every American can be part of the solution by simply considering the health of the planet when making choices in the market place, voting booth and daily life.
For Catholics, this is a matter of being good stewards of the resources and gifts God has provided, and of being faithful citizens who bring Catholic values to bear on public policies.
Sorry about missing quotation marks
We apologize for the inconvenience and annoyance of a newspaper without quotation marks. The last issue of the Anchor, published April 21, departed the editorial offices looking beautiful. But somewhere between our computers and the printing press, the quotation marks vanished. We won’t bore you with the details, but be assured we investigated and will try valiantly not to let it happen again.
The good news: You can read local stories, editorials and letters from that ill-fated issue, in all their quote-dappled glory, here on our Web site. Click the Archives tab above and open the April 21 issue.
Letters to the Editor
Medical side of immigration
In your April 7 Anchor there was an editorial on immigration. In it the Rev. Jesse Jackson is quoted as saying trade agreements such as NAFTA should require the parties to adhere to environmental protections and basic social protections. Shouldn’t a basic social protection anywhere include health protections, too? For instance, there is now an epidemic of mumps in Iowa, and members of my family and I will be traveling to the Midwest this summer. Who will we be in contact with on the airplane? I am with the Catholics: I believe it says in the Bible that an alien who is in your household, man servant or woman servant, must be treated well. Of course we would have shared everything with one if we had one, and would have been exposed to and recovered from mumps long ago. But it seems to me "better in terms of Christian morality and common sense" that people should pay more attention to the medical side of immigration. I would appreciate any insights from a medical person on this matter.
Anchorage
Parishioners fighting poverty
I write on behalf of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development to thank parishioners in the Archdiocese of Anchorage for your generous contribution of $27,886.93 from your 2005 CCHD collection. Last year, the incidence of poverty in our country rose for the fourth consecutive year, with most of the increases occurring among the working poor. Without the safety provided by safe and adequate housing, reliable transportation, functioning schools, steady employment and dependable health care, even more people will slip into an intolerable existence. Through the support of parishioners in dioceses across the country, we were able to grant $9 million in 2005 to anti-poverty, social justice projects in 49 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The Catholic Campaign for Human Development takes the risk of investing in the dignity of poor and low-income people. Your partnership with us helps break the cycle of poverty. So, in the name of those who will be helped by the generosity of your people, I say thank you, too. In his World Day of Peace Message for 2006, Pope Benedict XVI challenges us with these words: "Peace thus comes to be seen in a new light: not as the mere absence of war, but as a harmonious coexistence of individual citizens within a society governed by justice, one in which the good is also achieved, to the extent possible, for each of the them." Your support of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development helps achieve "the good" for families and communities struggling in poverty.
Washington, D.C.