Bahamian church seeks to assist Haitian refugees facing loss of homes
Most Haitians in the Bahamas are undocumented and thus unaccounted by the Bahamian government in any official population total, even in death.
On Abaco Island alone, where up to 8,000 Haitians lived in shantytowns called the Mudd and Pigeon Peas, one government estimate of Haitians lost in 2019's Hurricane Dorian was 75 persons. But the Haitian community on the island believes the number of souls swept out to sea is at least 1,000.
The Haitian community on Abaco are setting up residences, temporary and permanent, on a plot of abandoned land owned by foreign interests that raised citrus and sugar cane and attempted to cultivate tobacco. They call this plot of land The Farm, and nearly 1,000 homes have been constructed with an estimated 3,000 people living there.
But following an April 10 government raid, residents of The Farm received notice the government will bring bulldozers into the community on April 28 to demolish structures — both permanent and temporary. Outcry from Bahamians and human rights groups has, as of yet, gone unnoticed by government officials.
You can read more of the story here.
Learning to like Ramadan while living in Morocco
Britt Luby, a hospital chaplain in Fort Worth, Texas, writes in a commentary for NCR about her unexpected love for Ramadan.
She and her husband had lived in Morocco as Peace Corps volunteers for about six months before Ramadan, a time she writes was "difficult."
Ramadan, the ninth month of the Muslim calendar and commemorated this year from April 13 to May 12, is a holy month and a time of spiritual reflection and self-improvement. Many Muslims will fast from food and water from sunrise to sunset as a spiritual practice.
"As a practicing Catholic, a month or so of fasting was fairly familiar to me," Luby writes. "I was used to giving up sweets from Ash Wednesday until Easter. But giving up water? From sunrise to sunset on a 100-degree day? For 30 days in a row? This was too hard!"
You can read more of her commentary here.
More background:
- Christians and Muslims share a conviction that God calls them to be "witnesses, restorers and builders of hope" both in this life and for the life to come, said the leaders of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.
More headlines
- At Global Sisters Report,
read a Q&A with Sr. Suzanne Susany, who, inspired by the needs of
immigrants, enrolled in law school in her 60s to become an immigration
attorney.
- In the latest Francis, the comic strip, a cardinal believes the Holy Spirit will descend on him and make him pope.
- ICYMI: Pope Francis voiced apprehension over a recent Russian troop buildup near the border with Ukraine and called for efforts to ease tensions in the 7-year conflict in eastern Ukraine pitting Ukrainian forces against Russia-backed rebels.
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