'One Issue' Voters?

"One Issue” Voters?

The author is a Columban priest from Ireland who has been in the Philippines most of the time since 1971. Since October 2002 he has been based in Bacolod City as editor of Misyon, the magazine of the Columbans in the Philippines. This column is in the 3-5 November 2008 issue of Negros Times.

In the Philippines we are familiar with the word “salvaging” which, according to the dictionary, means saving cargo or lives on a stricken ship. But here it means murder, usually by government-linked agents. Over the gates of Nazi concentration camps were the words “Arbeit macht frei”, German for “Work makes you free”, mocking the millions who died in them.

The Guttmacher Institute, which promotes abortion under the guise of “Advancing sexual and reproductive health worldwide through research, policy analysis and public education”, estimates the number of deaths by abortion in the USA since the Supreme Court’s “Roe v. Wade” decision in 1973 as around 46 million.

Abortion is promoted by those who describe themselves as “pro-choice”. There’s no choice for the unborn child and, in many instances, no choice for the father. The perversion of language promotes the perversion of a society.

Senator Barack Obama promised Planned Parenthood that the first thing he will do as president is to sign the Freedom of Choice Act, which would bring back so-called “partial birth abortion”, infanticide in all but name, and force taxpayers to pay for all of this. Laws restricting abortion passed by elected legislators in all 50 of “these United States” would be trampled on. All in the name of “choice”.

One of the ironies is that Planned Parenthood, the biggest abortion provider in the USA, was founded by Margaret Sanger who said, “Colored people are like weeds and are to be exterminated”. 78 percent of their clinics are in minority areas. While Blacks make up only twelve percent of the population, 35 percent of children aborted are Blacks.

Some Catholics are criticizing their bishops for speaking the truth about. Ironically, 50 years after his death, some Catholics are criticizing Pope Pius XII for allegedly not having spoken out clearly against the genocidal policies of the Nazis. Bishop Robert W. Finn of Kansas City – St. Joseph in October wrote in the diocesan paper, The Catholic Key:

When a candidate supports ready access to abortion on demand, they are inviting Catholics to put aside their conscience on this life and death issue. Such a candidate is inviting conscientious Catholics to look elsewhere for moral leadership. When a candidate promotes total unhindered “choice,” he or she discourages the Catholic vote, and at the same time tempts the voter to betray one of the most obvious intuitions of our humanity and to support the continuation of the willful destruction of human life.

If the candidate has supported partial birth abortion, he or she asks the voter to affirm the continuation of an act that 75% of the population has rejected as repulsive.

When a candidate regards the unborn child as unworthy of the defense of law, then he or she asks us to join them in ignoring the lessons of history by which African Americans in this country were once regarded as non-persons; or the Jews of Europe were once marked for genocide or racial purification. Had we known, would we have supported the “choice” to enslave or destroy these brothers and sisters of ours? Can a candidate expect us as Catholics to ignore the classification of the unborn as non-persons? Will he or she expect us to look aside while these babies are quietly exterminated at a rate of 4000 per day? This is precisely what they are asking us to do.Some groups calling themselves “Catholic” have suggested that generous programs for the poor will reduce abortions more than the repeal of Roe v. Wade. But a candidate who pledges that he or she will seek to immediately ratify the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), signals to voters that the reduction of abortions is not a goal. They are asking voters to suspend the effort to constitutionally protect human life, and – at the same time - to discard all the good progress we have made to actually reduce the number of abortions in the last thirty-five years. Such a candidate is asking Catholics to “give up” on abortion. They want us to deny our conscience and ignore their callous disregard for the most vulnerable human life.

If the candidate has addressed their legislative assembly, urging opposition to the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act, then it must be concluded that this candidate wishes Catholic voters to be complicit in infanticide. Rejection of this Act, which would require that a baby who survived an unsuccessful abortion attempt be cared for and not laid aside to die with no medical assistance, is a convincing example of the numbing of our moral sensibility. The candidate who supports this fatal neglect of life and asks our vote, asks too much of any fellow human being.

Our country is at the edge of the precipice concerning the protection of the life and dignity of the human person. A significant new attack on innocent human life will likely send us into a moral freefall that would rival any financial decline. The price for such a “walk over the cliff” is millions more human lives for many more years to come.A candidate who asks us to add our weight to such a destructive momentum in our society, asks us to be participants in their own gravely immoral act. This is something which, in good conscience, we can never justify. Despite hardship, beyond partisanship, for the sake of our eternal salvation: This we should never do.

One meaning of the word “issue” is “offspring”. Senator Obama told Planned Parenthood that what is at stake in the election is the nomination of judges to the Supreme Court who might overturn Roe v. Wade. Can American voters, appalled by the willful killing of 46 million such issues in the last 35 years and who want to change this be described as “one issue” voters?

undertheacacia@gmail.com

9,000,000 Black Americans Denied Vote in US Elections

Because of a decision of the US Supreme Court in 1973, more than 9,000,000 Black Americans have been denied a vote in today’s elections in the USA. These are the Black children aborted between 1973 and 1990 who would have been of voting age today. 37 percent of abortions in the USA are of Black children. Black Americans constitute 13.4 percent of the overall population. About 16,000,000 other Americans have also been denied the right to vote.

22 percent of abortions are of the children of white women and 34 percent of Hispanics and 8 percent to women of other races. These are the statistics of the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute ‘Advancing sexual and reproductive health worldwide through research, policy analysis and public education’. Alan F. Guttmacher was president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

The founder of Planned Parenthood was Margaret Sanger. Some quotes and references:

On blacks, immigrants and indigents: "...human weeds,' 'reckless breeders,' 'spawning... human beings who never should have been born." Margaret Sanger, Pivot of Civilization, referring to immigrants and poor people

On sterilization & racial purification: Sanger believed that, for the purpose of racial "purification," couples should be rewarded who chose sterilization. Birth Control in America, The Career of Margaret Sanger, by David Kennedy, p. 117, quoting a 1923 Sanger speech.

On the right of married couples to bear children: Couples should be required to submit applications to have a child, she wrote in her "Plan for Peace." Birth Control Review, April 1932

On the purpose of birth control: The purpose in promoting birth control was "to create a race of thoroughbreds," she wrote in the Birth Control Review, Nov. 1921 (p. 2)

On the rights of the handicapped and mentally ill, and racial minorities:"More children from the fit, less from the unfit -- that is the chief aim of birth control." Birth Control Review, May 1919, p. 12

On religious convictions regarding sex outside of marriage: "This book aims to answer the needs expressed in thousands on thousands of letters to me in the solution of marriage problems... Knowledge of sex truths frankly and plainly presented cannot possibly injure healthy, normal, young minds. Concealment, suppression, futile attempts to veil the unveilable - these work injury, as they seldom succeed and only render those who indulge in them ridiculous. For myself, I have full confidence in the cleanliness, the open-mindedness, the promise of the younger generation." Margaret Sanger, Happiness in Marriage (Bretano's, New York, 1927)

On the extermination of blacks (Mr Obama, please note):"We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population," she said, "if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members." Woman's Body, Woman's Right: A Social History of Birth Control in America, by Linda Gordon

On respecting the rights of the mentally ill: In her "Plan for Peace," Sanger outlined her strategy for eradication of those she deemed "feebleminded." Among the steps included in her evil scheme were immigration restrictions; compulsory sterilization; segregation to a lifetime of farm work; etc. Birth Control Review, April 1932, p. 107

On adultery: A woman's physical satisfaction was more important than any marriage vow, Sanger believed. Birth Control in America, p. 11

On marital sex: "The marriage bed is the most degenerating influence in the social order," Sanger said. (p. 23) [Quite the opposite of God's view on the matter: "Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled; but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." (Hebrews 13:4)
On abortion:"Criminal' abortions arise from a perverted sex relationship under the stress of economic necessity, and their greatest frequency is among married women." The Woman Rebel - No Gods, No Masters, May 1914, Vol. 1, No. 3.

On the YMCA and YWCA: "...brothels of the Spirit and morgues of Freedom!"), The Woman Rebel - No Gods, No Masters, May 1914, Vol. 1, No. 3.

On the Catholic Church's view of contraception: "...enforce SUBJUGATION by TURNING WOMAN INTO A MERE INCUBATOR." The Woman Rebel - No Gods, No Masters, May 1914, Vol. 1, No. 3.

On motherhood: "I cannot refrain from saying that women must come to recognize there is some function of womanhood other than being a child-bearing machine." What Every Girl Should Know, by Margaret Sanger (Max Maisel, Publisher, 1915) [Jesus said: "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep... for your children. For, behold, the days are coming, in which they shall say, Blessed (happy) are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the breasts which never gave suck." (Luke 23:24)]

Senator Barack Obama’s Promise to Planned Parenthood:

"The first thing I'd do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That's the first thing that I'd do." -- Senator Barack Obama, speaking to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, July 17, 2007

This bill, if enacted into law, would abolish laws restricting abortion in the 50 states of the USA.
Mr Obama, whose father was from Kenya, is not descended from American slaves, although his wife and children are. The slaves were all from west Africa. Kenya is in east Africa. It’s ironic that someone supported by an organization whose founder hated people of African origin is being seen by many unthinking people as a savior of Black Americans.

Today’s gospel:

Lk 14:15-24

One of those at table with Jesus said to him,
“Blessed is the one who will dine in the Kingdom of God.”
He replied to him, “A man gave a great dinner to which he invited many.
When the time for the dinner came,he dispatched his servant to say to those invited, ‘Come, everything is now ready.’
But one by one, they all began to excuse themselves.
The first said to him,‘I have purchased a field and must go to examine it;I ask you, consider me excused.’
And another said, ‘I have purchased five yoke of oxen and am on my way to evaluate them; I ask you, consider me excused.’
And another said, ‘I have just married a woman,and therefore I cannot come.’
The servant went and reported this to his master.
Then the master of the house in a rage commanded his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in here the poor and the crippled, the blind and the lame.’
The servant reported, ‘Sir, your orders have been carried outand still there is room.’
The master then ordered the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedgerowsand make people come in that my home may be filled.
For, I tell you, none of those men who were invited will taste my dinner.’”

In Mr Obama’s USA it is becoming more and more difficult to find ‘the crippled, the blind and the lame’ since they are being aborted. More than 90 percent of pregnancies of children with Trisomy 21 (Down Syndrome) in the USA now end in abortion.

A Pro-life Filipina Miss America

I'm not a fan of beauty contests but I was inspired by the item below from LifeNews.com especially when I discovered that a first-generation Filipino-American, Angela Perez Baraquio, Miss America 2001, whose parents came from Pangasinan, had made a video appealing to American voters to know how one vote can bring life or death to millions. Since 1973 about 46,000,000 unborn Americans have had their lives cut short because of a decision a 5 to 4 decision made by the judges of the US Supreme Court on 22 January 1973. Probably about 20,000,000 of those would have been eligible to vote and make a choice on Tuesday if their lives hadn't been snuffed out by 'pro-choice' proponents.

If this decision is challenged it could possibly be overturned - provided a majority of judges on the Supreme Court vote that way. The present make-up of the Court makes that unlikely. However, it is probable that at least one judge, and maybe two or even three, would be replaced during the term of the next President, who appoints judges to the court, with the approval of the Senate. President George W. Bush appointed two who are believed to in favour of overturning the 1973 decision.

Senator Obama, who is extremely pro-abortion, has said that this is a central issue in the presidential election. He has a 100 percent pro-abortion voting record. Senator McCain has a 100 percent pro-life voting record, apart from his position on stem-cell research.

Just One Judge is a simple website that hammers that point home with a number of short videos, including one by Angela Perez Baraquio. Another is by Norma McCorvy, 'Jane Roe' of the Roe v Wade case.

Former Miss America Angela Perez Baraquio Urges Pro-Life Vote for President

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 31, 2008

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Former Miss America Angela Perez Baraquio has released a new election video urging Americans to vote pro-life on election day. The 2001 beauty pageant queen and former Miss Hawaii 2000 is asking voters to "end the reign of Roe v. Wade" which allows virtually unlimited abortions.

Baraquio urges voters to vote pro-life on the presidential race between Barack Obama and John McCain because of the far-reaching effects of the Supreme Court nominations by the next president.

"As a teacher and mother I see just how important it is to protect children," she says in the new video. "Did you know that in the United States, the most dangerous place for a child to be is in the mother's womb?"

"If Roe is not overturned, the children I teach will likely grow up as part of a culture of death learning that when we had our one real chance to end this atrocity, we didn't do enough," Baraquio adds.

The new video is for the Just One Judge campaign to remind voters how crucial this year's elections are because the high court could decide the fate of abortion for decades based on the results of the presidential election.

Jason Jones, founder of Just ONE Judge campaign, told LifeNews.com that Roe needs to be overturned so the American people, through their state legislatures, can determine their own abortion laws instead of an unelected Supreme Court.

"This issue needs to return to the states, so citizens can lobby their state legislatures for laws that protect the dignity of all human life from the moment of conception through natural death," he said.

The Baraquio video follows an ad for the campaign that former Roe plaintiff Norma McCorvey did.

In that clip, McCorvey said she is concerned that now is the best chance to overturn the case that allowed virtually unlimited abortions for any reason throughout pregnancy.

"Most every American alive today has heard of Roe vs. Wade and knows what that means. But few people know that I was Jane Roe in the case 35 years ago that legalized abortion on demand," McCorvey says in her ad.

"On November 4th, we will have the best chance in a generation to end Roe and one vote -- your vote -- could determine who the next Supreme Court justice will be. Our next president and U.S. Senate will appoint and confirm the one justice who will either vote to continue Roe as the law of the land or vote to overturn that decision," she says.

"That's why I'm asking you to do just one thing before November 4th -- to make a pledge to study all the candidates and to vote for those will support the nomination and confirmation of Supreme Court judges who value life," McCorvey adds.

The candidates have contrasting views on judges and abortion with Obama having a pro-abortion litmus test and McCain supporting the kind of judges who are more likely to oppose abortion.

Related web site: Just One Judge

A Poem for All Saints' and All Souls' Days

The Wikipedia entry on Scottish poet Norman MacCaig (1910-1996) says that he ‘described his own religious beliefs as “Zen Calvinism”, a comment typical of his half-humorous, half-serious approach to life’. An obituary by Angus Calder in The Independent (London) says that he ‘had no religious convictions, though his poetry is infused with the seriousness of the Presbyterian tradition’.


Calvinists/Presbyterians believe in the Communion of Saints. One of MacCaig’s poems, Country postman, evokes for me the Communion of Saints, especially in the context of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. I don’t know if the poet had the Communion of Saints in mind when he was writing.


Norman MacCaig divided his time mainly between his native Edinburgh and Assynt, a remote area in the north-west of Scotland. (Photo below taken in that area).

In Britain and Ireland, and I’m sure in many other countries, the country postman has often been the only person trusted by persons living on their own. He has been an unofficial social worker and a person known to be utterly reliable. Someone like the postman in the poem who walks fifteen miles – about 24 kms – every day to deliver letters is a great symbol of commitment and of faithfulness, the kind of anonymous saint the Church honours today.

But on All Souls’ Day we remember those who have been faithful and have been saved but need the purification of purgatory before entering the presence of God, perhaps like the postman in the poem.

Ogle Burn (Glen Ogle), mentioned in the poem, is prone to landslides.

Country postman

Before he was drowned,
his drunk body bumping down the shallows
of the Ogle Burn, he had walked
fifteen miles every day
bringing celebrations and disaster
and what lies between them
to MacLarens and MacGregors
and MacKenzies.

Now he has no news to bring
of celebrations and disasters,
although, after one short journey,
he has reached
all the clans of the world.

A 'Good' Funeral

A “Good” Funeral

Negros Times 29-30 October 2008

The writer edits www.misyononline.com and has a blog at www.bangortobobbio.blogspot.com . You may contact him at undertheacacia@gmail.com

“As funerals go, it was a good one”. So spoke my former seminary rector, Fr. Joseph Flynn, after the funeral in Ireland in June 1997 of Fr. Frank Baragry who had spent almost 40 years in Mindanao. Father Baragry, whose older brother Father Dan had been working in the Philippines since 1955, was only 64. So there was a great sense of grief and loss.

So what made it a “good” funeral?

One unusual aspect was the large number of Filipinos present. They included Columban lay missionaries, religious sisters assigned to Ireland, some Filipinos married there and quite a few Columban priests home from the Philippines on vacation during the Irish summer. From among these a choir was formed that sang hymns in Cebuano.

This certainly helped to make the occasion a “good” funeral. But at the heart of the matter was a strong Catholic Christian faith. Because our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead, we can hope for the same. For centuries in every parish in the Philippines children have been proclaiming the Resurrection on Easter Sunday morning at the Salubong/Encuentro/Pagsugat as our Mother Mary, her statue carried by women, casts aside her mourning cloak when she meets her Risen son, his statue carried by men. Young girls dressed in white scatter petals of flowers as they sing “Resurrexit sicut dixit, Alleluia, alleluia”, “He has risen as he said, Alleluia, alleluia”.

And for centuries Filipinos have been living that same faith as they grieve for those who have died. Filipino wakes, like Irish ones, are not only mournful occasions but joyful ones too as people share stories about the deceased, as they laugh and cry at the same time. Only once have I experienced the full novena for the dead in the Philippines. A young man of 25 whose family was very close to me died after a motorcycle accident one Saturday morning. I had greeted him after Mass just a few hours before and anointed him after returning from a barrio fiesta when he was on the point of death.

I could see that the novena is a wonderful mixture of faith and basic humanity. In this particular case the whole town was in mourning. Jimmy was the second child and the eldest son in a family of six who had lost their father in an accident when the eldest was only 12 and the youngest less than a year. Jimmy was like a father to the rest. During the novena the people helped the family come to terms with their grief by their presence and by their prayers. The funeral Mass was the most difficult I have ever celebrated but I found my faith deepened when Jimmy’s mother, Ponying, offered him to God as he was being buried.

In Ireland we don’t have a novena for the dead and funerals take place within two or three days. People visit the house, where the wake usually takes place, though funeral parlors are not unknown in modern Ireland. Neighbors bring in sandwiches and cakes and make endless pots of tea and coffee for the visitors. The remains are brought to the church the evening before burial for what is called “the removal”. This is a Service of the Word led by the priest and takes place at 5:30 or 6 PM so that people can attend on their way home from work. Many who cannot attend the funeral the following day come to that service. The funeral Mass usually takes place the following morning and after the burial there is usually a meal.

One Irish practice that Filipinos find very strange is that the remains are left alone in the locked church overnight after the “removal”.

That wasn’t the case the night before Father Baragry was buried, as his remains were in the chapel of what was once a seminary with nearly 200 students but that now has none. And I know that some of the Filipinos kept vigil through the night before his burial.

But at the heart of it all, for Filipinos and for the Irish, especially in the past when the Catholic faith was much stronger in Ireland than it is now, is our hope in the Resurrection. Death is not the end, but the entrance to eternal life. And there is a healthy awareness of our unworthiness and of the need to pray for the dead, of the need for purification. A comparison I find useful is the help persons need before their wedding. They want to look their best. They wouldn’t go to the church in their working clothes or without taking a shower. Yet they feel a great sense of excitement while still preparing.

My understanding of purgatory is something like that: the soul knows the joy of having been saved but also knows that it is not yet ready to face God. It’s not a question of punishment but rather of the need to prepare more. There’s a sense of hiya, of “shame” in the Philippine sense. And the dead who are preparing to come into God’s presence are truly helped by our prayers just as a bride and groom preparing for their wedding are helped by those taking care of the many details that go with it.

Of course, what is most important of all when it comes to a wedding is preparing for marriage. A wedding is only for a day while marriage is for life. And our living faith in Jesus Christ in our daily lives is, with God’s grace and the prayers of our friends, the best preparation not only for death but for eternal life.

As we remember the dead this coming weekend, may we pray for the grace for our families and friends of a “good” funeral when our time comes.

undertheacacia@gmail.com

President of Israel Challenges Pope to Golf

The Pope met with his Cardinals to discuss a proposal from Shimon Peres, President of Israel. "Your Holiness", said one of his Cardinals, President Peres wants to challenge you to a game of golf to show the friendship and ecumenical spirit shared by the Jewish and Catholic faiths."

The Pope thought this was a good idea, but he had never held a golf club in his hand. "Don't we have a Cardinal to represent me?" he asked." None that plays very well," a Cardinal replied. "But," he added, "there is a man named Jack Nicklaus, an American golfer who is a devout Catholic. We can offer to make him a Cardinal, then ask him to play President Peres as your personal representative. In addition, to showing our spirit of cooperation, we'll also win the match."

Everyone agreed it was a good idea. The call was made. Of course, Nicklaus was honored and agreed to play. The day after the match, Nicklaus reported to the Vatican to inform the Pope of the result. "I have some good news and some bad news, your Holiness, " said the golfer.

"Tell me the good news first, Cardinal Nicklaus," said the Pope.

"Well, your Holiness, I don't like to brag, but even though I've played some pretty terrific rounds of golf in my life, this was the best I have ever played, by far. I must have been inspired from above. My drives were long and true, my irons were accurate and purposeful, and my putting was perfect. With all due respect, my play was truly miraculous."

There's bad news?", the Pope asked.

"Yes," Nicklaus sighed. "I lost to Rabbi Tiger Woods by seven strokes."

Priest martyred in India

INDIA

Indian Church remembers Fr. Bernard Digal, martyr of the faith in Orissa

by Nirmala Carvalho

Archbishop Cheenath of Cuttack-Bhubaneshwar emphasizes his "tireless" work on behalf of "persecuted Christians," and his devotion to the Virgin Mary. His fellow religious stress his "virtues and ability to forgive his persecutors." Friday October 31, the community's last goodbye to the slain priest.

Mumbai (AsiaNews) - "Fr. Digal was the treasurer of the diocese, an extremely sensitive priest, always considering the needs of other priests before his own, seeking always fraternal communion." This is how Rapheel Cheenath, archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneshwar, remembers Fr. Bernard Digal, who died on the evening of October 28 at St. Thomas Hospital in Chennai.

Fr. Digal was attacked by a group of Hindu fundamentalists on the night of August 25, in the first days of persecution against the Christians of Orissa. In spite of the medical treatment he received, his health continued to worsen. On Saturday, October 25, he was taken to the hospital of Chennai in Tamil Nadu, where he underwent an operation to remove a blood clot that formed in his brain following his beating by the fundamentalists on the night of the attack. On October 27, his lungs collapsed, and he fell into a serious respiratory crisis, following which he was put on a respirator. He received the anointing of the sick at 9:25 on October 28, in the presence of Archbishop Cheenath, and died.

"Fr. Bernard has been given the martyr's crown, he has received the palm of victory from the saints in heaven," says the archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneshwar. "Ever since the violence against the Christian erupted in December '07, Fr. Bernard hardly ever rested, continously coordinating efforts to rehabilitate the people - through peace initiatives, and providing all assistance to the people to avail of the compensation and seeking all measures to bring the lives of the people derailed by the carnage on track. Fr .Bernard was deeply devoted to the Blessed Mother and the rosary and often shared with us how he sought refugee in the Madonna in moments of despair.

"The Kandhamal Chrsitains now have a powerful intercessor in heaven, Fr. Bernard will now continue his work for our people from his heavenly home. His final commitment culminated in a kenosis of total surrender, he was completely immersed in the Passion of our Crucified Lord, and now we hope in the glory of the Ressurection. Our belief in the victory won by the resurrected Christ is reason for hope - the hope that heaven lies beyond death."

Fr. Bernard met with AsiaNews last September 10, during his convalescence at Holy Spirit Hospital in Mumbai (see photo). He was 48 years old, and was ordained on May 29, 1992. He was a native of the village of Tiangia in Kandhamal, one of the areas most severely affected by the recent anti-Christian violence perpetrated by Hindu fundamentalists. He recounted the dramatic moments of the attack, following which "for an entire night, he remained unconscious and half naked in the forest." His funeral will be celebrated the day after tomorrow, Friday, October 31.

Fr. Ajay Singh, director of the Jan Vikas, a social assistance center of the diocese of Cuttack-Bhubaneshwar, recalls the "holiness" of Fr. Digal, his "missionary zeal," his "service to the people," his words of "forgiveness" toward those responsible for the violence, and his constant work aimed at "their rehabilitation." Fr. Manoj Digal, a cousin of the victim and a native of the same village, recalls that "since December, Fr. Bernard worked tirelessly with the Kandhamal Christians who were suffering violence and humiliation, His virtues of humility, forgiveness, inherent justice, goodness and self-sacrificing love will nourish the faith of our people."