Recommended for you today, from the NCR/GSR/EarthBeat copy desk:
From Saturday, World Refugee Day, here’s an excerpt from a column from Sr. Mary Leonora Tucker, a School Sister of Notre Dame, whose community hosted Manal, a Syrian widow and mother of five, who came to the U.S. as a refugee a few years ago:
Just how perilous that journey was became clear to me once Manal had settled here, in a house provided by the School Sisters of Notre Dame, and I became one of her English teachers. I learned, for example, that during those 13 days spent walking on mud-soaked roads, the family slept on the ground, ate whatever food they could find, huddled together to protect one another from the cold and rain, and prayed that a bomb would not fall from the planes flying over their heads.
Another look at the issue, from Friday from EarthBeat, an interview (includes a video version) with Joan Rosenhauer, executive director of Jesuit Refugee Service/USA. As the leader of the U.S.-wing of an organization that served 1 in every 100 refugees worldwide in 2018, Rosenhauer explained how the effects of climate change will not only lead to enormous numbers of displaced people in the future, but are also making life harder for refugees in the present.
Tim Uhl is back on our pages. He is the superintendent of Montana Catholic Schools and the producer of Catholic School Matters newsletter and podcast. Read: Catholic school leaders were wrong about kneeling protests
There are not a lot of Catholics in Japan, but Bishop-designate Daisuke Narui has been picked by Pope Francis to head Niigata Diocese. Read: Rome’s Catholic peace community hails episcopal appointment of one of its own
If any place illustrates the hardship the coronavirus pandemic poses in a conflict zone, it might be Wau, South Sudan. There, thousands of people had remained on grounds near the city’s Catholic cathedral where they’d begun gathering for protection since 2016. Located on church-owned property, the compound had provided protection for residents of nearby communities fleeing from violence committed by militias and paramilitaries. Sisters on the ground spoke to GSR about the burden and the peril that the coronavirus pandemic adds to life in or near the conflict zones of South Sudan, Syria and Ukraine. Read more.
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