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To mark the 41st anniversary of the murder of St Oscar Romero our blog is written by Honor Hania and reflects on the saint's life, words and mission and their relevance in the church today.

Those who surrender to the service of the poor through love of Christ, will live like the grains of wheat that dies. It only apparently dies. If it were not to die, it would remain a solitary grain. The harvest comes because of the grain that dies. We know that every effort to improve society, above all when society is so full of injustice and sin, is an effort that God blesses; that God wants; that God demands of us.

Prophetic words indeed, for they were spoken by Oscar Romero shortly before he was murdered on 24th March 1980. 

The reasons for his assassination are well known. Romero had been publicly critical of the powerful people who dominated the El Salvadoran government, and of their military accomplices who tortured and murdered the civilians - human rights activists, teachers, nuns, and priests - who dared to challenge them. He took the side of the poor, defending them, working with them, advocating for them, and his weekly broadcasts in which he read out the names of people who had been killed, earned him the title ‘Voice of the Voiceless’

As he mirrors Christ’s word in the parable of the wheat, Romero recognizes that his efforts are indeed blessed by God, but that they come at a price. This price may be death, but it is in death that new life is born. That has certainly been the case for Romero whose call to solidarity with the poor and the marginalized is even more powerful today than it was in his lifetime. He stands as an inspiration to members of the Church all over the world who work for peace and for justice and who struggle to bring about a church for the poor.

That this should be the case is even more surprising when one considers that for most of his life Romero was a conservative. When he was appointed Archbishop he was considered a safe choice, one who would not upset the status quo. All this changed when his friend Rutilio Grande, a Jesuit who worked with the poor and a personal friend of Romero, was murdered by the government.  One might consider this another grain of wheat, for from then onwards Romero could no longer remain silent about the injustices happening around him.  

In a three year ministry, not unlike Christ’s, Romero reminded us that our faith is not, or should not be, a complacent and comfortable one. We are called to read the signs of the times and be attentive to the world around us so that we can truly work for the kingdom. (1)

A church that does not provoke crisis, a gospel that does not disturb, a word of God that does not rankle, a word of God that does not touch the concrete sin of the society in which it is being proclaimed — what kind of gospel is that?” (Oscar Romero)

(1) Gaudium et Spes, 1965. Parag 4.

In our latest blog by Danny Sweeney, Social Justice Coordinator with Justice & Peace Scotland, Danny reflects on the enriching experiences he enjoyed volunteering overseas and why similar opportunities look increasingly unlikely for young people from the UK today. 

“A life unlike your own can be your best teacher” 

This quote is ascribed to St. Columban; the 6th century Irish missionary and reflects my own life’s journey.

The experiences I had as a volunteer in India with the Salesians of Don Bosco and teaching in China for The British Council remain some of the most formative of my adult life. 

These experiences led me to Malawi where I led a team for Progressio on the International Citizen Service scheme. ICS was built on previous schemes and was launched by David Cameron.  It was inspired by the US’ Peace Corp programme intended to give opportunities to young people who otherwise wouldn’t have them to experience the wider world, learn about the work done in international development, and develop their own skills while doing so. Like all of these kinds of schemes the participants gain far more in experience than we realistically contribute to the programmes visited. From a financial viewpoint this is wasteful, for what that experience can give you; priceless. 

ICS was quietly shut down last month, and now Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) (who had been the lead partner in ICS) are facing the end of much of their other work. VSO’s experience in connecting skilled professionals with international development over 60 years appears to be the latest victim as this government continues its’ shameful attacks on international solidarity; the abolition of the Department for International Development and the slashing of that budget. Seen as part of the petty nationalist outlook of the current administration this is not a surprise; albeit it is a disgrace to see our country abandon an outstanding soft power asset (if one thinks like a diplomat) and our duty to our brothers and sisters in the global south (if one thinks of our social teaching). 

I fear something far more sinister is happening. Robbing young people of the chance to experience what Columban described be it through the shutting down of ICS, or the choice (and it was a choice) to deny future students involvement in the Erasmus Scheme the government seems set to ensure that those best teachers be put out of reach of our young people. 

I am not someone who believes that everything about other cultures is better; in my travels I have seen things which appalled me, as well as those which inspired. This, surely, is the point of the learning that comes from living amongst another culture. With all this coming in the same week that the government rushed through a policing bill which effectively removes the right to protest it begs the question as to what future this government is planning for our young people? 

Denied the chances to learn from other cultures and denied the right to protest against the injustices this government is heaping upon them.

St Columban – pray for us!

Sr Margaret Rose Bradley SND reflects on one easy way to use less plastic in our latest blog.

...Or you may prefer coffee but I want to concentrate more on tea.

I once read about a lovely Gran who dried out all her teabags and gave them to her grandson. It seemed to be a rather unusual thing to collect for her grandson until I read a bit more. He loved to play with his toy soldiers and his caring Gran kept all her dried teabags so that he would have sandbags to shore up any walls that were about to fall down or use them when flooding was a possibility. A child’s imagination can travel many roads even with dried out teabags.

Quite often I see published hints for gardens and gardening on-line. A popular one is a hint to put your used teabags round your plants in your garden or in plant pots but this is a plea to ask you not to do that and to discourage anyone else from doing that. Many of the tea bags we buy and use actually contain PLASTIC. Strange but true. Plastic in the garden can cause harm and problems for your dogs and cats. Problems are also caused for any wildlife and birds who visit your garden. The plastic can be eaten by all these creatures that then become ill and may not survive. Through the food chain we too could be eating plastic.

Keeping teabags out of the garden maybe a small point but an important one.  And on the matter of tea bags. Many of the tea bags we buy contain plastic but the manufacturers don’t always declare it. Some time ago a television programme drew attention to the fact that some tea bags contain plastic. I don’t have a lot of information but I do know of 2 producers of tea bags whose products do not contain any plastic. These are Twinings and PG Tips.

There has been so much for us all to contend with this year and sometimes it takes a lot of effort to get anything done. But this information has encouraged me to make one resolution for the year 2021. I am only going to buy PG Tips teabags from now on and not Tetley for example. It shouldn’t take too much effort to manage this and I will feel I am able to do something about the war on plastic.

Maybe this is one thing we could all consider for this new year of 2021.