– Tej Francis
BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA
RADICAL FEMINISTS ATTACK CHURCH AND TOWN HALL IN ARGENTINA
(CNA/EWTN News) Radical feminists firebombed a town hall and spray painted a Catholic Church in Argentina. The series of attacks came during a women’s conference held in the Patagonia region this past weekend. The conference was the 33rd National Women’s Encounter held October 13-15 in the city of Trelew in Chubut province, and focused primarily on promoting abortion and so-called gender ideology.
On October 14, participants in the conference marched through the streets of Trelew with signs in favor of legalized abortion and the separation of church and state. During the demonstration, a group of bare-chested feminists stood in front of Mary Help of Christians parish and attacked Trelew town hall with Molotov cocktail firebombs.
The women also attacked other public buildings with bombs, stones, and graffiti. The police and locals eventually managed to control the mob and ten women were arrested. Police also had to shut down two gas stations for selling gasoline to young women who were suspected to be collecting gasoline for the Molotov cocktails.
This incident is one of numerous attacks on Catholic churches since the Argentinian senate rejected a bill legalizing abortion in August of this year. In September, a Catholic school in the town of San Justo had hate messages spray painted on it, and students at different universities have forcibly removed religious images from their campuses, saying that they demand legalized abortion and the separation of church and state.
LONDON, ENGLAND
THIS LONDON CATHOLIC SCHOOL USES ITS GARDEN TO FEED HOMELESS
(CNA) A Catholic school in London has turned its horticulture lessons into meals for the homeless. St Gregory’s Catholic Science College in northwest London educates nearly 1000 children, aged 11-18. Many of the students volunteer for social and environmental work.
This year, horticulture students grew pumpkins from seed in the summer term and harvested their fruit in early October. The pupils used the pumpkins, along with thyme from their garden, to make soup. They sent that soup to London’s Ealing Abbey Soup Kitchen, an ecumenical initiative of service for the city’s homeless population. Ealing Abbey Soup Kitchen has been serving people in need since 1973. The pumpkin-thyme soup provided more than 150 portions.
The students of St Gregory’s have also been recently involved with environmental projects, among them helping to clean nearby Woodcock Park. Wealdstone Brook, which runs through the park, has had a problem with misconnected water lines dumping waste into the water from some 140 nearby homes.
Earlier this year, St Gregory’s Catholic Science College won the Horticultural Society’s School Gardening Team of the year award. The school has also been awarded the Eco Schools Green Flag Award for its commitment to the environment as seen in its curriculum. The school was nominated for the 2018 Sustainable Schools TES AWARD. Headteacher Andy Prindiville said consideration for that award was an incredible honor.
MANDALAY, MYANMAR
ETHNIC MINORITY ARMY EXPELS 8 PRIESTS, NUNS, TEACHERS FROM MYANMAR
(CNS) Two Salesian priests, three nuns from the Missionary Society of St. Paul and three lay teachers were ordered by the United Wa State Army to leave the Wa Hills, which border China, reported ucanews.com. Fr. Raymond Than, one of the expelled who arrived in Lashio town Oct. 15, said that, three days earlier, Wa officials issued the expulsion order for clergy who arrived in the region after 1992.
They were only allowed to take what they could carry and were told that a local boarding school and chapel were being cordoned off, Than told ucanews.com. Local Christians were being forbidden from worshipping, even in their own homes. The clergy and laypeople had been providing education and health care services for locals.
In late September this year, a priest, five nuns and six lay teachers were expelled. Since Sept. 13, the United Wa State Army, which grew out of the Communist Party of what was formerly known as Burma, destroyed churches, detained pastors and closed religious schools.
Before 1960, the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions began operating in the Wa Hills and some Lahu people became Catholics, according to church records. The United Wa State Army leadership has deemed only churches built between 1989 and 1992 to be legal, as well as banning construction of new churches, and banning outside clerics along with the teaching of religion in local schools.
The Wa region is home to several ethnic groups, Christians constitute around 30 percent of the estimated 450,000 Wa population.
Follow
