Pope Washes Feet of Young Muslim Woman Prisoner

“We need to go out to the outskirts where there is suffering, bloodshed, blindness that longs for sight, and prisoners in thrall to many evil masters,” he said at a mass in St Peter’s Basilica. “It is not in soul-searching or constant introspection that we encounter the Lord.”

While popes have for centuries washed the feet of the faithful on the day before Good Friday, never before had a pontiff washed the feet of a woman. That one of the female inmates at the prison in Rome was also a Serbian Muslim. Pope Francis washed the feet of 12 inmates aged 14 to 21, among them the two women, the second of whom was an Italian Catholic.

“There is no better way to show his service for the smallest, for the least fortunate,” said Gaetano Greco, a local chaplain.

Read: The Last Supper. Why did Jesus wash the disciples' feet? 

The pontiff, who has largely disregarded protocol since his election earlier this month, urged his fellow clerics before the ceremony to prioritise the poor.

“We need to go out to the outskirts where there is suffering, bloodshed, blindness that longs for sight, and prisoners in thrall to many evil masters,” he said at a mass in St Peter’s Basilica. “It is not in soul-searching or constant introspection that we encounter the Lord.”

Francis, the first leader of the Catholic Church from Latin America, led a mass with a mixed group of young offenders at the Casal del Marmo prison outside of Rome.

The 76-year-old, who was archbishop of Buenos Aires until chosen as pope, has already made a name for himself as a champion of the disadvantaged. In his homeland of Argentina he was known for his strong social advocacy, working in slums and shunning the lavish lifestyle adopted by some senior clerics. He lived in a small flat near the cathedral, flew to the Rome conclave in economy class, and chose to travel with his fellow cardinals by minibus rather than in the papal limousine.

Building Bridges between Faiths

MyJihad is a public education campaign that started in Chicago, US, that seeks to share the proper meaning of Jihad as believed and practiced by the majority of Muslims. Jihad means "struggling in the way of God". The way of God, being goodness, justice, passion, compassion, etc. It is putting up the good fight against whatever odds or barriers you face in your life. It is a central tenet of the Islamic creed that has unfortunately been widely misrepresented due to a) first and foremost, the actions of Muslim extremists, b) attempts at public indoctrination by Islamophobes who claim that the extremists are right and the rest of Muslims are wrong, and c) a selective media that understandably focuses on the sensational. This campaign is about reclaiming most Muslims' faith and its concepts from extremists, both Muslim and anti-Muslim. MyJihad includes displaying public ads on buses & trains, the use of #MyJihad hashtag on twitter, outreach on Facebook and Youtube, as well as speaking events and other initiatives.

Read Imam Mazhar Shaheen's Speech in Spanish - Lee el discurso de Imam Mazhar Shaheen en español

16 April: International Day against Child Slavery. No to a World of Unemployed and Enslaved People

"NO TO A WORLD OF ENSLAVED AND UNEMPLOYED PEOPLE”

16 April: International Day against Child Slavery 
400 million child slaves: 
a Political and Trade Union Crime

Christian Cultural Movement's 
2013 Communiqué

18^th  Anniversary of IQBAL MASIH’s murder, Christian non-violent militant for Justice in the fight against Child Slavery in the world. Murdered on 16^th April 1995, in Pakistan, when he was 12. [1983-1995] Testimony of true activist and solidarity trade- unionism.

Every day we can find products made by enslaved children in our homes, in our streets, in shopping malls, in our consumption. At present, millions of children breath the smoke of rubbish landfills, they risk their lives as pearl divers, they work in the mines to get the minerals for our cosmetics, for new technologies, they are kidnapped to become child soldiers, they live amidst bullets and rapes in the streets, they are used for the trade in human organs, in brothels, in sweatshop,... Children who have been deprived of their childhood and education. Children who are subjugated, enslaved, humiliated.

There are more slaves at present than at any other time in history. Children are forced to participate in the international planning of work, resulting from a perverse economic system. This world crime, far from disappearing, is on the rise in number and cruelty. Let us not be carried away by a manipulated language: they are child slaves, they are not child workers!

When we talk about an economic crisis in international forums and in the media, no one says that this crisis will be paid by the poor, and especially by the children who will be aborted or subjected to more bondage.

The causes of this crime have a clear economic dimension: a radically unfair international economic system, tailored to the requirements of large multinational companies (including the Spanish ZARA and El Corte Ingles, which have been reported recently) and of a global financial system seeking to maximize profits at all costs and having no qualms about using child slave labor.

Short Story: Lullaby and Parallelism with Impoverished Immigrants

SHORT STORY: LULLABY

Leslie Marmon Silko was raised on the Laguna Pueblo reservation in New Mexico, a place she came to know through stories that were told to her by her father, her aunt, and her grandmother. The storytelling tradition, much of it oral rather than written, is often a powerful element in Native American tribes, preserving certain ways of knowing and helping members recognize their connection to the tribe. But these stories are often living things, adapting and changing to reflect tribal members’ struggles to adapt to an often hostile world. They can even be a source of healing, as in the short story “Lullaby” you’re about to read here.

Silko is widely recognized as one of the finest living Native American writers, and her novel Ceremony, published in 1977, received critical acclaim. She’s also a talented poet and essayist. Above all, Leslie Marmon Silko is a storyteller in the Laguna tradition, using a kind of narrative that in many ways will be familiar to non-native readers.

There are characters and scenes and a significant event, but also notice how landscape figures into the telling of this story, and in particular what the narrator’s relationship is with the natural world. One of the motives for telling a story like this is to deal with loss by seeking recovery through balance or harmony. This may not be at all obvious when you read this story, which on the surface is an unrelentingly sad tale.

Guide for the analysis of the story Lullaby:

1. Background: Cultural and social conditions of “native Americans” in the USA. Reflection of this situation in Lullaby.
2. Characters: Ayah, Chato (behaviour, conflicts), Jimmy, Danny and Ella (as symbols in the story), the white doctors and the policeman.
3. American Indian traditions as presented in the story.
4. Themes in the story: Tradition and change. Racial and cultural oppression. Poverty and exploitation. Language barriers. Deaths and loss. Reconciliation.

5. Motif: The Blanket.
6. Significance of the song.
7. The environment in the story: place, time, atmosphere.
8. History of the American Indians in the USA: The Native Americans in the 1960’s.
9. Historical perspective, sociological perspective, psychological perspective and semiotic perspective.

10. Style
11. Narration – Narrator

Parallelism between Lullaby and the current situation impoverished immigrants are going through.

1. Background: Cultural and social conditions of impoverished immigrants in the USA and in Europe.
2. Families broken by immigration; impact of immigration policies on children and parents; the role of the police in the enforcement of immigration laws.
3. Themes: Tradition and change. Racial and cultural discrimination. Poverty and exploitation. Language barriers. Deaths and loss. Reconciliation.

4. World history of capitalist Imperialism: expropriation and plundering of raw materials and labour of the Third World, which together with the European and North American demand for cheap labour have got people to emigrate.

5. Historical perspective, sociological perspective, psychological perspective and semiotic perspective.

Read the Short Story: LULLABY 

TEACHER'S NOTES ON LULLABY

For better understanding of the story, you can read:

The Power of Ayah in Leslie Marmon Silko's "Lullaby" by Patrice Hollrah