Ed. note: On June 20, Senator Voinovich decided to co-sponsor Senate bill 805. Congratulations to Mike and his parishioners for proving once again that local action is essential to achieving real policy change.

Stand by Me!
Cincinnati Twinning Generates Solidarity/Advocacy with Africans

Remember the Ben E. King song from the 1960s, Stand by Me? What a terrific piece of music that warmly captures the meaning of human friendship and solidarity.  The U.S. Catholic bishops’ 2001 document, A Call to Solidarity With Africa, reflects the same message: “U.S. Dioceses and parishes have found twinning with dioceses and parishes in Africa and other parts of the world to be enriching experiences of communion with other members of the body of Christ and a means of deepening bonds of solidarity with a church in need.”  It’s all about building relationships and solidarity in God’s family... standing with and for one another in good and bad times.

Three Brazilian novices from the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur were in Nairobi to learn English and to participate in the World Social Forum. Below, two of them tell us of  their experiences there and their reflections on the implications of the WSF, all in their new mastery of English!

Critical analysis of everyday reality is basic to the formation of effective instruments and strategies for popular social movements.

What we see today is that imperialism is alive and as aggressive as it ever was at any moment in history. And it may even be worse. We can see this looking at the situation of Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Cuba and many other countries, where the ideological power as well as the economic power and the physical power (military force) of the Capitalist countries dominate. We see ever new ideological instruments which propagate the life style of the United States, in a world where the poor are getting poorer and immense environmental problems are destroying the planet. 

AFJN Board member, Dr. Mike Gable, rallied his parish (St. Aloysius) in Cincinnati, Ohio in support of the bill before Congress to increase funding for health care workers in Africa. Not only did they generate 500 letters, two hundred and fifty to Rep. Steve Chabot and two hundred and fifty to Sen. Voinovich, but on April 30 they also made visits to both congressional offices in Cincinnati. On top of that, Dr. Gable has encouraged other parishes in the archdiocese of Cincinnati to do the same, emailing them copies of the sample letter that he produced for his parishioners. Interest has also been expressed by AJFN members in the archdiocese of Indianapolis. This is another example of the network widening on behalf of greater justice for Africa.

For more information on Dr. Gable's visit and on what you can do in support of the Health Care Workers bill, keep on reading...

AFJN was well represented in Nairobi in January at the World Social Forum. Many of our members attended the WSF, held for the first time on African soil. The excitement of the event is so contagious that we want to share it with as many people as possible. As different members report in we will add their witnessing stories to this one.

The first batch of witnesses came from the Missionaries of Africa who had nearly twenty confreres participating. Many more can be found on the Missionaries of Africa website as well. Just before the WSF, the Second World Forum of Theology and Liberation was held at the Carmelite Center in Nairobi. Wilbert Gobbo, M.Afr. shares with us below his experience there as well as his personal critique of the World Social Forum. We've recently added Comboni Sr. Giovanna Sguazza's reflections on the experience, a report from Board member, John Kleiderer on the Jesuits' experience in Nairobi as well as a link to the reflections of Missionary of Africa, Sean O'Leary, who asks the question, "is another World Social Forum Possible?"