Dear Readers, I received by e-mail, a copy of a letter sent by a Salesian priest, missionary in Angola, Africa. It's so beautiful that I think is worth sharing with everyone. It was written and sent to a major U.S. newspaper, at the peak of the defamatory campaign against the Church and priests:
"A tree that falls,
makes more noise than a forest that grows. "
next letter of Uruguay Martín Lasarte Salesian priest who worked in Angola, on April 06 and addressed to the American newspaper The New York Times. It expresses her feelings about the media wave aroused by the sexual abuse of some priests while surprising disinterest that thousands of religious work creates in the media.
Here is the letter.
Dear brother and sister journalists: I am a simple priest. I am proud and happy with my vocation. Twenty years as a missionary in Angola alive. I feel great sorrow for the deep evil people who should be signs of God's love, are a dagger in the lives of innocents. There are no words to justify these acts. There is no doubt that the Church can only be on the side of the weakest, the most defenseless. Therefore, all measures are taken to protect and prevent the dignity of children is always a priority.
I see in many media, especially in your newspaper, the expansion of the subject so exciting, investigating in detail the life of a pedophile priest. So it appears one of a U.S. city, 70's, another in Australia for 80 years and so on, other more recent cases ...
course, all wrong! Some journalistic articles are weighted and balanced, others exaggerated, full of prejudice and even hatred.
is an odd little news and no interest for thousands of priests who consume their lives in service to millions of children, adolescents and those who are disadvantaged by the four corners of the world!
I think the way your information no matter what I needed to transport, by roads mined in 2002, many malnourished children in the Cangumbe Lwena (Angola), because neither government was willing to do so and NGOs were not allowed, that I had to bury dozens of little deaths among displaced people and returnees, who have saved the lives of thousands of people in Moxico with only a single medical center at 90,000 km2, as well as the distribution of food and seeds, which have given the opportunity of education in these schools for 10 years and over 110,000 children ...
Not of concern that, with other priests, had to assist the humanitarian crisis of some 15,000 people in the guerrilla camps, after his surrender, because the foods of the Government and the UN were not getting to your destination.
not news that a priest for 75 years, Father Roberto, drive at night, the city of Luanda healing the street children, leading them to a shelter, order to detoxify the gasoline that literacy hundreds of prisoners, that other priests, like Father Stefano, have homes for the children who suffer abuse and even violence and seeking a refuge. Nor did
Frei Maiato in their 80s, go house to house comforting the sick and desperate.
not news that more than 60,000 of the 400,000 priests and religious have left his homeland and his family to serve their brothers in a leper colony, hospitals, refugee camps and orphanages for children accused of witches or orphans of parents who died of AIDS in schools for the poor, vocational training centers in care centers at ... seropositive or, especially, in parishes and missions giving motivations for people to live and love.
not news that my friend, Father Marcos Aurelio, save for young people during the war in Angola, have them shipped to Kalule Dondo, and upon returning to his mission was strafed on the way, that Brother Francis, with five Ladies catechist, died in a road accident when they went to assist the most remote rural areas, dozens of missionaries in Angola have died of malaria by a simple lack of medical attention, others have jumped in the air because of a mine, to visit your staff. In Kalule cemetery are the graves of the first priests who came to the region ... None passed 40 years. Not news
follow the life of a Priest "normal" in their day to day, in his difficulties and joys quietly consuming his life for the community it serves. The truth is that not trying to be news, but just take the Good News, this news without the hype that began on Easter night. A falling tree makes more noise than a forest that grows.
do not intend to make an apology of the Church and priests. The priest is neither a hero nor a neurotic. It is a simple man with their humanity that seeks to follow Jesus and serve their brothers. There is misery, poverty and weaknesses as every human being, as well as beauty and goodness in every creature ... Insist
so obsessive stalker and a theme losing the overall view creates truly offensive cartoons of the Catholic priesthood in which I feel offended.
just ask you, my friend journalist, who seek the Truth, Goodness and Beauty. That will make in your noble profession.
In Christ, Fr
Martín Lasarte, SDB.
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