The Honduran Bishops’ Conference called on the country’s government to consider changing its security strategy in the midst of a wave of violence that has intensified and worsened in recent days.
The bishops also lamented that the violence in the country has been going on for years.
“We share our deep sorrow that so many families are experiencing because of the loss of their loved ones, as well as those who feel threatened, for whom we express our fraternal closeness and our prayers,” they said.
Amid increasing violence, the government of President Xiomara Castro de Zelaya announced a second stage of its “National Security Plan ‘Solution Against Crime.’”
Part of the plan includes reorganizing the prisons, which has drawn criticism from human rights organizations.
Among recent episodes of violence, more than 40 women inmates were killed on June 20 in a confrontation between rival gangs inside the Women’s Center for Social Readaptation (CEFAS) near the capital Tegucigalpa.
On June 24, armed men entered a billiards hall in the municipality of Choloma in northern Honduras and killed 13 people.
For the Honduran bishops, “one thing is clear” about the government’s security efforts: “They are not yielding the hoped-for results.”
“When thinking about so many deaths, it’s not just about the numbers: These are human lives, and many of them are very young children,” the prelates said.
“The spiral of violence we are suffering from is the result of years of injustice, systematic corruption, and the indifference with which the roots of the problem has been viewed,” the bishops’ conference pointed out.
“Violence exacerbates extreme poverty and nullifies hopes of finding a lasting solution,” the bishops said, while calling on citizens to assume “their own duties and commitments in society, thus contributing to the welfare and progress of the country in a climate of the true rule of law sustained in the pursuit of the common good.”
“Now more than ever we need to be united,” they stressed.
Finally, the bishops encouraged the faithful “to turn our gaze to the Most Holy Virgin of Suyapa, mother of Honduras, begging her to help hearts open up to reconciliation and make a place for fraternal coexistence, in all areas of social life, including inside the prisons.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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Missionaries of Charity leave Nicaragua on July 6, 2022. / Credit: P. Sunil Kumar Adugula
ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 31, 2023 / 16:30 pm (CNA).
Researcher and lawyer Martha Patricia Molina, a member of the editorial board of the newspaper La Prensa,… […]
Santiago, Chile, Jan 15, 2018 / 04:00 pm (CNA).- On the eve of Pope Francis’ visit to Chile, an attack on a church was reported in the city of Melipilla, an hour outside of Santiago. This was the sixth attack on Catholic
churches in protest of the pontiff’s visit.
Local media reported that around 1:00 am on Sunday, masked individuals threw an explosive at St. Augustine Church, damaging the main door and part of the entrance. Police and firemen responded to the scene.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”es” dir=”ltr”>ACTUALIZADO + FOTOS | Iglesia de Melipilla sufre ataque incendiario en la víspera de la visita papal <a href=”https://t.co/PUveGqBmHG”>https://t.co/PUveGqBmHG</a> <a href=”https://t.co/3ke44Bj3UM”>pic.twitter.com/3ke44Bj3UM</a></p>— BioBioChile (@biobio) <a href=”https://twitter.com/biobio/status/952448642266345474?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>January 14, 2018</a></blockquote>
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The attackers also spray painted the sidewalk with this message: “The only church that illuminates is the one that burns, the one in flames. Hah-Hah No to the Pope.”
The Church in Chile has been plagued by protests, many centering around the case of Father Fernando Karadima a once-popular Chilean priest convicted by the Church in 2011 of sexually abusing minors but, controversially, not laicized. Other protests have been related to the political status of the Mapuche, Chile’s largest indigenous group. Still another group of protesters attacked the apostolic nunciature, the Vatican Embassy in Chile, on Jan. 12, opposing the cost of the papal visit to the Chilean government.
The Diocese of San José condemned the Melipilla attack in a Facebook post, and noted that “Saint Augustine Church is the only building on the national register of historical places in the city of Melipilla.”
“We repudiate this act of hatred against the faith. Today we ask you to raise up a special prayer for those who committed this act of clear religious intolerance,” the diocese said.
Bio Bio Radio reported that the fire did not do a lot of damage and there were no injuries, since the church was closed down after a 2010 earthquake and is still being remodeled.
Local police are conducting an investigation to find the whereabouts of those involved.
Prior to this attack, three other Catholic churches in Santiago were attacked in the early hours of Jan. 12 and suspicious devices were found at two others.
The Archdiocese of Santiago expressed its deep sorrow for those attacks, and said that they do not represent “the feeling of the vast majority of the population.”
“We are deeply pained by these incidents which contradict the spirit of peace which animates the pope’s visit to the country,” the archdiocese said.
This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
A scene from the trailer promoting Liberty University’s campus ministry production of “Scaremare.” / Scaremare on YouTube
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 29, 2022 / 10:55 am (CNA).
This October some churches and ministries in the United States are once again hosting Christian versions of haunted houses, and nonbelievers and believers alike are lining up for some rather existential spine-tingling for the first time since the pandemic.
Popular among evangelical Protestant churches in the South, these “judgment houses” typically stage dramatic representations depicting what happens after people die, leaving visitors to ponder whether they themselves are headed for heaven or hell, and presumably, to act accordingly.
Is this a good way to save souls? Some Catholics experts in evangelization who spoke to CNA have reservations.
A different way to evangelize
The late Jerry Falwell, the Baptist televangelist, and founder of Liberty University, in Lynchburg, Virginia, is credited with hosting the first judgment house in 1972, “Scaremare.”
Scaremare is still going strong in Lynchburg, where the university’s campus ministry stages a production every year around Halloween that draws people from all over the region attracted by the lure of “fun-house rooms and scenes of death in order to confront people with the question ‘What happens after I die?’”
The performance does not disappoint those looking for the sort of adrenaline surge a horror movie produces. As many as 4,000 visitors a night witness gruesome death scenes including a massacre at a movie theater and a camper who is mauled by a wild animal.
According to Josh Coldren, the director of the 2022 production of Scaremare, the scenes are intended to make people think about their fears and their mortality.
“We talk about how everyone faces death, but how there is hope beyond our fears and hope beyond death, and that hope is in Jesus Christ,” Coldren told CNA.
According to Scaremare’s website, over 26,000 people who visited over the years “have made decisions for Christ over the past two decades. Ironically, this House of Death points to the Way of Life!”
While judgment houses can function as memento mori, efficacious reminders of the inevitability of death, some judgment houses, also known as “Hell Houses,” have become controversial for taking the idea to an extreme. Graphic scenes such as abortions, extramarital sex, and drug use are sometimes depicted along with the consequence of these actions as the sinners are shown condemned to spend eternity in hell.
Scaremare doesn’t get into these issues or talk about hell at all, Coldren told CNA.
“We don’t have a scene of hell, and we stay away from demons. We believe those things are real, we just make sure we stay away from them,” Coldren said.
Tom Hudgins, is the owner of Judgement House, a company based in Seminole, Florida, that provides scripts to churches to stage dramas. Before COVID, he told CNA, they helped as many as 350 churches at a time hold Judgement Houses. They are slowly getting back to business, he said, and about 50 participating churches are listed on their website.
Hudgins explained to CNA that, unlike more extreme Hell House productions, his scripts never talk about social issues. Small groups of visitors walk through scenes meant to encourage self-reflection. Each production begins with death, by a car crash or cancer, for example, and then the audience sees what happens after death.
“They see what hell would be like, but they also see what heaven will be like, and everyone can make their own decisions,” Hudgins said.
A scene from a production of a Judgement House script. Decaturville Pentecostal Church YouTube
Bonnie Gilliland, the dramatic director at Morningside Baptist Church in Tallahassee, Florida, is staging a play with the help of Judgement House this October. She told CNA that the productions are a way of sharing the Gospel.
“We include a lot of scripture, it’s very biblically based,” she said.
Gilliland explained that this year’s production isn’t just for nonbelievers – it’s meant to give the regular churchgoer a wake-up call.
“The current drama gives people an opportunity to understand and examine whether they have a relationship with Jesus Christ because it’s more than just going to church, it’s about accepting Jesus as your savior and receiving the gift of eternal life,” Gilliland said.
Kelly Armstrong, the director of the judgment house at New Harmony Baptist Church in Albertville, Alabama, told CNA that past productions have depicted scenes of car wrecks, overdoses, and abuse.
Visitors see “how people make decisions that affect their eternity,” he said. “It brings our church together, and makes people think.”
Catholic criticism of “hell houses”
Judgment houses have not found favor among Catholic churches in the United States, and two experts in evangelization and pastoral care told CNA that they don’t think talking about hell attracts people to the Church.
Sherry Weddell is the founder of the Catherine of Siena Institute, an apostolate that helps evangelize Catholic parishes to turn pew-sitters into “intentional missionary disciples.” She told CNA that she advises any Catholics considering introducing hell-related themes to their Halloween decorations or celebrations, to rethink that idea.
“If you live in an area that has a significant number of young adults, especially parents of young children, or in an area that is highly secularized like urban areas of the East or West coasts, many will find it offensive or off-putting. And there is a real chance that sensitive and young children could be upset by it which would fuel their parents’ unhappiness with the sponsoring Catholic community,” Weddell explained.
“You could upset people who might otherwise have been open to attending an Advent or Christmas event at your parish or just open to a friendship with a Catholic like you.
“Instead of building or strengthening bridges of trust, you could be shattering or weakening whatever trust may already exist. There are creative, positive, child and parent-friendly alternatives such as “trunk-or-treating,” costume parties, and community of light events that foster both long-standing relationships and fun,” Weddell said.
Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, the chief exorcist for the Archdiocese of Washington, and a psychologist and researcher at the Catholic University of America, told CNA that the threat of hell isn’t effective in this day and age.
“People today are not convinced or influenced by threats of hell. The Church just really stopped doing that because it just doesn’t work. You know, you can do all the hellfire and damnation sermons you want, but people just kind of yawn, “ Rossetti said.
“We’re trying to emphasize God’s love and God’s mercy, which I think is much more to the point, frankly. And also more of a message that’s needed in our day. And I think that started with Pope John XXIII at Vatican II. He said, today what the message needs to be is of God’s mercy and compassion and God’s love.
“This is what attracts people, and this is sort of the core of our message. God loves us and God has saved us out of his love and compassion in Jesus,” he said.
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