Op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof on May 1 wrote a column about the many missionary priests, nuns and lay people who are making a difference in Africa, especially Sudan.
In it he mentions the contributions of Father Michael Barton, a Comboni missionary priest from Indianapolis who serves in Nyamlell, south Sudan:
WHO CAN MOCK THIS CHURCH?
Juba, Sudan -- Maybe the Catholic Church should be turned upside down.
Jesus wasn’t known for pontificating from palaces, covering up scandals, or issuing Paleolithic edicts on social issues. Does anyone think he would have protected clergymen who raped children?
Yet if the top of the church has strayed from its roots, much of its base is still deeply inspiring. I came here to impoverished southern Sudan to write about Sudanese problems, not the Catholic Church’s. Yet once again, I am awed that so many of the selfless people serving the world’s neediest are lowly nuns and priests — notable not for the grandeur of their vestments but for the grandness of their compassion.
As I’ve noted before, there seem to be two Catholic Churches, the old boys’ club of the Vatican and the grass-roots network of humble priests, nuns and laity in places like Sudan. The Vatican certainly supports many charitable efforts, and some bishops and cardinals are exemplary, but overwhelmingly it’s at the grass roots that I find the great soul of the Catholic Church.
The Vatican believes that this newspaper and other news organizations have been unfair and overzealous in excavating the church’s cover-ups of child rape. I see the opposite. No organization has done more to elevate the moral stature of the Catholic Church in the United States than The Boston Globe. Its groundbreaking 2002 coverage of abuse by priests led to reforms and by most accounts a significant reduction in abuse. Catholic kids are safer today not because of the cardinals’ leadership, but because of The Boston Globe’s.
Yet the church leaders are right about one thing: there is often a liberal and secular snobbishness toward the church as a whole — and that is unfair.
It may be easy at a New York cocktail party to sniff derisively at a church whose apex is male chauvinist, homophobic and so out of touch that it bars the use of condoms even to curb AIDS. But what about Father Michael Barton, a Catholic priest from Indianapolis? I met Father Michael in the remote village of Nyamlell, 150 miles from any paved road here in southern Sudan. He runs four schools for children who would otherwise go without an education, and his graduates score at the top of statewide examinations.
Father Michael came to southern Sudan in 1978 and chatters fluently in Dinka and other local languages. To keep his schools alive, he persevered through civil war, imprisonment and beatings, and a smorgasbord of disease. “It’s very normal to have malaria,” he said. “Intestinal parasites — that’s just normal.”
Father Michael may be the worst-dressed priest I’ve ever seen — and the noblest.
Anybody scorn him? Anybody think he’s a self-righteous hypocrite?
On the contrary, he would make a great pope.
In the city of Juba, I met Cathy Arata, a nun from New Jersey who spent years working with battered women in Appalachia. Then she moved to El Salvador during the brutal civil war there, putting her life on the line to protect peasants. Two years ago, she came here on behalf of a terrific Catholic project called Solidarity With Southern Sudan.
Sister Cathy and the others in the project have trained 600 schoolteachers. They are fighting hunger not with handouts but with help for villagers to improve agricultural techniques. They are also establishing a school for health workers, with a special focus on midwifery to reduce deaths in childbirth.
At the hospital attached to that school, the surgeon is a nun from Italy. The other doctor is a 72-year-old nun from Rhode Island. Nuns rock.
Sister Cathy would like to see more decentralization in the church, a greater role for women, and more emphasis on public service. She says she worries sometimes that if Jesus returned he would say, “Oh, they got it all wrong!”
She would make a great pope, too.
There are so many more like them. There’s Father Mario Falconi, an Italian priest who refused to leave Rwanda during the genocide and bravely saved 3,000 people from being massacred. There’s Father Mario Benedetti, a 72-year-old Italian priest based in Congo who fled with his congregation when their town was attacked by a brutal militia. Now Father Mario lives side by side with his Congolese congregants in the squalor of a refugee camp in southern Sudan, struggling to get schooling for their children.
It’s because of brave souls like these that I honor the Catholic Church. I understand why many Americans disdain a church whose leaders are linked to cover-ups and antediluvian stances on women, gays and condoms — but the Catholic Church is far larger than the Vatican.
And unless we’re willing to endure beatings alongside Father Michael, unless we’re willing to stand up to warlords with Sister Cathy, we have no right to disparage them or their true church.
I invite you to comment on this column on my blog, On the Ground. Please also join me on Facebook, watch my YouTube videos videos and follow me on Twitter.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Security based on African justice
St. Mary Makuei Catholic Chapel
Comboni School,Makuei(ANC) Northern Bahr El Ghazal State South Sudan
March 31st 2010
Reported by the head catechist
Zachariah Noon Ajongi
Makuei Centre
Corrected by the head Catechist
John G. Garang Nyamlell
Dear Fr. Michael D. Barton,
St Teresa Parish, Nyamlell
I submit warm greetings to you and our sisters and all people who are working with you in the mission.
I am sending you this information which happened almost 3 months ago in January. This problem caused seven people to lose their lives in a day attack.
It happened,when SPLA soldier named Mabior Kuol Kuom whose cows had been robbed by Bagara (Arabs) a year before in Dheen (Southern Darfur State). These are the cows which were promised to him by one of the Bagara in Dheen as payment for employment. He was employed to look after cattle thereafter, he would be given a cow for each year, Mabior worked with the Bagara for 12 years and was given 12 cows which were robbed on his way home.
On January 26, 2010, this SPLA soldier, called Mabior Kuol Kuom shot seven Bagara, a donkey and camel and they died instantly. This caused a great problem between the Dinka and the Bagara, and for a week some of them were trying to fight but luckily the Bagara never found the Dinka, all the communities in Makuei Centre ran away from their homes for a week so as not to be found by the Bagara.
After a few days, the Northern Bahr El Ghazal State Governor Paul Malong Awan, surrounded by many police and soldiers, visited the place where the killing occurred and held the meeting between the Bagara and the Dinka. The meeting went smoothly and the Governor promised that the Bagara cattle could go where ever the Bagara liked to take them for grazing and also promised that the Government will give compensation for the dead people, for each deceased’ the Bagara would get as blood money 31 thousand Sudanese pounds and the total for seven people is 217 thousand SDPS, The Government will pay for the Donkey 150 SDPS and also a camel 175 SDPS. The total for the dead people is 217 thousand + 325 SDPS for the two animals and the total is Ls 217,325 SDPS which is equivalent to $ 86,930.00 in US dollars.
The Governor also promised the area would be secured. All the people are now back to their homes but there is still fear. The Bagara Pastoralist from Darfur were killed in two different places, two were shot in Akuang Malual and five in Juma stream Mabior Nyang. Please pray for us to let the Almighty Father give us unity between the Dinka and the Bagara tribe.
Now we have soldiers and police stationed in several places in our payam location.
Postscript from Fr. Michael D. Barton. MCCJ.
I think this is an example of a political leader who acts quickly to keep law and order and security based on African justice. All the money will be deducted the state workers little by little until the full debt is paid. Justice and peace is why there is no fighting in Northern Bahr El Ghazal as there is in the other 9 states of the South Sudan. The Governor Paul Malong Awan, who also happens to be Roman Catholic, comes from Gordhim parish.
Comboni School,Makuei(ANC) Northern Bahr El Ghazal State South Sudan
March 31st 2010
Reported by the head catechist
Zachariah Noon Ajongi
Makuei Centre
Corrected by the head Catechist
John G. Garang Nyamlell
Dear Fr. Michael D. Barton,
St Teresa Parish, Nyamlell
I submit warm greetings to you and our sisters and all people who are working with you in the mission.
I am sending you this information which happened almost 3 months ago in January. This problem caused seven people to lose their lives in a day attack.
It happened,when SPLA soldier named Mabior Kuol Kuom whose cows had been robbed by Bagara (Arabs) a year before in Dheen (Southern Darfur State). These are the cows which were promised to him by one of the Bagara in Dheen as payment for employment. He was employed to look after cattle thereafter, he would be given a cow for each year, Mabior worked with the Bagara for 12 years and was given 12 cows which were robbed on his way home.
On January 26, 2010, this SPLA soldier, called Mabior Kuol Kuom shot seven Bagara, a donkey and camel and they died instantly. This caused a great problem between the Dinka and the Bagara, and for a week some of them were trying to fight but luckily the Bagara never found the Dinka, all the communities in Makuei Centre ran away from their homes for a week so as not to be found by the Bagara.
After a few days, the Northern Bahr El Ghazal State Governor Paul Malong Awan, surrounded by many police and soldiers, visited the place where the killing occurred and held the meeting between the Bagara and the Dinka. The meeting went smoothly and the Governor promised that the Bagara cattle could go where ever the Bagara liked to take them for grazing and also promised that the Government will give compensation for the dead people, for each deceased’ the Bagara would get as blood money 31 thousand Sudanese pounds and the total for seven people is 217 thousand SDPS, The Government will pay for the Donkey 150 SDPS and also a camel 175 SDPS. The total for the dead people is 217 thousand + 325 SDPS for the two animals and the total is Ls 217,325 SDPS which is equivalent to $ 86,930.00 in US dollars.
The Governor also promised the area would be secured. All the people are now back to their homes but there is still fear. The Bagara Pastoralist from Darfur were killed in two different places, two were shot in Akuang Malual and five in Juma stream Mabior Nyang. Please pray for us to let the Almighty Father give us unity between the Dinka and the Bagara tribe.
Now we have soldiers and police stationed in several places in our payam location.
Postscript from Fr. Michael D. Barton. MCCJ.
I think this is an example of a political leader who acts quickly to keep law and order and security based on African justice. All the money will be deducted the state workers little by little until the full debt is paid. Justice and peace is why there is no fighting in Northern Bahr El Ghazal as there is in the other 9 states of the South Sudan. The Governor Paul Malong Awan, who also happens to be Roman Catholic, comes from Gordhim parish.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Lenten letter from Father Michael Barton
Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus Parish-Nyamlell February 23, 2010
Comboni Missionaries
P.O. Box 21102
Nairobi, Kenya 00505
Dear Friends,
Greetings as we are at the start of the Lenten season of 2010.
I came back from Juba on January 29th after a meeting and a good six-day retreat and resumed my pastoral visits to the chapels. It is very hot and dry but in Juba on Jan. 24 it rained when I was visiting my first mission of Kworijik-Luri and it never rains in January; then on the 31st as I had already had two masses and a parish council meeting and baptized 33 infants and had Mass in the hospital and anointing of the sick with tuberculosis. Then as I was crossing the Lol River I got stuck in the mud -- all four tires and no way out that day because I had a third mass for a SPLA officer who had died in Juba but brought for burial in his home.
Well, I left the car in the mud very near the mission (one should never get stuck in the mud in the dry season so go figure). So on Monday, at dawn, the first day of February, I and three other boys were out jacking up and digging out my Toyota pickup; it took a lot of effort and by ten o’clock we were on our way not to return till the parish center till Feb. 21.
I was happy to bless and name five newly constructed chapels and have all the sacraments but Holy Orders on many days. However, I was sorry to hear on Feb. 8 that the favored Indianapolis Colts had lost the Super Bowl. In the evening I got into a heated argument with the head catechist over nothing and then had a pouring out of diarrhea even before I could get out of the hut. I had to clean everything myself. Everything returned to normal again with all agreeing with the proverb that the least said the soonest mended.
I also spent two days visiting three missions in a neighboring state and another diocese that I had heard of but never seen and as the roads are vastly improved it make travel quite easy. They were Mayen Abun, Turalei and Abyei. I even visited our neighboring parish of Gordhim for a few hours and had a nice lunch and lots of sharing and laughs.
Saint William Church, which is also Saint Julia Activity Center in Gong Machar, is about half way completed with doors and windows in, and may be finished in three to four months.
Up to Holy Week will be non-stop pastoral visits but Holy Week will have me back to give a Teachers Training Workshop here in Nyamlell and I shall be in Nyamlell for Easter as well.
In this Year of the Priest let us pray for each other.
Have a wonderful Lent!
Father Michael Barton, MCCJ.
Comboni Missionaries
P.O. Box 21102
Nairobi, Kenya 00505
Dear Friends,
Greetings as we are at the start of the Lenten season of 2010.
I came back from Juba on January 29th after a meeting and a good six-day retreat and resumed my pastoral visits to the chapels. It is very hot and dry but in Juba on Jan. 24 it rained when I was visiting my first mission of Kworijik-Luri and it never rains in January; then on the 31st as I had already had two masses and a parish council meeting and baptized 33 infants and had Mass in the hospital and anointing of the sick with tuberculosis. Then as I was crossing the Lol River I got stuck in the mud -- all four tires and no way out that day because I had a third mass for a SPLA officer who had died in Juba but brought for burial in his home.
Well, I left the car in the mud very near the mission (one should never get stuck in the mud in the dry season so go figure). So on Monday, at dawn, the first day of February, I and three other boys were out jacking up and digging out my Toyota pickup; it took a lot of effort and by ten o’clock we were on our way not to return till the parish center till Feb. 21.
I was happy to bless and name five newly constructed chapels and have all the sacraments but Holy Orders on many days. However, I was sorry to hear on Feb. 8 that the favored Indianapolis Colts had lost the Super Bowl. In the evening I got into a heated argument with the head catechist over nothing and then had a pouring out of diarrhea even before I could get out of the hut. I had to clean everything myself. Everything returned to normal again with all agreeing with the proverb that the least said the soonest mended.
I also spent two days visiting three missions in a neighboring state and another diocese that I had heard of but never seen and as the roads are vastly improved it make travel quite easy. They were Mayen Abun, Turalei and Abyei. I even visited our neighboring parish of Gordhim for a few hours and had a nice lunch and lots of sharing and laughs.
Saint William Church, which is also Saint Julia Activity Center in Gong Machar, is about half way completed with doors and windows in, and may be finished in three to four months.
Up to Holy Week will be non-stop pastoral visits but Holy Week will have me back to give a Teachers Training Workshop here in Nyamlell and I shall be in Nyamlell for Easter as well.
In this Year of the Priest let us pray for each other.
Have a wonderful Lent!
Father Michael Barton, MCCJ.
A poem: Dying to Live
Father Michael Barton sent this poem composed by Steven Mutua and Daniel Mourcol Garang of Sacred Heart High School in Nyamlell (Aweil West County) in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State in the South Sudan.
It was written in honor of Saint Daniel Comboni.
Death is sure to come to each one of us.
None knows the manner or the hour though some of us may chose without knowing.
Choosing their manner and even the hour of death.
Fate you may call it but the name matters less.
For there’s a mission not for the many but for the few.
Those that literally choose to lay down their lives for others
Like Bishop Saint Daniel Comboni, without counting the cost no matter what it may be.
Those who choose to shout even while the rest have chosen silence.
The Spirit of Jesus knowing the risk chooses the path less travelled.
Those who risk belling the cat when everyone else is running away.
Men and women of courage and determination.
Those who die as losers in order to win.
Those are our heroes whom we should never forget.
For they lived and died for all humanity.
Gave up their lives to give life and their dying was never in vain.
Never should we betray what they stood for.
For these are the men and women who last.
These are our heroes whom we should never forget.
For they lived and died for humanity and gave up their lives in order to give life.
Their dying was not in vain and we should never betray what they stood for.
Those that literally choose to lay down their lives for others like
Saint Bishop Daniel Comboni!
Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus!
Saint Josephine Bakhita!
It was written in honor of Saint Daniel Comboni.
Death is sure to come to each one of us.
None knows the manner or the hour though some of us may chose without knowing.
Choosing their manner and even the hour of death.
Fate you may call it but the name matters less.
For there’s a mission not for the many but for the few.
Those that literally choose to lay down their lives for others
Like Bishop Saint Daniel Comboni, without counting the cost no matter what it may be.
Those who choose to shout even while the rest have chosen silence.
The Spirit of Jesus knowing the risk chooses the path less travelled.
Those who risk belling the cat when everyone else is running away.
Men and women of courage and determination.
Those who die as losers in order to win.
Those are our heroes whom we should never forget.
For they lived and died for all humanity.
Gave up their lives to give life and their dying was never in vain.
Never should we betray what they stood for.
For these are the men and women who last.
These are our heroes whom we should never forget.
For they lived and died for humanity and gave up their lives in order to give life.
Their dying was not in vain and we should never betray what they stood for.
Those that literally choose to lay down their lives for others like
Saint Bishop Daniel Comboni!
Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus!
Saint Josephine Bakhita!
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Busy 2009 ended with solar eclipse
Nairobi, Kenya.00505
January 25th, 2010.
Many greetings to you, in this last year of the first decade of the 21st century of the second millennium. I am writing this in Juba, the capital of the Southern Sudan where I came on the 15 of January, for a meeting and a retreat.
I drove to Aweil from Nyamlell and on the way soon after sunrise there occurred a solar eclipse and was right ahead of us all the way to the state capital. The catechist who was with me told me he had never seen just a thing and I told him that neither had I. It was right in front of us so we could not miss it. Yet most people along the road did not seem to notice anything strange or different.
I remember in 1998 in Mapuordit,seeing a lunar eclipse and the people were shouting and even shooting guns at it and now a solar one that caused hardly any reaction at all. I caught the plane of the UN and flew to Wau and then on to Juba. Five days were meetings and I came to hear about the chapter and the new General Administration of the Comboni Missionaries and then I gave six days to a spiritual retreat and to get money for the rest of the year and to write some letters.
We had a wonderful celebration of the Diamond Jubilee of the parish and of evangelization in our state on October 1st, 2009, and people took it all very seriously and collected 12 bulls and many sags of grain and make for a wonderful celebration and the governor gave 4 more bulls but the teachers tried to take them for themselves but after two months I was able to get them all back. Then a teacher left and I had to hire a new one and we were able to complete the school year.
The other big event which had been programmed for 2009 was a YOUTH CONGRESS for the Diocese of Rumbek in our neighboring parish of Gordhim. Sister Jeviana, OLSH, was very dedicated to preparing for it and there was a second collection throughout the year for this event, they also grew tree seedlings for sell to buy a small organ for the parish church and that they succeeded and this organ should arrive sometime in this new year. This is a wonderful result of the work of the Sisters and the dedication of the youth of the parish. I did not go to the youth congress but all the sisters did, two for the entire three days and one for just the closing Mass on the fourth Sunday of Advent. We had 77 youth attend and I had planned to go for one day but I just couldn’t fit it in. But before I explain why let me go back to November, 2009.
I got permission to build a church in Gok Macar from the diocesan and congregational superiors and so I went by bike to present the plans to the center and chapel communities and to encourage them to raise funds and give what they could to build Saint Julia and Saint William church and activity center there. They were mostly men at the meeting and seemed very committed to the project. I gave two receipt books to record all local donations.
I continued with the pastoral visits to the outstations of the parish and in November and December with Sr. Jeanne, OLSH, preaches one Sunday and Catechist John Garang Garang does the next and I do the next with the Mass in the parish center. The rest of the weekends I was out in the chapels and on weekdays in the school and in the classrooms.
In December we had an invasion of the school premises of people from a nearby market who had heard that one of their relatives had been beaten by a teacher and in the ruckess they slugged me in the chin and hurt my hand and one of my knuckles still pain me. I was not the teacher who they were angry with but they took it out on me. Just as suddenly as they had come so did they leave. The rest of the day and week and month were normal.
Also in December we had a father and a sister come to give a weeklong workshop to all our 85 parish catechists during the 3nd week of advent and help us with ministry for Christmas and up to the feast of the Holy Family.
The Sisters all went out for Christmas as well as me and there were huge crowds in all our services.
For the first time we prepared the certificates and did the external exam and we had a day of recollection for our class eight leavers to give them some spiritual input. Then on December 27th we had baptisms and confirmations and then gave certificates to all our pupils in Nyamlell and the next day the same in Makwei and visit to chapels and January 1st the same to the Comboni School and Catholic Community of Marial Baai.
In all of them there was testing and them baptisms and confirmations and giving of certificates. I continued out visiting centers and chapels up to and including January 14th. That takes me to the beginning and the solar eclipse, which is a once in a life time experience, on Jan. 15th.
In 2009 we had in our parish of Saint Teresa in Aweil West County in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State in the Southern Sudan form Jan. 1st to Dec 31:
2025 baptisms, 153 Confirmations, 18 Catholic Marriages, 550 Masses, 789 anointing of the sick, 821 confessions, and 14,755 holy Communions given.
Thank you for all your prayers and donations, we are so very interdependent and I would not be able to do anything without your help.
God bless you!
Yours in the Lord,
Father Michael Barton, MCCJ.
January 25th, 2010.
Many greetings to you, in this last year of the first decade of the 21st century of the second millennium. I am writing this in Juba, the capital of the Southern Sudan where I came on the 15 of January, for a meeting and a retreat.
I drove to Aweil from Nyamlell and on the way soon after sunrise there occurred a solar eclipse and was right ahead of us all the way to the state capital. The catechist who was with me told me he had never seen just a thing and I told him that neither had I. It was right in front of us so we could not miss it. Yet most people along the road did not seem to notice anything strange or different.
I remember in 1998 in Mapuordit,seeing a lunar eclipse and the people were shouting and even shooting guns at it and now a solar one that caused hardly any reaction at all. I caught the plane of the UN and flew to Wau and then on to Juba. Five days were meetings and I came to hear about the chapter and the new General Administration of the Comboni Missionaries and then I gave six days to a spiritual retreat and to get money for the rest of the year and to write some letters.
We had a wonderful celebration of the Diamond Jubilee of the parish and of evangelization in our state on October 1st, 2009, and people took it all very seriously and collected 12 bulls and many sags of grain and make for a wonderful celebration and the governor gave 4 more bulls but the teachers tried to take them for themselves but after two months I was able to get them all back. Then a teacher left and I had to hire a new one and we were able to complete the school year.
The other big event which had been programmed for 2009 was a YOUTH CONGRESS for the Diocese of Rumbek in our neighboring parish of Gordhim. Sister Jeviana, OLSH, was very dedicated to preparing for it and there was a second collection throughout the year for this event, they also grew tree seedlings for sell to buy a small organ for the parish church and that they succeeded and this organ should arrive sometime in this new year. This is a wonderful result of the work of the Sisters and the dedication of the youth of the parish. I did not go to the youth congress but all the sisters did, two for the entire three days and one for just the closing Mass on the fourth Sunday of Advent. We had 77 youth attend and I had planned to go for one day but I just couldn’t fit it in. But before I explain why let me go back to November, 2009.
I got permission to build a church in Gok Macar from the diocesan and congregational superiors and so I went by bike to present the plans to the center and chapel communities and to encourage them to raise funds and give what they could to build Saint Julia and Saint William church and activity center there. They were mostly men at the meeting and seemed very committed to the project. I gave two receipt books to record all local donations.
I continued with the pastoral visits to the outstations of the parish and in November and December with Sr. Jeanne, OLSH, preaches one Sunday and Catechist John Garang Garang does the next and I do the next with the Mass in the parish center. The rest of the weekends I was out in the chapels and on weekdays in the school and in the classrooms.
In December we had an invasion of the school premises of people from a nearby market who had heard that one of their relatives had been beaten by a teacher and in the ruckess they slugged me in the chin and hurt my hand and one of my knuckles still pain me. I was not the teacher who they were angry with but they took it out on me. Just as suddenly as they had come so did they leave. The rest of the day and week and month were normal.
Also in December we had a father and a sister come to give a weeklong workshop to all our 85 parish catechists during the 3nd week of advent and help us with ministry for Christmas and up to the feast of the Holy Family.
The Sisters all went out for Christmas as well as me and there were huge crowds in all our services.
For the first time we prepared the certificates and did the external exam and we had a day of recollection for our class eight leavers to give them some spiritual input. Then on December 27th we had baptisms and confirmations and then gave certificates to all our pupils in Nyamlell and the next day the same in Makwei and visit to chapels and January 1st the same to the Comboni School and Catholic Community of Marial Baai.
In all of them there was testing and them baptisms and confirmations and giving of certificates. I continued out visiting centers and chapels up to and including January 14th. That takes me to the beginning and the solar eclipse, which is a once in a life time experience, on Jan. 15th.
In 2009 we had in our parish of Saint Teresa in Aweil West County in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State in the Southern Sudan form Jan. 1st to Dec 31:
2025 baptisms, 153 Confirmations, 18 Catholic Marriages, 550 Masses, 789 anointing of the sick, 821 confessions, and 14,755 holy Communions given.
Thank you for all your prayers and donations, we are so very interdependent and I would not be able to do anything without your help.
God bless you!
Yours in the Lord,
Father Michael Barton, MCCJ.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Thanksgiving greetings
Nov. 26, 2009
Father Michael Barton sent this collage from St. Teresa Parish.
The collage is a composite of photos taken during the 75th anniversary celebration of the parish and the trip to open the school and chapel in Marial Baai, all in October.
I wanted to let you know that I have received a huge donation from Dubai which will allow the start of the church in Gok Macar before the end of the year.
We had a visit of the Superior General of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart who came to Sudan to visit her sisters in Mapuordit and here in Nyamlell but she missed a plane and so was here for only two days. We killed a bull and had a school Mass and did a play and had dance and song to welcome her.
I am inviting the teachers and sisters and catechists and parish workers for Thanksgiving tomorrow and then to watch HOOK as a thanksgiving for their work and cooperation. We'll have beef and a simple meal and prayer.
Michael Barton
Sunday, October 25, 2009
75th Anniversary photos
Father Michael Barton, pastor of St. Teresa Parish, Nyamlell, South Sudan, sent these photos from the parish's Oct. 4, 2009, 75th anniversary celebration and other activities. To read more about the event, go to the post below.
Alleluia Dancers
Bishop Caesar
Blessing of Chapel 4
Boat apostolate
Church on Lol River
Classroom
Comboni Day, Nyamlell
Entertainment Oct. 4, 2009, Marial Baai
Father Pax and choirs
Gov. Paul Malong
Gov. Paul Malong with boys in uniforms of 75 years ago
Marial Baai
Old chapel in Marial Baai
Papal blessing
75th anniversary parade
Priests at the anniversary celebration
Recollection Day, April 24, 2008
Sacred Heart celebration
School prepared for the 75th celebration
Shrine on the Lol River
Typical apostolate
Alleluia Dancers
Bishop Caesar
Blessing of Chapel 4
Boat apostolate
Church on Lol River
Classroom
Comboni Day, Nyamlell
Entertainment Oct. 4, 2009, Marial Baai
Father Pax and choirs
Gov. Paul Malong
Gov. Paul Malong with boys in uniforms of 75 years ago
Marial Baai
Old chapel in Marial Baai
Papal blessing
75th anniversary parade
Priests at the anniversary celebration
Recollection Day, April 24, 2008
Sacred Heart celebration
School prepared for the 75th celebration
Shrine on the Lol River
Typical apostolate
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