SHAME, PRESIDENT OBAMA
CHOOSE LIFE

President Obama in some ways offers hope to the US. I was very pleased that he plans to close the prisons at Guantamo and that his first overseas call was to the president of Palestine.

However, two recent actions of his administration worry me.

On Friday, January 23, President Obama rescinded the restrictions on US aid to international aid organizations that provide or promote abortion.

Secondly, almost the very same day, air attacks were made by US forces on assumed terrorist sites in Pakistan, without consulting the Pakistani government. As the Washington Post noted, “Two remote U.S. missile strikes that killed at least 20 people at suspected terrorist hideouts in northwestern Pakistan.”

What leads people to believe that violence solves problems?

Some people believe that the poor of the world need abortions. Some would take this as a racist and classist position: “Why do we let all these people keep producing more and more kids each year? Why not give them easy access to abortion?”

What the poor of this world need is justice – enough food to eat, secure work that supports their families, peace. It is clear that more security and more opportunities has an effect on the birth rates.

Here in Honduras there are many teenage pregnancies. The causes are many, but consider the fact that only 30% of those who could go beyond sixth grade actually go to school. There are kindergartens and primary schools in most villages, although they are not always very good, since education is politicized here. But to go to beyond sixth grade a child would have often have to walk to a nearby town. And there are even fewer high schools.

That’s why the church’s program “Maestro en casa” is a great way to help people – young and old – get an education; there are workbooks and programs on the radio which are reinforced by sessions with teachers usually on Saturdays or Sundays. This week I was talking with one of the women in the CARITAS who works with the program who told me that last year there were about 1400 students in the program in the department of Copán – and she and another woman were entering the grades in the official books by hand!

Studies have shown that investment in the education of women has an effect on the population growth. They’re studying!

The Pakistani missile attacks also trouble me. It would be unwise, I believe, for the US to get out of Iraq and deepen its military involvement in Afghanistan. What we need is a need diplomacy. Even more a real commitment to seeking – together with all nations - real solutions to the violence in the world.

The way to peace, I believe, has to go through the tough work of justice. Abortion and missile strikes don’t solve problems; they are “short-cuts” that may, I fear, result in short-circuiting the real hard work that mist be done.

And so, I pray that President Obama and the US will seek the way of peace, justice, and life. May God give them – us – the courage and the imagination needed for the task.

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Another note on education

Father Efraín Romero, pastor of the parish of Dulce Nombre, told me of an initiative in the town of San Agustín in the parish. A group is planning to start a Catholic primary school for very poor children in a barrio (neighborhood) where there is no access to education. They will have to buy land, build the school, pay for teachers, and go through the bureaucracy so that the school is recognized. This will probably take a year, but it’s an effort by people who are not rich to provide for the education of the poorest, who are so often ignored by the government here.

I hope and pray that this will happen. It appears that some financial aid will come from a European source for the initial capital costs. But it will need ongoing support and some creative projects to make it sustainable.

Please keep these people in your prayers.