Latin America stories of the week with Fausta Rodriguez Wertz

CLICK TO LISTEN:

Latin America stories of the week with Fausta Rodriguez Wertz 06/29 by Silvio Canto Jr | News Podcasts:

Guest: Fausta Rodriguez Wertz, the editor of Fausta's Blog......we look at the top US-Latin America stories of the week.........Brazil continues to deal with the challenges of the Olympics............and other stories of the week..........Cuba denies a visa to a US House delegation............the new and expanded Panama Canal is now ready for business.........peace in Colombia.............a new report that kidnappings are on the rise in Mexico........and the latest from Venezuela...........plus other stories of the week..... 

---

Tags: Brazil and the Olympics, Cuba denies visa to US House members, Panama Canal update, peace in Colombia, kidnapping in Mexico To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

A good article by my friend Father James Wilcox

We remember Father James from St Catherine of Sienna.    I really loved his new article at North Texas Catholic:

"The structure of priestly formation in the seminary is often governed by the academic coursework needed to be completed each semester. That said, the daily schedule is always configured based on the times of prayer, especially the Holy Mass. Once the spiritual schedule is determined, the other parts of the day — classes, ministry, exercise, homework, chores — are slotted into their appropriate times. 

Perhaps for your own personal reflection, you may want to determine what in your life is demanding priority in your daily schedule. How can you maintain the needs and wants of family and work while making prayer time the priority each day?

Now that summer is upon us, the seminarians are each off to their various assignments, and they are working to arrange these days beginning with the spiritual life, ministry tasks, and other work as necessary. Many of our seminarians are in parish assignments where they are assisting with summer activities like Vacation Bible School, youth activities, and Bible studies. While serving during Mass at the altar, they are helping the young servers learn more about the Mass and how to be more engaged in the celebration. Our two newly-ordained transitional deacons are serving in parishes, where they are growing in the experience of preaching homilies.Some of our senior seminarians are serving in the Tribunal Office, where they are learning the process of a marriage case seeking an annulment. This will greatly aid in their ability to serve parishioners who unfortunately find themselves with this need. A group of seminarians are serving our community through their summer assignments at Catholic Charities of Fort Worth. They are experiencing the array of services offered through Catholic Charities, including the Street Outreach Services, which seeks to aid the homeless of Fort Worth. The opportunity to live the social teaching of the Catholic Church in a direct manner will aid these men as they serve those in great need.One of our seminarians, Pedro Martinez, was selected by Catholic Relief Services to spend part of the summer in Kenya to learn about the Church’s social teaching in action throughout the world. Pedro said, “The Kenya Catholic Relief Services (CRS) experience was awesome and powerful. CRS is doing wonderful work to help our brothers and sisters with many different projects: water sanitation, peace building, empowerment, schools, orphanages, etc. We are called to not be indifferent to the needs of all our human family.”Back home, the Fort Worth seminarians served all of Texas recently this summer as they provided much-needed assistance at the Steubenville Lone Star Conference for youth. This three-day conference with 3,500 attendees was a faith-filled weekend, and the seminarians were there to help all along the way. They served at the liturgies (Mass and Adoration), were members of the prayer team, helped with security, and even assisted at the bookstore. Their visible witness to the love of Christ was terrific.As we head to press, seminarians will serve at the Vocation Awareness Program (VAP), which is a weekend for young adults to discern God’s call to the priesthood or religious life. In addition, a great group will be hosting high school men for the Quo Vadis? retreat. This three-day retreat allows young men to explore the priesthood and seminary life. The seminarians are planning the activities: spiritual, athletic, contemplative, and discursive. Finally, late this summer a small group of seminarians will join the large group of Catholics from Fort Worth on the World Youth Day pilgrimage to Krakow with Bishop Olson. The seminarians will aid in small group discussions and will offer some reflections to the entire group at some of the pilgrimage sites.There appears to be much doing through the summer months for our seminarians. However, the emphasis is always on being. In each assignment, the men are working to be witnesses to the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. They are striving to be instruments to bring people closer to God. They seek to be examples to young people seeking to know God’s will in their lives, especially as they discern priesthood and religious life. The doing is important, but it is only effective if the being is primary. These men seek to be men of Christ and, God willing, priests of Christ.Through all of these activities, the seminarians are diligent in focusing on their prayer life and on their relationship with Jesus Christ. It is in that relationship and in conversation with God that these men hear the Word of the Lord and are confirmed in their call to serve in the priesthood of Jesus Christ.Please continue to pray for our seminarians. Please pray for the new men who will enter seminary in August. Please pray for men to hear the call to priesthood. Please pray for women to hear the call to religious life. Let our lives be structured by prayer, and may God, our Father, bless us. "

Thank you Father James!    

---

Tags: Father James Wilcox To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

The Governor of Rio fears that Olympics could be a big failure

(My new American Thinker post)

Anybody out there planning to go to the Olympics? This is not a good headline:

Rio de Janeiro’s acting governor warned Monday that the Olympic Games could be a “big failure,” because of budget shortfalls that threaten to compromise security and mobility during the games.

In an interview with Rio’s O Globo daily, Francisco Dornelles said the state is still awaiting a 2.9 billion Brazilian real ($860 million) payout from the federal government aimed at shoring up state coffers ahead of the Aug. 5-21 event. The funds were allocated last week but have not yet reached the state, and Dornelles warned that without them, police patrols may grind to a halt by the end of the week, for lack of gas money.

“How are people going to feel protected in a city without security,” Dornelles was quoted as asking.

“I’m optimistic about the games, but I have to show reality,” he said. “We can have a great Olympics, but if some steps aren’t taken, it can be a big failure.”

And this guy wants tourists to get on a plane and visit Rio?     

On top of everything, from a really juicy political crisis to the zika virus, the police are protesting against the late payment of salaries and a lack of equipment ranging from car fuel to toilet paper.

And these are the police officers that will provide security in Rio?    

It is a terrible shame that things have deteriorated like this. However, this is more than bad luck. Brazil probably wasn’t ready to do World Cup and Olympics in 2014 and 2016. Add to all of this the country’s penchant for corruption and toilet paper may be the last thing that we will have to worry about.

Finally, security is even more critical now than ever because of terrorism. We saw what happened at the Boston Marathon in 2013 where a couple of guys with bombs killed and injured many.   

It’s probably too late to pull the plug but a lot of people, and even some athletes, won’t go. It’s just too much of a risk for people to take. 

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
 

---

Tags: Brazil and the Olympics  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!