April 2003, Page 1

On Friday, April 4th, many members of the District of West Africa traveled to Elmina in the Central Region (near Cape Coast) to join with Bro. Ebenezer Andre Prah CSC and his family and friends at the family home for the wake keeping of Brother Prah's father, Mr. John Kojo Mensah Prah.

Hundreds of relatives and family were there. It was an evening of singing, dancing and visitation to the bereaved family by many many friends and relatives.

Then on Saturday, April 5th, at the Bethel Methodist Church in Elmina the members of the District along with the Sisters of the Holy Cross joined Bro. Ebenezer and his family for the Burial Service. During the service of songs and readings Novice Godfred Ashun, Sister Esther Entsiwah CSC and Bro. Ebenezer Andre Prah CSC did the readings.

After the service there was a procession to the Elmina cemetery where the body of John Kojo Mensah Prah was buried. At the conclusion of the cemetery service people made their way back to the family house. The Catholic mission hosted the Brothers, Priests and Sisters for a meal of fufu with light soup and goat and rice and chicken. After a good meal and a lot of good chat people took their leave of Elmina and headed for their various places.

Do remember the respose of the soul of Bro. Ebenezer Andre Prah's father (John Kojo Mensah Prah), Bro. Ebenezer and his family in your prayer.

Please also keep Brother Chester Ziemba, C,S.C. in your prayers. Brother Chet died on April 6. He had entered Holy Cross after serving in World War II. Brother was a very gentle soul. He had a calm spirit about him, as well as a sense of the practical. He was known to have worked in investment consulting, providing services at a local Chicago horse race track. Even while working around Moreau Seminary, the Fatima Retreat House, and Holy Cross House, Brother always had some of the paper forms handy if anyone wanted a consultation. He was a good man and a good mentor for the seminarians. May he rest in peace.

The congregations, public schools, and unions of Austin Interfaith held an accountability session at Ebenezer Baptist Church. The entire meeting was tri-lingual. Everything was done in English and Spanish for the entire group. There was translation in Vietnamese over headsets.

Pascual Salazar, a Capital I.D.E.A. student, raises the issue of continued funding for job training.

Maria Tello, a parishioner from St. Louis Church, insists on safe transportation for public school students.

The Austin Interfaith agenda includes:

job training for jobs that pay a living wage,
English as a second language (ESL) classes,
after-school educational programs,
extra funds for the most economically disadvantaged schools.

The North American English Speaking Provincials and the Vocation Directors met at Holy Name Retreat Center in Houston.

The day they arrived there was a terrible thunderstorm, but the rest of the time the weather was beautiful. It seemed all the better since there was snow in the east. Some of the baseball games were snowed out.

The retreat center has also installed three high speed internet access lines, which made communication easier for everyone while we were there.

One of the issues discussed was the rapid growth in digital radio. These channels are national in their scope. Like cable TV, they offer consumers a large selection of programming. Might there be an opportunity for evangelization and outreach with this new media?

Another issue was the changes in law concerning privacy in hospitals. It will become more important for religious in hospitals to inform the hospital that they may give information to their superiors. The law greatly restricts to whom information may be given. (In Texas, it is against the law for the hospital to have lists of patients indicating religious preference. The hospital cannot even tell its own pastoral care department who is Catholic, Protestant, etc.)

The Franciscan Sisters at Dolores and San Francisco parishes had a retreat for young ladies who are interested in the religious life. There were 17 young ladies who came to Dolores and then went out to Zilker park for a retreat. They were from Dolores, San Francisco, and parishes in the Fort Worth area.