Filipino Catholic Realizes Dreams By Crafting Rosaries

 A young Filipino Catholic wanted to attend the pilgrimage in Poland, but didn't have the money for the trip.  However, God created a way for him to attend using the talent God had given him.  You can find the following article here:

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Mark Carlo Herrera Cruz had about a year to prepare for what he called “a pilgrimage of a lifetime” in Krakow, Poland.

It was already mid-2015 and he was not sure where to get the money for his trip. He needed at least US$2,500 to cover all his expenses.

One evening, Cruz prayed the Holy Rosary and asked God to give him the “strength and resources” needed “to fulfill this mission.”

The next morning, the then-22-year-old native of Batangas province realized that his prayers had already been answered even before he asked for it.

“The answer to my prayers was already in the palm of my hand, the rosary beads,” he said.

Earlier, Cruz got interested in crafting rosaries. He started with simple beads and designs that he acquired in a local bead shop.

So, months before the World Youth Day, “I dared myself to make and sell rosaries.” He said “there was no grand plan.”

“I just took my tools and started crafting,” he said.

After finishing several pieces, he took photos and posted it on his social media account. He later received messages placing orders of his rosaries that were priced at US$7 a piece.

Cruz spent sleepless nights crafting and selling rosaries.

“I was surprised by how people responded,” he said. “I got a lot of inquiries and orders. Honestly, I don’t know how many rosaries I made that year.”

Cruz earned about US$4,000 from crafting and selling rosaries, enough for him to travel to Poland in July 2016.

After the week-long pilgrimage, Cruz thought it was over, still he continued to receive messages from people expressing their interest in his rosaries.

Cruz said he usually spends at least 45 minutes to craft a rosary with a simple design and at least six hours to finish a rosary with intricate and elaborate patterns.

“I can only craft them during weekends and in the evening before going to bed because I have a day job,” he said, adding that it is not a money-making venture.

“Crafting rosaries is a passion,” he said. “Every detail and every bead comes from how I interpret the personality of the person who would use the rosary.”

Cruz said some of his clients are priests, nuns, and members of church organizations, “but a lot of them are individuals, common people, or the lay faithful.”

In 2018, Cruz was again chosen to participate in an international gathering in Rome to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Neocatechumenal Way, also known as the Neocatechumenate, an itinerary of Christian formation within the Catholic Church.

He was “a little bit confident” that he could fund his next international pilgrimage by crafting and selling rosaries.

“The Holy Rosary again answered my prayer,” he said. He was able to go to Rome.

In recent months, Cruz made more than a dozen hand-crafted habit rosaries for the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary of La Naval de Manila.

The rosaries were placed on images of Dominican Saints and on the image of the Our Lady of the Holy Rosary of La Naval during its feast in October 2019.

He also crafted rosaries that were used for more than 200 religious images in dioceses across the country, including one that was used for the Our Lady of Lourdes of Punta Princesa in the Archdiocese of Cebu.

“I don’t consider rosary-making a business but a charism that is given to me to help spread the devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary,” he said.

“As a sinner, I used to say that it is my privilege and great joy to be an instrument of someone’s devotion,” he said.

While a simple hand-crafted rosary costs US$7, the price gets higher depending on the design and the materials.

The most expensive piece of the rosary that he crafted sold for about US$300.

In March, Cruz thought orders for handcrafted rosaries would decline because of the coronavirus pandemic, but the demand continued to grow.

“It only shows that the devotion to the Holy Rosary and to the Blessed Virgin Mary is growing amidst the challenges that we are facing because of the pandemic,” he said.––LiCas News

Seminarian on the Road to Vocation

 Deacon Paul Pierce was a catechumen of Father Pius in Hawaii.  Deacon Paul walks in the Neocatechumenal Way and is studying to be a priest.  He still has a long journey ahead of him.  His story is found here.

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Deacon Paul Pierce, one of the first seminarians to study at the Neocatechumenal Way’s Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Hialeah, Fla., gives a tour of the seminary’s many chapels and religious artworks Sept. 2, 2020. (CNS photo/Tom Tracy)

By Tom Tracy Catholic News Service

MIAMI (CNS) — Deacon Paul Pierce, a transitional deacon hoping to be ordained a priest as soon as next year, has been on a long, improbable but faith-filled journey for a young adult.

Born and raised in Maui, Hawaii, he was raised by an agnostic, science-driven father and a New Age-influenced mother steeped in Hindu belief at the time. He was living a typical teen’s life in a tropical paradise — but paradise hadn’t been all that fulfilling, as it turned out.

“How I got to be into the seminary and how I will be ordained a priest very soon, God willing, is a miracle — because I shouldn’t be here,” said Deacon Pierce, 30.

He talked about his vocation and long road to the Neocatechumenal Way’s Redemptoris Mater Seminary in the Archdiocese of Miami in an interview with the Florida Catholic, the archdiocesan newspaper.

Opened in 2011, Redemptoris Mater is situated in Hialeah, adjacent to St. Cecilia Church. It serves as a Florida-based international seminary for the Neocatechumenal Way under the auspices of the Miami Archdiocese.

A decade ago, Deacon Pierce was chosen as one of its first 12 seminarians: men from different countries who study together and are ordained for the local church. But they also commit themselves to serving in whatever corner of the world they are most needed. In tandem with the Neocatechumenal Way’s missionary thrust, they can serve locally or internationally throughout their lifetime.

In Maui, Deacon Pierce recalled a reasonably comfortable upbringing as a well-adjusted student in a household fumbling around for answers to the great questions of life. His parents had moved to Hawaii to be closer to Pierce’s grandmother and neither parent had ever professed any form of Christianity. His mother’s search for a spiritual home took her along widely divergent paths over the course of his youth.

“I was living my life like any normal guy from the island,” Deacon Pierce recalled.

But when his mother and father separated, this triggered a traumatic and difficult period for him. He always longed to be in a family with brothers and sisters but found it difficult to experience family love.

As he grew older, he wondered why he couldn’t love his parents more deeply and if he was maybe “living in a hell of selfishness.”

“Even though I was spoiled, given everything, and an only child who lived in Hawaii, in that ‘American Dream,’ I was very unhappy,” he said. “At a certain point I would do everything for myself: I would study for myself, I would go to the beach for myself, I would go to be with my friends for myself — the islands, the beauty — it was all for myself.”

His mother’s yoga teacher at the time directed her to a local Neocatechumenal Way community, which hosted weekly talks and liturgies in Maui.

Begun in Spain in 1964 by two laypeople — Kiko Argüello and Carmen Hernandez — the Neocatechumenal Way developed a system of evangelizing the residents of one of Madrid’s poorest slums.

Over the years the movement expanded into a network of small, parish-based communities of up to 50 people with thousands of parish communities throughout the world, with an estimated million Catholic members.

Today, there are 102 Neocatechumenal seminaries around the world. There are seven in the United States: Miami,Washington, Denver, Boston, Dallas and Newark, New Jersey, and in Guam.

Deacon Pierce was about 12 when his mother started going to the group’s catechesis. She entered the Catholic Church several years later. His grandmother also would be baptized eventually.

“It was very providential, very unexpected,” he said. “My mom had been searching for a new religion for some time when she kind of rebelled against the new age Hinduism she was raised with.”

Little by little young Paul began to tear himself away from playing video games and other interests to sit quietly at weekly Neocatechumenate talks. He saw the transformative power the group had on its culturally diverse members, imbuing them with a sense of Christian charity and forgiveness.

He attended the talks for a year, stopped for a year, came back and noticed the community started growing.

“I started seeing things I had never seen anywhere else: unity, love, community, forgiveness,” he said.

“For seven years I started walking like that, little by little, listening to the word of God, being with brothers and sisters, seeing forgiveness and reconciliation in front of our eyes, seeing something that held us together that I know now was the Holy Spirit and the love of Christ,” he said.

Then he offered himself for mission in the Neocatechumenate, leading to his baptism, confirmation and first Communion in 2010 at age 19.

He was invited to go on retreat in New York and then was sent to New Mexico, where he was part of a small team of catechists establishing a community in Albuquerque. “I was there helping in parishes, and for the first time in my life, I started to live for someone else, with freedom from money, and with chastity,” he said.

He traveled to World Youth Day events in Germany in 2005 and Australia in 2008. Then came World Youth Day in Madrid with Pope Benedict XVI in 2011, which was a life-changing experience. During down time, the Neocatechumenate members from around the world held large vocation-forming meetings, inviting members to consider making deeper commitments.

“This time my ear was open. If you had asked me a day or even the moment before I felt called to the priesthood I would have said you are crazy,” Deacon Pierce said, adding that he had always envisioned getting married to a Christian girl, starting a family and running a successful entrepreneurial business.

But listening to a talk by Kiko Argüello “announcing the love of God with courage and strength” changed all that.

“In that moment I had a conviction that to do the will of God was my happiness and that I would be happier giving my life as a priest in China or wherever than to do my will and plan for my life,” Deacon Pierce said. “It was a certainty and that still helps me today.”

After a period of discernment in Rome, he was invited to move to Miami and help establish the fledgling Neocatechumenate seminary in October 2011. He has studied at both the minor and major seminaries serving the archdiocese — St. John Vianney in Miami and St. Vincent de Paul in Boynton Beach — and has spent additional time in local missionary service.

Miami Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski ordained him and one other Neocatechumenal seminarian, Alberto Chávez, to the transitional diaconate April 26. If all goes as planned, they will be ordained priests next May.

Political Controversy in the United States

There is much controversy going on in the United States over the 2020 Presidential election.  To this day, we still do not know whether Joe Biden or Donald Trump is the official President of the United States.  News media have been reporting a Biden win even when before the voting was officially concluded.  President Trump is now bringing a lawsuit against certain states because of voting irregularities.  Democracy and the rule of law is important in our society.  We have already seen in our society that the due process of accused individuals have been eroding as they are being judged by the media who can easily sway public opinion.  Public opinion can condemn an innocent person.  It's always best to allow the process and the rule of law to take place and not deprive the person of their individual rights to due process. 

 

The rule of law is important in our democracy.  If there is indeed voting fraud being committed, it must be brought to light otherwise the voice of the people will be suppressed. Voting is sacred and makes democracy what it is  Voting is the will of the people.  Any corruption in the voting system deprives the American people their right to freedom of expression. The following is an interesting video regarding the political controversy surrounding the presidential election.  

Congratulations Junee Valencia

Congratulations to Deacon Junee Valencia.  He will be ordained into the priesthood tomorrow, November 6th at 10:00 a.m. by Archbishop Michael Byrnes in the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica in Hagatna.  He is the second person who will be ordained a priest for Guam.  The first priest ordained was Father Honorio Valdeavilla Pangan Jr.  In the NCW, we support and pray for all Catholic priests and bishops. Congratulations!  

 

Spanish Mission Family in Tanzania

 The following is an article about a mission family from Spain who moved to evangelize in Tanzania.  It's always inspiring to hear stories from the mission families and itinerants.  You can find the following article here.

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A Spanish missionary family’s love story with Tanzania

When God called them, they answered, and followed His prompting to serve.

Maria and Juan Pablo are a Spanish couple and members of the Neocatechumenal Way. For several years, they’ve been missionaries in Africa, specifically in Arusha, Tanzania. Today, the city has 416,000 inhabitants.

Maria explains how she recognized the call to go to another country to spread the Gospel:

“I felt,” she remembers, “that the Lord was calling me to keep nothing for myself, to give Him that little corner of my life that I had held on to, where I was afraid the Lord would enter. I felt in a strong way that God was calling me to surrender myself totally to him.”

Fear, then courage

Maria admits that initially she was afraid, and decided not to talk about it with her husband, Juan Pablo. Months passed before she decided to share her feelings on the subject with him.

That conversation started a process of discernment that the two of them shared. After a few months, during a Neocatechumenal meeting, Juan Pablo and Maria stood up to offer themselves as missionaries to go to whatever part of the world needed them. Thus began the wonderful love story of this Spanish couple with Tanzania.

Life in Tanzania

In the mornings, Maria and Juan Pablo’s children go to the school run by the Augustinian Missionary Sisters. They’ve already learned Swahili, adapted to the country’s educational methods, and made local friends. At their home, a local woman works as a nanny for the children so that the couple can go work at the parish in the afternoons.

On the occasion of the Extraordinary Missionary Month of October and World Mission Sunday (which was celebrated on October 18 this year), Juan Pablo has wanted to sent a clear message: “I would like to tell everyone how important it is that the Church be missionary.”

“The Holy Spirit always calls us out of our comfort zone to proclaim the Gospel,” he says. In order for the Church’s missionary work to be possible, he asks everyone to help, each to the extent that he or she can, “according to their own circumstances.” He emphasizes that “the important thing is to be united in prayer.”

Donations that bear material and spiritual fruit

Just this year, the Catholic Church has sent $56,000 to Arusha, where Juan Pablo and Maria live, so that the diocese can function and to provide support for local catechists, who go where the missionaries cannot reach. In addition, the funds help promote the diocese’s communications.

Juan Pablo and Maria do not charge for the work they do. The funds come from the donations made by millions of people from all over the world during the World Mission Sunday campaign, and are managed by the Pontifical Missionary Societies (PMS). In this way, over the last 16 years a total of $1,826,502 dollars have been sent to Tanzania, an average of more than $114,000 a year.

These funds have made it possible for the Catholic Church’s work in the country to grow. The number of parishes has gone from 17 to 39, and the number of schools has grown from 1 to 281. What’s more important is that the number of baptisms has gone from 1,926 to 46,500. Schools, parishes and baptisms are growing, and that’s good news for the whole Church.

Pope's Comment on Same-Sex Union

Much controversy has surrounded over Pope Francis' comment on same-sex unions.  In the first place, it is important to note that the Pope emphasized that it is a civil union law, not a marriage recognized and defined by the Church.  According to news report, Pope Francis is quoted as stating: 

"Homosexual people have the right to be in a family.  They are children of God," Francis said.  "You can't kick someone out of a family, nor make their life miserable for this.  What we have to have is a civil union law; that way they are legally covered."

Marriage is a sacrament instituted by God and a union between one man and one woman. A civil union between two gay men or two lesbian women is not considered a marriage as defined by the Church nor recognized in the Catholic Church.  Archbishop Michael was correct when he said that the Pope's comment does not alter the Church's ban on same-sex marriage (See article here).  Pope Francis was not declaring that the Catholic Church allow same-sex marriage.  He was  saying that the government should allow a civil union law for homosexuals.  Civil marriages or unions are not recognized by the Church.  

As a matter of fact, if a heterosexual couple who are Catholics were to marry in court, their marriage would also not be recognized in the Catholic Church.  Catholics who marry in a civil court could not receive holy communion.  According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church: 

 CCC 1631 This is the reason why the Church normally requires that the faithful contract marriage according to the ecclesiastical form.  Several reasons converge to explain this requirement: 

• Sacramental marriage is a liturgical act.  It is therefore appropriate that it should be celebrated in the public liturgy of the Church; 
• Marriage introduces one into an ecclesial order, and creates rights and duties in the Church between the spouses and towards their children;........

I find Pope Francis to be very compassionate toward homosexuals and atheists.  After all, who are we to judge when we are all sinners ourselves?  Christ is the only one who can judge, and He sat and ate with the cheating tax collectors, prostitutes, and sinners.  Nevertheless, how we show our love and compassion toward our brother will also be judged by God. 

Bishop Anthony Apuron did not endorse same-sex union.  He fought against its legalization and won. In his fight, he also showed compassion by telling the truth. The truth is not always easy to bear, but it is better to know the truth so that one can decide on their own, knowing all their options.  After all, God is the truth and tells us the truth, but He does not force us to follow the truth.  Therefore, these are the facts: The 2000 data by the Center for Disease Control showed that sexually transmitted diseases continue to rise among gay and bisexual men (see the report here).  There are also data showing that depression and suicide are higher among homosexuals (See news report here).  It is because that I care about my brothers and sisters in the gay community that I cannot endorse something that would bring harm to them.

While it is true that Pope Francis did not go against Church teaching, one should be extremely cautious of the civil law one endorses.  Sometimes, we think a civil law passed by the government is good but eventually can cause more harm and misery than good.  

There is a reason why marriage (like most things) comes with restrictions.  These restrictions include: 

1. One cannot marry a young child. 
2. One cannot marry their sibling or close immediate relative
3. One cannot marry a person of the same sex
4. One cannot marry more than one spouse
5. One cannot marry an animal or an object (non-human) 

Same-sex union is not about equal rights, which is what many gay activists want us to believe.  It is about removing a restriction.  And when you remove one restriction, in time another one may be removed.  In fact, polygamy was already brought to the Supreme Court (See article here).   

I agree that as Christians we should be compassionate toward our brothers and sisters who struggle with same-sex attractions.  In fact, we are no different from them.  Even heterosexuals struggle with the sin of lusting after the opposite sex.  Lust is lust regardless of who you lust whether it is one of the same sex or one of the opposite sex.  As Christians we should follow the example of what our Lord has taught us.  God loves the sinner that He gave His life for them.  We also must love the sinner and leave the judgment to God.  

Congratulations to Deacon Honorio “Ron” Valdeavilla Pangan Jr.

Deacon Honorio "Ron" Valdeavilla Panan Jr. will be ordained into the priesthood today at 2:00 p.m. at the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica in Hagatna.  He will be ordained by Archbishop Michael Byrnes.  Altougth he is not an RMS priest, he was one of the four seminarians who were at the former St. John Paul II Seminary under Archbishop Anthony.  He will be serving as Guam's priest. Of course, this is not the first time, I have recognized Deacon Ron.  I recognized him when he and Junee Valencia were ordained a deacon (See my post here).  It is important that all the priests in the Catholic Church be in union with their Archbishop otherwise we would end up repeating history.  Congratulations to Deacon Ron. 

Priests and Protests

Some people use Separation of Church and State to tell the Catholic Church to stay out of politics.  Although the words, "Separation of Church and State" is not found in the United States Constitution, the First Amendment does make clear that Government is not supposed to establish a national religion or national church.  It is the American people who chooses their religion.

     

Separation of Church and State is an advantage to the Church because it protects the Church from state control and interference.  The Church can carry out its mission in proclaiming the Gospel and moral values, in denouncing the evil in society, in serving the common good, in working for the defense of life and the environment, in struggling for justice and peace, and in operating social action projects that benefits the poor.  It does not prevent the Church from being involved in the social and political field.  In fact, there is no public law prohibiting church members to run for public office.  Church law prohibits the clergy from running for public office or endorsing a political candidate, but the clergy still have the right to express their views on government policy, such as the closing of churches.  According to Pacific Daily News:

In an interview with Newstalk K57, Fr. Mike Crisostomo, St. Anthony's Church Pastor, said: "As Church people, we want to be able to cooperate...but don't push us too far."

Fr. Crisostomo made the statement before the governor announced she’d allow indoor religious service to resume this weekend. 

Freedom of expression and the right to peaceably assemble in a protest is under the First Amendment.  Everyone has a right to express their social and political views.  This right of free expression also extends to the Church.  

So a big kudos to Archbishop Michael Byrnes for having the courage to open the doors of the parishes, even without government approval.  A big kudos also to Father Mike Crisostomo for publicly speaking out, standing up for his flock in the Tamuning Church and for all the Catholic faithful on opening the parish doors.  And a big kudos to the Catholic faithful who stood at the protests announcing to the Governor to open the doors of their parishes.  Truly, those parishioners love the Mass in their parishes, which is highly evident.  This love for their parish Mass gave them the courage to speak the truth through their peaceful protests and most especially through social media.  It is even more amazing to see some elderly folks standing (and social distancing) in the protest.  Truly, the Holy Spirit is in these people giving them courage despite COVID-19.    

Father Gordon also wrote something similar last week. His article entitled, Police, Politics, Priests, Protests, and The Purge" can be found here.  It is unfortunate that bishops are divided in their opinions regarding Father James Altman who stood up for the truth. Quoting from his blog, Father Gordon stated: 

I wrote a post some weeks ago entitled, “The State of Our Freedom, the Content of Our Character.” It was somewhat mildly critical of Archbishop Wilton Gregory of the Archdiocese of Washington, DC, because I believed (and still believe) he mischaracterized the reason President Trump appeared holding a Bible in front of St. John Episcopal church in Washington. On the previous night, mobs had virtually destroyed the façade of that church. Neither CNN nor MSNBC nor the major news networks would film the damage so Trump went to stand in front of it bringing the news cameras with him. Even then, CNN zoomed in on Trump so as not to display the damage from the previous night’s “peaceful protest.”

After I wrote about this, one of our readers posted it on one of several Catholic Facebook groups that share posts from These Stone Walls. I have never actually seen any of these groups. I have never seen Facebook either, but I am told that almost instantly someone posted in screaming caps, “YOU’RE A PRIEST! STAY OUT OF POLITICS!” My response to that would be, “Ummm, No.” I should not run for political office, and I should not use my proclamation of the Gospel to endorse a political candidate, but ordination to Catholic priesthood does not cancel out my First Amendment rights.

This came to the fore recently when an outspoken and rather courageous priest, Father James Altman, was disciplined by his bishop for statements that his conscience (and Catholic moral teaching) concluded were true. Then two other bishops entered the fray in defense of Father Altman. Some Catholics pitched their tents at opposite ends of the fray, but the whole affair left me feeling that the Church is alive and well in America, even if suppressed by the growth of socialism. Father Altman concludes that resistance is not futile, and I agree with him. A lot of readers very much liked our recent graphic in “Kamala Harris, Knights of Columbus, Threats to Democracy”:

• “Our duty as Catholics is to know the truth, to live the truth, to defend the truth, to share the truth with others, and to suffer for the truth.” (Servant of God Father John Hardon, S.J.)

Father James Altman now suffers for the truth.

 

40th Anniversary for NCW in Malaysia

For many people, the year 2020 will be remembered for COVID-19, the lockdown to contain the virus, the death of George Floyd that sparked protests against police brutality across the nation and the rioting and looting that took place afterwards.  However, the year 2020 also  marks the 40th anniversary for the NCW in Malaysia, which will be remembered by the NCW communities in the country.  You can find the following article here.

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Neocatechumenal Communities celebrate 40th anniversary

This year, 2020, marks the 40th year of the Neocatechumenal Way's existence in Malaysia.  The first neocatechumenal community was formed on Sept 7, 1980 at the Sacred Heart Cathedral (SHC) parish when the late Fr Tobias Chi was the Rector. 

Bishop Simon Fung was the first bishop to open the door for the formation of these communities in Malaysia.  Over the past 40 years, the number of communities have grown to a total of 43 in the Archdiocese of Kota Kinabalu, the Diocese of Sandakan and the Diocese of Sibu, in Sarawak. 

Fr Paul Lo, Rector of SHC parish, presided over a Eucharist with the 1st Community of the Neocatechumenal Way to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Way in Malaysia on Sunday Sep 6, 2020. 

Con-celebrating with him were three other priests: Fr Saimon Williams, an assistant parish priest at SHC; Fr Joshua Liew, who is on study leave; and Fr Tony Mojiwat who is presently serving at St Pius X Parish, Bundu Tuhan.  

The communities have produced a souvenir booklet to mark the occasion, in which they recorded a brief history of the Neocatechumenal Way in the country. 

During the early 1980s, catecheses were given at the SHC parish in Kota Kinabalu, Stella Maris Church at Tanjung Aru, St. Paul's Church at Dontozidon, St. Thomas' Church at Kepayan, St. John's Church at Tuaran and St Mary's Church in Sandakan. 

The booklet gives an account of the visits of the initiators of the Way, Kiko Arguello and Carmen Hernandez with Fr Mario Pezzi in 1996 and again in 2002 in conjunction with the Asian Bishops' Convivence in April that year.  

The gathering of 374 participants, including bishops, priests, catechists and families in mission from Asian countries, was hosted by the Diocese of Kota Kinabalu.  

Bishop John Lee, as head of the diocese, said in his welcoming remarks on the first day of the bishops' meeting that the church in Asia was moving into "a new way of being Church". 

He added that the journeying together in small communities seemed to be the common pastoral goal. 

The booklet also gave an account of Archbishop John Wong sending out about 120 men and women, priests and lay people from the neocatechumenal communities in Sabah and Sarawak on a 2-by-2 mission to announce the Gospel without money, hand phones, or a change of clothing in July 2017.  

After the Eucharist at the SHC parish centre, the community continued with the celebration of their 40th anniversary with a banquet at a local restaurant--CS

Getting Away With Murder on Guam: Part 2

This is the second part of Pornchai's story.  Part 1 is found here.  Pornchai's lawyer has been in contact with the Guam Police Department, the Office of the Attorney General regarding the cold case of Wannee Baily (Porchai's mother) who was murdered on Guam in 2000.  There is evidence, and all that is needed is for this cold case to be reopened.  Unfortunately, there has been very little to no response from our police department and our Attorney General.....so sad!  Where is justice for Wannee Baily?  The article below can be found here.

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Human Traffic: The ICE Deportation of Pornchai Moontri

Taken from Thailand to America at age 11 by a now-convicted sex offender, this Thai victim will now be an ICE detainee awaiting forced deportation 36 years later.

“I’m reclaiming my time!” That term became a familiar line of political theater during a recent congressional grilling of Attorney. General William Barr. Our friend, Father George David Byers, wrote a short post highlighting the ridiculous nature of that sad moment in American politics.

I’m reclaiming my time, too. All 26 years of it. That’s how long I have been unjustly held in an American prison while its crazy politics play out before polarized audiences. At about the time I reach the 26-year mark in September 2020, my friend, Pornchai Moontri will have been handed over to the hidden national shame of ICE detention. It is easy to stay on the sidelines and keep this topic out of sight and out of mind until someone you know and care about is on the receiving end of it.

This looming deportation process, especially its weeks or months in overcrowded detention, is a personal crisis for us. The politics of it do not help at all. A word of advice: Try to avoid having a crisis in a deeply divided presidential election year. It will inevitably become subjected to the political, and some of those around you will use it to score political talking points.

It has already been suggested to me that President Donald Trump is to blame for my friend’s looming deportation, and for the inhumane treatment that he and other ICE detainees will endure. The deportation order that is just now unfolding in the case of Pornchai Moontri was a decision of a federal judge in 2007. It’s the result of a one-size-fits-all policy requiring removal of any non-citizen who commits any crime on U.S. soil regardless of circumstances.

Then it was suggested to me that ICE detention and forced removal is a strictly Republican endeavor that Democrats would happily fix if elected and given the power to do so. I subscribe to a publication of the Human Rights Defense Center called Prison Legal News. If anything, it leans to the left of our divisive political spectrum. In the July 2017 issue is a well researched article by Derek Gilna entitled “Deportations of Undocumented Reach Record High.” It is an analysis of deportations in the six years prior to the 2016 election. Here is an important excerpt:

• “In the past six years, the number of people removed from the country against their will far surpassed the totals of the previous administration of George W. Bush reaching over two million people. According to human rights advocates, President Obama had become the ‘Deporter in Chief.’”

So please don’t subject the real human tragedy of what is happening now to the polarity of our “if you’re not with us you’re against us” politics. We are struggling right now behind These Stone Walls and I do not want our struggle to become political ammunition. Instead, I want to point you to something deeply unjust – demonic would be a better word – that has happened here. In his recent post, “Pornchai Moontri: Hope and Prayers, for a Friend Left Behind,” Pornchai wrote something that struck me like lightning and stabbed at my conscience as an American:

• “In December of 1985 I was taken from Thailand and brought against my will to the United States. Though it was my mother who took me, I did not know her. She had abandoned my brother and me in Thailand when I was only two years old. She waited until I was age eleven to come and take me away because her life was under the control of a monster who sent her to bring me to him. It is that Simple, and that terrible.”

Pornchai’s mother, Wannee, was only 22 years old when she left her two small sons. She was in desperate straits, unable to feed them. So she went to the city to find work. Instead, she found Richard Alan Bailey, an American helicopter pilot serving in Vietnam who was in Bangkok for a long recovery in the 1970s. He took control of Wannee’s life, and brought her to America where she was kept in servitude. Wannee could not speak, read or write English and was permitted no friends outside Bailey’s home.

AN AMERICAN HORROR STORY

Pornchai’s mother would later be murdered – beaten to death according to the autopsy report – on the U.S. Territorial Island of Guam in the company of Richard Bailey. Referred to by Pornchai as “An American Horror Story,” the case remains today an unsolved “cold case” homicide despite new evidence pointing to Bailey.

The murder occurred in 2000 as Wannee filed for divorce from Bailey and just before court-ordered dispersal of finances and property to Wannee was to take place. After the murder, Bailey sold his home and left Guam without settling the financial court orders with Wannee’s estate. He returned to Thailand to bring back a young Thai woman barely out of her teens. They settled in Oregon.

Back in the 1970s when Bailey prepared to bring Wannee from Bangkok to the United States, he knew she left two young sons behind in Thailand but he had no interest in a two-year-old. They settled in Bailey’s town of Bangor, Maine. Just blocks away, Stephen King was writing his own American horror stories. Bailey bided his time until Pornchai was 11 years old. Then, in 1985 he sent Wannee to Thailand to retrieve her sons.

This is a clear story of human trafficking, but it remains off that radar screen. In Bailey’s devious and narcissistic mind, these were human beings whose rights were at his personal disposal. Bailey would not permit Wannee to apply for U.S. citizenship. He knew her sons would one day reach an age that no longer interested him. It would thus be easier to be rid of them if they were not citizens.

In September 2018, Richard Bailey was finally brought to some form of justice. He entered a “no contest” plea deal, but was found guilty in Penobscot (Maine) Superior Court on forty felony counts of violent sexual assault against Pornchai and his brother. He was sentenced to 44 years in prison, all suspended, and 18 years of supervised probation. He returned to his lakeside home in Oregon without ever serving a day in prison.

That the vicious sexual and physical assaults against Pornchai and his brother had never previously been investigated or prosecuted remains another unsolved mystery. They took place over four years after Pornchai’s arrival in Bangor in 1985. There were school reports of a battered child. There were neighbors who expressed concern about the bleeding and traumatized Asian boy at their door pleading for help in a foreign language. There were reports from sheriff’s deputies who picked up a runaway child and handed him back over to Richard Bailey because they could not understand his protests.

Bailey’s violence and perversion drove Pornchai into homelessness – a teen stranded in a foreign country. There were reports filed by staff at the Maine Youth Center that took custody of Pornchai at age 14. There were reports when he was made a ward of the state at age 15. There were reports when he again became a homeless adolescent living alone on the streets of Bangor at age 16. It does not take rocket science to connect all this to the offense of a drunken 18-year-old in 1992. But all this history just disappeared.

Pornchai could not himself raise it. Right under the noses of state officials, Richard Bailey sent a battered and desperate Thai woman – Pornchai’s mother – to warn him while held pre-trial at the county jail that her life would be in danger if Pornchai told. Pornchai thus refused to participate in his own defense.

At sentencing, Judge Margaret Kravchuk told him that he was given a new life in America but squandered it.

Certainly no one can claim that sexual abuse was not on the public radar at that time. Just one state away in New Hampshire in 1988, a witch hunt was underway involving Catholic priests. The story that sent me to prison was just taking shape at that time while some local lawyers were taking out their calculators. The dollar signs were dangled before them by a local sex crimes detective who brought over 1,000 cases while Maine, right next door, was ignoring the predator who was openly destroying the lives of three young Thai immigrants. A lot of people in the State of Maine covered up for Richard Bailey. Who investigates the investigators?

GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER ON THE ISLAND OF GUAM

On the U.S. territorial Island of Guam, officials have reacted with silence about inquiries into the unsolved homicide of Wannee in 2000. The Guam police, the Attorney General, and the U.S. Attorney there have been only minimally responsive over the last two years.

Pornchai Moontri, whose life was destroyed by Richard Bailey when he was twelve to fourteen years old, has now spent the last 28 years in prison for an offense that Bailey himself set in motion. In days or weeks, Pornchai will be moved to an overcrowded ICE holding facility where he will be forced to wait out the Covid-19 pandemic sleeping on a dayroom floor filled with ICE detainees.

Meanwhile, Richard Bailey, now convicted of 44 felony counts of sexual abuse against Pornchai and his brother, has not spent a single night in prison. He waits out the pandemic in his lakeside home in Oregon. He has simply ignored attempts by Pornchai’s advocates to recover what he owes to Wannee’s estate – funds that could make an enormous difference to someone who must now start his shattered life over. Not a single American attorney would agree to represent Pornchai for civil protection.

In his moving recent post, “Hope and Prayers for My Friend Left Behind,” Pornchai himself raised the enormous paradox in our parallel stories of imprisonment:

• “Father Gordon MacRae freed me from the evil this man inflicted on me. He taught me that this evil is not mine to keep. What do I do with such a story? If Father G had not been here, what would have become of me? He freed my mind and soul from the horror inflicted by a real predator. It breaks my heart that the man responsible for my freedom will now be left behind in prison.”

These are Pornchai’s questions, but they are not the questions I would ask. For 26 years, I have witnessed the unbridled outrage leveled at Catholic bishops and priests over allegations of sexual abuse and the necessity of protecting the vulnerable from abusers. But Americans are very selective in their outrage. Is there none left for Richard Bailey? Is there no outrage for Pornchai’s expulsion from the very country where his horrific abuse took place?

Some time ago, I wrote a post entitled, “President Donald Trump’s First Step Act for Prison Reform.” This President undertook a bold initiative for criminal justice. He called for the removal of “The Box” from all federal employment application forms. “The Box” was infamous among prisoners. It was a check-off box on most employment applications asking if the applicant has ever been convicted of a felony. In effect, it was an extension of a prison sentence that had long since been fully served. It took a non-politician to do what most politicians lack the political will or courage to do. “The Box” served only one purpose: to prevent former prisoners from finding meaningful jobs.

The President’s rationale for this is the fact that if a man or woman applying for a job had ever been in prison, the fact that they are now filling out this application means that the sentence has been served and it is over.

ICE DETENTION

By mid-September 2020, Pornchai Moontri will have fully served the entire sentence that the State of Maine imposed upon him at age eighteen. He has accomplished many things in that time, and is today an asset, not a hindrance, to his country. His country is Thailand, but he was taken from there as a child by a monstrous American predator who has never answered for it. Now America will keep the predator in freedom while expelling the victim.

The truth is that Pornchai wants to go and is ready to go. Thanks to These Stone Walls, a future has been built there for him, and a fresh start with people who will care for him. Our well-founded concern is not for his deportation, but for the added insult and injury that he must emerge from prison just to wait out this pandemic in a horribly crowded ICE detention facility – aka, another prison. He could not be deemed any threat to the community because his sentence is over. If he were not an ICE detainee, he would simply walk free.

And he could not be considered a flight risk because he has worked long and hard to build a future in Thailand that he now looks forward to. The Divine Mercy Thailand organization has a team waiting for Pornchai. The Father Ray Foundation (www.fr-ray.org) has a plan for training him and putting his skills to use. It is an awesome place as a visit to their website will show.

Public risk and flight risk are the only real reasons why ICE detainees are held. We were hoping and praying that bail could be arranged for Pornchai to live in the community until Thailand can open its borders for a flight during this pandemic. Some TSW readers nearby had an ideal location for Pornchai to spend those weeks learning instead of just surviving. However that was deemed to be impossible.

What follows is a recent letter I received from another former prisoner, an Asian friend from here who recently went through ICE deportation and is now back in his native country after an ordeal lasting months:

• “You will first sit in a holding tank with a bunch of junkies and young criminals whining about a two-week county sentence in a county jail. Then at about 11 PM you will get moved to a federal detention pod. If you are lucky you might get a cell with one other person, but more likely you will be sent to a crowded dayroom with a thin mattress. You will have to find a place put it among the crowd. If there are no bunks, they use these things like plastic canoes to sleep in. You will have to find a place to park it. One of the cells is kept empty so all the detainees living on the dayroom floor can use the single toilet in it.”

Justice is supposed to be blind, but sometimes it is deaf and dumb too. Our friend deserves better than to go to his new life like this. Here is a small exercise in the blindness of criminal justice you can easily do and that we now hope those who measure Pornchai will do. He has the most unlikely internet footprint of any person who has been in a U.S. prison for 28 years. Do a google search for “Pornchai Moontri” using the quotes. It is a great stretch of the imagination that the results are anything less than a good man deserving of our protection. America was once better than this.

Please pray for us as we do for you.