I n t e r n e t C o m m i t t e e f o r
t h e
Order of Preachers
2.1.2 - Dominican Internet News
- What:
- An inernet news service where dominicans from around the world can
report and comment on their local situation, especially in the areas of
peace and justice and religious news.
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- Why:
- The comercial news media has its own motivations and its own perspectives,
which are not necessarily in line with those of the Gospel. By providing
an alternative source for people to find out information about our world,
we could preach the truth in a new way. This is particularly important
in issues of justice and church news, which are often distorted in the
commercial media. Furthermore, we have dominicans around the world who
know what is really going on. We could create a news service accessable
via the internet which would provide a platform for these dominicans to
tell what they know.
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- Examples:
- The dominican friars in Chiapas, Mexico are at the center of the human
rights struggle in this important region. Our presence there atarted with
Bartolome de las Casas, Dominican Bishop of San Cristobal, who, together
with other friars, tried to inculturate the preaching of the Gospel in
the native cultures. For the time being, we have two communities of friars
and several communities of sisters in the region, working mainly in two
interconnected areas:
- 1) evangelization, with a special focus on the formation of native
catechists.
- 2) Justice and Peace work: through a human rights center.
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- During the last 10 years they have had to face a very hard situation
of violence. Living in community and being prepared as dominicans has given
them a real impact in the region. Currently fra Raul Vera OP is the auxilliary
bishop of Don Samuel Ruiz, following his corageous evangelical approach
to the situation. Fra Pablo Romo OP is the director of the human rights
center for the diocese and seeks very much to publicize the plight of his
people. For example, he spoke recently at the session for Human Rights
Commission at the United Nations in Geneva. Raul Vera was very interested
in this internet project, and thought it could help him a lot.
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- We also have dominicans working in Iraq who could give important first
hand information about what life is like there due to the embargo. The
friars are living in Baghdad and Mossoul (nearby Nineva) and the sisters,
about 120, are staying mainly in the Christian villages in the North in
the region of Mossoul. All of them are Iraquians and many young women and
men are joining their communities. The apostolate is mainly preaching,
for example, through a theological center in Baghdad and also a periodical.
Also they are keen to keep a real solidarity with the suffering of their
people. As a sign of that, the friars are planning to build a new novitiate
in Baghdad and the architect has imagined to build in the front a broken
wall - to show that it is through suffering and brokenness that we can
meet Jesus. Remaining there when many left the country has been an enormous
sign. Timothy was very moved when he went there during the last crisis,
when everyone was waiting for more bombs to fall. His few words to the
Order on the matter have moved many hearts. Imagine if the Iraqi Dominicans
could speak for themselves more, to the whole world...
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- Their voices are profound, yet have a difficult time finding a way
out of their region.
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- How:
- Basically, using existing technologies already available on the internet,
we would gather information from dominicans around the world and present
them from one consistent internet site.
- The task of the global entity would be:
- to create a structure for managing the information,
- to promote the new service around the world
- to find and cultivate local sources for news on important events
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- I believe this could be done by one person working full-time for the
order in conjunction with others working part-time in their local areas.
