At Mass...

...today, we had a guest preacher: Fr Peter Walters of Let the Children LIve, a charity dedicated to Our Lady of Walsingham. The parish is supporting this as a Lenten Project. I sat and put my brain into a sort of oh-well-I'm-sure-it's-a-worthy-charity-do-I-really-need-to-listen? mode, but from the moment that Fr started speaking I was gripped. He described how, some thirty years ago, he was on holiday in South America and had a problem with his return ticket, so had to stay on while it was sorted out. He had no money by this time so went hungry - and was befriended by some street children who at first had tried to beg from him but then found it hilarious when he told them he had no cash and was hungry like them. By the time he was able to fly home he had decided that he must find some way to help these children - and this resulted in his working with the local Bishop on a number of projects which flourish to this day. He launched the charity as a young Anglican priest working at the Shrine in Walsingham, and it has grown and grown. He is now a Catholic priest, based permanently in Colombia, and the charity is still linked to Walsingham: the shrine of her "holy house" makes a bond with the homeless children, and the centre in Colombia is called "Casa Walsingham" and has a statue which is carried in procession and much loved...

Colombia's economy and social fabric has been wrecked by the drugs trade, and the street children are the resulting victims. But their future could be bright and full of hope if help is given - the projects currently include educational ventures, a choir, a residential home, support for families...

Every time some people buy cocaine here in the West, they are helping to kill children in Bogota: the illegally-produced rugs fund gun crimes and killers who shoot children simply because they are regardedas beggars and a nuisance.