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PAGE 2 — The Southern Cross, September 5, 1985
Missionary Priest Has 135 Haitian Schoolhouses To Adopt
BY DAVID SCHUSTER
DUBUQUE, Iowa (NC) — A Dutch Salesian priest has put
up for adoption 135 one-room schoolhouses scattered
throughout the slums of Haiti’s capital city of Port-au-
Prince.
Father Lawrence Bohnen, 71, better known as “Father
Beans” for the English translation of his last name, is look
ing for 600 sponsors to take part in his school-adoption cam
paign.
For $75 a month, a group, organization or individual can
sponsor one teacher and 25 students. The money covers the
teacher’s salary, plus food and education for the children.
In return the sponsor is kept in touch with the school
through photographs and letters.
Father Bohnen spoke with the Dubuque diocesan
newspaper, The Witness, while in Dubuque Aug. 7 to renew
friendships made during annual visits to the United States
and Canada. Every July and August for the past 25 years he
has traveled by bus throughout North America preaching
at parishes on weekends.
He has worked in Haiti for 30 years and plans to continue
until the year 2000. To reach that goal, he started the adopt-
a-schooi program to give his mission a sense of continuity
through the turn of the century and to give his schools a
steady source of income.
Because of his work among the poor, he is sometimes
called Father Mother Teresa. But he says his work is
localized, while Mother Teresa’s is worldwide.
Haiti has the lowest per-capita income in the Americas,
but Father Bohnen’s plans call for more than just
distributing food. He wants to reduce Haiti’s 85 percent il
literacy rate.
“It’s more appealing to say ‘Feed the children,”’ he
says, “but it is more important to educate. Development of
a country should start basically with education.”
Father Bohnen started his mission work by building the
“mini” or “slum” schools throughout the four slum sec
tions of Port-au-Prince — La Saline, City Simone, Brooklyn
and Boston.
The schools, each about the size of a two-car garage in the
United States, are staffed by 550 teachers, 20 of which are
v< ..••
MlM
IB
HOLY TRINITY, Augusta, just completed an
extensive interior and exterior painting. The
cross that stands at the top of the steeple was
replaced by a 165 ft. crane.
THE CARMEL CLUB
-Its Purpose and Scope
Shortly after the arrival of the Carmelite Nuns in the Savannah Diocese in June of 1958, the Carmel
Club was organized to make known to a larger number of people the life, spirit and mission of Carmel;
to stimulate financial support in order to supplement the income earned by the work of the Nuns and to
create a deeper bond of faith and love among those united in helping one another.
Those joining the Carmel Club freely contribute a monthly donation, payable either on a monthly basis,
semi-annually or annually. As a reminder, a Carmel Club envelope is sent by the Sisters for the conve
nience of the members.
All benefactors of the Carmelite Nuns are remembered in the daily offering of the Eucharist. They also
share in the Liturgy of the Hours (Offical Prayer of the Church) each day as well as sharing in the grace
of the Nuns’ lives of prayer and self-denial. Saint Teresa encouraged her daughters in her own spirit of
deep gratitude when she wrote in The Way of Perfection, “the Sisters are to pray continually for their
benefactors.”
(Please Print)
Name (Last)_
Address
(First)
-Zip.
1 wish to become a member of the Carmel Club of the Savannah Diocese and contribute $
support the Carmelite Nuns in their life of prayer in this diocese.
I understand 1 may send my monthly donation in one of the following ways (Kindly check one below):
each month to help
□ Monthly
□ Semi-annually
□ Annually
Please detach and return with your first donation to:
The Carmel Club, Carmelite Monastery
II West Back Street, Savannah, Georgia 31419
Signed:.
paid, and reach 13,000 children. The children, ranging in
age from 7 through their teens, begin their schooling in the
135 slum schools.
As students become more advanced, they move up to one
of the four cental schools, one for each of the slum sections.
Father Bohnen’s educational system, organized in a
pyramid, culminates in a vocational school where the
students learn a trade in welding, woodworking, sewing,
painting and more.
While education is a high priority with Father Bohnen, he
also brings food to the slums. His students receive a meal
each school day in “the largest diners’ club in the world.”
He relies on beans and corn as the main ingredients, and
sometimes the only ones, in his pupils’ diet.
“One day we have corn and beans, the next day we have
beans and corn,” he said with a grin.
He says that Haitian slums are unlike American slums,
which he considers “moral slums” filled with crime and
delinquency.
In Haiti the people are well-behaved, he says, but through
no fault of their own they live in tin-roofed shacks without
plumbing, sanitation, clean water or food.
For more information on adopting one of Father
Bohnen’s schools contact The Salesian Fathers, Box 30,
New Rochelle, N.Y. 10802.)
Nicaragua Bishops
Meet With Sandinistas
MANAGUA, Nicaragua (NC) — Representatives of the
Nicaraguan bishops and the country’s government met late
in August for the first time in several months.
Although officials close to the talks said no progress was
made, the two sides agreed to hold monthly meetings and to
prepare lists of concerns to be shared at the next session.
After the Aug. 26 meeting, Interior Minister Tomas Borge
told The New York Times the government was prepared to
review the cases of 10 priests who were expelled from the
country last year for alleged involvement in subversive acts.
The church’s representatives at the talks were Bishop
Pablo Antonio Vega, president of the Nicaraguan bishops’
conference and head of the Prelature of Juigalpa,
Nicaragua; the papal nuncio, Archbishop Andrea Cordero
Lanza di Montezemolo; and Auxiliary Bishop Bosco Vivas
Robelo of Managua.
The government representatives were Rene Nunez,
secretary of the Sandinista National Directorate, and
Rodrigo Reyes, minister of the presidency.
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