Morality MattersAgainst All Odds‘In Eastern Congo, motherhoodis still a risky business.MOTHERHOODdemandsrisk, personal danger andcourage. When Marysaid yes to life, to becomingthe mother of God,she risked everything. As a young, unwedmother in a patriarchal society, she riskedlosing her family, her place in the communityand thus her means of survival.Joseph’s first instinct to the news of herpregnancy was to break with her, untilangels interceded and the Holy Familywas begun.As we celebrate the month of Maryand Mother’s Day, motherhood is still arisky business. For the women of EasternCongo, where atrocities against womenare routinely committed, motherhoodrequires great courage. In the past 10years 5.4 million people have died fromthe war and violence in the DemocraticRepublic of Congo; 47 percent of theseare children. In a huge country, the sizeof the United States east of theMississippi, rebel groups supported byforeigners fight with each other and thegovernment, largely over the D.R.C.’srich natural resources.“Conflict coltan” mines in EasternCongo are particular targets, as coltan isused in our cell phones, laptops and computerchips. Rwanda’s génocidères remainin Eastern Congo, where they and otherscontinue their brutality. The largely collapsedD.R.C. is at best unable to protectpeople; at worst the untrained and unpaidtroops and police themselves prey on thepeople.Women and children suffer most.Alan Goss, the U.N. special representativeto the D.R.C., laments that the rates ofinfant and maternal mortality in Congoare among the worst in the world. InMARYANN CUSIMANO LOVE serves on theadvisory board of the CatholicPeacebuilding Network.‘Eastern Congo, with its coltan mines andforeign fighters, violence continues longafter peace accords have been signed.Women are routinely raped andmutilated as an instrument of war, as documentedby the U.N. special rapporteuron violence against women, Ms. YakinErturk. She notes, “The scale and brutalityof the atrocities amount to war crimesand crimes against humanity.” Girls asyoung as 5 and grandmothers as old as 80are not immune to gang rapes, some ofthem committed with tree limbs, guns ormachetes. Mothers are raped while theirhusbands and children are tied to treesand forced to watch. In many cases thevictims are shunned, blamed for theattacks on them, because the rapes humiliatethe family, or because they are infectedby the attacks with H.I.V./AIDS andother diseases, or because many areimpregnated with the children of thesecriminals and enemies.Although the D.R.C. made rape andviolence against women illegal in 2006,few perpetrators are ever arrested or prosecuted.The filmmaker Lisa Jacksonshows in “The Greatest Silence,” a chillingrecent HBO documentary, theimpunity of these rapists, who brag oncamera of their crimes.What do women do in the midst ofsuch horrible suffering? They try to raisetheir children and hold their familiestogether, against all odds. They see theseoffspring of rape not as children of theenemy, but as children of God.Archbishop Francois-Xavier Maroygrew up in these areas and now presidesthere. His three predecessors were murdered.He was recently in the UnitedStates to attend Catholic PeacebuildingNetwork conferences, and to urge actionby the U.S. government, in particular bySenators Sam Brownback and JosephBiden and Congressman Barney Frank,who are promoting legislation on theseissues. “All of humanity are attacked whenwomen are attacked,” he said, and continued:“Women are sacred, the mothers oflife, the pillars of the family, she that educatessociety through her children. Theseare attacks against the whole human family,aimed at the extermination of theCongolese people of the east.”He explained that with the collapse ofthe state almost all social services are providedby the church, from trauma healingto health care. But this is difficult to do,and resources are scarce. For women withmore severe injuries, there is only onedoctor able to treat them, Dr. Mukwege ofthe Panzi Hospital in Bukavu. Accordingto the archbishop:We work on reintegration of thewomen back into families andsocieties, and in the reintegrationof their children. The problem isthat after rape they are marginalizedby their own family members,evicted and their household goodsstolen as well, so the church triesto give other means to establishlives and become useful again. Wealso work with the children whoare born of these rapes, as they areinnocent victims too.What we would ask the<strong>America</strong>n church is first, for yourprayers. Prayer is the strongestforce, and can change hearts ofstone to hearts of flesh. Second,we ask <strong>America</strong>n Catholics to tellthe U.S. government, which is thefirst power of the world, to help usbring peace back to Congo, and towork to return the Rwandan fightersback to Rwanda. We ask thatthe U.S. government be a forcefor reconstruction, not destruction.And third, we ask for financialassistance as well.Despite the suffering of the people towhom Archbishop Maroy ministers everyday, he maintains a positive outlook andgentle smile. “As a church, we must alwayskeep hope and never be discouraged.”This May, let us pray together with thepeople of Congo, “Deliver us Lord fromevery evil, and grant us peace in our day.”Maryann Cusimano LoveMay 5, 2008 <strong>America</strong> 9
May 5, 2008 <strong>America</strong> Vol. 198 No. 15, Whole No. 4814T h e N e w A t h e i s mIn recent years religious fundamentalism and disputesover the relationship between faith and science haveprovoked a wave of publications known collectively as“the new atheism.” Following the Second VaticanCouncil’s observation that “believers can have morethan a little to do with the rise of atheism,” the editorshave asked five prominent theologians to explorewhich expressions of contemporary Christianity supplywhat the council called “the secret motives” ofatheism. We also asked our experts to reflect on howChristians might respond to both the legitimate criticismsoffered by the new atheism and the distortionsof faith found within it.May 5, 2008 <strong>America</strong> 11
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