Fr. Frans van der Lugt, S.J., "People Have Nothing To Eat"

Fr, Franz van der Lugt, S.J.

We refuse to die of hunger in Homs. We Christians and Muslims love life and want to live. This was the appeal Fr. Frans van der Lugt sent via YouTube. The Dutch Jesuit has been living in Syria for decades and is the only European left in the besieged city.Activists in the Bustan ad Diwan area of Homs shared the video posted on YouTube by Fr. Frans in recent days. The video shows Fr. Francis as he is also known, speaking from what seems to be a church altar.

“I am here to talk to you about the old city of Homs which has been under siege” for one year and seven months now. “I represent the local Christian communities,” the priest said referring to the 70 or so Christians that remain in Syria’s third major city. Homs supports the revolt and has suffered huge destruction under the country’s repressive regime.

“Christians and Muslims are going through a difficult and painful time and we are faced with many problems. The greatest of these is hunger,” Fr. Frans states. “People have nothing to eat. There is nothing more painful than watching mothers searching for food for their children in the streets.”

Link (here) to read the rest of the story at UCANews

Operation Market Garden, Private First Class Curtis C. Morris And The Jesuits Of Mariëndaal

Private First Class Curtis C. Morris was a paratrooper in the Easy Company, 504 Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division died, the beginning of Operation Market Garden in Holland on Sept. 17, 1944. “We needed to seize a series of bridges so our forces could begin the liberation of Europe after the breakout from Normandy,” Soyster said. “On 17 September 1944, the 82nd Airborne Division jumped into Holland. Their objective was to seize the Maas bridge.”

Born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, on September 18, 1917, Morris enlisted on October 14, 1940. He underwent extensive training to become a paratrooper, and he saw his first combat in July 1943 when he jumped in the Sicily campaign. Morris was injured later in Salerno by mortar grenades and was awarded the Purple Heart for the wounds he received there. After recovering, Morris rejoined his unit and took part in the battle of Anzio.

He was serving as the runner for Easy Company Commander Captain Walter Van Poyck, at the time of his jump at the start of Operation Market Garden.

The jump was to be Morris' last. “After his prior combat actions, Curtis Morris once again stood in the door of a C-47 flying over the village of Velp in Holland,” Soyster said. “On this day, his parachute malfunctioned, and before his reserve chute could fully deploy, he plummeted through a plum tree on the farmyard of farmer Jan Van Den Hoogen.”

After his fall, Morris was carried into Van Den Hoogen's barn by U.S. soldiers. When the soldiers checked the pocket of his uniform, they discovered the photograph of Morris' baby daughter, Carol, and a Rosary.

“When the soldiers discovered Morris was Catholic, they sent for the priest of a (The Monastery Mariëndaal) nearby Jesuit monastery, Father Hanssen, to baptize Private Morris and give him the Last Sacraments. Approximately two hours later, he died on the day before his 27th birthday.”

Morris' body was placed on a bier in the Jesuit monastery. The next day, five U.S. soldiers recovered his body as the abbot and rector prayed the Lord's Prayer and a Hail Mary as the seminarians formed a lane at the gate through which Morris was carried. Morris was buried on September 21, 1944, in a temporary U.S. military cemetery “Molenhoek” near Nijmegen. He reached his final resting place on February 9, 1949, as he was reburied in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

Link (here)

Jesuits in Holland (here)

Photo of Mariendaal Seminary in Velp, Holland

Relive Operation Market Garden by watching the movie "A Bridge To Far"

Dutch Jesuit In Syria

The Al Ard center, close to Syria's border with Lebanon, is an oasis for forty mentally-disadvantaged children and adults and their only chance for help – with enough places for only one-in-three in need.

The center provides specialized care otherwise unavailable in this rural part of the country. The land is rich but the people poor.

Two decades ago, a Dutch Jesuit priest Frans Van der Lugt and a Syrian industrialist joined forces to help – and Al Ard, or The Land, was born.

Link (here) with video