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| Monday August 31, 2015 "letter" from Fr. Hattie received via email. |
Below is my transcription of the letter (shown above) which I received from Fr. Hattie via email on Monday August 31, 2015. It was a nice gift to receive because August 31st is a tough day for me since it is the anniversary of my (failed) marriage. Also, see below for another significance for August 31st.
Anyway, as usual, I have taken the liberty of giving the scan a slight tint to suggest the Aerogram letters that Father used to send when he was overseas. My transcription has also attempted to make up for any typos or light impressions or overstrikes from Father's manual typewriter. As you can see (above), Father literally types his letter and has someone scan it to a JPEG file and email it to me.
Overall, my goals for the transcription are to make it easier for anyone to read the letter but not to compromise the intent and meaning. If I missed something or got it wrong or if there is something you don't understand, please let me know (e.g., post a comment below or email me or call me, etc).
For other letters from Father Hattie to me, as well as information on how to contact Fr. Hattie, see my Fr. Hattie page. It also includes information on how you can donate to help "his" orphans in Nsumba, Uganda.
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My dear Rick: Peace of Christ!
Hope that you have not been bothered by this late reply. But, Sr. Christine is a full-time teacher and is Superior of her community and has to do this work between jobs. In any case, thanks so much for your kind, thoughtful & generous Gift of $XX.00 for my kids, appreciated much more because the number of former donors is decreasing little by little. It is the 'regulars' who keep the orphanage going. The people who have much don't seem to want to give. So, thank God for loyal friends like you.
During the past 2 weeks many things have happened. I celebrated my 75 years as a Jesuit & 62 years as a priest.[*] It would seem that I am one of the oldest Members of the Province. The good Lord must have good reasons for allowing me [to] hang in there for so long.
We had another funeral. This poor priest had been a mere vegetable for the past 16 years...remembered nothing, recognized no one & had to be fed and bathed like a baby. It was a blessing that God finally called him Home. He had only 2 living sisters & no one else.
I hope that this is not a repetition, but a short while back I had a delightful visit with a young African Jesuit priest whom I had taught in Uganda. You can be sure that I had a 100 questions about Africa & all my friends there.
I just saw in the newspaper that the President & Vice President of Southern Sudan had signed a Peace agreement after 2 years of war. Poor Sudan (both North & South) haven't known real peace for about 30 years & it has always been about Muslims and Christian[s]. This time the UN & the USA threatened all kinds of sanctions if they did not sign a peace agreement. Let us hope and pray that this one will last. Over the past 30 years, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed & millions displaced. When I was in So. Sudan for 2 years, whenever we left the compound, we never had any certainty of returning. This present war is a war, also, between the two main Tribes for supremacy. It is a shame, that although Africa is, by far, the richest Continent, it is also the poorest. But, more of that later. Until next time,
Tons of love & gratitude for your latest generous Gift of $XX.00 for my kids.
Fr. Gene, SJ
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* See biography of Fr. Hattie. According to the article, he became a member of the Jesuits on August 31, 1940 and ordained a priest on November 21, 1953.
** I don't know exactly what article Fr. Hattie saw about the South Sudan peace agreement, but I found an article from Reuters from August 26th that provides some details. There is a lot of info about the UN in Sudan and the war. I usually like to start at Wikipedia and go from there.
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Links:
http://ricketwrite.blogspot.com/2011/08/it-was-20-years-ago-today.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerogram
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typewriter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPEG
http://ricketwrite.blogspot.com/p/letters-from-fr-hattie.html
http://www.visituganda.com/
http://ricketwrite.blogspot.com/2013/08/father-hattie.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/26/us-southsudan-unrest-president-idUSKCN0QV1MF20150826
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Mission_in_Sudan
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Written Sunday October 25. 2015.
