We've Entered A New World But It's Not Brave

Email received this morning from Jim Forest, author of All Is Grace: A Biography of Dorothy Day

From: broeder Johannes Maertens
Date: Mon, Feb 29, 2016 at 11:26 PM
Subject: Calais camp
To: Jim Forest

Dear friends,

Today the police started with the forced demolition of the camp. It's beyond my understanding how a government and a police force can decide to go in to a camp where minors and children live and actually use teargas grenades in areas where there are mothers with babies.

Only shortly before the Iranian Christians had asked me to sit in front of their houses together with them and to pray for them - 10 minutes after the prayer the teargas canisters were shot into the camp. Some of these projectiles were used to 'shoot' people out of their houses.

People were treated for the teargas by the staff of Doctors without Borders who constantly stayed present in the camp.

Yes, some of the youngsters answered with throwing stones at the police but the volunteers try to calm the situation down. Many of those volunteers and people joined in to extinguish the fires that started in that part of the camp.

The South part of the camp however was severely damaged today; many houses with people stuff inside were destroyed and removed.

This is a sad day for the people in the camp, people who have run away from such violence, from war and conflict, from poverty and police violence. They are people and youngsters who already suffer trauma – I am ashamed today – I am ashamed to be a European.

In the French newspaper Liberation you will find this Photo Journal about today:

http://www.liberation.fr/france/2016/02/29/jungle-de-calais-demantelement-sous-tension_1436567

And please pray for the people who have lost their houses, for the people who have lost their papers and private stuff and for those who have been victims again of state violence.

Pray for the camp for what is ahead of us in the coming days.

And please pray for our house and its volunteers: this week this is br. Johannes, Peter, Thomasz, Anna and Herman.

Yours in the love and compassion of Christ Jesus,

Br. Johannes
Brother Johannes is the founder of the Mother Maria Skobtsova House of Hospitality at the refugee camp in Calais.