|
Pregnancy Center
We Dominicans have also opened a Pregnancy Center in St Martin's House. Here pregnant women can find a refuge
from their frequently hopeless situtions.
And here we wish to provide them with the safety and peacd of mind to make the decision in favour of the life
of the baby. The leaders of Pregnancy Center offer
them a place to stay, provide personal assistance, medical service, and everything needed for the child.
We can accommodate six women at a time. The space is ready for them, and the hearts are ready, too. But right now we can't accommodate this many because
of our finances. Still we are not afraid of this challenge. We are willing to feel the pressure of poverty in order to know concretely what it means to see God as
the One who cares about everything.
The presence in high schools
One major accomplishment has been the permission given to one of our brothers to lecture regularly in four high schools in the city. People here often have
negative attitudes about all and any religion, especially about Catholics. Often the attitudes aren't even conscious, but they are very real.
And after 70 years of Soviet indoctrination they are especially negative to anything that might appear as a new attempt to indoctrinate. The young who are
interested in being introduced into the faith often face strong parental opposition.
Catholics have long been a religious minority in this area. They represent only 10% pf the population. Lutherans account for 30%, Baptists 25%, Orthodox 20%.
And there are smaller groups and non-Christian groups. But religious practice among all groups in this secularized society is low.
One of the region's bright areas is its musical culture. Liepaja is well known as the center of the music industry. Every year there are music festivals well-known
all over Europe. This forms a specific pattern of the interests of young people in the city that is directly disadvantageous in order
to attract the young to the values of Christianity. But on the other hand this aspect of the city's entertainment gives the very advantage to point more and more frustrated
young people to the attractiveness of the Christianity.
Marriage and Engaged Encounters.
In Latvia, out of every 1000 marriages there will be 750 divorces within five years. And the statistics are even higher in Estonia. Fr. Peteris works to help young
couples learn how to avoid the problems and mistakes that have led the large majority of their own parents' generation to end their marriages by divorce. He also organize
marriage meetings several times a year to continue his assistance to already young families and to gain more experience necessary in this area of apostolate.
The main challenge in this work is to convince the couples that making a go of marriage is worth the time, effort and costs that the meetings require.
So here too we have to draw on our own limited resources in order to assure the minimum number of couples necessary to make the programs work. In this city
the $30 cost for the entire Engaged Encounter weekend can very costly for a couple.
Spiritual training
Given the secular and anti-religious traditions here we are often asked to provide courses in religion and spiritual traditions to people newly interested
in the faith. These can include groups as varied as dedicated nuns, Questioning students and groups of young's peoples.
|
