In a letter to the organization's chaplains and volunteers released by the Holy See press office Monday, international director Fr. Bruno Ciceri said the change was necessary because the charity had different names in different countries, causing "confusion and misunderstanding."

"From now on ‘Stella Maris' will be the official name with which the Apostolate of the Catholic Church for the people of the sea will be known. This will replace the current name, ‘Apostleship of the Sea,'" he wrote, also unveiling a new logo for the charity which is present in 55 countries and supports more than a million seafarers a year. Read more

Turkson, who heads the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development, says working in the fishing industry is one of the most perilous jobs in the world.

And, each year 32,000 people lose their lives working in the fishing industry, Turkson said in a message for World Fisheries Day.

Turkson's message calls on Governments and International Organizations to implement the law and ensure fishermen and their rights are protected.

The Catholic Church in New Zealand outreaches to fishers and their families through the Apostleship of the Sea.

It is no stranger to cases of abuse and precarious working conditions, false contracts and even slavery that takes place in fishing.

Fr Jeff Drane, the National Director of the Apostleship of the Sea in New Zealand supports Turkson's call.

Drane confirmed the dangerous nature of the work and that fishers' arriving in New Zealand ports are exploited.

"The New Zealand Government has passed legislation (the Fisheries Act - Foreign Vessels and other Matters - amendments May 2016) to control foreign vessels when in our territorial waters but our ocean is so huge it's hard to police," he said.

Drane says that it is only when the fishing vessels are inshore that it is possible to notice a dangerous work environment and exploitation.

However, he says there is no absolutely effective way of tracking abuse or exploitation either close or far from shore.

Seafarers transport more than 95% of the food and goods the world uses every day, and yet these 1.3 million hardworking men and women are often forgotten.

Away from family and friends for many months at a time, working long hours and navigating some of the world's most dangerous stretches of ocean, seafaring can be a tough, lonely and hazardous career.

The Apostleship of the Sea, internationally also known as Stella Maris, promotes the spiritual and social welfare of seafarers irrespective of nationality or belief.

Sources

• ICN
• Supplied

She looked after the needs of the detainees and served as their interpreter and mediator in court, said the secretary for communications and youth at Don Bosco Technical School at Gabutu, in Port Moresby, Fr Ambrose Pereira.

They have been detained in the prisons of Alotau, Giligili and Bomana for illegally fishing and harvesting beche-de-mer in Milne Bay.

Trinh communicates with their families back home and arranges for payment of their penalties and getting all the necessary documents and tickets for them to fly back home to Vietnam.

"Sr Trinh successfully processed the repatriation of 87 Vietnamese fishermen and about 18 more will soon follow and all will soon be able to re-join their families back home, thanks to the courage of this sister and the support given by her Salesian community," said Fr Ambrose.

Trinh is a Vietnamese Salesian Sister working in a girls' skills training institute in Sideia Island, diocese of Alotau in Milne Bay.

Another priest, Fr Rolando Santos said the case of the Vietnamese fishermen was disturbing.

"They (Vietnamese fishermen) are used by whoever employs them to fish illegally without a proper license or any guarantee of protection or security from their employers.

"It is a serious abuse on the rights and dignity of these young men to be sent out by their recruiters to fish in illegal waters without a proper licence and without any guarantee of protection or security."

"Once caught, they are almost totally forgotten and abandoned."

The Governor of Milne Bay, Titus Philemon has expressed his deep gratitude to Sr Trinh for the help that she has given the Vietnamese detainees.

Source

• thenational.com.pg
• Image: asianews.it

That was the comment of a UK port chaplain after he responded to an unusual, but not surprising, request from a visiting ship's captain. The captain had told the priest: "What my crew would really like is to walk on green grass. All they get to walk on is steel." So the priest took them to a churchyard, where they all walked barefoot for an hour.

This story of practical mercy is one example of the myriad of ways the Apostleship of the Sea helps seafarers worldwide, including at centres here in New Zealand.

Shipping is a huge industry around the world.

According to a Sea Sunday presentation by the Apostleship of the Sea (UK), there are an estimated 100,000 ships at sea worldwide, with some 1.5 million seafarers.

If the containers of one company, Maersk, were lined up, they would stretch some 18,000 km, more than half way around the Earth.

A highly competitive industry leads to a lot of pressure to minimise costs and has safety and pressure of work consequences for seafarers.

The Maritime Labour Convention 2006 is one vehicle for protecting the rights of seafarers, but vigilance to ensure ongoing compliance is essential.

The International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) has recently commissioned an in-depth study into the implementation and enforcement of the convention, after reports of numerous breaches.

The modern seafarer has to be a hardy, resilient type in order to survive. Private space is very limited on most ships. Seafarers work in an industrial environment, pervaded by the vibration of massive engines. There is no opportunity to escape your environment.

Pressure is on to load and unload vessels as quickly as possible to reduce port charges, so opportunities for shore leave can be limited. Shore leave is typically measured in hours rather than in days. Surveys by seafarer welfare organisations have borne out what I have observed from the seafarers I have encountered as a port chaplain - that a major desire is communication with family back home. Continue reading

Source & Image:

• Article by Michael Otto, AoS Chaplain in Auckland, in Marist Messenger

The schools - St Leo's, Devonport; St Joseph's, Otahuhu; St Joseph's, Orakei and St Mary's, Ellerslie - made hundreds of hand-crafted Christmas cards for seafarers.

These were given out on ships berthed in Auckland just before and after Christmas by chaplains from the Auckland International Seafarers Centre.

Auckland Apostleship of the Sea chaplain Dr Michael Otto said the cards were very well received by the seafarers, who hailed from many nations.

"Many of the cards noted that the seafarers were away from their families at Christmas," Dr Otto said.

"And many children wrote hoping that the seafarers would see their loved ones again soon. A lot of cards included promises by children that they would pray for the seafarers."

It is common for seafarers to work long contracts and to be away from their families for up to 9 months at a time.

Dr Otto said the cards let the seafarers know that they are neither invisible nor forgotten by Kiwis at Christmas.

One Russian duty officer on a ship berthed in Auckland described the cards as "beautiful, just beautiful", Dr Otto said.

The cards featured a variety of Christmas designs, with Kiwiana, nautical themes and summer scenes prevalent.

"It was clear that a lot of thought, time and effort had gone into making the cards," Dr Otto said.
The seafarers and the chaplains and volunteers at the seafarers centre are very grateful to the schools for their kindness and thoughtfulness, he added.

The initiative for schools to make the cards came from the Auckland International Seafarers Centre chairman, Captain Chris Barradale

Source

Supplied

"Fishing is recognized as one of the most dangerous professions in the world with hundreds of lives lost at sea every year and many more affected by occupational hazards, (and) Fishers can be easily exploited, abused and become victims of trafficking and forced labour", the Vatican says in a statement released by the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People.

Calling for more states to ratify a 2007 treaty, the Work in Fishing Convention, the Council's president, Cardinal Antonio Maria Veglio describes the convention as a useful tool to improve the working conditions of fishers and enhance their working conditions.

The Work in Fishing Conventions addresses matters such as a minimum age for work on a fishing vessel, medical standards, work agreements, occupational safety and health, and social security.

As of May 2014 the convention has been ratified by Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Congo, Morocco and South Africa.

Noting that fishing has been a source of food for people and employs many millions of people, the pontifical council also calls for greater respect for the environment, and of the dangers of over-fishing.

"However, as we have reached a critical point, it is necessary to practice responsible fishing and respect nature; the risk is that within a limited period of time many coastal communities that are relying on fishing for their subsistence and economy, will lose their source of livelihood," the commission said.

The Pontifical Council released the message for World Fisheries Day, commemorated on 21 November.

Sources

• Vatican Radio
• International Labour Organisation
• Image: Vatican Radio

This world of the sea, with the continuous migration of people today, must take into account the complex effects of globalization and, unfortunately, must come to grips with situations of injustice, especially when the freedom of a ship's crew to go ashore is restricted, when they are abandoned altogether along with the vessels on which they work, when they risk piracy at sea and the damage of illegal fishing.

'The vulnerability of seafarers, fishermen and sailors calls for an even more attentive solicitude on the Church's part and should stimulate the motherly care that, through you, she expresses to all those whom you meet in ports and on ships or whom you help on board during those long months at sea'.

These words were addressed by Pope Benedict XVI to the participants of the XXIII AoS Congress held in the Vatican City, November 19-23, 2012.

As a matter of fact, for more than 90 years the Catholic Church, through the Work of the Apostleship of the Sea with its network of chaplains and volunteers in more than 260 ports of the world, has shown her motherly care by providing spiritual and material welfare to seafarers, fishers and their families.

As we celebrate Sea Sunday, we would like to invite every member of our Christian communities to become aware and recognize the work of an estimated 1.2 to 1.5 million seafarers who at any time are sailing in a globalized worldwide fleet of 100,000 ships carrying 90 per cent of the manufactured goods.

Very often, we do not realize that the majority of the objects we use in our daily life are transported by ships criss-crossing the oceans. Multinational crews experience complex living and working conditions on board, months away from their loved ones, abandonment in foreign ports without salaries, criminalization and natural (storms, typhoons, etc.) and human (pirates, shipwreck, etc.) calamities. Continue reading

Sources

• Vatican Information Services
• Image: Sunshine and Sails
• Apostleship of the Sea NZ (Inc)

Away from family and friends for many months at a time, working long hours and navigating some of the world's most dangerous stretches of ocean, seafaring can be a tough, lonely and hazardous career.

Piracy, shipwreck, abandonment and separation from loved ones are just a few of the problems that seafarers and fishers cope with.

Fishers are involved in what is recognised as the most dangerous occupation in the world.

Seafarers transport 90 to 95% of the food and goods the world uses every day, and yet these 1.3 million hardworking men and women who face danger every day are often forgotten.

When aircraft crash we hear about it on the news; when ships sink, unless it's a cruise liner like the Costa Concordia, it's almost as if no one cares.

Shipwrecks and Piracy

Wikipedia lists 67 ships as ‘sunk, foundered, grounded or otherwise lost' in 2012. Twenty-five of those shipwrecks resulted in the loss of at least 943 lives, and probably many more.

Seafarers are constantly threatened by pirates. Between January and 23 May this year, there were 106 incidents reported of ships being attacked, including four hijackings and Somali pirates were holding 71 hostages and 5 vessels.

During 2012 297 ships were attacked by pirates, 174 were boarded, 28 were hijacked and 28 were fired upon. The number of people taken hostage onboard was 585 and a further 26 were kidnapped for ransom in Nigeria. Six crew members were killed and 32 were injured or assaulted. (Information from http://www.icc-ccs.org/)

Stella Maris — an official Ministry of the Church

Under the guidance and protection of Mary, Star of the Sea, the Apostleship of the Sea (AoS) cares for the fishers and seafarers that visit our ports.

In Aotearoa New Zealand, AoS ministers to those who work at sea and in our ports in Auckland, Wellington, Tauranga Moana and Napier. It is in the process opening or re-opening branches in other NZ ports. Continue reading

Sources

• Marist Messenger
• Image: Apostleship of the Sea GB

The organisation is reported to be "ship-shape" with sound management and financial reports as well as a boost to volunteer numbers.

Father Jeff Drane SM of Wellington will take the organisation forward as new National Director, assisted by the new Deputy, Deacon Sid Wells of Tauranga.

Father Jeff acknowledged the special place that Catholic seafarers have in the place of NZ's maritime history during the AGM's group visit to the Mount Street Cemetery. "Unless we know our past, we don't have a future", said Father Jeff, as a commemorative plaque, funded by AoS, was unveiled in honour of the early Catholic pioneers who sailed to settle in NZ in the 1840s.

Many of these pioneers died "the New Zealand Death" — drowning — in one of the many coastal shipwrecks not uncommon in the era, or in the harbour.

A key priority at the AGM was to continue to develop strategies to future-proof the AoS.

Given the growth in shipping and trade, seafarer numbers can be expected to keep increasing. The challenge is in dealing with the increased demand for AoS services with an ageing volunteer base and replacement volunteers not being easy to find.

Father Jeff is delighted to welcome 21 new volunteers to help strengthen the AoS following a dedicated AoS awareness-raising drive. The new volunteers were commissioned during Mass at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart on Saturday evening.

A 2020 strategic plan is being more fully developed to help deal with the many areas of responsibility, such as health and safety, code of ethics and security.

During the AGM Father Kevin Head reported back on his participation at the AoS World Congress in the Vatican City last November. "The new evangelisation is the challenge of working with Catholics who no longer walk with us. But evangelisation starts with us - our lives of prayer and quiet goodness are the first step if we are to have any significant effect in spreading the gospel."

Source

• Dr A G Stewart, Tauranga.
• Image: Fr Jeffrey Drane, SM, National Director, AoS NZ

Want to know more?

• To join Apostleship of the Sea or find out more information contact Fr Jeff Drane at jeffdrane@gmail.com
• The key objects of the Apostleship of the Sea in NZ are to promote as fully as possible the spiritual welfare of Catholic seafarers and fisherfolk and the social welfare of all seafarers and fisherfolk irrespective of nationality or creed.
• AoS works in four centres in New Zealand - Wellington, Auckland, Napier and Tauranga
• AoS operates in about 100 countries around the world in about 250 centres, e.g. http://www.apostleshipofthesea.org.uk/, about 100 of which are ecumenical

Besides offering support and prayers at the site of the crash, Cardinal Bagnasco also visited survivors in hospital, the Apostleship of the Sea reported.

Continue reading

We believe that God and his principles in the first pages of his Bible must get the place of honour where the ecological debate takes place. It's a hot item that touches the whole world very emotionally. It's our mission to bring God's Words to the attention of the policymakers. 50 years ago, the Council Fathers emphasized the fact that "the greater man's power becomes, the farther his responsibility extends", and that every human activity is to correspond, according to the design and will of God, to humanity's true good."(C.S.D. 457) What are God's Biblical principles in his call to fishermen for responsible fishing? In this article, we attempt to put together some Biblical considerations.

The call for ecological awareness

"If we continue like this, there will be disasters on our planet." Such words seem to come from the last book of the Bible. But not the angels blow the trumpets of the apocalypse. It is the climatologists and ecologists. Now, after the onset of globalization, the fishermen face an environmental challenge. Consumers and international fishery factories heard the call of nature lovers. The demand for ecological awareness in dealing with all creation, and in particular in dealing with sustainable food harvesting from the sea, is becoming urgent. The older generations in fishery consider environmental problems as naturally occurring defects of nature, grossly exaggerated by the media. Younger fishermen look at it differently.They ask: what's going on? It seems as though nature does not regulate itself anymore. "Man is the culprit", one calls. In the old days we could harvest, pick, fish and feast without restriction. Nature was no concern. Now it seems that nature is out of balance, and that nature has come to depend upon our help. Continue reading

Sources

• Fr Dirk Demaeght, Apostleship of the Sea, Belgium International Christian Maritime Association
• Image: Scoop

New ports built far away from the cities, fast turnaround of the vessels and the limited time to come ashore, often make the seafarers invisible to the society, unless a pirates' attack or a shipwreck happens and they are in the news for a short time.

However, seafarers and their families are not invisible to God and to the Church. Their hard work, difficulties and sufferings have been recognized for more than ninety years through the pastoral care offered by the chaplains and volunteers of the Apostleship of the Sea.

We see the seafarers as professionally qualified workforce, capable of performing their job often in very dangerous situations among them pirates' attacks and the unknown force of the stormy waters.

We see the seafarers working in substandard conditions on board of old and rusted vessels, victims of criminalization, abandoned and often with their salary not given on time or withheld.

We see the seafarers as people docking in foreign lands in need of a welcoming smile, a word of consolation and support, a transport to the city, a place to relax without being discriminated for their nationality, colour of the skin or belief.

We see the seafarers as family members, forced to live far away from loved ones and friends for many months in a row, sharing the limited space of the vessel with other crew members of different nationalities.

We see the seafarers as individuals manifesting with simple actions their deep trust in God, seeking guidance and strength by attending masses and prayer services and in silent prayers.

Through the annual appointment of Sea Sunday we would like that our Christian communities and the society at large first of all recognize the seafarers as human beings who contribute to make our life more comfortable and to give thanks for their work and sacrifices.

Furthermore we should increase the awareness of the importance to provide them with protection from abuses and exploitations. For this reason we renew our appeal that the Maritime Labor Convention 2006 (MLC 2006) be ratified as soon as possible to guarantee full protection and decent working conditions to the more than 1.2 million seafarers around the world.

Then, I would like to renew my invitation to attend the XXIII World Congress of the Apostleship of the Sea, which will be held at the Synod Hall in the Vatican City, from 19^th to 23^rd November 2012, with the theme: New Evangelization in the maritime world (New ways and means to proclaim the Good News).

During those days we will gather together with AOS Bishop Promoters, chaplains and volunteers to reflect on the challenges that the new maritime enviroment (international multireligious and multicultural crews) is bringing to the Apostleship of the Sea to make disciples of all the nations of the world.

Finally, I invoke the Blessed Mother, Star of the Sea, to extend her maternal protection to the people of the sea and guide them from the dangers of the sea to a secure port.

• Antonio Maria Card. Vegliò, President
• + Joseph Kalathiparambil, Secretary
• Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People
• Image: The Catholic Travel Guide

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