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April and May 2007
“Nonviolence is a call to active love and truth that seeks justice, peace and reconciliation for the whole human race.”
Africa and Asia now account for over 20% of Catholics in the world, according to figures just released by the Holy See while, overall, the Church is keeping pace with the rate of population growth. Africa is the leading continent in the growth of the worldwide Catholic Church.
Close to one billion Asians have no access to basic sanitation like toilets and clean water, according to the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) of East Asia and the Pacific. Brian Steven Smith, program director, raised this problem during a recently held workshop in Manila with media and government representatives from the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
Guangzhou’s historic Sacred Heart Cathedral, the only granite Gothic church in mainland China, has been reopened after more than two years of renovation work paid almost entirely from the coffers of the provincial Communist government. The cathedral is located in downtown Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, and is commonly known as the Shishi or Stone House Church because its walls and pillars were built with large granite blocks. Over the years it has become a major point of interest for Chinese and foreign worshippers and tourists.Full-scale renovation began in July 2004. It included replacing the roof, cleaning and repairing the granite walls, and reinstalling a mechanical clock and bronze bells in the two bell towers. The lighting, sound system and furniture were upgraded and more greenery was planted in the church compound. Its stained glass windows were replaced with new ones from the Philippines. They depict Bible stories and saints. Beside the altar are a pair of windowpanes portraying Italian Jesuit Father Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) and Catholic Chinese imperial official Paul Xu Guangqi (1562-1633), Ricci’s first baptized Chinese.
Some 50 million visits in 2006 are set to rise to 130 million by 2020. China’s capacity is no less important than its many tourist locations and the huge exotic fascination it generates. They keep coming, foreign tourists that is. Their number has become an endless flow. Currently, the Middle Kingdom ranks fourth on the ‘Most Visited Country’ list in terms of capacity but the future has all the signs of a boom in the making.
Issuing a call for reconciliation between faith and science, the president of the Vatican’s science and social science academies, Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, has identified three key “areas of conflict” between the two domains. Speaking at a seminar in his Oviedo, Spain archdiocese, the Bishop said those areas regarding “the harmonization of science and faith” involve life issues, the origin of human beings, and the biological conception of the person.
It is time for the US to come together to address the moral, human and environmental dimensions of global climate change, the chairman of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on International Policy says in a letter to American legislators. Bishop Thomas G. Wenski calls on congressional leaders to resist special interest group and instead focus on “common ground for common action to advance the common good.” “We hope this will be a time for our nation to come together across partisan, ideological and interest groups lines to address the moral, human and environmental dimensions of this growing challenge that faces all of humanity,” he writes.
The United Nations define major wars as armed conflicts that cause more than 1,000 deaths per year. In 2007, they are known to be taking place in Palestine—Israel, Kashmir—India, Darfur—Sudan, Chechnya—Russia, DR of Congo and Iraq. However, there are four dozens of others happening elsewhere that are less reported by the media and forgotten by the international community.
About six years ago, the Filipinos were distinguished with two rare peace prizes. About a century ago, Gandhi was arrested by South-African authorities for civil disobedience, launching a nonviolent movement that, in the long term, led to India’s peaceful independence. When the world is living one of the most dangerous and violent periods of its history, it’s time to remember that peace is possible and non-violence is the key God puts in our hearts and our hands to achieve it.
The principle of nonviolence launched a century ago by Mahatma Gandhi is invoked and taken up by the Church today as a call to action for the international community to overcome divisions caused by wars and terrorism.
Gandhi was convinced that much of the violence in society and in our personal lives stems from the passive violence that we commit against each other. He even made a list of the “seven pillars” of this kind of daily violence.
The great theologian David Tracy recently said, when asked what the future of theology in the U.S. would look like: “For the next 200 years, we’ll be trying to catch up with Merton.” It was this hermit, this mystic, this peace fighter who once wrote: “The chief difference between violence and nonviolence is that violence depends entirely on its own calculations. Nonviolence depends entirely on God and God’s word.”
We have spent the last 1,700 years denying Jesus’ final command. We have justified warfare, led our crusades, and stamped every bombing raid and nuclear weapon with our blessing. But the commandment remains: “Put down the sword.”
In prison… in South Africa? No, I was not charged of any crime! When the scholasticate was looking for new forms of ministry at the beginning of 2006, one of the proposals was to start a prison ministry in Pietermaritzburg. I readily volunteered because of my previous experience in the New Bilibid Prison in the Philippines. And I must confess: being in prison has enriched my understanding of being a Christian.
The Philippine prison system is described in a recent book as a living hell, more in tune with the 19th century than the modern age. Due to overcrowding, many inmates sleep standing up; the toilets run like rivers; disease and death are the only way to “rehabilitation.”
Francis embodies the Gospel journey from violence to nonviolence, wealth to poverty, power to powerlessness, selfishness to selfless service, pride to humility, indifference to love, cruelty to compassion, vengeance to forgiveness, revenge to reconciliation, war to peace, killing enemies to loving enemies.
Twenty-five years ago, some friends and I professed a vow of nonviolence, as Gandhi did a hundred years ago. Not long afterwards, Pax Christi asked Eileen Egan and me to draft a vow, which they offered to Pax Christi members as a way to dedicate our lives to the Gospel path of nonviolence. Since then, tens of thousands have professed it.
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