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January 2008
“Christians are called to overcome individualistic views of salvation and urged to become ministers of hope for the world.”
Public health and HIV/AIDS activists from the developing world are seeking to break the monopoly over drugs held by pharmaceutical giants through a new global campaign designed to influence international debate over the issue. Formulated at the end of a three-day meeting, which brought some 200 participants from 20 countries to Thailand’s capital, the campaign seeks ‘’a new way out of the current patent system; one that will encourage innovation of new drugs and access for all,’’ says one of the organizers of the International Conference on Compulsory Licensing: Innovation and Access for All. ‘’What we have now is innovation controlled by the pharmaceutical industry that allows them to have a monopoly on drugs.’’
The Eritrean government has thrown the Catholic Church into tension by expelling 13 missionaries in unclear circumstances. The expulsion order was issued to four Comboni missionaries (2 Mexicans, a Filipino and a Kenyan), 2 Comboni sisters, 2 Pavonian fathers, 2 Filipino Pius teachers, 2 nuns of an unspecified congregation and a lay missionary.
The president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace met with the founder of a U.S.-based organization aiming to replace minefields with farmland, and made an appeal for the elimination of unexploded ordnance. Cardinal Renato Martino spoke in Rome with Heidi Kuhn, founder of the international Roots of Peace, according to a communiqué from the Vatican dicastery.
A Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue, working to heal the 1000 year old rift between the Orthodox and Catholic Church, has announced that the Pope has primacy over all bishops – but the lines are still blurred as to what the Holy Father’s authority entails. Pope Benedict said a “fundamental priority” of his pontificate is to heal the split of the two denominations.
“The time has come to ensure, for the sake of peace, that no man, woman or child will ever be hungry again,” says Pope Benedict XVI when receiving in audience participants of the 34th general conference of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), headquartered in Rome.
After 11 years of Liberal government, Australians voted for the Labor Party led by Kevin Rudd (photo) in the November elections.
In an ever more globalized world, emigration is a growing phenomenon that causes particular difficulties for youth who travel far from their countries and families, says Benedict XVI in his message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, celebrated on January the 13.
In our world today, 27 million people live in an enslaved condition. This was affirmed by Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, in a seminar on slavery and the new forms of slavery promoted by the Catholic bishops of Africa and Europe in Cape Coast, Ghana.
Northern Philippine Church workers are planting trees and campaigning against quarrying to help restore the famed rice terraces that face removal from the United Nations’ World Heritage List. “We are aware of the various threats to the rice terraces and we are doing our part to respond to these through our Integrity of Creation program,” Rowena Ngitiw, Bontoc-Lagawe vicariate’s Social Action and Development Center coordinator, explained.
I see from 35 years of experience helping young people overcome the traumatic effects of childhood violence – be it psychological, verbal, physical, economic, military, emotional and sexual abuse – that it seriously damages lives, restricts full human development, reduces potential and can lead to childhood psychosomatic illness. It causes teenagers to become violent, bullies, teenage shooters, indulge in criminal behavior and suffer from adult neurosis. In others, children grow into aggressive and violent teenagers and adults. The absence of parental and family acceptance, understanding, nurturing, and affirming love creates a vacuum and vulnerability for negative and violent influences to dominate the lives of these children and youth.
The devotion to the Black Nazarene is regarded as the most popular Filipino devotion and the most powerful image of Filipino’s traditional faith. There are some aspects that do not please the Church, but the people have been able to impose their practices and beliefs.
In the Philippines, the country that I know best because of my thirty years of mission in Mindanao and my commitment through the Silsilah Dialogue Movement, I observe that many Christian religious groups are now doing programs in line with dialogue for peace. In more recent time, we can observe a similar spirit among Muslims.
Through the path of interreligious dialogue, we can build peace in our world. This dialogue is not reserved only for the elite – every believer is encouraged to engage in it.
Africa is not at peace. More than 30 wars have been fought in the continent since 1970, and most of these have been internal rather than inter-state wars. Conflicts in the continent became more widespread through the 1990s, and changed in nature. By 2000, over half the countries in the region had been directly or indirectly affected by conflict, and most were factional wars. These have no defined front line and fighting is frequently opportunistic rather than strategic. In order to sustain conflict, these wars deliberately seek to involve, exploit and control a significant proportion of the civilian population.
In people’s minds, Africa is often associated with poverty, hunger, illnesses and wars. But Africa is a continent with an extremely rich underground – in diamonds, petroleum, gold and ores. Therefore, it entices the greed of those who are capable of exploring such resources – for their own benefit.
An art school in a slum? There is one in Kisumu, Kenya, as a component of the urban apostolate program. And it works! Training in creativity obviously expands not only personal and artistic horizons; it also fosters better understanding among humans.
“With the price of two of your planes destined to spread death, I can cure all the lepers of the world.” This bold challenge of Raoul Follereau, the “vagabond of charity,” was directed, in vain, to the two great leaders of USA and Russia in 1954, at the peak of the Cold War. A gifted poet and orator, this Frenchman, with his wife Madeleine, toured the world to tell everybody that the real leprosy was our superstitious fear that condemned millions of unfortunate brothers and sisters to isolation and neglect.
“You will be my witnesses.” (Acts of The Apostles 1:6-8)
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