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January 2017
The only hope is that the president-elect will be different from the candidate and that the challenges of governing will soften and moderate his stance.
The theory of “just war” was intended to promote peace and set very strict conditions for a war to be considered just. Unfortunately, it has been used to endorse rather than prevent or limit war. Christian thinkers are putting it into question and calling for a new teaching on nonviolence.
A Comboni community is inserted in the troubled city of Tumaco, in the western part of Colombia, where the impact of armed conflict is deeply felt. It provides pastoral care to the black population. One of the missionaries recounts his mission experience of living in the area for the past five years.
In a country ravaged by war, forgiveness is the contribution Christians can offer to a society divided along ethnic lines and rivalries. A missionary in South Sudan shares a couple of stories on how his teaching brought about pardon, mutual acceptance and peace.
The “just war” theory was developed to offer criteria, like protecting civilians from attack, that had to be met before war could be morally justified and continued. Most unfortunately, this led to the Catholic Church’s abandonment of total Christ-like nonviolence.
The French missionary served the least, the last and the lost until his death last year. Before his passing, the 101-year-old Jesuit did have a purposeful life after having helped over 800,000 children in the Philippines through his mission.
A Portuguese who headed the U.N.’s refugee agency for a decade, António Guterres, is the new Secretary-General of the United Nations. He acknowledged “huge challenges” and promised to serve the voiceless. As a devout Catholic, his inspiration comes from the Bible.
It was the first political Asian-African conference of newly-independent countries for the purpose of escaping the polarization between U.S.A. and communist Russia. In reality, it became the sign of the awakening of the colored peoples in the world scene. Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Populorum Progressio prophetically interpreted the demands of this awakening.
A text of John’s Gospel gives us the description of the first meeting of two disciples with Jesus. It is a classic, a must-read at the beginning of this series of meetings with Jesus and reflections on the missionary vocation as a place of encounter.
With the dizzying developments in technology, the speed and challenges of globalism, the day-to-day struggle to address socio-economic and political issues of our time, and running my business enterprise too, I realize the need to go back to what is essential.
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