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December 2007
“The Earth − our common home − is a gift from God. He has entrusted it to our stewardship (not ownership)with its goodies and resources to be cared for, not plundered.”
Recent economic growth in Africa is encouraging, but the continent still needs a lot of aid, especially as it suffers from the exodus of skilled and educated workers to rich countries, said Archbishop Celestino Migliore, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, during the debate on the aid program to the continent, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development.
On the 200th anniversary of the U.K.’s abolition of the slave trade, which led to the end of transatlantic trafficking of human beings, women religious from 26 countries gathered to debate the fight against a new form of enslavement. The U.S. Embassy to the Holy See and the Italian Union of Major Superiors co-sponsored the seminar in Rome, entitled “Building a Network: The Prophetic Role of Women Religious in the Fight Against Trafficking in Persons.”
World Mission has received a trophy from the Catholic Mass Media Awards (CMMA). The magazine, published by the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus in the Philippines, was distinguished as the Best Community/Parish Newspaper/Magazine.
Pope Benedict XVI has completed his second encyclical, a meditation on Christian hope, Vatican sources said. The text, tentatively titled Spe Salvi (“Saved by Hope”) comes from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, in which he wrote: “For in hope we have been saved.”
The declaration of a state of emergency and the suspension of the Constitution “is part of a conspiracy to postpone the coming elections and to prolong the dictatorial rule of Musharraf,” said Shahbaz Bhatti, President of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, regarding the current political situation in the country.
“In just 10 years, what was once a luxury and a privilege, the mobile phone, has become a basic necessity in urban and rural Africa” said Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda, underlining Africa’s progress in the sector of telecommunications with important social and economic effects.
Forty years since the Encyclical Populorum Progressio, with which Pope Paul VI underlined the importance of education for justice and development and the growing disparity between rich and poor countries, a new disparity is affecting the poorest peoples: the “digital divide” produced by a lack of access to modern technology of information and communication.
An appeal carried in the hands of children and handed to representatives of the nations of the world said that violence is an illness polluting the planet. The appeal for peace, made public by the Catholic Lay Community of Sant’Egidio, was presented to the leaders at the concluding ceremony of the 21st International Encounter of Peoples and Religions held in Naples. The encounter brought together 315 religious leaders of various creeds.
The Simbang Gabi masses are a very beautiful way of anticipating the birth of Jesus. Above all, they are a way of truly preparing ourselves spiritually to welcome the birth of our Lord. He is the Light who vanquishes the darkness of our world,
the darkness that often attends our daily human experiences.
“The song of Mary is the oldest Advent hymn,” preached Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian killed by the Nazis during the Second World War. “It is at once the most passionate, the wildest, one might say, the most revolutionary Advent hymn ever sung.”
Some priests called on Catholics to boycott Christmas celebrations in Sri Lanka unless the war and related killings and disappearances end. “Stop all the Christmas celebrations. No Christmas cards, no lights, no decorations, no new clothes. Nothing. We can do that, can’t we?” Father M. Selvaratnam asked during a meeting at the Centre for Society and Religion (CSR) in Colombo. In the past, the government has sponsored Christmas light displays along streets in the capital to acknowledge the Christian holiday.
Many children of Kibera associate Christmas with the quest for family affections, peace and staying together. The sweetness of family life seems to be the dream of many of these street children, the longing for simple, tasty food, too – sweet and tasty because it is shared.
The painter of Hapag ng Pag-asa (The Table of Hope), Joey A. Velasco, made this artwork barely six months after his initiation as a painter. He thinks that he was merely God’s paintbrush, portraying underprivileged children who, eventually, helped him to make a U-turn in his life. The painting gained fame and became a symbol of the fight against extreme poverty in the Philippines.
The UN Conference on Climate Change, scheduled for this month in Bali, is going to deal not only with one of the biggest problems of the world, but also of the most serious ethical issues facing humanity and the Church in the 21st century.
If nothing is done to curb the emissions of greenhouse gases that cause climate changes, the future of the Earth and humanity is at stake. The Nobel Peace Prize shared by Al Gore and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reminds the world that, without a healthy environment, there will be no peace.
The monks and Burmese marchers teach us a thing or two about how to resist tyranny, what the spiritual life looks like, and for Christians, how to follow the nonviolent Jesus.
When the world hardly noticed the need to protect the environment, Sr. Dorothy Stang was already defending the Amazon and the poor people who depend on the forest. Because of that, she was murdered – just after blessing the hired assassins who ended her mission with six bullets.
Chairman Mao once said that all political power grows from the barrel of a gun, another said it grows from a barrel of oil, and now it looks like it is going to grow from a barrel of seed. For a generation, many believed that “they who have the oil will rule the world, and if not, they will kill for it.” The thousands of dead women and children, soldiers and civilians in Iraq is strong evidence that it is true indeed.
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