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March 2008
“The Gospel has a lot to give to and to receive from these millenary cultures and peoples.”
The Church’s charitable organizations are models to imitate, in the sense that their low operating costs mean nearly all donated monies go directly to the needy, said Cardinal Paul Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, the agency that coordinates and promotes the world’s Catholic institutions of assistance and volunteering.
The U.S. bishops asked President George Bush and Congress to make the needs of the poor their number one priority as they were debating and passing an economic stimulus package. The bishops said this in a letter addressed to U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson that urged bipartisan cooperation to “find effective ways to protect the poorest families and low wage workers from financial hardship during this economic downturn.”
Conflict and humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo have taken the lives of an estimated 5.4 million people since 1998 and continue to leave as many as 45,000 dead every month, according to a major mortality survey released by the International Rescue Committee.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the world to put the looming crisis over water shortages at the top of the global agenda this year and take action to prevent conflicts over scarce supplies. He reminded business and political leaders at the World Economic Forum that the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan was touched off by drought – and he said shortages of water contribute to poverty and social hardship in Somalia, Chad, Israel, the Palestinian territories, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Haiti, Colombia and Kazakhstan.
Climate change is taking place even faster than the worst predictions made by the UN’s panel, Al Gore said at the enlarged World Economic Forum meeting that once more took place at Davos (Switzerland). The former US vice-president and winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize warned that there were forecasts that the North Pole ice cap could disappear during summer months within five years.
Science and religion together play a crucial role in humanizing and neutralizing the ill effects of globalization, two Indian Jesuit scholars contend. Religious values can give a human face to globalization by making people all over the world see themselves as members of a single society linked by global trade, technology and new socio-cultural concepts, they maintain. Fr. Job Kozhamthadam, president of Jnana Deepa Vidyapeeth (Light of Knowledge University), a pontifical seminary, and Fr. Kuruvilla Pandikattu, associate director of Indian Institute of Science and Religion (IISR), presented their views at a recent seminar.
The Society of the Divine Word’s Philippines Central Province (SVD PHC) began its two-year celebration of 100 years of missionary presence in the Philippines at Quezon City, highlighting mssion challenges today. The Order is planning the creation of a missiology institute as part of the centennial project.
In his message for Lent, Benedict XVI writes that it is foreign to the Gospel perspective to do good deeds expecting a personal return, perhaps in terms of public image. The entire Gospel is summed up in the commandment of charity, and according to the example of Jesus, what gives value to all almsgiving is love, which inspires different forms of giving, according to the opportunities and conditions of each one.
Is he a prophet, priest, politician or a popular uncorrupted elected leader? These are the questions that run through everyone’s mind when they hear that Father Ed Panlilio, 54, a Catholic priest on a leave of absence from regular priestly duties, is now the elected governor of Pampanga Province in the Philippines. Father Ed, as he is affectionally called by the hundreds of thousands who supported his bid for election last May, won against the traditional dynastic families that have ruled for generations. It was a powerful message from the people who had almost despaired of finding an honest independent candidate to oppose the elite. The people want to end the corruption and the culture of vice that the traditional politicians had fostered. Father Ed Panlilio has been named Filipino of the Year 2007 by a leading daily.
The pabasa, which began during the Spanish colonization, was a catechism tool for the mostly illiterate population. After some time, it evolved to a poetic form of a salvation story, understood as a social epic and inspiring people’s freedom struggles. There is no doubt: this “sanctifying devotion” is truly Filipino.
While praying in Tabawan Chapel, Fr. Jesus Reynaldo Roda was seized by kidnappers. Afraid that they would harm his people, he refused to go with them and was shot. Christians and Muslims joined to mourn and pray for Fr. Rey who had given them ten years of his life.
The 2nd African Synod, in 2009, will have as theme: “The Church in Africa at the service of reconciliation, justice and peace.” The subjects who must be listened to: the victims and the peace experts. The Church must avoid the sterile vision of Africacontained in the preparatory document and must face the tribal question.
In the summer of 2001, when the Olympic Committee assigned the 2008 summer Olympic Games to Beijing, there was some hope in the international community. People thought: that’s a chance to press the Chinese Government to mend its ways towards such sensitive issues as human rights, democratization, and take a more responsible stand in the world arena.
The economy continues to grow, but more slowly – because of China’s rigid government measures and worldwide contraction. Meanwhile, labor costs continue to increase, bringing crisis to companies accustomed to exploiting migrants. Experts say it will take months for government measures to bring adequate results.
The Church in China is a complex reality, hard to understand abroad. Besides political control and social pressures, Chinese Catholics face a great number of handicaps but also have many reasons to hope for a brighter future. This comprehensive portrait, published in 2005, can help us to know better the shadows and the light.
Formation, cooperation, helping the Chinese Church to care for those who are left behind by the ever-growing gap between the rich and the poor. Initiated in 1998, the project is called Fen Xiang (sharing) and reflects the Comboni missionary spirit.
Because of a letter he received more than two decades ago, Father Luis Ruiz is now taking care of thousands of Chinese lepers. Meanwhile, he opened centers for the mentally disabled and the HIV/AIDS sufferers. As St. Augustine wrote: “The measure of love is to love without measure.”
He spoke Chinese like a native; he alone among the missionaries became a Chinese citizen. He fought the Japanese invasion and succeeded in convincing the Pope to consecrate the first Chinese bishops of the modern era. In truth, Fr. Vincent Lebbe, the most outstanding missionary to China of the twentieth century, well deserved his Chinese name: Lei Ming-yuang: “the thunder in the distance.” After him, the Communist storm tried to erase Christianity from the face of the earth. But the seeds sown in the tempest are now slowly giving consoling fruits.
“You are the Son of God.”
(Luke 4: 1-13)
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