Category: Editorial

Jesus was asleep as the winds tossed the bark and the waves put it in danger of sinking. The disciples were terrified and they called to the Lord (Mark 4:35–41). The wind obeyed His voice, fear vanished and calmness was restored. This image has been with me since the election of Pope Francis. Yes, it came at a very troubled moment for the ‘bark of Peter.’ Tremendous ‘waves’ of sex abuse, rumors of corruption, careerism and inefficiency, of faithful abandoning the Church, of discredit and unbelief…threatened to destroy the credibility and the efficacy of the Church in today’s society. But, at the right time, He is there, restoring calmness. I have no doubt that the election of Cardinal Bergoglio to the papacy was God’s work, and I think that’s why, almost at once, it was perceived by many as the so–much–needed ‘fresh breath of life’ into a seemingly tired Church.  Pope Francis has been bold, not only in his spirit filled words, but in his remarkable deeds. His call for a Church that is “poor and for the poor” was made visible – he refused to move into the Papal Palace, kept his black shoes, forego the red cape popes usually wear, kept the iron–plated pectoral cross he used as archbishop, and his papal fisherman’s ring isn’t gold but gold–plated silver, made from a mold created for Pope Paul VI. Moreover, Francis has bridged the gap – he ditched the bulletproof–glass–enclosed Popemobile and he rides around in an open–air white Mercedes jeep, never afraid of breaking protocol and frequently getting out greeting the crowds. Aren’t all these in sharp contrast with his titles? “His full title is ‘Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Patriarch of the West, Primate of Italy, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province, Sovereign of the State of Vatican City.’” That’s a mouthful when “you are busy telling people you are at their service.” says Peter Stanford in Britain’s The Guardian. As the enthusiasm of the crowds at St. Peter Square shows no sign of dying down, I am delighted to see that Pope Francis has continually reached out, particularly, to youth, calling them to carry on the faith. In his usual audience, last April 24, he reached out to them: “Are there many young people? Where are they?” – the applause and cheers were thunderous from the youth present at the square. He continued – “Your lives are only just beginning and so I ask you this: Have you thought about the talents God has given you? … how to use them to serve others? … Life was not given to us for us to guard it zealously and keep it to ourselves, but to give it to others… don’t be afraid to dream of great things!” His first trip as pope, not coincidentally, is for the World Youth Day in Brazil. Pope Francis has found his way to lead

Lack of practice makes the job harder. The less one is committed to practicing, the harder the job will be. The runner who does not practice will, soon, run short of breath and quit the race. Jesus knew that, without His breath – the Holy Spirit – the disciples would not be able to carry on the mission entrusted to them. “Jesus said: ‘Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so I send you.’ Then He breathed on them and said: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” (Jn. 20:21–22). In these words, Jesus makes clear that the protagonist of mission is, indeed, the Holy Spirit. At Pentecost, the Apostles break the chains of fear and despair and let themselves be led by that ‘fire’ of love and passion for the mission. The “Breath of Life” empowered the Apostles and made their mission life–giving, crossing borders of race, culture etnicity and spreading the fire of God’s love to all. Much has been said and written about the historic decision of the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI. And, during these days of Sede Vacante, speculation continues about the future of the Catholic Church. Profiles of the indispensible qualities of the Holy Father are listed – open–minded, wih great leadership skills, who likes to listen, a true servant of servants… Many prophets of doom point to this resignation as a clear sign of the collapse of the Catholic Church, while others see in it a tremendous gesture of humility of a man who, fully aware of his limits, trusted the work of the Spirit. In his farewell address to the College of Cardinals, Pope Benedict quoted one of his favorite theologians, Romano Guardini: “The Church is not an institution devised and built at table, but a living reality. She lives along the course of time by transforming herself, like any living being, yet her nature remains the same. At her heart is Christ.” At present, the instability and degradation of human life caused by the mounting obsession of a few for worldly power cannot be denied. In Syria the bloodshed continues; in Kenya, fear of great violence surrounds the period of elections; in the Philippines, as local elections approach, the almost daily killings no longer make it to the headlines…In such context, I believe, this eloquent decision of Pope Benedict XVI speaks of an assurance of faith that the Church does not depend on human power but, as a living being, it is nourished by the God’s living presence. In his final general audience, Pope Benedict stated: “I always knew that the Lord is in the barque, that the barque of the Church is not mine, not ours, but His – and He shall not let her sink. It is He, who steers her: to be sure, He does so also through men of His choosing, for He desired that it be so. This was and is a certainty that nothing can tarnish.” The ocean is vast, the sea may be rough at

“Our purpose is to bring the life of God to a world often submerged in death. With the guidance of the newly–elected pope, empowered by the Life–Giving Breath of God, let us sail!”

In the Holy Land and throughout the Middle East, Christians are enduring great hardships and the “little flock” they comprise is shrinking steadily. Squeezed between two extremisms – Jewish (Israel) and Islamic (Muslim countries) – and subject to religious and social discrimination, many Christians prefer to flee from their harsh reality of conflict and instability. Their woeful plight calls for our sympathy, spiritual support and solidarity. They belong to the countries of the Bible. The Holy land, in particular, is the cradle of Christianity. Jesus was born, lived and died there. His disciples were first called Christians at Antioch (Acts 11:26) in Syria. Persecution scattered them. On the way, they announced the Gospel to the non-Jews, hence starting the Church’s universal mission. Now, they are fleeing again to find peace and tranquility. While pilgrims from all over the world flock there to find their faith’s roots, native Christians move out because they feel they are foreigners in their homeland.  Their mass exodus will be one of the main issues of the special assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of Bishops that will gather in Rome from 10 to 24 October. Related issues to be discussed, according to the Instrumentem Laboris (the working document), are: widespread Islamization, lack of political and religious freedom, political instability, the continuation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the need of peace founded on justice.  Invited to the synodal assembly are the Latin Church in the Middle East and the various Churches in communion with Rome, born from the divisions of the 5th century and the Great Schism at the beginning of the 11th century. They are different according to rite, geographic location or national allegiance. The Synod is an opportunity to foster their renewal and witness, overcome suspicions and misunderstandings, deepen their bonds of communion and affirm their specificities when compared to other faiths and societies among which they live.  The Middle East, being “a predominantly Muslim society, be it Arab, Turkish, Iranian or a Jewish society in the State of Israel,” interreligious dialogue is an unavoidable issue. It requires great friendship but, at the same time, great clarity. In Muslim countries, Christians are considered second-class citizens. There’s a growing demand for the application of the principle of reciprocity and to emphasize the urgency of implementing the freedom of religion and conscience, with the right to proclaim the gospel in Muslim countries in the same way that Muslims have the right to preach Islam. The Synod has relevance also for Christian immigrants, especially from the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia and Sudan. They often have to endure gross human rights violations. Across the region, there are more than one million domestic workers, many of them Catholics, who are treated like slaves. In South Arabia alone, there are more than one million migrant Christians who are denied the right to their religion. It is simply unacceptable that a state known for exporting fundamentalist Islam and for paying for the construction of mosques everywhere behaves in

In the month of October, the Church focuses on mission – especially mission beyond the borders of one’s people and culture, called in Latin, Ad Gentes. The missionary impulse is a sign of the Church’s vitality. The Church exists as a result of God’s mission and for mission. The Church  learns and grows in mission, reaching out to others. A community closed to the perspective of mission is closed to God, to life and to the future.  What is the purpose of mission? Simply put, it is to make Jesus present – everywhere, among all peoples and cultures of the world. In his message for World Mission Sunday to be celebrated on the penultimate Sunday of the month, Pope Benedict XVI wrote that what people ask believers is “not only to ‘speak’ of Jesus, but to ‘make Jesus seen,’ to make the face of the Redeemer shine out in every corner of the earth before the generations of the new millennium…” The Gospel of Jesus we were entrusted with is Good News. The world needs it and expects it from us. People have the right to listen to it and to see it incarnated in our lives – in the love we live and irradiate. Our mission, like the mission of Jesus, is to do good and to liberate those afflicted by evil (cf. Acts 10:38). The Gospel is a leaven of freedom and progress. Hence, mission cannot but be a force of personal, social and cultural transformation for a better world – of peace and communion, solidarity and justice. The whole Church is the protagonist of mission. But not all the members of a community are called to leave their places and be sent wherever they are needed. Missionaries – priests, religious or lay people – are the ones the community sends out to “the ends of the world.” Fulfilling their vocation, they become bridges between Churches and peoples, religious traditions and cultural views. In their diversity, they are gifts to the communities and peoples they serve. They, themselves, as well as their peoples and communities of origin, are enriched in the encounter. Their presence is a sign of the Church’s concern and communion, of its unity and diversity. Theirs is not a personal enterprise because they do not come on personal behalf. They shouldn’t feel like strangers, even though, sometimes, they perceive that the local Churches would feel more comfortable without their presence challenging them to a further commitment to the proclamation of Jesus Christ. The missionaries’ presence is a reminder that we must acknowledge and go beyond our prejudices, fears and indifference, care for the world and become universal people. Pope Benedict XVI says it acutely in his message: “In a multiethnic society that is experiencing increasingly disturbing forms of loneliness and indifference, Christians must learn to offer signs of hope and to become universal brethren, cultivating the great ideals that transform history and, without false illusions or useless fears, must strive to make the planet a

Peoples and religions have different ways of venerating their dead and dealing with death’s imposing mystery. Candles, flowers and prayers are preferred by western cultures. A tombstone helps to preserve the memory of the deceased in the cemetery. Eastern and native American peoples prefer to honor their departed with food – the best foodstuffs the deceased enjoyed while alive are prepared for them on All Souls’ Day or on other occasions (like the Chinese Lunar Year in Korea). In Africa, prayers and sacrifices are usually offered to the ancestors during some important celebrations or when the family is experiencing troubles. In the West, funerals are done as quickly as possible and rather silently, without fanfare. In other cultures, the deceased are kept and venerated for longer periods of time. Wakes, in general, take several days, especially to give eventual scattered family members time to gather. Food is provided for all the mourners and funerals are quite festive. In many African cultures, a meal concludes the burial rites. An animal – if possible a cow – has to be killed so that its blood could convey the death message to ancestors. In some of these cultures, people have a more prolonged contact with the dead, also because, due to the lack of conditions, more people die and death seems almost omnipresent. In spite of that, are they less afraid of the last stage of life? American indigenous are said to accept it naturally as the end of the earthly journey. In Africa, fatalism causes people resignation, but they seem to be still afraid of it. Some of the ancestors worship is intended precisely to please or to placate them. Veneration of the dead is based on the belief that the deceased, generally relatives, have a continued existence and possess the ability to influence the fortune of the living. But, while in some cultures and religions, ancestors can get upset with their descendants and their influence can be negative, in Catholicism the saints can only be helpful to the living as intercessors to God. Besides, they are not limited to one’s kin and they are innumerable – “a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues” (Revelation 7:9).  Therefore, the Christian message – cleansed from its eventual western cultural wrappings – is really good news of liberation and hope for all, even for those people who believe in some form of afterlife. First, it can eradicate the fear stemming from the belief that the spirits of those who have passed away recently still linger around and even harass their living relatives. Then, it speaks of life in plenitude with God the Father. Through His paschal mystery, Jesus Christ has opened to us the way to the house of the Father, the Kingdom of life and peace. He who follows Jesus in this life is received where He has preceded us. And, now, we can already experience the so-called “communion of saints,” the fellowship

The consumerist culture has been expanding inexorably across the world even to the remotest places. The result is that most of our purchases are aimed at satisfying induced wants, not real needs. It is puzzling, for instance, to see people, who seem to be striving for survival and struggling to make ends meet, holding a sophisticated cellular phone – and sometimes having more than one – only to come to know later that they had to pawn them to get some cash for basic needs.  In less than half a century, there has been a sixfold rise in consumption under the influence of cultural conventions that affect people’s behavior. Government officials and economists proclaim that consumption is necessary to stimulate economic growth. The thriving advertising industry lures citizens non-stop through the media and street billboards to make them believe that they will be happier if they have access to more services and goods of civilization.  Do we need to purchase so many “commodities of modernity”? Tom Hodgkinson wrote in the Guardian recently: “We did actually manage quite well for many millennia without computers or mobile phones. Shakespeare had no Blackberry; Aristotle managed without an i-Phone. Christianity spread around the globe without blogs. Christ preached His sermon on the mount without the need of a PA system and Powerpoint presentation. All of our technology is completely unnecessary to a happy life.” This thought-provoking approach may help us to focus on what is essential in life and how we want our world to be. Compulsion to acquire and flaunt the most modern “status symbols” – luxury automobiles, the latest cellphone models, designer clothing, expensive jewelry – might be a sign of low self-esteem. They mean that we wish others to admire us for the brands we wear, the things we possess and the lifestyle we display, not by who we really are. The Earth we pollute pays a heavy toll for our materialism and superficiality. Spiraling consumerism is a major cause of environmental degradation (besides inducing people to put moral values at the back seat for the sake of acquiring what they desire and live up-scale lifestyles; since greed is insatiable, “the ends justify the means”). Many Earth’s ecosystems are on the verge of breaking down or even get extinct. We live in a finite world, with limited resources; we cannot continue to overexploit them, lest we gravely endanger ourselves and the survival of future generations.  Science doesn’t have a formula to save the planet from our destructive ways. The only efficacious solution is to live in a more sustainable way, that is, a simple and modest life. And stop cooperating with a wasteful culture that requires things to be consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an ever-increasing rate. The Earth is limited in its capacity to assimilate and synthesize the waste we produce.  The challenge is to moderate our wants, reduce our carbon footprint, fight superficiality and mediocrity and welcome a spirituality that upholds the most genuine human

What makes people leave their comfort zones and set out in mission? Is it the spirit of adventure and the pleasure of traveling? In today’s world, one doesn’t need to become a missionary to travel and know the world. Then, why do people commit themselves to mission for life, especially in precarious and unstable areas, living out of love and putting others’ interests above their own? The answer is: because of a call – the call of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is mission’s driving force, as we see in the New Testament. Mary, after the Annunciation, is impelled to visit and help her relative Elizabeth. During the Easter apparitions, the Risen Jesus breathes His spirit upon His disciples and sends them out to proclaim the Good News. At the great event of Pentecost, the Spirit dispels the disciples’ paralyzing fears and makes them courageous witnesses of Jesus. No tribulation manages to stop them from announcing Jesus.  From Jerusalem, the Gospel reaches the ends of the earth. As the Book of the Acts of the Apostles shows, the Holy Spirit is the source and main agent of such a venture. It is He who guides the disciples in their endeavors, gives them courage, recalls and makes the Words of Jesus come alive, closes and opens doors for them, releases them from prison, precedes them, inspires and defends them in the midst of persecutions. The first Christian community is missionary. It exists for mission. Without mission, it would have become a sect or it would have disappeared. The Spirit is also the “goal of evangelization: He alone stirs up the new creation, the new humanity of which evangelization is to be the result” (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 75). Evangelization aims at conferring such a wonderful gift that is the beginning of all God’s surprises. “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” asked St. Paul to some disciples in Ephesus (Acts 19: 2). Because nobody can follow Jesus and experience life to the full without the Spirit. The Spirit leads people to accept God’s mystery and to experience His sweetness. He enables individuals and cultures to open up to Jesus and His message and become a new humanity.  “There is no Church without Pentecost,” said Pope Benedict XVI at St. Peter’s Square on the Feast of Pentecost. Without the Spirit, he commented, the Church is “like a ship with sails but no wind.” Therefore, the Pontiff added, the Church needs the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in a continuous cycle of “new pentecosts” – to infuse joy and enthusiasm in individuals, root them in love, vivify the communities and kindle in all the fire of mission. Only if empowered by the Spirit that the Church is able to continue Jesus’ saving work. Mission is the hallmark of the Holy Spirit. And we should be constantly reminded that mission is also ad extra or ad gentes, that is beyond the boundaries of our nation, culture and people. Local communities tend to

Missionary women – religious and lay – have been privileged witnesses and often victims of ravaging wars and armed conflicts. All around the world, they put their lives at risk to stay by the people they serve and be a sign of hope amidst madness and savagery.  For instance, in Sri Lanka last year, as the government troops were aiming to end a 25-year-old war by dealing a death blow to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels, Sister Mary Colostica, a 74-year-old Catholic nun, and her five colleague nuns – some already injured – shepherded more than 2,000 civilians from village to village as they tried to escape fighting and shelling and searched for food. Their braveness and strength in sharing people’s sufferings led to seeking refuge and finding safety for them.  Women and girls are the main victims of conflicts. They are prey to physical, sexual and psychological violence, including rape as a weapon of war in various parts of the world. The case of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is appalling: an estimated 160 women are being raped each week in the unstable North and South Kivu provinces, mainly by “armed men” – including the national army – according to the United Nations. Over 8,000 cases of rape were reported in 2009.  The world has been rather adverse to women. More than their male counterparts, missionary women are able to understand their plight and contribute to their empowerment. Despite the great progress made in the last years to protect women, they still suffer violence in the form of feticide, infanticide and abandonment; discrimination in health and nutrition, thus impairing physical and mental growth. Girls continue to account for the majority of children out of school and girls 15 years of age and over account for two-thirds of the world’s illiterate population; three quarters of those infected by HIV/AIDS are girls and women between the ages of 15 and 24. Women and girls are the majority of transnational victims being trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation, not to mention economic abuse. Missionary women have been at the forefront of the battle for life and dignity, especially of their fellow women. Their work for and with the poor is awe-inspiring. Writing in The New York Times, on April 17, Nicholas D. Kristof affirmed that, after a number of encounters with nuns in the mission field, he has come to believe “that the very coolest people in the world today may be nuns.” Two weeks later, on May 1, reporting from Juba, Southern Sudan, he returned to the theme (as he was recalling the scandal of the clergy’s sexual abuses and the cover up by some prelates): “Once again, I am awed that so many of the selfless people serving the world’s neediest are lowly nuns and priests – notable not for the grandeur of their vestments but for the grandness of their compassion.” Indeed, a well-deserved tribute to thousands of indomitable and selfless missionary women who, all over