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In 2015, Metro Manila will have 15 million people and much more problems. One way to solve them is to have governments listen to the voice of the lower-income groups and allow them to participate in important decision-making processes. The Church also has an important role: it can intercede on behalf of the poor and help them form their organizations.
The world economy, driven as it is by neo-liberal economists and politicians, excludes 80% of the world’s population from gainful and humanly meaningful employment. Only 20% of workers in the world take pride in and meaningfully gain from their work. As an agent of mission, the Church needs to address the issues of globalization and its effects on human beings, especially in the cities.
Half of the world’s population is already living in the cities, a big part in overcrowded and miserable slums. Urban poverty and exclusion are growing fast and will be worse in the near future. Even the Pentagon is worried.
The poorest of the poor countries are being used by the pharmaceutical industry to test their drugs, in exchange for some treatment and some money. The human guinea pigs are putting their health at risk and, if approved, the new medicines are not even affordable to them.
We have spent the last 1,700 years denying Jesus’ final command. We have justified warfare, led our crusades, and stamped every bombing raid and nuclear weapon with our blessing. But the commandment remains: “Put down the sword.”
The great theologian David Tracy recently said, when asked what the future of theology in the U.S. would look like: “For the next 200 years, we’ll be trying to catch up with Merton.” It was this hermit, this mystic, this peace fighter who once wrote: “The chief difference between violence and nonviolence is that violence depends entirely on its own calculations. Nonviolence depends entirely on God and God’s word.”
Gandhi was convinced that much of the violence in society and in our personal lives stems from the passive violence that we commit against each other. He even made a list of the “seven pillars” of this kind of daily violence.
The principle of nonviolence launched a century ago by Mahatma Gandhi is invoked and taken up by the Church today as a call to action for the international community to overcome divisions caused by wars and terrorism.
About six years ago, the Filipinos were distinguished with two rare peace prizes. About a century ago, Gandhi was arrested by South-African authorities for civil disobedience, launching a nonviolent movement that, in the long term, led to India’s peaceful independence. When the world is living one of the most dangerous and violent periods of its history, it’s time to remember that peace is possible and non-violence is the key God puts in our hearts and our hands to achieve it.
