Category: World Touch

Non-Catholics Influenced Council’s Liberalization

Melissa Wilde, an associate professor of sociology in the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, led a team of researchers that investigated data from the Vatican Secret Archive to determine the critical factors influencing how bishops voted at the Second Vatican Council, a university statement announces. Their findings are outlined in “Religious Economy or Organizational Field? Predicting Bishops’ Votes at the Second Vatican Council,” published in the August issue of American Sociological Review. The researchers found that the relationship between the Church and state, as well as changes in the institution’s situation in relation to other institutions, particularly a loss of dominance and the presence of and relationship with other religious institutions, were crucial factors in predicting whether religious leaders would be open to change and also what kinds of change they would prioritize. They concluded that, in places where the Catholic Church enjoyed a stable monopoly as the state church, religious leaders were almost impervious to outside influence and opposed to most kinds of change. In areas in which Catholicism was not the established faith but where the religious field was stable, however, leaders of other religious institutions were a crucial source of influence on bishops who attended and voted at Vatican II. The article also explores factors that predicted bishops’ votes on two of the most contentious issues dividing the Roman Catholic Church during Vatican II from 1962-1965: the validity of a document titled “On the Sources of Revelation,” which upholds the inerrancy of the Bible, and the importance of the Virgin Mary. “This is the first attempt to subject any Council votes to rigorous quantitative analysis,” said lead author Wilde, who studies the processes and factors that direct religious change. “It was exciting being the first person to gain access to these votes on an event as important as the Council.”

www.upenn.edu/pennnews

Old Mobile Phones Provide Gold For Africa

Since September 2009, the umbrella group of Catholic environmental organizations has collected discarded cell phones through over 1,500 parishes nationwide. According to the organization, 100 old mobile phones contain about 3.75 grams of gold electronic parts. Under their one-year campaign, all 6.5 tons or 60-70 thousand units of phones were collected. The organization then learned that coltan, a rare metal also found in mobile phones, is mostly mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a country witnessing a war between the government and the rebels over the acquisition of coltan mines. They decided to donate the first fund to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighboring Congo. Peter Kwon Chang-sik, coordinator of the organization, said 80% of coltan deposits are in the Congo area. Increasing coltan mining are destroying tropical forest areas and also the world’s last natural habitat for gorillas. To aggravate the situation, over 3 million people are displaced because of the war. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, there are six Korean nuns from the Sisters of Christian Doctrine Congregation helping local children by using the donated funds. Kwon added that although mobile phones contain harmful metals such as lead, arsenic and cadmium, which destroy nature if buried or burned, they also have other valuable metals like silver and copper. For that, an old cell phone could be worth between 1,300-1,600 won (around US$1-1.5), he said.

www.ucanews.com / Stephen Hong

Church’s Missionary Role Is To Reveal Jesus

Reflecting on the Day’s theme, “The building of ecclesial communion is the key to mission,” the Pope recalls the words of the Gospel of John “We want to see Jesus” (Jn 12:21), the claim that some Greek pilgrims who had gone to Jerusalem for Easter, made of the apostle Philip. “It resonates in our hearts,” writes Benedict XVI, and “reminds us of the commitment and the task assigned to the whole of the evangelical Church, ‘missionary by its nature’ (Ad Gentes, 2),” and invites us to become leaders of the newness of life, made of authentic relationships, in communities founded on the Gospel. In a multiethnic society that increasingly experiments with forms of loneliness and worrying indifference, Christians must learn to offer signs of hope and universal brotherhood, cultivating the great ideals that transform history and, without unnecessary fear or false hopes, undertake to make the planet home for all peoples.” Like the Greek pilgrims of two thousand years ago, the men of our time, perhaps unconsciously, are asking believers not only to ‘talk’ of Jesus, but to ‘show’ Jesus, make the Face of the Redeemer shine in all four corners of the earth before the generations of the new millennium, and especially before young people from every continent, privileged recipients and subjects of the Gospel. They need to feel that Christians bear the word of Christ because He is the Truth, because they have found in Him the way, the truth for their lives.” But the missionary mandate, continues the Pope, cannot be realized without “a deep personal, community and pastoral conversion. Indeed, awareness of the call to preach the Gospel not only encourages every individual believer, but all diocesan and parish communities to a complete renovation and to open more and more to missionary cooperation among Churches, to promote the proclamation of the Gospel in the heart of every person, every people, culture, race, nationality, in every corner.” Ecclesial communion is therefore “constantly looking” for those dedicated to the mission “so that the phenomenon of interculturation can be integrated into a model of unity, in which the Gospel is the leaven of liberty and progress, the source of brotherhood, humility and peace (cf. Ad Gentes, 8).

Christians Are The “Most Persecuted”

Their report coincided with a conference at the European Parliament on the “Persecution of Christians” organized by COMECE and Polish and Italian MEPs. The MEPs said that religious freedom must be incorporated into the European External Policies of the EU, by adding to Agreements with Third Countries a binding clause on the respect of freedom of religion, the COMECE report adds. Speakers included Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk (Iraq), Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala of Tombura-Yambio (Sudan), and Professor TM Joseph, principal at Newman College in India, whose right hand was cut off in a brutal attack after he set an exam question that allegedly defamed Islam. The bishops said in their report: “It is important to recall that at least 75% of all religious persecution in the world is directed against Christians. The number of the Christian faithful discriminated against, oppressed or persecuted in this regard amounts to approximately 100 million people. ”They added that tackling this persecution would help stem the “demographic hemorrhage” of religious minorities fleeing to the West.

255 Killed And 700 Kidnapped In Car And Drc

During the abduction campaign, the LRA is alleged to have brutally killed adults and children who tried to escape, walked too slowly, or were unable to bear the heavy loads they were forced to carry, HRW found in its investigations in the region. Overall, the report says, the LRA has killed at least 255 adults and children, often by crushing their skulls with clubs. In dozens of cases, the LRA reportedly forced captive children to kill other children and adults. “The LRA continues its horrific campaign to replenish its ranks by brutally tearing away children from their villages and forcing them to fight,” Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior Africa researcher at HRW, said. In southeastern CAR, the LRA reportedly began large-scale abductions on July 21, 2009 and, to date, has abducted 304 people, including many children. Meanwhile, a similar LRA abduction campaign is reportedly under way in the remote Bas Uele district of Congo. On March 15, 2009, the LRA allegedly attacked the town of Banda, abducting some 80 people. Already, tens of thousands of people are said to have fled the area, leaving entire villages abandoned. Currently, the UN peace-keeping mission in Congo, MONUSCO, reportedly has 19,000 peacekeepers across the country, of which only 1,000 are in the LRA-affected areas of northeastern Congo – far too few for the scale and geographical breadth of the problem. In fact, there are no peacekeepers based in the Bas Uele district of northern DRC.

www.fides.org

Hall Of Fame For World Mission

The annual awards ceremony took place at the University of Santo Tomas, in Quezon City, on October 13. The UST, the most ancient Asian university, is preparing to celebrate its 400th anniversary next year. Fr. Miguel Llamazares, Delegate Superior of the Comboni Missionaries in Asia, and Fr. Dave Domingues, the dynamic promoter of the magazine, received the prize. World Mission expresses its gratitude to the Archdiocese of Manila, organizer and patron of the event, for the prize, and dedicates it to the magazine’s editorial staff, collaborators, subscribers, friends and readers. On September 16, World Mission’s Editor, Fr. José Rebelo, was distinguished with the International Award for Excellence in Journalism by the Geneva-based International Catholic Union of the Press (UCIP), in a function-cum-dinner, during its triennial world congress in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The historic congress, in which 48 nationalities of all five continents were represented, was officially opened by the President of Burkina Faso, Blaise Compaore. Among other participants were former President of Ghana Jerry John Rawlings; Papal representative Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli; President of the Episcopal Conference of Burkina-Niger, Archbishop Seraphin Rouamba; His Majesty Moogho Naba Baongho, Emperor of the Mossi people; Secretary General of UCIP, Joseph Calstas-Chittilappily; and the President of Union of the African Press (UCAP), Alexandre Le Grande Rouamba.

Say “Yahweh” Instead Of “Allah”?

The intent is part of the ongoing dispute between the Christian and Muslim communities, which began in recent months with a lawsuit involving the Catholic newspaper The Herald. With the sentence of December 31, 2009, the High Court of Justice upheld the right of The Herald to use the word “Allah” to refer to God. The term “Allah” is, in fact, the only existing word in the Bahasha Malaysia language used to refer to God. The Christian community does not currently seem willing to accept the proposal of using the Hebrew word “Yahweh.” Reverend Thomas Philips, a Christian leader of the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism, and Taoism, an organization involved in interreligious dialogue, commented: “The faithful will continue to use the word ‘Allah.’ It is a sacred right that affects the freedom of expression. Every person who speaks a language has the right to use all the words of that language, without charges or limitations. The issue will be discussed in the Interreligious Committee formed by the government. We are working, with the spirit of understanding, to find just solutions to matters affecting the religious sphere. This also applies to the controversy over the use of the word ‘Allah.’ We are confident that a common solution can be reached for the good of the nation and people of all faiths.”

www.fides.org

Evidence Of St. Peter’s Prison Found

The prison, which lies beneath the Church of St. Joseph of the Carpenters facing the Roman Forum, was closed for the past year as experts dug up old floors and picked away plaster. They found and restored a 14th-century fresco of Jesus with His arm around a smiling St. Peter and an 11th-century fresco of Jesus with the oldest known image of the Campidoglio, Rome’s city hall, behind Him. Patrizia Fortini from the city of Rome’s department of archaeological heritage led the excavation and restoration project. She told journalists late last month that they found proof that the site had been a place for venerating St. Peter by the seventh century, lending support to historical accounts that he had been incarcerated there. The prison has two levels: the upper chamber called the “Carcer” and the lower chamber called the “Tullianum,” which was built in the sixth century B.C. In the “Tullianum,” Fortini said, they found “traces of a basin that must have been where water was collected – water which, according to tradition, sprang forth after St. Peter pounded on the stone floor.” Tradition holds that, after he miraculously made the water gush forth, he converted and baptized his two prison guards as well as 47 others while he was imprisoned there. Near the basin, archaeologists found a trough which, centuries later, the faithful may have used to sprinkle themselves with water, she said. The stone walls had been painted, she said, but time and humidity took their toll.

www.catholicnews.com

Mindanao Is The Worst Place For Children

In the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao, only 40% of children complete primary school, against the national average of 75%, while younger-than-five mortality remains three times as high as the national rate. In August 2008, renewed hostilities between government forces and the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) broke out when a memorandum, that would have given the MILF control over land they claimed as ancestral domain, was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, resulting in more than 700,000 displaced. According to the International Organization for Migration, close to 83,000 people remain displaced due to conflict or clan violence, also known as Rido.

www.irinnews.org

Unemployment Triggers Social Unrest

The ILO fears global employment will not recover until 2015. This is two years later than its earlier estimate that the labor market would rebound to pre-crisis levels by 2013. About 22 million new jobs are needed – 14 million in rich countries and 8 million in developing nations. “Fairness must be the compass guiding us out of the crisis,” said the ILO Director-General. Quoted by The Guardian, Juan Somavia added: “People can understand and accept difficult choices if they perceive that all share in the burden of pain. Governments should not have to choose between the demands of financial markets and the needs of their citizens. Financial and social stability must come together. Otherwise, not only the global economy but also social cohesion will be at risk.” Also quoted by the British newspaper, Raymond Torres, lead author of the ILO’s annual World of Work report, said there were two main reasons for the bleaker outlook facing many countries: “The first is that fiscal stimulus measures that were critical in averting a deeper crisis and helped jump-start the economy are now being withdrawn in countries where recovery, if any, is still too weak. The second, and more fundamental factor is that the root causes of the crisis have not been properly tackled.” The ILO said the global economy had started growing again, with encouraging signs of employment recovery, especially in some emerging economies in Asia and Latin America. But it added: “Despite these significant gains … new clouds have emerged on the employment horizon and the prospects have worsened significantly in many countries.” Since the crisis started in 2007, some 30-35 million jobs have been lost worldwide. The ILO forecasts that global unemployment will hit 213 million this year, a rate of 6.5%. For the United States, the number of jobs still needed to regain pre-crisis levels is 6.9 million. Many countries that experienced employment growth at the end of 2009 are now seeing the jobs recovery weaken. Even among people with jobs, satisfaction at work has deteriorated significantly. “The longer the labor market recession, the greater the difficulties for jobseekers to obtain new employment,” the ILO report said. “In the 35 countries for which data exists, nearly 40% of jobseekers have been without work for more than one year and, therefore, run significant risks of demoralization, loss of self-esteem and mental health problems. Importantly, young people are disproportionately hit by unemployment.”

www.guardian.co.uk / Julia Kollewe

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