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Faith and culture have always been together, since the very beginning of Christianity. Indeed, the ability to turn pagan traditions into Christian ones was one of the big strengths of the Catholic Church. Christmas in Mexico is a very good example.
And can be used as a guide book for inculturation.
The global crisis, which is harming even the world’s strongest economies, is costing millions their houses, jobs and lifetime savings. To those who are already poor, the present is getting harder and harder and the future will be even bleaker. All this is the result of pure greed and of the “free-market religion.”
As the U.S., Europe and rich countries throw billions in lifeboats to end financial crises, let’s spare a thought for poorer developing nations which, without such means, are facing absolute disaster.
The “American Dream” of upward social mobility appears to have emigrated from its birthplace in the United States to northern Europe, according to a new major report of OECD on the growth of economic equality over the past 20 years. In terms of inequality, the Americans just lag behind Mexicans and Turks.
Let’s make no bones about it. This financial crisis is a major spiritual crisis. It is the crisis of a society that worships at the temples of consumption, and that has isolated and often abandoned millions of consumers now trapped in a treadmill of debt.
The election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the USA was received, in America and the world, as a sign of change and hope. In a moment of global crisis, this can be a turning point. Hope is very powerful.
Sr. Mary Batchelor celebrated 60 years of religious life, 60 years dedicated to God and to the education of thousands of young people in Australia and Africa. Her students in Mapuordit, Southern Sudan, call her Mary, our diamond.
In Seongnam, a commuter community close to Seoul, the South Korean capital, Fr. Vincenzo Bordo is a very well-known figure. Indeed, it is not easy not to know him, because he is a sort of a “street missionary.” His goal: to feed the hoboes, drunkards, ex-cons, the poor and elderly, the mental cases, the disabled – all of those who have no permanent place of their own and are “street people.”
Son of the governor of Brazil, he mixed as a boy with the future king of Portugal, Pedro II, sharing games at court. Fascinated by the heroism of the Jesuit missionaries, he joined the Society of Jesus when he was only 15 and asked to be sent to India. Very successful in his pioneering efforts of inculturation, he converted thousands of high caste Hindus. Condemned to be beheaded because of his success, he achieved the true nobility he had longed for during his whole life.
“If you are the Son of God, save yourself… and us.”
(Read Luke 23:32-49)
