From Catholic Action to Liberation Theology in Latin America

In this article, Florida International University Professor Ana Maria Bidegain, a former leader of the JUC movement in Uruguay, traces the development of liberation theology in Latin America from its roots in the Young Christian Workers movement. We also present a more recent video in which she explains the relationship of Pope Francis and the Church in Latin America.

According to the summary, the paper “presents the historic process of the Latin American laity in this century, taking the case of Catholic Action, especially among the university youth.

“The author attempts to demonstrate the role played by these movements in the process of pastoral and theological renewal in recent years in Latin America.

The study consists of three parts:

1. The birth of Catholic Action as papal policy, signifying a break in the history of the Church through the participation of the laity in the apostolic hierarchy.

2. The implanting of Catholic Action in Latin America in the face of the development of social and political movements inspired by anarchism, socialism, and communism.

3. The transformation of Catholic Action and the birth of Liberation Theology.

READ THE ARTICLE HERE

Ana Maria Bidegain, From Catholic Action to Liberation Theology: The historical process of the laity in Latin America in the 20th century (Kellogg Institute, University of Notre Dame)

PHOTO

Ana Maria Bidegain / Florida International University / YouTube

Workers and the Church

Former IYCW president, Romeo Maione, delivered this talk in Nairobi, Kenya in 1985.

As the village breaks down, it rebuilds. As the seed dies so will it bear bruit. In death there is life. As the village dies, so does the city find life. The city is the village reborn. The village does not die in the village rather the village moves to the city to die and gives the city new life.

As the village dies in a city, it gives birth to a universal citizen who is neither Greek or Roman, Italian or French etc. He becomes a citizen of the city. The village in the city becomes the mechanism to change the person from a member of village into a citizen of the world. The essential part of this process happens in the work place.

While the workers may live in their separate villages in the city, they all work together in the workplace of the city. It is in the factory that the villager is called for the first time to work side by side with workers coming from various languages, cultures and faiths. It is in the workplace that a new solidarity is built up far and away from the frontiers once that held them together.

The first step towards universal solidarity is the worker movement. This movement was not planned rather it came out of the urge of justice. This forced the workers to organize so as to protect their jobs and wages and conditions of work. This was the first step from barbarism where the strong loads it over the weak and impose their will on uneducated workers. The village community cannot protect them in the factory. So a new type of organization starts to develop along with the living community.

Although the Church in America encouraged the organization of unions for the good of workers, the basic organization of the Church was still the geographical parish, even today, the Church has still to discover the various new communities that have no geographical, racial, cultural or even religious boundaries. When once the village was the only organization, now a whole new set of organizations was starting to develop yet the sap of life according to the experience of the Church was to circulate in only the dying villages in the city.

It was in this new community that social justice was the real glue of a new community. It is interesting to see how the village culture played a role in this new community. My dad told me the story of how he joined a union. He was a member of a “minority tribe” in an Italian village. As there was an incredible pull to help your own, the minority was always in danger of being replaced by another worker.

The majority tribe knew how to grease the hand of the foreman who was in charge of hiring. So my father always felt the danger of being let go to make room for one of the majority tribe. So my father joined a union to protect him from the majority. It was fear that led him in joining the union.

This new type of organization did not drop out of heaven rather it was founded on the fears and secondly the hopes of workers to better working conditions. This new worker movement in time replaced the dying villages. The drive of these new communities were to become “the historic class of making history”.

The distance between the worker movement and the Church is the measure of the distance of the Church from the modern world. Industrial power can only be civilized and made human by social power. This thinking even with the social teachings is far away from the essential thinking and praying of the Church. We camouflage our betrayal by insisting that power is not our mission.

Love is our mission, we say but never even think that love may be the greatest power to humanize and civilize the beast that lies in every person and culture. Love is the only power that can ever hope to exorcise the power and the power that absolutely corrupts. Love is the power of god that must struggle with the power of Satan. The latter is close to victory when love becomes detached from justice.

It is the masses that make history contrary to much Church thinking that it is the elites who construct societies and culture. New cultures must be built on the foundation of the masses. Those who do not know the history of the masses, of the villager becoming a worker are forever doomed to build castles in the sky.

Culture grows from the roots of the masses. Its first growth is as barbaric as an infant who must learn how to walk before it can run. The worker movement is an irreplaceable part of the building up of a new culture out of the membership of various village cultures coming together in the industrial plants.

It was the communist intellectuals that preached the workers were the historic class but who used their power to build up a society dominated by intellectuals. And we all know the results of this effort of using the masses for them to gain power over the masses.

The Church thinks that it does not have to dirty her hands in the cave of history. We will wait till sometime in the future to meet the workers..TOO Late|.

Romeo Maione
Nairobi
March 23.1982

Cardijn on religious freedom

It is 52 years to the day since Cardinal Joseph Cardijn delivered his first speech on the Council floor at Vatican II. His theme was religious freedom, an issue that is perhaps even more on the world’s agenda today than it was during the 1960s.

As always, Cardijn refuses to adopt a “defensive” approach to religious freedom where the Church seeks to defend its own freedoms or status. On the contrary, Cardijn sees religious freedom as the whole basis of his approach to the Gospel message. Indeed, for Cardijn religious freedom lies at the very heart of his see-judge-act method.

Intervention by Cardinal Joseph Cardijn, 20 September 1965

The schema on liberty pleases me greatly. Allow me to humbly share with you the experience of nearly 60 years of priestly apostolate exercised in every country at the service of young workers today.

It seems to me that a solemn and clear proclamation of the juridical religious freedom of all people in every country of the world is an urgent need.

First Reason: Peaceful unification of a pluralist world

The world today is tending increasingly towards unity and conflicts between nations and cultures must disappear progressively.

As John XXIII stated so admirably in Pacem in Terris, our great task is to unite ourselves with all men of good will to build a more human world together based on “truth, justice, liberty and love”. And the fundamental condition for people to live together peacefully and to collaborate fruitfully is sincere respect for religious freedom.

The fact of not respecting the philosophical and religious convictions of others is increasingly felt by them as a sign of mistrust in a matter considered as sacred and personal to the highest degree. Such an attitude makes mutual confidence impossible and without this there can be no true community life and no effective collaboration.

On the other hand, if mutual confidence reigns, it creates an opportunity for very joyful collaboration, not only on the scientific and technical planes but also on the social, cultural, pedagogical and moral levels.

If the Church can pronounce itself unambiguously in favour of religious freedom, people everywhere will gain confidence and recognise that the Church wishes to participate in building a more human and more united world. If on the other hand, this declaration should be rejected, great hopes will disappear, particularly among young people.

Second Reason: Efficacity of apostolic, missionary and ecumenical action

In a world heading towards unification, the presence of the Church among the people must necessarily take a new form, which could be compared to the dispersion of the people of Israel after the captivity of Babylon.

In the greater part of the world Christians are a small minority. In order to fulfil its mission, the Church cannot base itself on temporal, political, economic or cultural power as it did in the Middle Ages or under colonial regimes. It can only count on the power of the word of God, evangelical poverty, the purity of its witness, manifested in the authentically Christian life of lay people, and also on the esteem of the peoples among whom the Church wishes to live and witness to its faith. And this esteem of the people is nothing other than what we have described as religious liberty. But how can the Church hope to benefit from religious liberty in countries where it is a minority if the Church itself fails to loudly proclaim or to practise religious liberty in the countries where it is in the majority?

This proclamation of religious liberty is important not only for the efficacity of apostolic and missionary action in general but it is also the condition sine qua non of the ecumenical movement.

We know that all our non-Catholic brothers consider this declaration as a step which must be taken in order to arrive at a sincere and effective ecumenism.

Third Reason: The educational and pedagogic value of religious freedom

The schema speaks of the right of the person and of communities to religious freedom. This juridical freedom is not an end in itself. It is a necessary means for education in liberty in its fullest sense, which leads to interior liberty, or liberty of the soul by which a man becomes an autonomous being, responsible before society and God, ready if necessary to obey God rather than men.

This interior freedom, even if it exists in germ as a natural gift in every human creature, requires a long education which can be summarised in three words: see, judge and act.

If, thanks be to God, my sixty years of apostolate have not been in vain, it is because I have never wanted young people to live in shelter from dangers, cut off from the milieu of their life and work.

Rather I have shown confidence in their freedom in order to better educate that freedom. I helped them to see, judge and act by themselves, by undertaking social and cultural action themselves, freely obeying authorities in order to become adult witnesses of Christ and the Gospel, conscious of being responsible for their sisters and brothers in the whole world.

In our world moving towards unification, it is not possible to educate young people in glass houses, cutting them off from the real world. Many people lose the faith because they have been given a childish education.

It is only by means of a sound education in interior freedom that our young people will be able to become adult Christians.

Objections

Some will object that freedom involves a number of dangers: indifferentism, diffusion of errors, abuse of the ignorance of the masses and of the passions.

Here is my answer:

I am conscious of these dangers. Some certainly will abuse religious freedom; but these risks are less serious that those which arise from the suppression or the oppression of religious freedom. “Absolutist regimes” – even those which claim to serve the Church – where social pressure is substituted for personal formation, favour anti-clericalism and in fact incite the masses to revolt against the faith and the Church.

The dangers inherent in a regime of freedom must be faced in a positive manner, for example by a frank and sincere international agreement between civil and religious authorities; but above all by the formation and human, moral and religious education thanks to which young people and adults become conscious of their own responsibilities.

Conclusion

To conclude, I would like to propose the following:

This Vatican Council must conclude with a solemn and magnificent act by Pope Paul VI in union with all the Fathers.

This act should solemnly proclaim religious freedom. It should request all confessions, all ideologies, all authorities and institutions to unanimously maintain and protect religious freedom, defining the requirements of public order in a correct and honest manner as well as seeking to implement the means for effectively protecting religious freedom.

I have finished. Thank you.

Joseph Card. Cardijn

SOURCE

Joseph Cardijn, Religious liberty (www.josephcardijn.com)

Question

Why is religious freedom so important for achieving “peaceful unification of the world” in Cardijn’s view?

How does Cardijn define “religious liberty”? What is the significance of his definition?

What is the connection between “religious liberty” and the see-judge-act method?

Former IYCW leader turns 90

Former IYCW vice-president, Betty Villa, of the Philippines reached her 90th birthday milestone on 14 September. She celebrated the occasion with friends, including present day YCW members.

Betty was elected to the IYCW International Executive Committee in 1957 and she became vice-president in 1961.

She also accompanied Cardijn to Rome on several visits during Vatican II, lobbying on behalf of the lay apostolate.

Here is the video she made in 2012 presenting her memories of Cardijn’s role at the Council.

Philippines YCW/YCS leaders warn Duterte

Filipino youth organisations, including local YCW and YCS leaders, have warned President Rodrigo Duterte not to sabotage the anti-martial law protests or use them as a “pretext” to declare nationwide martial law, GMA Network News reports.

In a statement, the groups led by Anakbayan said that doing so would hasten his “fascist” regime’s downfall.

“By churning out ridiculous gags – from declaring September 21 a ‘national day of protest’ to challenging protesters to ‘occupy EDSA’, Duterte hopes to sabotage protests and discourage people from joining. The Filipino youth and people will prove him wrong,” said Anakbayan national chairperson Vencer Crisostomo.

“Mr. Duterte, if you think declaring nationwide martial law will make you escape accountability for all your accumulated crimes against the Filipino people and continue your tyranny, then you are dead wrong. It is better if you just step down,” he added.

“Mr. Duterte, we are warning you. Your current rush towards outright fascist rule and threats of using the full force of the police and military apparatus to quell dissent is only bound to fuel more resistance and hasten your downfall.”

Students and youth groups from the country’s biggest universities will participate in the massive collective action set on September 21, the 45th anniversary of Ferdinand Marcos’ declaration of martial law in 1972.

Anakbayan said protesters in Metro Manila on Wednesday will march towards the gates of Malacañang Palace and stage a program at 1:00 p.m.

Signatories included Student Catholic Action (Philippines YCS) and Errol Alonzo on behalf of the YCW.

Youth groups to Duterte: Don’t use Sept. 21 protests as excuse to impose martial law (GMA Network News)

PHOTO

Presidential Communications Operations Office / Wikipedia

Young people share views on Synod

Last week, the Vatican has hosted a seminar on today’s youth in preparation for next year’s Synod of Bishops’ gathering on “Young people, faith and vocational discernment,” La Croix International reports

A group of 21 teens and young adults took part in last week’s invitation-only even, where they joined in discussions and made concrete proposals for the Synod.

Stepping through the doors of the conference room, visitors may have been surprised to find that gray hairs were in the minority at a seminar organized by the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops last week.

Participants did not hesitate to challenge the academic presenters at the event or to raise the stakes by freely expressing their views during the debates.

In fact, they even protested when the presentations of the experts exceeded the time limit and ate into their precious discussion time.They also criticized the Vatican survey addressed to young people which was considered to be too long or poorly translated.

“The pope asked us to ‘make chaos,’ that’s precisely what we’re doing,” said Lucas Barboza with a smile.

“You have galvanized us,” said Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, the Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, in his concluding remarks.

He graciously welcomed the young people’s critiques, including on the content of the seminar, which failed to address subjects such as personal relationships and sexuality, or the lack of non-European representation among the young people invited (only one representative was from Africa).

FULL STORY

Young people make waves at Synod meeting (La Croix International)

Catholic youth have something to say – and the Church is listening (Catholic News Agency)

IYCS leader Richard Apeh (left) with other delegates

Call for Sri Lanka to become secular state

One of the sticking points in a proposed new Constitution for Sri Lanka centers on the degree of prominence to be given to Buddhism as the state religion, writes former YCW and Cardijn Community chaplain, Fr Reid Shelton Fernando.

Over the years, there have been 19 amendments to the 1978 Constitution, some enacted in haste. A number of measures perceived to be “draconian” were dropped and independent “commissions” established under a Constitutional Council.

Government coalition parties promised changes to the electoral process, but they did not eventuate before the dissolution of parliament in July, 2015, pending elections.

Why the need for a change?

The most recent amendment that got through was criticized as detrimental to democratic principles. Checks and balances such as the independent commissions were watered down. And the executive role of ‘president’ was given almost absolute power.

In 1977 parliamentary elections, the ruling United National Party (UNP) had a more than two-thirds majority, allowing pursuance of its own agenda. Then Prime Minister J.R. Jayawardene later became the country’s first executive president under an amended Constitution.

This authoritarian template benefited the rich rather than poor workers. The situation was aggravated in 1983 with the outbreak of ethnic conflict with Tamil insurgents that lasted for almost 30 years.

The victors of the presidential elections in January 2015, took the first step towards a new Constitution, appointing a committee of 20 persons to seek a wide range of views.

In the meantime, all members of parliament became members of a Constituent Assembly. A steering committee was also established. One vexed issue centers on Article 9 of the 1978 constitution and the amount of prominence to be given in future to Buddhism. Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo has taken up this matter up.

After years of ethnic conflict, expectations are high that such strife can be avoided in future and Sri Lanka can become a model of religious amity. In January 2015, during a visit to Sri Lanka, Pope Francis reminded people of the need to work towards unity and justice. He spoke of the importance of transcending religious divisions in the service of peace.

FULL ARTICLE

Sri Lanka’s clarion call to become a secular state (ucanews.com)

Global – New iPhones now on sale!

Apple released a slew of new products last week, including the iPhone 8, iPhone X and a new Apple Watch 3.

Just a few days earlier, Samsung released its own competitor, the Galaxy Note 8.

And next month, Google will join the party with its latest Nexus phone.

See

What kind of mobile do you have? How old is it? How often do you upgrade?

What do you use your phone for mainly?

Are you on a monthly plan? How much do you spend?

Do you know anything about the production of mobile phones?

Read this article: It’s been a bloody decade of the iPhone, critics say

What do you think about the points raised in the article?

Judge

How important is your phone to you?

What are the most positive and negative aspects of owning and using a mobile phone?

Have you ever experienced problems?

Is it fair the way workers who produce the phones are treated?

Act

Do you think you or other people need to change in their use of mobile phones?

What changes would you suggest?

Local – 20,000 Centrelink debts wiped

At least 20,000 Centrelink debts were either wiped or reduced in a nine-month period, newly released figures show, The Guardian reports.

The data, tabled in parliament this week, confirms what was already known about extent of problems with the so-called “robo debt” system.

It shows 7,456 debts were reduced to zero and another 12,524 were partially reduced but not wiped entirely, between July last year and March.

For the first time, the data gives a geographic understanding of where debts were issued. It shows high numbers of inaccurate debts in areas of western Sydney, Bundaberg, Mackay, Toowoomba, the New South Wales central coast and around Cranbourne in Melbourne’s south-eastern fringes.

Victoria Legal Aid’s executive director of civil justice, Dan Nicholson, said the most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups were less likely to have appealed.

“I think on the face of it, it’s a shocking number of wrong debts to be alleged but in fact the most concerning thing is the very large number of people who would not have challenged their debts, and would now be paying back debts that were wrongly or unlawfully raised against them,” Nicholson said.

“We know those people are most likely to be the most disadvantaged in the community, and therefore the people that it may affect the most.”

The human services minister, Alan Tudge, has insisted the system is capable of calculating debts fairly. He pointed to to the ombudsman’s report earlier this year, which made a string of criticisms of the system but found it was able to accurately raise a debt, so long as it was provided with the proper information.

Criticism of the system began just before Christmas last year. From July last year, the government introduced a new way of clawing back debts from welfare recipients.

FULL STORY

Centrelink scandal: tens of thousands of welfare debts wiped or reduced (The Guardian)

See

Do you know of anyone who has had to repay a Centrelink debt? How did it work for them?

Were they able to repay the debt? Was the debt correctly calculated?

The Not My Debt website has collected many cases of people who have had problems with Centrelink.

https://www.notmydebt.com.au/stories/notmydebt-stories

What do you think of these cases? Do you know of any similar ones?

Judge

Did the system work well? Was it fair?

Act

Do you know of anyone who may need assistance in dealing with a Centrelink debt?

How could you help?

Gospel – How many times shall I forgive?

21 Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Until seven times?”

22 Jesus said to him, “I don’t tell you until seven times, but, until seventy times seven.

23 Therefore the Kingdom of Heaven is like a certain king, who wanted to reconcile accounts with his servants.

24 When he had begun to reconcile, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.‡

25 But because he couldn’t pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, with his wife, his children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.

26 The servant therefore fell down and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, have patience with me, and I will repay you all!’

27 The lord of that servant, being moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt.

28 “But that servant went out, and found one of his fellow servants, who owed him one hundred denarii,§ and he grabbed him, and took him by the throat, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’

29 “So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will repay you!’

30 He would not, but went and cast him into prison, until he should pay back that which was due.

31 So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were exceedingly sorry, and came and told their lord all that was done.

32 Then his lord called him in, and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt, because you begged me.

33 Shouldn’t you also have had mercy on your fellow servant, even as I had mercy on you?’ 34 His lord was angry, and delivered him to the tormentors, until he should pay all that was due to him.

35 So my heavenly Father will also do to you, if you don’t each forgive your brother from your hearts for his misdeeds.”

SOURCE

World English Bible

See also: USCCB Daily Readings

Review questions

Have you had an experience where someone has failed to forgive you? Or where you have failed to forgive?

What made it so difficult to forgive? How to overcome these difficulties?

In Jesus’s parable, the lord was very harsh on the servant who failed to forgive his debt. What do you think about this? Do you think God will be equally harsh?

Are there any opportunities in your life at the moment where you could show mercy or forgiveness?

What action could you take this week?

Vale Kevin Dynon, YCW and VFL footballer

Kevin Dynon, one of the first YCW footballers to make the grade as an AFL footballer, died on 8 September 2017.

Recruited from Kensington YCW, Kevin joined North Melbourne VFL (now AFL) side in 1943 at the age of seventeen.

“A former captain, club Hall of Fame member and Victoria representative, Kevin Dynon will be remembered as a true North Melbourne great,” the NMFC website says.

“Tall for a centreman of his time (179cm) and very solid (85kg), Dynon’s dynamic mix of strength and skill was a feature of the North sides that made the finals in 1945, 1949, 1950 and 1954,” an excerpt from The Shinboners book reads.

“After missing three seasons from 1944-46 becaues of the war, Dynon returned to North as skipper in 1947 – “the youngest leader in club history at the time at just 21,” the club says.

“Demoted after winning just four games at the helm, he remained unperturbed and continued to play at a high standard helping North to a preliminary final in 1949 and a Grand Final in 1950,” the NMFC site continues.

In 1952 and 1953 he was re-appointed captain and went on to play 149 games across 12 seasons.

Kevin died on 8 September, which is regarded as the foundation day of the Australian YCW, which was in turn chosen to honour the birthday of Mary, Jesus’ mother.

SOURCE

Vale Kevin Dynon (North Melbourne Football Club)

Kevin Dynon (Wikipedia)

PHOTO

Herald Sun

110,000 respond to Vatican youth survey

More than 110,000 young people from around the world have responded to an online survey posted by the Vatican secretariat for the Synod on Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment in 2018.

“In the roughly three months it has been online, more than 110,000 young people have responded to the questionnaire,” says Synod secretary-general Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri. “It’s a significant number considering the absolute novelty of the initiative, and one that is bound to increase in the coming months.”

The response rate, he said, “demonstrates the great desire of young people to have their say.”

Meanwhile, twenty people under the age of 35, along with 70 theologians, priests and academics are meeting from September 11-15 as part of the preparatory process for the 2018 Synod of Bishops on “young people, faith and vocational discernment,” Catholic News Service reports.

Several young people participating in the seminar urged the Vatican and the bishops themselves to be opening to listening to youths talk and ask questions about love, sex and sexuality.

Therese Hargot, who leads sex education programs at Catholic schools in Paris, told the gathering September 13, “it’s surprising we are looking at politics, economics, etc., but not at sexuality and affectivity, which are very important topics for young people.”

Ashleigh Green, an Australian delegate to the seminar, said that going around Australia in preparation for the synod she found that “a lot of young people feel like they cannot talk about issues that matter to them” in most church settings.

However, Cardinal Baldisseri told the seminar that Pope Francis wants the synod in October 2018 to not just be about young people, but with young people, assuring they have a voice.

FULL STORY

Don’t be embarrassed to talk about sex, youths tell Vatican officials (Catholic News Service)

Synod website

Jim Madden’s Eucharistic Blues on the Mass Exodus

Although they were sometimes perceived by priests as “Young Christian Wreckers”, the YCW in Australia was “a powerhouse for energising needed and effective Christian activities in those parishes” where it was adopted, writes, Jim Madden in his 2012 book “Eucharistic Blues: Reviewing the Mass Exodus,” published to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council.

“Through the YCW many young people developed a genuine Christian mentality by internalising the beliefs and values of their faith,” Madden writes. “They developed their acceptance of what the Church believed and practiced because it really became what they had convinced themselves that it was what they believed and practiced.

“Their living faith and their association with the clergy made them valuable assets to have around parishes, not just for when they were members of the YCW but for the rest of their lives. Some members tried to further their apostolic endeavours through entering a seminary, monastery or convent and others became faithful spouses and caring parents in loving and fruitful Christian marriages.”

Madden also credits YCW pioneers of the implementation of the decrees and decisions of Vatican II.

YCW leaders “were conspicuous among the people who were willing to undertake many of the new ministries these decrees implied,” he says.

The movement’s doctrine was based on an image of the Church “as the Mystical Body of Christ.”

“This doctrine emphasised the communitarian nature of the Church and the responsibility of everyone to actively engage in the work of spreading the gospel message.

“It carried the message that all members were part of the crew of the good ship ‘Church’ and had a vital role to fulfil”

In particular, “the Church was not like a big bus being driven to heaven by the bishops and priests on which lay people were passengers simply paying their way.”

On the contrary, via Cardijn’s YCW method “young people would be trained to see, judge and act in a Christian manner.”

Nevertheless, a perceived “similarity to Marxist methods” made some bishops and priests “suspicious of the movement and its aims”

Other critics of the movement felt that “by considering the meaning of the gospels and their application to life, (YCW leaders) were making their own religion.”

“This implied that they were forsaking the authority of the Church in religious matters and replacing it with their own authority,” Madden notes.

“Perhaps there was even a sneaking fear that if the movement became widespread and captured the hearts and minds of the majority of young people of the day that the clergy and the hierarchy could become redundant,” he notes.

Nevertheless, “in parishes where the movement was adopted and fostered by clergy, especially younger priests, it became a powerhouse for energising needed and effective Christian activities in those parishes.”

“The primary value of the movement was in the formation of its members,” Madden concludes.

READ THE BOOK

Jim Madden, Eucharistic Blues: Reviewing the Mass Exodus, Fifty Years After Vatican II, Xlbris Corporation, 2012, Kindle Edition

Patrick Keegan: The YCW International exists

Opening

The YCW International exists. We have come from different parts of the world, because we are resolved to sustain, assist and make possible everywhere the complete development and liberation as Christians and as workers, of all the young workers of the world.

It is a privilege for me to welcome 450 delegates, and others from countries in the world. There has been great sacrifice to enable all of us to come here. In one factory the workers collected money to send their delegate. It is therefore with great emotion that I welcome you here, in the name of the International YCW, and I would now like to present the delegates of the different countries:

Since the last international Conference in Montreal in 1947 we have made great progress throughout the world. We have seen the rise of the YCW in new countries. Three important examples of this are:

1) Germany, which brings to the International the pledge of the cooperation of the millions of young workers of this nation;

2) The USA, bringing to the International YCW a promise of the support of the working youth of the new world.

3) Japan – In this country we see the life of our movement bringing to the International that promise of deep and profound contact with the young workers of the East.

We see now in the great continents of India and Africa the transition from agrarian and simple conditions, to the beginning of a highly concentrated industry. One hears and reads of thousands of young people leaving their tribes for the first time in their life, and entering with a simplicity unknown to the Western World, a system in which they are looked upon primarily in terms of production. The barbarities carried out during the rise of industrialism in the western countries are now shamefully repeated in countries where industrialisation is just beginning.

To these young workers, the YCW sends its message of confidence and hope. In this Study Week, there will be special sessions where the methods of the YCW will be studied in relationship to its expansion in these countries. Our responsibility in these areas where working people now feel and desire freedom is very great. We have a great responsibility as delegates of the YCW of our country at this International Conference. The main purpose of this Conference is as follows:

1) The study of the situation of the young worker in the world, and how best the YCW in each country can bring a solution. This means that we must know clearly the fundamentals of our great movement, and be prepared to study the adaptation of methods of the YCW to different countries and different continents.

2) To create and strengthen a solid, deep unity, friendship and solidarity between the YCW of the different countries. To reinforce the unity between national YCWs in order that in every country we may better solve the problems and needs of the young workers which now are not only on a national plane, but also on an international plane.

3) As a result of our studies to prepare a Manifesto which will be presented to international institutions, organisations and anywhere else where the needs of the working youth must be represented and studied. From this Conference thousands more of the young workers of the world must be assisted to understand their vocation and mission in the world of work.

At the base of all our work we place ourselves with a childlike simplicity at the service of Christ’s Church, knowing clearly that there is no true solution to the young workers unless that solution be totally Christian, totally apostolic – taking its mission from the Church of Christ’s apostles, and giving itself completely to the redemptive mission of Christ’s Church.

We know very well that the YCW International exists. Therefore it is with great joy, pride and confidence that I wish to greet one of our friends who, during these days of work, represents among us the authorities of the ILO, which itself is so interested in the problem of the working youth in the world today. The real International depends for its strength on every member, on every leader in each local section in each country. There is no International YCW if there are no local sections of young workers who work with all their effort to transform the environment of their neighbourhood, the environment of the work; and be of service to their comrades – the young workers of their districts.

When we look at the YCW International, we must see very clearly that its future hope rests in the local sections – rests in the local leader and the members who carry out the repeated, deep, slow and humble work of penetration in their own environment, in their factories, in their neighbourhoods. The strength of the YCW International rests on the leaders of our local sections, giving their comrades that profound service that springs from our mission of charity.

The union of our International does not lie in words, large meetings, or in an administrative staff alone – but it exists in the spirit of the YCW – a spirit that knows no frontiers. It exists in each member end leader in the local section being profoundly conscious that all young workers, without a single exception, regardless of their colour or race, are called to be sons and daughters of God. It exists in their work, and in their action to transform the situations of life that in any way contradict this profound and vital truth.

Therefore as a result of our work at this International Conference, we must return to our countries, intending to found and to build more local sections where the young workers of our districts will discover the meaning and purpose of their life.

To conclude: the International YCW springs from the desire of each national YCW to come together and place their efforts on an international plane; because the problems of the young worker are no longer national, but international. By its very nature, the YCW could never remain confined to any- one country, and during this study week we must discover the best means in spite of all language difficulties, to bring to the young workers of the world a message of liberation, a means to discover their vocation and mission; a movement which will answer their needs and answer the real problems of their lives. Each one of us, having the spirit of pioneers, will use this study week to do everything to further equip us to win, to recruit and to make new apostles of the young workers of our countries.

From our meetings this week, we must go out consumed with a desire to bring the message of Christ to all the young workers, bearing in mind that we are responsible before God and the whole working class to bring to each young worker a sense of his value, his dignity and his vocation.

In spite of all the difficulties in our own countries, in our local sections – this meeting here is a proof that the YCW will not fail in its mission to the young workers of the world.

Patrick Keegan

SOURCE

Patrick Keegan, YCW International Congress 1950, IYCW Archives, 2.1.05.38 (www.patkeegan.josephcardijn.com)

Movements pioneered alternative seminary formation

France’s University Formation Group (GFU), which allows young men to combine secular and seminary studies, is celebrating its 50th anniversary, La Croix International reports.

This is a made-to-measure pathway for students who wish to become priests but without abandoning their existing studies. It was launched fifty years ago this year under the auspices of France’s Mission Ouvrière (Worker Mission) and the Catholic Action movements.

“At that time in 1967, the number of seminarians was in free fall and the bishops had decided to close down the minor seminaries,” recalls Fr Emmanuel Goulard, superior of the GFU seminary.

“The seminary was therefore founded as a place of discernment and initial formation for students while they continued their university studies,” he explains.

This was a specifically French innovation that has continued to develop over the course of the last half century.

There were around one hundred such students during the early 1980s when Lille vicar general, Fr Bruno Cazin, who is also a medical doctor, took this path.

Now there are seventeen GFU students across France with four or five new students beginning the program each year.

Fr Cazin, a specialist in hematology [the study and treatment of blood], is convinced that the pathway continues to offer great value.

“It was while working in a hospital that I really came to understand Christ and the Gospel and that is why I stayed,” he explains.

“The GFU pathway also allows students or young professionals to test their vocation by sharing the daily life of people.”

To sum up, an extra muros seminarian fully combines seminary and student life until, after completing their engineering, philosophy or other secular studies, begin the classical theological studies leading to the priesthood.

FULL STORY

Alternative seminary formation celebrates golden jubilee (La Croix International)

Séminaristes et étudiants, deux vies en une (La Croix)

PHOTO

Diocese of Amiens

Asociación Cardijn works with young people and immigrants

The Association Cardijn was created in Cádiz, Spain, in 1993 with the aim of working with the most disadvantaged social groups, particularly young people from poor areas and immigrants.

Its purposes are:

  • Integral promotion of all people from working and popular environments.
  • Awareness, information, orientation, formation and promotion of young people, especially from poor and working class areas
  • Awareness, information, orientation, counseling, reception, training and promotion of migrants – immigrants and migrants – and especially those in situations of greater vulnerability.
  • Information, orientation, training and promotion work and professional, as well as assistance in finding employment both domestic and foreign.
  • Collaboration with the various public or private administrations that intervene or are interested for the same purposes.

In 2005 it joined the CONSORCIO “SECRETARIADOS DE MIGRACIONES”, which is part of a state action and represented in four Autonomous Communities: Madrid, Valencia, Andalusia and Ceuta.

Its three main areas of work are young people, immigrants and employment.

Website

http://www.asociacioncardijn.org/

Freddy Fesaitu revives Rootstrata

Fiji YCW leader, Freddy Fesaitu, recently revived his 1980s reggae band, Rootstrata.

Founded with YCW members from the Raiwaqa neighbourhood in Suva, the group made a strong impact during its time.

“Back in the late 1980s, Rootstrata was ahead of its time with hard hitting songs that encapsulated the feelings of unemployed and dejected youths looking for a way out of their predicament in the notorious suburbs of Raiwai and Raiwaqa,” wrote Ernest Heatley at the Fiji Times.

The lyrics of the group’s hit song, People of the world unite, shows strong YCW – and Bob Marley – influence.

“Your life is worth more than all the gold,” Freddy sings in a phrase that echoes Cardijn’s famous axiom that “every young worker is worth more than all the gold in the world.”

READ MORE

Rootstrata (Fiji Lyrics)

Rootstrata revival (Fiji Times)

Freddy roots for Jesus (Rotuma.net)

Wurzburg partners with Tanzania

Founded in 2002, the Joseph Cardijn Foundation and the CAJ (YCW) movement in the German Diocese of Würzburg are raising funds for the Uvikambi Centre including a carpentry school and a tailoring workshop in Mbinga in Tanzania. The centre includes guest rooms, a school of carpentry, meeting rooms, a restaurant and a contact point for local people.

“The focus of the funding has always been on the projects of the partnership with the Uvikambi, the Catholic Youth Association in Ming- dia, the partner province of the diocese of Würzburg,” says Andrea Karl, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Joseph Cardijn Foundation.

As well as financing the salaries of local teachers, the Foundation and the Wurzburg CAJ supply toolkits to apprentices who complete their training.

“Young people who have completed their apprenticeship there have already received a toolbox or a sewing machine, depending on their training,” Andrea added.

“As well as in the city of Mbinga, we have been able to launch further projects through our activities in smaller municipalities in the diocese.

“These include a fishing project on the Malawi Sea, for example, which has been running for almost 20 years.”

The Uvikambi local group initiated the fishing project, to improve the lives of fishermen on the Malawi Sea.

“People, for example, are buying nets together to improve living conditions in the Community.” The nets were initially too big, so small fish could not be caught. This is why the Foundation co-financed new networks.

“In 2006 I went to Tanzania for the first time. I wanted to know about the situation there and the development policy situation,” explains Andreal. The effects of globalization were already becoming visible.

“Many big companies are fishing on the Malawi Sea. And there is a huge area on which brown coal is mined. Tanzania has many valuable raw materials in the soil,” Andrea noted.

With a donations coming to around 2000 to 2500 euros per year, there is already a lot going on in Tanzania.

“We pay attention to making donations meaningfully and sustainably, and we are thus in a constant reflection process,” Andrea explained.

The project organisers also evaluate the local contribution to the project.

A donation of 50 euros provides for the purchase of a fishing net, while 100 euros is enough for the construction of a dug-out boat.

For further information, please contact:

Joseph Cardijn Foundation, Treibgasse 26, 63739 Aschaffenburg, Germany

Bank account: Ligabank Würzburg, IBAN DE30750903000003011240, BIC GENODEF1M05

Website: www.cardijn-stiftung.de

SOURCE

A future for the people of Mbinga (Diocese of Wurzburg)

The doctrinal foundations of the YCW

At the First International Congress of the YCW in 1935, Cardijn delivered his classical “Three truths” talk setting out the “Truth of faith,” the “Truth of reality,” and the “Truth of method” on which the movement was based.

He went further in 1950 at the International Congress held in Brussels, where he delivered a series of in depth talks, including “The doctrinal foundations of the YCW,” which further developed his “three truths” concept, which we present here.

I. A Truth of Faith

The Mission of the Young Workers in the Working Class

1. Each young worker and working girl has an eternal destiny. They are human persons. Not machines, not slaves or beasts of burden; they are the sons, the collaborators, the heirs of God. They are made to the image of God. This personal characteristic is sacred and inviolable; it gives to each young worker a personal dignity: the young worker is an end, an absolute in himself. One cannot respect God if one does not respect the human person.

2. This truth is universal and applies to every race, every people, every country, every age. is the lever, the motor, the stimulus of every civilisation and all human progress.

3. This eternal destiny does not begin after death. It becomes incarnate in time to flower out in eternity. From the very moment of his conception in his mother’s womb, the future young worker finds in this destiny the source of his rights to life, to education, to protection, to health, to justice. Far from being a philosophic justification or an opium, a cause or a pretext for escape, for resignation, it is the foundation of all deproletarisation, the guarantee against all violence, the inspiration of all liberation.

It gives to each young worker a vocation, a personal mission, which transforms his life into a collaboration with God, with all men, for the achievement of the divine plan in the work of creation and redemption, Created by God, redeemed by Christ, the young worker is their necessary collaborator, but freely, wilfully, through love. Not a starveling of the earth, but a responsible citizen of the City of God and of the city of men.

4. This vocation, this mission of the young worker, gives to his work, to his profession, a human and divine value. Work is not a shameful thing, a “come down”, a punishment, but a service, a ministering to his personal fulfilment and that of humanity. Without work there can be nothing: no humanity, no civilisation, no religion. This vocation demands a regime of work which excludes the exploitation and proletarisation, and which guarantees a collaboration in justice and equity.

5. This personal vocation is expressed in the family vocation and mission of each young worker. This vocation is fulfilled in the working class family which ensures the complementary vocation of the spouses and of the parents of the young worker and young working girl, with a view to the procreation and education of children. Without families, there can be no children, no citizens, no priests, no apostles.

6. This personal vocation makes clear the communal vocation and mission of each young worker, which is incarnate in every working class community, professional and local. The young worker is the first and immediate apostle and collaborator of his comrades, his companions, his neighbours. This implies a community of life, of destiny, of mutual aid, of friendship, of brotherhood. The young worker must not be an escapist, but an internal ferment, inseparable from the community in which he lives.

7. This personal vocation makes clear the mission, the vocation of the working class, which comprises all working class families and communities, in which all are united together and feel their responsibility for the transformation of all environments of life and regime of work, bearing the aspirations toward a full emancipation of the working masses of the world.

8. This vocation, this mission of working youth and of the whole working class, is their own irreplaceable vocation which inspires a conception of life, a spirit of life, a manner of life. This conception, this spirit, this manner of life must be acquired, especially between the ages of 14 and 25, between school and marriage, through a properly adapted education.

9. This vocation, this mission is essentially religious, apostolic, and missionary, and gives to each young worker, to each working class family, to all working class communities, to the whole* working class an apostolic responsibility which demands a training, graces, union with God, with Christ, with the Church.

10. The Church spreads throughout the world this essential truth concerning the destiny of each young worker and of the whole working class. By its doctrine and its grace, by its apostolate and its organisation, it enables this truth to become a living reality in the world and in history.

The State, national and international institutions, working class and employers’ organisations and the economic regimes must place this truth at the basis of their achievements, with a view to the progress of national and international communities.

11. This vocation, this mission of the young worker and of the working class will decide the future of humanity and of the Church.

II. A Truth of Experience:

A Flagrant Contradiction,

N.B. – This point of the lesson must be presented in a much more concrete form than point 1; in particular, it will be necessary to recall in all that follows, some of the facts and problems noted in the preceding lesson; “The Situation of Working Youth in the World”, in order to give a factual basis to the remarks that follow.

The various enquiries made at the occasion of the International Conference show once again the flagrant contradiction in 19$0 which exists between the plan of God and the tragic situation of the young workers and of the working class in the world.

These enquiries show:

– the ignorance of the young workers concerning their eternal destiny and their temporal mission.

– the contradiction between this mission and their conditions of housing, work, and life.

– the lack of preparation of the young workers before their entry in work.

– the abandonment in which all young workers find themselves on entering work, when they are lonely, isolated, far from their family and their teachers.

– the disastrous influence of this ignorance, this opposition and this isolation.

– the powerlessness of the young worker in the face of the system which rules the economic life and even the thought of the modem world: capitalism, “liberal economics”.

– the disastrous consequences for the young workers, for working class families, for the working class, for humanity for the Church; proletarisation, general indifference, despair, revolt, war.

– the irresistible influence of the great idealogical talents which are at present moving the masses; materialism, naturalism, existentialism, nationalism, communism, etc.

On the other hand, those enquiries have also shown something of the great living riches of working youth today in many countries: generosity, thirst for liberty, for justice, sincerity, sense of international brotherhood, etc.

These positive characteristics need further careful study, and will serve as starting points for the building of the true solution to the problem: the YCW.

III. A Truth of Method:

An Internal Solution

1. The achievement of the personal, communal, and family destiny of each young worker is conditioned by a number of efforts which must be made by the young workers themselves, so that they may train themselves, unite themselves, and support themselves in order to discover and to achieve together their own proper personal and collective mission in the uplifting and deproletarisation of the working class of the world. This personal and collective effort is especially necessary from 14-25 years, from school to marriage; before that time it is impossible; afterwards it is too late. It must coincide with the age at which human beings become persons.

2. This effort of the young workers in the discovery and achievement of their mission and the development of their personality, instead of being directed toward an individual trend, must be done from the inside, for the transformation of the environments of life, by those who belong to those environments of life, efforts of the young workers, to establish justice and charity in their environment of life; efforts to animate and develop the workers movement; efforts to create a human and Christian atmosphere in these environments of life, and thus make them more suited to their providential destiny.

3. This effort of working youth for its personal education and the transformation of the environments of life, demands and creates the reforms in social, economic, political, and cultural institutions; it is the condition and the guarantee of the success of those reforms. The latter are most urgent and necessary in a society which needs to learn how to respect the dignity of human personality in each young worker, without distinction of class, nationality, religion or race, and which has to seek to create a real and efficacious collaboration within the world of work, on the national and international plane.

These “external” reforms will be all the more efficacious if they are based at the same time on the efforts at self-education of the young workers themselves, who are trying to assume their own responsibilities toward their environment. Without that realisation by youth and the working class of their dignity and responsibility, all external reforms will be insufficient to solve the working class problems.

b. The YCW aims at achieving this organised effort of the young workers themselves who “between themselves, by themselves, and for themselves” are trained and exercised with a view to a permanent apostolate in the working class movement and in view of the uplifting of the working class which will remove proletarian conditions from the world.

5. The Church must inspire, guide and sustain the organised effort of the young workers, which must teach them and help them to achieve not only their personal vocation, but also their apostolate within the working class and the working class movement, for the total rechristianisation of their life, their environment of life, and their institutions of life.

The State, public institutions, and private organisations must support the organised effort of the young workers and assist an effective collaboration for the training and protection of working youth.

READ MORE

Joseph Cardijn, The doctrinal foundations of the YCW and its essential characteristics

Joseph Cardijn, The three truths

Stubborn man does not “see” climate change: Pope

Returning to Rome following his trip to Colombia, Pope Francis warned that political leaders need to see climate change and its effects in making their decisions.

While we are flying, we are pass near Hurricane Irma which, after causing dozens of deaths in the Caribbean, is now heading towards Florida where there are millions of displaced people. Scientists think that ocean warming makes hurricanes more intense.

“Is there a moral responsibility of those political leaders who refuse to cooperate with other nations by denying that this climate change is man-made?” a journalist asked Pope Francis as his plane passed near Hurricane Irma, which caused dozens of deaths and massive devastation in the Caribbean over the weekend.

“Those who deny this must ask the scientists: they speak very clearly, they are precise,” Pope Francis answered. “The other day the news came out of a Russian ship that went from Norway to Japan and crossed the North Pole without finding ice. From a university, they have said that we only have three years ‘to step back,’, if not, the consequences will be terrible.

“I don’t know if the three years are true or not, but if we don’t step back, we will fall!

“We can see climate change in its effects, and we all have a moral responsibility when we make decisions.

“I think that is a very serious matter. We all have our moral responsibility and politicians have their own. Let them ask the scientists and then decide. History will judge on their decisions,” the pope warned.

Asked why governments are delaying this realization,Pope Francis recalled a biblical phrase.

“A phrase from the Old Testament comes to my mind: man is a stupid man, a stubborn man who does not see, the only animal that falls twice in the same hole. The arrogance and conceit… and then there is the “Mighty Dollar”. Many decisions depend on money.

“Today in Cartagena I started by visiting a poor area of the city. On the other hand, there is the tourist side, luxury, and a kind of luxury without moral measures. But do those who are there not notice this? Do socio-political analysts not realize this?

“When you don’t want to see you don’t see, you look only look at one side,” Pope Francis concluded.

FULL STORY

The Pope on climate change, humankind “is a stupid and stubborn man, that does not see” (Vatican Insider)

End bullying: Cardijn College principal

The principal of Cardijn  College, Noarlunga, Mr Paul Rijken, has called for an end to bullying following the recent death of an Adelaide girl after alleged bullying.

“Sadly, we learnt of the death of a young girl from the south of Adelaide, Libby Bell of what is alleged and reported as systematic bullying and cyber bullying,” the principal wrote in a blog post.

“This is tragic and our heartfelt condolences are extended to the family.

“Much debate is happening in the media regarding the law, for instance in Victoria, the law was changed in 2011 after a 19-year old Brodie Panlock tragically took her life as a result of serious bullying in her workplace.

“The law became known as Brodie’s law and covers bullying behaviour as criminal and subject to significant penalties such as jail. Our law makers are debating these issues now and are investigating how this might be considered into the future.

At Cardijn and (sister school) Marcellin, we are constantly alert to any form of bullying and harassment and continue to educate our students to feel confident enough to report this type of behaviour.

“Join Us by Saying NO to Bullying!!!” he concluded.

SOURCE

Stop bullying and harassment (Principal’s blog, Cardijn College)

Remembering liturgical pioneer Robert E. Rambusch

Robert E. Rambusch, a liturgical artist, designer and pioneer in the profession of liturgical design consultation, died May 23 at the age of 93, the National Catholic  Reporter says.

After serving in World War II, he became international secretary of the newly formed International Young Christian Students while studying  in Paris.

His work significantly influenced the shape of worship in the United States and Canada in a career that spanned more than 65 years, participating in the design and renovation of 24 cathedrals and 400 churches, NCR says.

As a liturgical design consultant, Rambusch developed an open, inclusive process in which the faith community was invited to participate in the sharing of ideas on the image of themselves and the church.

Catholic churches are some of the most difficult structures to design, Rambusch said at a seminar on art and environment for Catholic worship in Saginaw, Michigan, in 1995. The biggest problem, he said, is “to satisfy the fullness of the divinity but [also] the fullness in humanity” or the differences between Christ as God and Christ as man.

A congregation at worship is not people watching events unfold on a stage, he said. Church architects have to design to ensure the active involvement of the congregation in the celebration. “We need a lay-oriented special arrangement that supports their common [worship] as a communal kind of action together,” Rambusch said.

Rambusch worked for more than 35 years at Rambusch Decorating Company, the firm founded by his grandfather, Frode, in New York in 1898. He left in 1984 to found his own firm, Robert E. Rambusch Associates.

Rambusch studied at the Pratt Institute, the University of Toronto with Jacques Maritain, and did post-graduate work at Le Centre de L’Art Sacré in Paris with founder Fr. Marie-Alain Couturier, close associate of the artists Henri Matisse and Fernand Léger. “These studies informed his approach to sacred art and worship spaces. He embraced the principle that religious art cannot develop outside the artistic life of its time,” said his daughter Alexandra Rambusch.

In 1948, he met Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, and began a lifelong association with the movement.

He is survived by his son, Rob, and daughter, Alexandra, The Tablet adds.

SOURCES

Robert E. Rambusch’s influence on the shape of worship endures (National Catholic Reporter)

READ MORE

Sharon Woolums, Robert Rambusch, 93, liturgical artist, designer (The Villager)

Michael E. De Sanctis, Childlike familiarity with Mystery: an appreciation of Bob Rambusch (National Catholic  Reporter)

Robert E. Rambusch (The Tablet)

Merton’s Correspondence with: Robert E. Rambusch; Robert Rambusch; Bob Rambusch; Rambusch, Bob (Merton Archives)

Robert E.  Rambusch, Interviewed by Sharon Woolums (New York Public Library Oral History Project)

Liturgical artwork by Robert Rambusch (HT: The Villager)
Holy card from Robert E. Rambusch's service

Gospel – If your brother sins against you

15 “If your brother sins against you, go, show him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained back your brother.

16 But if he doesn’t listen, take one or two more with you, that at the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.✡

17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the assembly. If he refuses to hear the assembly also, let him be to you as a Gentile or a tax collector.

18 Most certainly I tell you, whatever things you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever things you release on earth will have been released in heaven.

19 Again, assuredly I tell you, that if two of you will agree on earth concerning anything that they will ask, it will be done for them by my Father who is in heaven.

20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the middle of them.”

Gospel of Matthew 18: 15-20

SOURCE

World English Bible

USCCB Daily Readings

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/091017.cfm

Review questions

Have you had an experience where someone offended or hurt you? Failed to listen to you?

How did you react?

What is Jesus calling us to do in such circumstances?

What does Jesus mean when he say that “anything you bind/loose on earth will be bound/loosened in heaven”?

What does he mean by saying that if anything is asked  by two people, it will be done for them?

What does he mean when he says he will be in the midst of people who gather in his name?

Australia – The same sex marriage survey

No doubt the  biggest issue under discussion in Australia right now is the upcoming same sex marriage (SSM) survey, which will now go ahead after the High Court ruled that there are no constitutional obstacles in its path, SBS News reports.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the decision would mean all Australians would now get to have their say.

“And that is as it should be, we encourage every Australian to vote in this survey and have their say,” Mr Turnbull said.

“The effect of the decision of the court is that there is now no legal impediment to that postal survey proceeding and all Australians having their say on this important social question,” Attorney General Senator George Brandis told Parliament.

In response, Opposition Leader, Bill Shorten, called for a “yes” vote in favor of same sex marriage.

See

What are the issues at stake in the same sex marriage survey?

Judge

What do you think about same sex marriage?

What other issues are involved? Social welfare for same sex couples? Children?

Have you discussed the issue with your friends, work colleagues? What do they think?

What are the views of different community groups?

Political parties? Churches? Other religions?

Here are several Catholic views:

Prof. Eamonn Conway and Dr Rik Van Nieuwenhove, Where does Pope Francis stand on same-sex marriage? (Irish Catholic)

Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney, Between ideal and reality: What future for marriage in Australia? (Archdiocese of Sydney)

Frank Brennan SJ, Catholics and the marriage equality plebiscite (Eureka Street)

Act

Do you plan to vote in the SSM survey?

How will you vote?

Will you discuss your views with your family, friends, colleagues?

Do you plan to become involved in the campaign either for or against? How? Social media? Rallies? Writing to political leaders?

CREDITS

Photo: Guy of taipei / Wikipedia / CCA BY SA 3.0

World – The plight of the Rohingya people

A social enquiry on the Rohingya issue

This month’s news bulletins are overflowing with stories of Myanmar’s Rohingya people fleeing violence and seeking refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh.

“Baby X was born nine days ago just after his family lost everything they owned,” a United Nations High Commission on Refugees report says.

“They burnt our house and drove us out by shooting. We walked for three days through the jungle. That’s where he was born,” said his father Mohamed, gesturing to the puckered bundle of life.

270,000  people have already fled their burning villages, according to this SBS report.

Now Rohingya Muslim insurgents in Myanmar have declared a one-month unilateral ceasefire to ease the humanitarian crisis in northern Rakhine state, BBC News says.

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (Arsa) said the truce would start on Sunday, urging Mynamar’s army to lay down weapons as well.

Arsa attacks on police on 25 August led to a ferocious military response.

Watch raw footage of the events on YouTube here:

Burning Rohingya villages

New fires in empty Rohingya villages

See

What information do you have about these events? Do you know anyone from Myanmar/Burma? Or from neighbouring countries, e.g. Bangladesh, India, Thailand… How  do they explain what has happened?

Judge

What do you think about these events?

What are others saying?

Pope Francis calls for end to violence against Rohingya (Vatican Radio)

U.N. Chief Antonio Guterres Urges Myanmar to Give the Rohingya Legal Status (Time)

Kevin Rudd, Aung San Suu Kyi Faces An Almost Impossible Dilemma. Don’t Give Up On Her. (Buzzfeed)

Britain Betrayed Rohingya After They Helped Them Defeat Japan in World War II (Muslim Stories)

Act

What can we do?

Donate to UNHCR relief efforts?

Can we ask our government leaders to take action?