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Since 1992 Fr. Michael Shields has been bringing the light of the Gospel to Magadan, the administrative centre of the most feared and brutal Gulag system in the former Soviet Union.
Light into Darkness Evangelisation and Truth in today’s world. Contents Page ‘When you deny God you deny humanity’
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Psalm 43
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Fr. Michael Shields - ‘Go, live in the Camps’
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The Mask of Sorrow and Remembrance Prayer
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Letters of Gratitude
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The Repressed of Magadan
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Mercy in a Ukrainian Barracks
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Catholicism and the Human Person
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Evangelisation and Truth
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A very Marian conversion
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A cháirde,
Mirror due at the end of June.
In 1992 following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Fr. Michael Shields, a diocesan priest in the archdiocese of Anchorage in Alaska, responded to a call to bring the light of the Gospel and the love of Christ to the tortured souls of Magadan, the administrative centre of one of the most feared of all Gulags. The inhumanity of Gulag life can never be fully related, and its devastating effects remain to this day, as they will do for some time to come. Magadan has a dark history and darkness still remains. Fr. Michael writes ‘Here (in Magadan), there is no doubt that the devil is real and evil is real because I’m looking at it every day. It is watered down in the West but in Russia it’s night and day’. Divine Mercy Sunday saw the beatification of Pope John Paul II. In his lifetime John Paul witnessed the denial of man’s humanity under Nazism and Marxism. In his ministry Fr. Michael observes daily the ongoing consequences of social and spiritual devastation brought about by three generations of aggressively antiChristian / anti-human socialism of the Former Soviet Union. The work of Fr. Michael in the Far East of the Former Soviet Union and of the Catholic Seminary in Lviv in the Ukraine (the Soviet Union’s extreme Western frontier) are bearing fruit as briefly illustrated herein. During the first half of July 2011 Fr. Michael will be visiting Ireland. A schedule of Fr. Michael’s public events will be available from early June and will be circulated in the next mailing of the
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Throughout history a repeated and persistent failure to appreciate what it means to be human has contributed greatly to ‘man’s inhumanity to man’. In response the Catholic Church has sought to present to the world a correct understanding of the origin and nature of personhood. Fr. Marcus Holden and Fr. Andrew Pinsent’s brief history and summary of this understanding is presented herein. Also included herein is a rather substantial essay on ‘Evangelisation and Truth’ by Fr. James Schall SJ, of Georgetown University which explains the ongoing Christian imperative to bring ‘light into darkness’. Marking the month of May we include a true and uplifting story of a very Marian conversion as well as colour reproductions of two beautiful icons both of which can be found in Fr. Michael’s Church of the Nativity in Magadan. The first is the one displayed on the front cover of the bulletin, ‘Our Lady of Magadan’. It is an icon which needs little interpretation because it beautifully and clearly expresses the mission of Fr. Michael in Magadan. The Church is represented by the figure of Mary and the figure of Christ represents all those ‘the least of God’s Children’ with whom Fr. Michael and his confreres in the Brothers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus as well as the Daughters of Charity, work. The second icon, as displayed in the back cover is of ‘Our Lady of the Inexhaustible Cup’. This icon is particularly venerated in Russia in religious services directed
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towards the healing of alcoholism, drugaddiction, other addictions and mental problems. The reality is that the antiChristian militancy of successive Soviet regimes created a wasteland of millions upon millions of devastated lives which are consumed by alcohol / drugdependency and mental illness. AntiChristian militancy also created a society which considers abortion an acceptable form of contraception. Even in today’s post-Soviet Russia, for every 10 births there are 13 abortions with the average Russian woman expected to have five abortions during her life. The darkness of Gulag system may not be present in today’s Russia but darkness remains. The consequences of dismissing God from the public square and private life are clearly evident in today’s Russia. Russia is a sick society in need of healing. For Ireland and the Western world more
generally, recent Russian history provides us with a stark and salutary reminder that ‘when you deny God, you deny humanity’. Fr. Michael has committed his life to bring healing and light into the darkness of Far Eastern Russia. It is the light of life, it is the light of truth, it is the light of the risen Lord. So let us give thanks to God as we pray for all those many legions of largely unknown and heroic martyrs (‘witnesses’) to Gospel who carry the light of the Gospel into the hardest of places and in the most difficult of times. Beannachtaí,
J F Declan Quinn
Psalm 43 1 Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people; from deceitful and unjust men deliver me! 2 For thou art the God in whom I take refuge; why hast thou cast me off? Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? 3 Oh send out thy light and thy truth; let them lead me, let them bring me to thy holy hill and to thy dwelling! 4 Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy; and I will praise thee with the lyre, O God, my God. 5 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.
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Fr Michael Shields ‘Go, live in the Camps’ In 1992 American priest Fr. Michael Shields left the cold clime of Alaska for the equally freezing temperatures of the town of Magadan in the Kolyma region of Siberia. In prayer, Fr. Michael, of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, felt he was being called “Go, live in the camps” – the former Gulags where ‘enemies of the state’ were sent under communism. He was determined that this suffering would never be forgotten and that yesterday’s culture of death along with today’s culture of abortion would give way to an authentic culture of life. The road that leads to the Gulags is a symbol of the prisoners’ suffering – the road itself is a mass grave. Those incarcerated in the labour camps died in their thousands. Whether they starved to death, died from over-work, or were shot, they died in the camps and a road was built over their bones. No memorial marks their final resting place, but there remains a vast forgotten cemetery underneath the asphalt. No one knows exactly how many died in the Kolyma Gulags, but estimates Magadan, Russia
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reckon upwards of a million lost their lives there. No matter how many people died in that terrible episode of Russian history, Fr. Michael was intent on ensuring that the stories of the survivors would be passed on and that accounts of life in the Gulags would not be lost to history. He knew that it would be a race against time to record their recollections as they were very elderly. Many of those who were released from the camps had already died. He said: “When they die so does the story. The stories must be told for all to see the truth of the repression of Stalin especially against the Church and believers. They are the living witness to what really happened”. At first, those who had lived through the camps were reluctant to recount their experiences. “The people who suffered in the camps rarely told anyone of their suffering and their story. Even the family members knew little of their life in the camps”. But Fr. Michael invited the survivors to meet together and, to his surprise, not only did a number of them come but they decided to meet again. Since then, the meetings have taken place regularly on the last Saturday of each month, with as many as 80 former prisoners attending. According to Fr. Michael, the meetings helped to initiate the “cultural transformation” of Magadan. It has changed the lives of those who endured the camps and former ‘enemies of the state’ are now hailed as “heroes of the time of oppression”. While people were initially sceptical about the meetings, now the whole of Magadan is involved: the town choir has sung at meetings, the
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not just one or two – some of these women have had up to 20 abortions.
Church of the Nativity, Magadan, Russia.
orchestra has performed at them and government officials have offered to speak to them. Magadan’s terrible past is being transformed and healed. Yet Fr. Michael’s work has not been universally appreciated and in 2001 the Ministry of Justice tried to expel the priest as a foreign national. The Catholic community had spent several years finding a site, securing the funding and obtaining government authorisation to build a new church. They were worried that the building work would stop if Fr. Michael was deported. But the Magadan Provincial Court judge took 10 minutes to decide that Fr. Michael could stay in the country even though he is not a Russian citizen. The now-finished Church of the Nativity not only continues to serve former prisoners but also reaches out to others in the local community, including alcoholics and the vast numbers of unemployed in the local area. The parish priest feels a special call to helping women who have undergone abortions. Often this means
During Soviet times abortion was widely used as a means of birth control and the situation is little different today. On one occasion five women took part in a group meeting organised by Fr. Michael. Between them they had 47 abortions. He stressed how important it is for these women to be healed. “We are helping women to speak about their abortions so the next generation can learn from their pain. Many of the women subsequently became involved in pro-life work, explaining to younger women the suffering that abortion can bring and telling how God has healed them”. His pro-life work continued to expand and in 2008 he opened the Nativity Inn in Ola, a small village about 20 miles outside Magadan. The inn provides short-term accommodation for mothers thrown out of their college dormitories when they become pregnant. Fr. Michael said: “What has surprised us is how much the Nativity Inn project and our centre at the Church in Magadan have grown through word of mouth. We find again and again that women come along having heard about us from other women in the same situation”. In June 2009 he opened a pro-life centre at the state-run Magadan Women’s Consultation Centre where pregnancy tests take place. This means the priest and
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his volunteers can offer a real alternative to abortion to women who have just discovered they are pregnant and may think that the only option is to have the pregnancy terminated. Fr. Michael went on to say: “What is amazing is that the state doctor who works at the Women’s Consultation Centre in Magadan approached us to see if we would be willing to develop a project there. It has been wonderful because Russia is
The Mask of Sorrow and Remembrance “People died by the tens, hundreds and thousands. In their place always came new silent slaves, who laboured for some food, a piece of bread. They died and they were quietly buried. No one had a burial service for them, no family or friends paid their last respects. They did not even dig graves for them, but rather dug a communal trench and tossed the naked bodies in the snow and when spring came, wild animals tore apart their bones. We, who managed to survive, mourned them. We believe that the Lord accepted the martyrs into the heavenly kingdom.”
A meeting of the survivors of the Gulags.
really turning a corner and wants to see more births”. Worried by the falling birth rate, the Russian government has encouraged Fr. Michael in his work with pregnant mothers: “We have been invited by the head gynaecologist in a small village to meet with her and begin work there. So the Lord is blessing our work and opening doors that have been closed for a long time”. In the Church of the Nativity there are two sets of commemorative plaques. One is for the victims of the prison camp – who are also commemorated in the Stations of the Cross, which depict victims of the camp in the scenes of Our Lord’s Passion – and the other is for the aborted children. Fr. Michael believes neither group should ever be forgotten. His presence in Magadan has allowed the shadows of these tragic deaths to be transformed by the by the glorious light of the Resurrection.
May their souls and the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace, Amen.
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Letters of Gratitude for Hope received from the Church of Nativity in Magadan When did it all begin? At first, alcohol was entertainment - it made me fearless and daring. Then the bad effects began. But what could I do? How could I stop? I sought treatment, but the hospital didn’t help me. Once, after a bout of hard drinking, I turned to Jesus. “Help me, Jesus! No one but you can help me. I’ve lost everything. I’m still alive, but I don’t want to live like this. Help me!” And Jesus helped me. I remember that I stood at the window and looked up to heaven, begging for help. From that very moment, my life changed. I didn’t seek salvation in alcohol anymore. I found new friends, my life transformed itself. One friend led me to the Nativity of Jesus Catholic parish and what a joy to find my home here.
People suffering from alcoholism, my heart is breaking for you. You might have lost yourself, your family, and your community, but you haven’t lost God! Call to the Lord and He will answer you. Now I am the happiest person alive! Now I know that even when I suffer, Jesus will always be close. The Holy Spirit is always with me to teach, to support or to comfort. Believe me, the Lord has no blind spots; he really loves all of us, no matter how often we have sinned. He restores our life and leads us to everlasting life. With peace and love, Natalia I am an orphan, live in a dormitory room that is 12 square meters (130 sq. ft.) I am raising two kids by myself, Seregsha is 10 and Oleg is only 11 months. My oldest son Seregsha studies well, this little one is very smart. I am a medical worker by my education. When I was pregnant with my second baby, I was fired. Now I am unemployed and receive a very small amount of money. The parish helps me out. Thank you Sincerely yours, Natasha.
Our Lady of the Inexhaustible Cup.
I worked at a store in very difficult conditions, low paying, dishonest co-workers, and mistreatment by the employer. I am paid an average salary of $200 a month but at the end of the month the employer says my hat was not straight: $10 fine, or I was 10 minutes late for work: $20 fine, and soon my salary is half what I expect.
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Thank God, Fr. Michael and the Catholic Church helps me or we would truly be living on the street. The Catholic community helped when I first gave birth so I could live with my son in a small apartment. My joy is my son and even though we struggle, we are happy to have each other. I never knew I could be a good mother but thanks to God I kept Alosha. My sister once asked me if I was sorry I didn’t abort him. I answered NO! I don’t know how I could live now without him.
The Catholic parish in Ola recently gave food to my brother who was stealing to stay alive while my mother was in the hospital. My brother is handicapped and doesn’t understand why he had to go hungry. We can’t get help from family or the government so my only help is from the Catholic Church. I am very grateful to you for your help, and all you are doing for me. Thank you so much! We struggle but we have hope. Sincerely yours, Ekaterina
A Gulag in Kolyma’s archipelago
The Repressed of Magadan Of the more than one million prisoners who experienced the gulag of Kolyma today less 300 people survive. Of these about one-third continue to live in the region and of these about 50 or so take part in the Church of the Nativity’s monthly meetings of fellowship and healing.
citizens. They had a harder time, both physically/materially and psychologically. We have worked to restore their sense of worth, and their dignity as human beings. These are our ‘treasures’”.
Of these survivors Fr Michael writes “Those who suffered in the Prison Camps and Gulags - and survived - have faced numerous difficulties in the years since. They thought of themselves, and were thought of by society, as second-class 8
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Mercy in a Ukrainian Barracks “At the root of our apostolic action, in the various fields in which we work, there must always be close personal union with Christ, to cultivate and to develop, day after day. Only if we are in love with the Lord shall we be able to bring people to God and open them to his merciful love and thereby open the world to God’s mercy.” Does this apply to soldiers too? Undoubtedly. They too were included when Pope Benedict XVI’s spoke these words about mercy in the General Audience of 18 August last year. His words were fully in accordance with his great predecessor, so recently beatified, on May 1, Divine Mercy Sunday, in Rome. For John Paul II it was his profoundest concern to open all hearts
to the Mercy of God, including those of the military. And now, from another project that was dear to his heart, just such an initiative has sprung. Father Stepan Sus, a young priest from the Ukrainian Catholic seminary in Lviv, now works together with six assistant priests and a deacon, also from the seminary, as a chaplain to the trainee officers and other personnel in the Military Academy of Lviv and in 20 other military barracks. “Example counts”, says Father Stepan. (The fact that he and his team can also score goals at football has no doubt helped as well.) At any rate, the results for the year 2010 speak for themselves: half a hundred officers have made their First Holy Communion; almost 400 took part in pilgrimages; one student from the military academy transferred to the seminary (in the preceding years three fully trained officers have done the same); 45 trainee
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officers have made weekly visits to a local orphanage and 350 have followed Bible study groups. Meanwhile 15 churches in Lviv have been visited and talks given there about the life of Father Werenfried and the work of ACN. This, incidentally, is likewise a concern dear to the heart of Father Stepan, since he knows that without you the great seminary in Lviv with its over 200 students would never have been possible. The Holy Spirit Seminary in Lviv is the largest in Ukraine and the focal point of spiritual renewal, as evidenced by the apostolate to the military. This was exactly what John Paul II had at heart – and Father Werenfried perceived this and, thanks to you, was able to strongly support the project. In fact the seminary still counts on our help today. For the current academic year we are supporting the training of its students. There are also a number of smaller projects for the military chaplaincy
centre. “Soldiers have souls as well”, says Father Stepan with a smile. Two out of every three officer cadets in Ukraine are trained in the academy in Lviv; the spiritual flow from the seminary to the academy is growing broader, and hearts are becoming more open to the boundless love of God. It is one of those little miracles that no-one talks of – and you can say: We are a part of it.
An important visitor – Cardinal Lubomyr Husar in the military academy.
Beaming faces – Petro is back among the children at the orphanage.
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One of many – Cadet Pawlo receives the Sacrament of Baptism.
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Catholicism and the Human Person by Fr. Marcus Holden & Fr. Andrew Pinsent The word ‘person’ and derivative words like ‘personal’ and ‘personality’, used in everyday conversation, are themselves fruits of the faith. It is true that there was a word persona in classical Latin, but this word originally meant ‘mask’. The word bupostatis in Greek, which became the word for ‘person’, originally covered a wide range of meanings, including ‘standing under’, ‘foundation’ and even ‘jelly’. The modern meanings associated with the term ‘person’ emerged through the process of articulating the Catholic understanding of the Trinity and Jesus Christ. In the terminology of St Gregory Nazianzus, which Pope St Damasus I affirmed (382), the Trinity is ‘one substance, three persons’. The Council of Chalcedon (451) confirmed Catholic teaching about Jesus Christ being ‘one person, two natures: human and divine’. Besides the divine Persons, Catholic Christianity has also applied the term ‘person’ to all human beings. St Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274) wrote, “An individual of human nature is a ‘hupostasis’ and a person” (SCG,IV.43). Attributing personhood to all human beings implies that they share in an adoptive sense in the holiness of God, reinforcing the sanctity of life. This link between Catholic theology and the treatment of persons has been fruitful in many other ways. For example, each of
the Divine Persons of the Trinity is not a person (one of many) but a particular person, with unique relationships in the Godhead. Applied more generally, this uniqueness of persons is one reason why great variety, of persons and institutions, has been one of the hallmarks of Catholic civilisation. Furthermore, the diversity of the saints (mean, women, children, kings, beggars, slaves and so on), witnesses to a Catholic sense that God regards each person as unique. Yet another fruitful connection between Catholic theology and the human person has been in art (seep.47). Western art, which largely developed under Catholic influence, has given a unique emphasis to the face and the hands, those parts of the body most expressive of a personality. Famous examples include the portraits of St Thomas More by Holbein (d.1543) and the Mona Lisa of Leonardo da Vinci (d.1519). This emphasis is in contrast to pagan classical art, which emphasised the exterior form of the body, and to Islamic culture, which has often encouraged faces to be veiled and forbidden that artistic representation of the human face. Due to its Catholic foundation, the concept of a person and corporate personality are woven deeply into the Western legal tradition. By contrast, antiChristian movements often restrict or downplay the term ‘person’. Communist movements, for example, tend to refer to ‘the people’ rather than persons. In the West, the term ‘person’ is gradually being limited to those who are visible, healthy and articulate, one consequence of which has been widespread abortion
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and embryo destruction. A professor at Princeton, Peter Singer, has even argued that infanticide is not morally equivalent to killing a person.
“Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. ... You touched me, and I burned for your peace”. (Confessions X.27),
Some deeper connections The root cause of the prominent role of persons in Christianity is that the consistency of Revelation requires the need for what is denoted by the word ‘person’. When Jesus Christ says, “I and the Father are one”, the ‘one’ refers to the ‘substance’ of God, expressed in the Creed by the words “of one being with the Father”. Jesus also refers to ‘I’ and the ‘Father’ as distinct, however, revealing that a person is distinct and superior to the classical notion of substance. Without the category of ‘person’, Catholic theology would be impossible, because philosophy lacks the tools to express all the necessary distinctions and relationships of God and the Incarnation. A person, however, is not just a superior kind of being to which special moral laws apply. A person is relational. When St Augustine (d.430) writes,
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he addressed God in the kind of language that was unknown to pagan philosophers. Aristotle, for example, only refers to God in the third person. St Augustine, by contrast, addresses God as ‘you’ (the second person) and writes of himself in the first person in a way that has earned him the title, ‘Father of Autobiography’. By means of Baptism, by which we become adopted children of God and brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, Christianity has brought about an ‘I’ – ‘You’ or second personal relationship with God that also changes how we perceive other beings in the world. In the light of this relationship, other human beings are not individual, isolated egos, cogs or consumers, but persons to whom we are related as our brothers and sisters.
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Evangelisation and Truth A reflection on Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith’s December 2007 note on Evangelisation. By Rev. James V. Schall SJ, Georgetown University. “Today, however, with ever-increasing frequency, questions are being raised about the legitimacy of presenting to others—so that they might in turn accept it—that which is held to be true for oneself. Often this is seen as an infringement on other people’s freedom. Such a vision of human freedom, separated from its integral reference to truth, is one of the expressions ‘of that relativism which, recognizing nothing as definitive, leaves as the ultimate criterion only the self with its desires and under the semblance of freedom, becomes a prison for each one.’” William Cardinal Levada, “On Some Aspects of Evangelization,” #4. [1] “The loving providence of God determined that in the last days he would aid the world, set on its course to destruction. He ordered that all nations should be saved in Christ.” [2] Pope St. Leo the Great, †A.D. 461, Epiphany Sermon. “The Christian spirit has always been animated by a passion to lead all humanity to Christ in the Church. The incorporation of new members into the Church is not
the expansion of a powergroup, but rather entrance into the network of friendship with Christ which connects heaven and earth, different continents and ages.” “On Some Aspects of Evangelization,” #9. Four days after the encyclical Spe Salvi was issued on November 29, 2007, the Feast of St. Andrew, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a relatively short “note” on evangelization. Significantly, this latter day, December 3, was the Feast of St. Francis Xavier, the patron of the missions. Before he died, Xavier sought to enter China to evangelize it. Both Paul VI and John Paul II previously had addressed major documents to the topic of evangelization.[3] The note does not mention several earlier decisions of the congregation on specific writers whose works have been examined and criticized because of doctrinal theories that cast doubt on the need for any “missionary” activities toward nonbelievers or non-Catholics. These errors generally deny any need for the Church in the work of salvation. They elevate other religions or philosophies by implying that these provide by their rites and doctrines that which the Church promises. Often, too, they shift salvation from a transcendent destiny for each person to this-world “missionary” work. Salvation becomes some future kingdom or ideological movement within space and time. The salvation of each individual soul as its own drama within the Church is reduced to participation in some collective—usually social justice-
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based—movement down the ages. What this note does—the reason it is called precisely a “doctrinal” note—is reaffirm that Christian revelation is true and meant for all men, however slowly the historical process of their encountering it may be. The apostles and their successors are sent to “all nations” to teach and baptize. “By means of the Church, Christ wants to be present in every historical epoch, every place on earth, and every sector of society, in order to reach every person, so that there may be one flock and one shepherd” (#1). The immediate burden of this document, then, is to explain the central purpose of the Church in the world. This purpose is the affirmation of Christ as true God and true man. He is sent to explain to us that our ultimate destiny—that of every man and woman who ever lived, bar none—needs to be known, affirmed, and practiced as a good. As Dominus Jesus, the previous document of the congregation, stated, salvation cannot be either explained or achieved without some reference to Christ and the Church. One needs to clearly understand the current world situation to see the importance of this note. The Church knows that only about a fifth of the world’s population is Christian, and not all of these are Catholic. It does not deny the “truth” found in any historic religion or philosophy. It is not “intolerant.” The obvious dynamism behind Pope Benedict XVI is surely his intellectual endeavour— seen through his views on philosophy and natural law—to have available to each person the means to direct himself to the truth. We can accept the truth contained
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in other religions and philosophies as it relates to Christian revelation. Moreover, in this day and age, many in Islam—particularly the so-called “terrorists”—are proclaiming that everyone should, by right and law, worship Allah after the manner of the Koran. Within this worldview, Christianity itself is a heresy. It is not legally or culturally tolerated. Certainly no Christian effort to propagate its faith, no matter how peacefully, is permitted. Even though the few remaining Christians in some Muslim countries are given a kind of second class citizenship, it is nothing remotely close to what the Pope means by “freedom of religion.” Probably this universalism within Islam to conquer the world has its roots in the universalism of both the Old and New Testaments. In general, this worldconquest side of Islam is played down as “fanaticism” or as “fascism.” In fact, it has
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religious roots. It betrays such zeal that our intellectuals can hardly comprehend its intensity. They try to explain it on every other basis but its own religious one. It is literally true that this strand of Islam wants to “subject” the world to Allah, even by military means. Military means are in fact seen as religious means. Why does Islam want to complete the conquest of the world as its armies almost conquered in the first century of its founding? It is not, as we think looking at our own modern political philosophy, about power. Rather, it is in order to worship Allah as required in the Koran. From this perspective, the elimination of other religions and polities is the necessary step to render what is properly due to God. Probably one of the main crises in the West is the inability to see the seriousness of this threat or the earnestness with which it is proposed and pursued. Suicide bombers, after all, consider themselves and are considered within Islam to be true martyrs of the faith. To write it off as simply “fanaticism” is a form of cultural and probably military suicide. David P Goldman, writing under the name “Spengler” writes of Islam and the papacy in the Asia Times. His remark on the Pope, within the context of evangelization, seems to be right on the mark: ‘If we are in a fourth world war…it is a religious war. The West is not fighting individual criminals, as the left insists; it is not fighting a Soviet-style state, as the Iraqi disaster makes clear, nor is it fighting a political movement. It is fighting a religion, specifically a religion that arose in enraged reaction to the
West. None of the political leaders of the West, and few of the West’s opinion leaders, comprehends this. We are left with the anomaly that the only effective leader of the West is a man wholly averse to war, a pope…. Benedict XVI, alone among the leaders of the Christian world, challenges Islam as a religion, as he did in his September 2006 Regensburg address’ (Asia Times, November 6, 2007). [4] Goldman further understands that behind the Muslim advance is something rooted in philosophy and theology going back to the classics and Scripture. Not to challenge, on the grounds of their truth, the theses on which it is based is to leave Islam’s basis intact. This is why Islam is still in the world today as a religion. Western theologians ceased to examine its intellectual foundations. The politicians thought it was sufficient to introduce the “modern” state and democracy to modify the universalism of the religion. Actually, it extended it. Rémi Brague’s ‘The Law of God’, shows precisely the importance of returning to this intellectual task and its relation to politics.[5] In the context of evangelization, however, Goldman thinks the Pope is pretty much alone even in the West. All of the really important issues were fought out over generations in the one Western institution with a long enough memory. That is why the Catholic Church remains the world’s indispensable institution. I do not know whether that will be true a generation from now. The Church has produced a few
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great leaders, but it is desperately short of sandals on the ground. Where is the monastic order that will fight the spiritual battles of the Church as the Dominicans did in the twelfth century, the Jesuits in the sixteenth, and the Benedictines in the nineteenth? Where are the missionaries who will preach Christianity to Muslims? One of the reasons why such missionaries are not found is addressed by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s note. The very reason why there should be a missionary effort has been called into question within theology itself. Likewise, in the West we still have remnants of a universal secularism or humanism that wants to transform the world in its own image. There is also China, with its world-conquering movements stemming both from its own central kingdom thesis and from its Marxism, which was itself a
secular version of Christian universalism, as Benedict pointed out in Spe Salvi. This doctrinal note, then, is not written as if scepticism and relativism were our only problems. We are indeed confronted with a more and more confident Islam that sees the moral disorders of the world to be an invitation to and justification for its own mission to the nations. In the context of modern relativism and multiculturalism, as well as of oriental religions, even the statement of this universal purpose is said to be “arrogant” or “dogmatic,” or a violation of man’s freedom and rights. Thus, the note has the delicate task of returning to principle to explain why these truths of revelation are in fact themselves exercises in human freedom. Political societies, on their own bases, ought to foster, not restrict or prevent, that freedom’s presentation. The note does not mention names of particular states that violate the principles of religious freedom. They are not a few. But it does suggest that, in spite of the widely acclaimed constitutional and international affirmations about freedom of religion, many states severely restrict missionary work. Or simply, they do not allow it at all. Even here, the note contents itself with merely pointing out the irony that “freedom of religion,” which the Catholic tradition considers a basic norm for every civil society, is widely unavailable to those who want and deserve to hear the Catholic understanding of man’s relation to God. Cardinal Levada writes, “There is today, however, a growing confusion which leads many to leave the missionary command of
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the Lord unheard and ineffective.” Often it is maintained that any attempt to convince others on religious matters is a limitation of their freedom. From this perspective, it would only be legitimate to present one’s own ideas and to invite people to act according to their consciences, without aiming at their conversion to Christ and to the Catholic faith. It is enough, so they say, to help people to become more human or more faithful to their own religion; it is enough to build communities which strive for justice, freedom, peace and solidarity. Furthermore, some maintain that Christ should not be proclaimed to those who do not know him, nor should joining the Church be promoted, since it would also be possible to be saved without explicit knowledge of Christ and without formal incorporation in the Church. (#3) This concise paragraph shows first that the Church does understand what is being proposed contrary to the orthodox teaching on the subject of evangelization. The Church, of course, is not opposed to efforts to become more human or to the efforts of believers of other religions to find the truth. What concerns it—from the basis of its own structure—is that justice, freedom, peace and solidarity, however good, are not the basic things that Christ commissioned his apostles to preach. The popes have already made that obligation clear from the beginning. Catholicism has been concerned with philosophy as its own truth (Fides et Ratio). We are to know what justice, freedom, peace and solidarity are primarily from philosophy. They are the preambles of the faith. The Church knows that Aristotle already explained pretty
much what justice meant. What concerns the Church is: 1 that these natural virtues are not long practiced by most men without revelation and 2 that man is made for something more than this world and needs to know what it is. Whenever these two elements of understanding the whole are ignored, man is in trouble. What Cardinal Levada is criticizing here is a “theory” of human nature and theology that seeks to assure the salvation of all by not preaching or presenting the Christian faith as true or as necessary for men to know. The Church is not in any way saying here that we are not to respect the opinions of others. The note is “intended to clarify certain aspects of the relationship between the missionary command of the Lord and respect for the conscience and religious freedom of all people” (#3). To demonstrate that the Lord’s command and this respect are intelligently compatible is the purpose of this note. The note states its understanding of man, its “anthropology.” We have an intellect and a will. No part of Catholicism denies this fact; rather, Catholicism bases its understanding of the mission to others upon it, upon understanding what intellect and will are. It is assumed that all men seek to know the truth, but that they also are to accept it freely. Men both want to know the truth and they ought to know it. It is not a virtue to hide it, though it is not to be presented as a pesky
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proselytism: “The work of ecumenism does not remove the right or take away the responsibility of proclaiming in fullness the Catholic faith to other Christians who freely wish to receive it” (#12). “With ever-increasing frequency, questions are being raised about the legitimacy of presenting to others—so that they might in turn accept it—that which is held to be true for oneself” (#4). Behind this scruple is the idea that there is no common truth. If whatever one holds is true, even contradictions, then there can really be no truth at all. The defence of the mission in this sense is the defence of the mind wherever it is found. Philosophy does have a stake in revelation in this sense. The note, moreover, sees the place of the example and efforts of ordinary people to explain their faith to others. The faithful are right to urge others to consider the teachings of faith in the light of their own experience and the need for a complete understanding of the purpose for which they are created. “To lead a per-son’s intelligence and freedom in honesty in the encounter with Christ and his Gospel is not an inappropriate encroachment, but rather a legitimate endeavour and a service capable of making human relationships more fruitful” (#5). Throughout this document, then, “mission” is presented as something needed by the freedom of all men to know what they are. The Church does not deny, but rather insists upon, the truths found in other persons and cultures. No one can be “forced” to embrace the faith by improper techniques or political pressure (#8).
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The Church is aware, moreover, that the meeting of revelation with human life always reveals something not only about human life itself, but even about the faith. “Every encounter with another person or culture is capable of revealing potentialities of the Gospel which hitherto may not have been fully explicit and which will enrich the life of Christians and the Church” (#6, a citation from Benedict). Thus the mission ad gentes is seen to be within the context of that general revelation and philosophic experience of all who seek the truth to which revelation is addressed specifically. [6] The intellectual part of Benedict’s whole project thus is not merely to add and complete something in those who do not yet know, but also to do so in those who have first received the faith. “The revelation of the fundamental truths about God, about the human person and
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the world, is a great good of every human person, while living in darkness without the truths about ultimate questions is an evil and is often at the root of suffering and slavery which can at times be grievous” (#7). What is at the heart of this note, then, is the idea that human beings can address themselves to each other in the name of truth and freedom without, at the same time, fighting or burdening each other. “Evangelization also involves a sincere dialogue that seeks to under-stand the reasons and feelings of others; indeed, the heart of another person can only be approached in freedom, in love and in dialogue, in such a manner that the word that is spoken is not simply offered, but also truly witnessed in the hearts of those to whom it is addressed” (#8). The note soberly adds that the mission first given to the apostles is the same one that continues to exist and about which this note is a reminder. Not infrequently, this mission has resulted in martyrdom. The implication is that it still does today, as if to say that the Lord must have accepted this consequence when he sent the disciples forth; they would be treated as he was (#8). But this result did not prevent him from sending them. The liberal notion of denying that truth is necessary in order that killing would not happen seems to run counter to the urgency with which the mission was originally proposed. It is partly this notion of continuity over time with which the modern mind has much difficulty. The note implies that the urgency to know what revelation teaches to all men remains and is in danger of being lost. The note is also concerned with the
ecclesiological and ecumenical implications of evangelization. Two things seem clear: 1 individual conversions are to be encouraged when a person seeks to enter the Church; 2 the ecumenical movement, both with Protestants and the Eastern Churches, is to continue to work out a common understanding of what the Church does teach and how what it teaches can be commonly expressed. The ecumenical movement was never intended to produce a kind of parliament of religion, something that certain forces within the United Nations seem to be fond of promoting. The note explains that “[generally], the term conversion is used in reference to bringing pagans into the Church. However, conversion in the precisely Christian meaning signifies a change in thinking and in acting, as the expression of that new life in Christ proclaimed by faith” (#9). This attention to an openness to con-version is a necessary consequence of what the Church holds about human freedom, even when it is used erroneously. The note expresses an awareness of the current arguments against the freedom to convert and evangelize. “For a long time the reason for evangelization has not been clear to many among the Catholic faithful. It is even stated that the claim to have received the gift of the fullness of God’s revelation masks an attitude of intolerance and a danger to peace” (#10). This is a familiar theme today. Democracy, for many thinkers, means
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dogmatically having no truth or the possibility of any. No truth is the only truth, the only politically safe one. Much of our public life is about the truth or falsity of this view, one that this note seeks to combat. We are not to be indifferent to the truth in the name of religious freedom, or democratic pluralism, or Muslim aggressiveness. Respecting and understanding what constitutes the view of another does not directly entail our denying or minimizing our own relation to truth. “This apostolic commitment is an inalienable right and duty, an expression of religious liberty, with its corresponding ethical-social and ethical-political dimensions. It is a right which in some parts of the world, undoubtedly, has not yet been recognized and which in others is not respected in practice” (#10). Though it does not make a large issue of this fact, the note is aware of the very real restrictions other religions and polities place on an individual’s freedom to hear and freely accept what is revealed in Christ. By placing the emphasis on each person’s destiny and his right and duty to know it, the note shifts the emphasis from “imposing” to “freely accepting” the truth. This is why there is an explicit emphasis on the relation of faith to individuals within a culture or society. “Evangelization is not only accomplished through public preaching of the Gospel nor solely through works of public relevance, but also by means of personal witness which is always very effective in spreading the Gospel” (#11). The last section of the document is careful to reaffirm the ecumenical movement
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within the context of evangelization: “There is evangelization in countries where non-Catholic Christians live, including those with an ancient Christian tradition and culture” (#12). One need not be silent before Protestants or Orthodox. We know, on the contrary, that Protestant evangelization progresses rapidly in many Catholic countries, even in the United States. The note does not mention this, but its logic would assume that these conversion efforts fall within the order of mutual respect and honesty on individual bases. We do not ask Protestants or Orthodox to cease to seek to convert Catholics, but we do insist that the rules of the game be preserved, along with respect for truth and freedom in every case. Why, in conclusion, this emphasis on evangelization? After all the political and legal distinctions have been made, this
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emphasis obviously comes from the fact that within Scripture and revelation there is an urgency that men, all men, in all religions, times and cultures, know the truth for their own good. If I do not force it, if I do not violate any principles of manners or respect, it seems clear that telling and making the case for the truths that are necessary to explain what man fully is can only be something that a man has a right to know and a freedom to accept. This urgency, moreover, is found within revelation itself. Men do want to know the truth, which is often closed to them
1 William Cardinal Levada, “Doctrinal Note: On Some Aspects of Evangelization,” L’Osservatore Romano, English, December 19, 2007, #4. 2 St. Leo the Great, Sermon, Second Reading, Feast of the Epiphany, Roman Breviary, I, 560. 3 Paul VI, Evangeli Nuntiandi (1975); John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio (1991). The congregation’s Dominus Jesus (2000) also should be included here.
because of their sins as well as their politics. Moreover, a danger to the world itself exists if we do not know what man really is, what his transcendent destiny means. The alternative forces of universalism in our time have gained confidence and zeal precisely because our culture no longer understands or admits that we have a transcendent destiny that we are freely offered, but the free rejection of which has worldly consequences, consequences we see daily.
4 In this long essay Spengler is reviewing Fergus Kerr, O. P.’s Twentieth Century Catholic Theologians. 5 Rémi Brague, The Law of God (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007). 6 See Josef Pieper, “Tradition: Its Sense and Aspirations,” For the Love of Wisdom: Essays on the Nature of Philosophy (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2006), 233-94.
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A very Marian conversion A six-year-old Protestant boy had often heard his Catholic companions reciting the prayer “Hail Mary.” He liked it so much that he copied it, memorized it and would recite it every day. “Look, Mommy, what a beautiful prayer,” he said to his mother one day. “Never say it again,” answered the mother. “It is a superstitious prayer of Catholics who adore idols and think Mary a goddess. After all, she is a woman like any other. Come on, take this Bible and read it. It contains everything that we are bound to do and have to do.” From that day on the little boy discontinued his daily “Hail Mary” and gave himself to reading the Bible instead. One day, while reading the Gospel, he came across the passage about the Annunciation of the Angel to Our Lady. Full of joy, the little boy ran to his mother and said: “Mommy, I have found the ‘Hail Mary’ in the Bible which says: ‘Hail full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou amongst women.’ Why do you call it a superstitious prayer?” On another occasion he found that beautiful Salutation of St. Elizabeth to the Virgin Mary and the wonderful canticle Magnificat in which Mary foretold that “the generations would call her blessed.” He said no more about it to his mother but started to recite the “Hail Mary” every day as before. He felt pleasure in addressing those charming words to the Mother of Jesus, our Saviour.
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When he was fourteen, he one day heard a discussion on Our Lady among the members of his family. Every one said that Mary was a common woman like any other woman. The boy, after listening to their reasoning could not bear it any longer, and full of indignation, he interrupted them, saying: “Mary is not like any other children of Adam, stained with sin. No! The Angel called her full of grace and blessed amongst women. Mary is the Mother of Jesus Christ and consequently Mother of God. There is no higher dignity to which a creature can be raised. The Gospel says that the generations will proclaim her blessed and you are trying to despise her and look down on her. Your spirit is not the spirit of the Gospel or of the Bible which you proclaim to be the foundation of the Christian religion.” So deep was the impression which the boy’s talk had made that his mother many times cried out sorrowfully: “Oh my God! I fear that this son of mine will one day join the Catholic religion, the religion of Popes!” And indeed, not very long afterwards, having made a serious study of both Protestantism and Catholicism, the boy found the latter to be the only true religion and embraced it and became one of its ardent apostles. Some time after his conversion, he met his married sister who rebuked him and said indignantly: “You know how much I love my children. Should any one of them desire to become a Catholic, I would sooner pierce his heart with a dagger than allow him to embrace the religion of the Popes!” Her anger and temper were as furious as those of St. Paul before his conversion.
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His sister was s o m e w h a t reluctant at the beginning, but as she wished for her son’s recovery, she accepted her brother’s proposal and recited the “Hail Mary” together with him. The next day her son was completely cured. The mother fulfilled her promise and she studied the Catholic doctrine. After long preparation she received Baptism together with her whole family, thanking her brother for being an apostle to her.
It so happened that one of her sons fell dangerously ill and the doctors gave up hope of recovery. Her brother then approached her and spoke to her affectionately, saying: “My dear sister, you naturally wish to have your child cured. Very well, then, do what I ask you to do. Follow me, let us pray one ‘Hail Mary’ and promise God that, if your son recovers his health, you would seriously study the Catholic doctrine, and should you come to the conclusion that Catholicism is the only true religion, you would embrace it no matter what the sacrifices may be.”
The story was related during a sermon given by a Rev. Fr. Tuckwell. “Brethren,” he went on and said, “the boy who became a Catholic and converted his sister to Catholicism dedicated his whole life to the service of God, is the priest who is speaking to you now! What I am I owe to Our Lady. You, too, my dear brethren, be entirely dedicated also to Our Lady and never let a day pass without saying the beautiful prayer, ‘Hail Mary’, and your Rosary. Ask her to enlighten the minds of those who are separated from the true Church of Christ founded on the Rock (Peter) and ‘against whom the gates of hell shall never prevail.’”
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Thank you from Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) Each year thanks to the • Donations • Legacies and • Mass offerings of its benefactors in Ireland and around the world ACN is able to • Provide sustenance and the means of survival for c. 20,000 Priests • Support c. 18,000 Seminarians and Religious and • Distribute c. 1.5 million catechetical books for children in 160 languages. Heartfelt thanks for all your prayers and support provided to Christ’s suffering and persecuted Church. May the good Lord continue to bless you and your family, past and present, now and always.
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I see His Blood Upon the Rose I see his blood upon the rose And in the stars the glory of his eyes, His body gleams amid eternal snows, His tears fall from the skies. I see his face in every flower; The thunder and the singing of the birds Are but his voice - and carven by his power Rocks are his written words. All pathways by his feet are worn, His strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea, His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn, His cross is every tree. By Joseph Mary Plunkett (1887-1916)
Our Lady of the Inexhaustible Cup
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