October 2011

The Magazine of the Missionary Society of St. Columban

October 2011

Catholic Social Teaching

CM OCT11 001 final.indd 1

9/8/11 8:46 PM

Best Kept Secrets This issue of Columban Mission magazine seeks to highlight some of the Columban efforts to apply Catholic Social Teaching in the missions where we witness and serve.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops website provides statements, teachings and letters about life here on earth. The Church enunciates principles by which Catholics may lead lives in harmony with neighbors near and far. They are perhaps among the best kept secrets of Catholicism.

Our faith calls us to be accountable not merely at the end of our lives but at every moment, in each relationship as well as in our attitudes, approaches and perspectives to the world in which we live with others. When there is egregious injustice, the Church teaches us to advocate, to lift our voices, to join in prayer and to work towards effective change for the common good. What shape may this take? There’s the rub. As Catholic Christians, as individuals, we do differ in the ways that we learn, understand and apply the social justice teachings of the Catholic Church.

Where there is extreme poverty, where there In So Many Words is hunger, where there is death of infants and children due to lack of nutrition, or access to

By Fr. Tom Glennon drinkable water, these are the places where Columban missionaries and all Catholic believers are called to respond. Some go in person; some respond with prayer and financial contributions. Columban missionaries meet many of these egregious injustices by their living presence among economically poor peoples around the globe. olumban missionaries Fr. Neil Magill responds in Myanmar by educating about these teachings of the Catholic meet many of these Church. Fr. Robert McCulloch provides assistance egregious injustices by to the people of Pakistan affected by the terrible floods which impacted almost 20% of the land in their living presence that country. Columban lay missionary Soon-Ho among economically poor Kim continues to mission to the fishing villages and peoples around the globe. seaman after the devastation of the tsunami and earthquake in Japan.

It seems to me a life of prayer and sacraments is essential to living the Catholic faith. It is our faith that calls us to seek justice and mercy in loving our God, our neighbors and ourselves.

C

Fr. Tom Glennon lives and works in St. Columbans, Nebraska.

www.columban.org

CM OCT11 003 final.indd 3

October 2011

3 9/8/11 8:48 PM

A Pastoral Reading of the Bible Reflecting on Life Experience in the Light of the Word of God by lucy cardenas

T

wenty years ago I began to go to weekend workshops to learn about new Bible study methodology. We now call our program, “A Pastoral Reading of the Bible,” and it is aimed at Christian communities among the poor of Latin America and the Caribbean. We call it pastoral because it is designed to help participants take on the responsibilities and challenges of their lives with courage, love, compassion and deep faith in Jesus Christ.

The program runs in a communal setting, which facilitates sharing of problems and insights among participants; in fact, it is a community builder as it generates friendships and an attitude of mutual care. The main beneficiaries are the grassroots church communities of Latin America, and it can function quite well even with those who cannot read or write.

However, most participants have the basics of literacy.

Our program is educational in that it helps participants grow into a method of interpretation that helps them find their own way with the Bible but always reading and reflecting on the text in community.

All reflection begins with the way the participants are living and

4

October 2011

CM OCT11 004-005 final.indd 4

eventually returns to that subject, helping the readers see with greater clarity their way in life according to the Word of God. The 2007 Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean (CELAM) in Aparecida, Brazil, were most encouraging of our work: “248. ...Disciples of Jesus yearn to be nourished with the bread of the Word: they want to have access to proper interpretation of the biblical texts, to use them as mediation of dialogue with Jesus, and that they be the soul of evangelization itself and of proclamation of Jesus to all. Hence, the importance of a ‘biblical ministry’ understood as a biblical impetus to pastoral ministry,...

This demands that bishops, priests, deacons, and lay ministers of the Word approach sacred scripture in a way that is not merely intellectual and instrumental, but with a heart ‘hungry to hear the Word of the Lord.’ ” (Am 8:11) “249. Among the many ways of approaching sacred scripture, there is one privileged way to which we are all invited: Lectio divina or the practice of prayerful reading of sacred scripture. This prayerful reading, when well practiced, leads to the encounter with Jesus-Master,

to the knowledge of the mystery of Jesus-Messiah, to communion with Jesus-Son of God, and to the testimony of Jesus-Lord of the Universe. With its four moments (reading, meditation, prayer, and contemplation), prayerful reading fosters the personal encounter with Jesus Christ in the manner of so many figures in the Gospel: Nicodemus and his longing for eternal life (cf. Jn 3:1-21), the Samaritan woman and her yearning for true worship (cf. Jn 4:1-42), the man born blind and his desire for inner light (cf. Jn 9), Zacchaeus and his wish to be different (cf.

Lk 19:1-10), and so forth. ... They did not [merely] open their heart to something of the Messiah, but to the Messiah himself, route of growth in ‘maturity according to his fullness’ (Eph 4:13), process of discipleship, of communion with brothers and sisters and commitment to society.”

For one year, about ten people from our parish went to the training workshops each weekend and one evening during the week.

We replicated a shorter version of the sessions with communities in the parish. They liked it so much that they kept coming!

The methodology encouraged participation, so the meetings were not boring. The educational approach differed radically from what participants had known during their time at school. Maybe they were also surprised to find that they were learning a lot in such a simple way. Together we learned to approach both life and the Bible text in a critical way, not to undo the good that we knew and did, but to see how to act even better.

For me, it was a place to meet and create dialogue with others.

It was in that encounter that I felt that I met God. www.columban.org

9/8/11 8:50 PM

I grew stronger in my calling as a lay person. What I learned, I applied in my work as a nurse in the police hospital and the nurses’ training school. Perhaps one of the most important things that I learned was to approach others as one person to another. There is a lot of class and racial discrimination in our Peruvian society and our Bible study program helped me question and act contrary to this discrimination, especially in its more subtle forms. I realized that I did not feel or act either superior or inferior to others, regardless of who I was dealing with.

I believe that I learned to be a faithful link, or bridge, between life and the Word of God in the Bible, being both faithful to the person looking for enlightenment and also to the Bible text. All that we had shared in our community over the years stood me in good stead when, along with a group of senior nurses, I was transferred from the nurses’ training school where I had been working for 21 years.

The government had made major budgetary cuts, and I found myself in limbo for three long months.

Being moved in this way from the job I had dedicated myself to for years really shook me up. It was as if my whole professional career had collapsed from one day to the next. I was not married and did not have a family, so my job in the nursing school had become a very important part of my life. Possibilities of professional advancement in this area were eliminated. After three months of uncertainty they transferred us to a new unit where we worked on investigation, prevention and control of infections within the hospital. All this happened in 2002 and in fact, not long after that, in 2006, I retired from nursing. My www.columban.org

CM OCT11 004-005 final.indd 5

Lucy with Bible study participants

Fr. John Hegarty with the group

More small group participants

Dad became quite sick at that time, and I helped look after him until he died that same year.

The problems of my life did not make me feel more or less of a person, as my dignity does not hinge on whatever position I may be occupying; rather it stems from knowing that I am one more daughter of God. More recently, our Bible study teams (there are now two working in two parishes) have been running workshops for new team members offering pastoral workers and members of parish communities not only methodology and theoretical knowledge, but an experience of meeting the Lord. In each community, we would like to see these meetings for biblical reflection given ever greater importance. We would like pastoral workers to apply what they learn in their pastoral work so that catechetical meetings, other activities and Sunday celebrations

may become experiences of meeting the Lord. All of this should strengthen the life of the community and the everyday life of each person.

We meet every Thursday, and it’s always a special moment in my week. For me it’s all about dreaming, imagining and believing that another kind of world is possible. Now I also do Bible study with my Mum. At 7:00 a.m. each day she is there with her Bible open at the text we are to discuss according to the “see-judge-act” method that has served me so well for over twenty years. CM

Lucy Cardenas lives in Peru and conducts the Bible study programs in Columban parishes.

October 2011

5 9/8/11 8:50 PM

Political Activism and Catholic Social Teaching Focus on Faith by michelle melcher Knight

D

iscerning how to be involved in the political process of the United States and maintain our focus on our faith can be a puzzling and frustrating experience. With a two party system that often seems to leave us with an “I don’t fit anywhere” feeling, Catholic citizens need a guide for participation.

6

October 2011

CM OCT11 006_007 final.indd 6

Fortunately, our faith does not leave us unprepared for this dilemma.

Catholic Social Teaching is truly a guide for all of life, including political decisions.

When we come to understand the tenets of Catholic Social Teaching, we can imagine the kind of society God wants for us. At the core of this teaching is the “life and

dignity of the human person.” If we do not have this genuine care and respect for all life, we cannot have a faithful society. Each and every decision we make in our daily lives and each and every decision by our government should reflect this foundational reality. God has made everything and everyone, and we are all precious and valuable. www.columban.org

9/8/11 8:53 PM

Michelle Melcher Knight, second on the left, and CCAO interns and volunteers in Washington, D.C.

Decisions at every level and in every area of government and society must first consider how they impact the life and dignity of each individual involved.

Our participation in the political process is even mandated in Catholic Social Teaching. The “call to family, community and participation” reminds us that the organization of our society should not be left to chance or to others. We must fully participate in decisions that determine how our society functions. Our participation must seek the common good and protect all members and the structures that support them.

Catholic Social Teaching demands more from us than we may realize. It outlines the rights of individuals and societal institutions, but also gives us responsibilities “to one another, to our families, and to the larger society.” We must choose political leaders who take these rights and responsibilities seriously.

And we must be involved in the process of choosing those leaders and continue to communicate with them throughout the process of legislating and implementing legislation. If we stay out of the process, we are not fulfilling our responsibilities nor advocating for our rights and the rights of others.

These responsibilities extend first and foremost to those who are poor and vulnerable, another tenet of Catholic Social Teaching.

We must ask ourselves and our political leaders about our/their priorities as policies and legislation are considered and enacted. Are the needs of those who are poor and vulnerable in our society and www.columban.org

CM OCT11 006_007 final.indd 7

around the world met with our laws and our uses of our time and money? Only then can we consider the needs of those who enjoy better economic circumstances.

Another tenet concerns workers, specifically “the dignity of work and the rights of workers.”

A foundational statement for this teaching is that “the economy must serve people, not the other way around.” Especially in these times of unemployment, recession and rising prices for food and other necessities, we must ensure that

Decisions at every level and in every area of government and society must first consider how they impact the life and dignity of each individual involved. our government protects workers and their jobs. All who desire to work must be enabled to do so.

Are our leaders enacting policies that provide for the creation of jobs with living wages? A job with a living wage honors the dignity of an individual and his/her family.

Catholic Social Teaching also instructs us to be in solidarity with all people throughout the world. This teaching is difficult to honor when conflicts arise. Can our political leaders find ways to love all of our neighbors, no matter the differences between “us” and “them?” The needs and concerns of people in minority populations,

such as the indigenous people with whom so many Columbans live and work, must be at the forefront of policies that show solidarity.

We, as citizens and voters of faith, must insist that our policies work towards peace for all people in the world.

Finally, and with no less importance, Catholic Social Teaching calls us to “care for God’s creation.” The Earth is our home, and we must care for it as much as we care for the individuals whom God has created. Do our policies protect and preserve creation? The needs of the environment cannot be subsumed by our desires for things.

Those of us living in the United States are fortunate to live in a country where we can participate in the political process. Although it is difficult to find any one politician who upholds all of the tenets of Catholic Social Teaching, we must do our best to elect those who represent these values as closely as possible. No matter who is elected, we must continue to communicate with our legislators and advocate for policies that reflect every aspect of Catholic Social Teaching.

For more information about specific social justice issues and how they intersect with our faith, please register for our new bimonthly advocacy e-newsletter.

Enter your email address in the “stay up-to-date” section of the home page of our website, www.columban.org, where you can choose to receive the newsletter. CM Michelle Melcher Knight works at the Columban Center for Advocacy and Outreach in Washington, D.C.

October 2011

7 9/8/11 8:53 PM

Our Earth and My Passion in Life Creating a Grassroots Ecological and Human Development Project

by Felipe larenas with assistance from Fr. Derry Healy

A

few years ago I came to Valparaiso, Chile, which is on the Pacific coast an hour and a half along the freeway west of Santiago, the capital of Chile.

I came because I’d heard that good things were happening here.

Young people were meeting and organizing to do what I believe will help all Chileans achieve our dream of a more equitable, just and caring society, one too that promotes harmony with the earth on which we live and from which we derive what we need for our lives.

I grew up in Temuco, a city 530 kilometers south of Santiago. My parents struggled to cover the cost of bringing up children just like any other working family in Chile.

When I was about 17 years old, I chose to be a vegetarian. While at university studying sociology, I became fascinated with the Mapuche vision of life. Mapuche friends explained how their tradition taught them to respect nature and live in harmony with all that is. They helped me develop a sensibility to, if not an affection for, mother earth.

I did not complete my university studies even though that brief

8

October 2011

CM OCT11 008_009 final.indd 8

period marked me profoundly. I became a good cook, combining what I had learned at home with Mapuche recipes and worked in restaurants in various parts of southern Chile. I wandered, worked and engaged with people along the way as might any adventurous young person who is beginning to discover his or her path in life.

The state-run local community schools in Valparaiso allow young adults in particular to develop a variety of artistic and artisanal skills. They offer courses in fields such as painting, dance, song, instrumental music and various types of sculpture. What such schools offer allows young adults, who are living off the little they earn, to further develop their gifts and interact with others who share their passion. All this helps us grow in a lifestyle that is so much more than a routine of work and sterile fun.

A friend with whom I worked in a vegetarian restaurant in Valparaiso told me about the education center for ecology and human development near where he lives that was looking for someone

to teach people composting and the use of recycled waste material.

I visited the center and met Columban Fr. Derry Healy. I had little previous association with the Catholic Church but was taken by the possibilities of this project that had been organized and financed by the Columban Justice and Peace Office. I began by facilitating a one month course for school children.

Then, with Consuelo Troncoso, a friend with similar interests, I presented a three-month project to develop further the ecological projects of the center.

We want to interest people in practical things they might do such as growing vegetables at home on the small plots of land available to them, or where they can use pots on their windowsills, or plastic bottles cut lengthwise and lying on their sides as they hang from windows. We teach them how to recycle waste, which in turn can be used to enrich the soil mix in their pots and plastic bottles. We have found that it is extremely difficult to interest adults in any of these endeavors, but the children are open and enthusiastic, which is good but also means that we might www.columban.org

9/8/11 8:55 PM

not be able to evaluate the impact of what we are doing until today’s children are old enough to take responsibility for their own lives.

We want the center to be at the service of the residents of the area.Upon visiting our center, however, one would see very little evidence of any progress because the evidence is in the homes of those who come to our courses.

The local homes have quite limited space for gardens as they are part of a government housing project for poor families. The residents may eventually become home owners and contract to contribute a certain percentage of the cost of their house, but the State assumes most of the cost.

This housing project began twelve years ago and soon after the Columban Fathers agreed to take responsibility for the pastoral development of a parish. With local and foreign support, they have built a parish center and two chapels.

Five years ago, the Columbans began to develop the Center for Education for Ecology and Human Development. Progress has been slow as we have no tried and true blueprint for how it might function effectively. We are pilgrims, finding our way as we go.

I am only 25 years old so am quite content to live that way for now but suspect that it might be more difficult for an older person to live with such uncertainty.

However, we don’t plough a lonely furrow. We coordinate with other institutions in the Valparaiso area who share our concerns and commitment to forging a more healthy society for all Chileans.

We also work on education about social issues related to the environment, one of which is the value of a massive hydroelectric plant that the government plans www.columban.org

CM OCT11 008_009 final.indd 9

Children participate at the Center.

to build in the far south of Chile, near the city of Coyhaique in Patagonia. We are concerned about the model of development that this project will be sustaining, a model that guarantees much wealth for a few. We are also concerned about its impact on the environment, especially the hundreds of kilometers of high tension cables from the south to the north of the country to fuel mineral refining processes that are part of the backbone of the present economic model of national development.

But, returning to the details of our immediate local concerns, we have two campaigns running: one, to protect the Chilean palm that once covered the warm coastal valleys of this part of Chile; the second, to recover and value native seeds and at the same time reject all forms of genetically modified seed.

One way or another, we hope to sow the seeds of ecological sensitivity and concern for the earth in those who join us in our projects at the Center. CM Both Columban Fr. Derry Healy (below) and Felipe Larenas (opposite page) live and work in Chile.

October 2011

9 9/8/11 8:55 PM

J

U N E

4,

1

9

8

9

The Power of Memory The Struggle Against Oppression

By Fr. Jim Mulroney

“With a new generation in Hong Kong which had not been born at the time of Tiananmen, we need to do a few things differently,” Peggy Siu, the convener of a youthstyle, drop-in-and-out and get a taste of Tiananmen Square space in Victoria Park, explained on the afternoon of June 4, the twentysecond anniversary of the massacre of student demonstrators by the military in Beijing, Organized by the Alliance of Patriotic Catholic Movements for Democracy in China, people were invited to drop in and learn a bit about what Legislative Council member and union leader, Lee Cheuk-yan, calls the importance of remembering.

“In particular, the young people of Hong Kong and China need to know what happened on June 4, when the regime washed the call for democracy in blood,” he said. He said that right now, it is especially important as this year we are seeing history repeat itself.

“This year is one of the worst in this regard; an era of darkness seems to have fallen across the country,” he continued. “All free and democratic voices are being silenced by violence.” Lee told 10

October 2011

CM OCT11 010_011 final.indd 10

the 150,000 people who gathered in the park that evening to burn candles in memory of those who died on that fateful morning that in the centenary year of the expulsion of the Qing dynasty, “The dream of our grandparents of the empire being taken over by democracy is also being crushed.”

Siu said that although the reality of Tiananmen may not be pleasant, an education space needs to be welcoming. She explained that the drop-in display offered a gentle insight into the harsh realities of what life must have been like for the one million people at the mass rally in Beijing back in late May and early June of 1989.

“It provides an opportunity to get involved by doing a few of the activities that the students did during the long days and weeks they were camped out in the square,” she explained.

“They made flowers. So people here are making them too,” Siu continued, pointing to several bunches at the foot of a miniature replica of the memorial column constructed by the students in Tiananmen. “Although we can’t build a Goddess of Democracy here,” she laughed, “we do what we can.” www.columban.org

9/8/11 9:07 PM

T

i

a n a nmen

S Q U A R E “This year we are seeing history repeat itself…an era of darkness seems to have fallen across the country.

All free and democratic voices are being silenced by violence.”

Catherine Baber, Amnesty International Asia Pacific, and Alberto Ho Chun-yan at the Amnesty International report briefing in China

She added, “We have set up small tents, as a reminder of the tent city that sprang up around the rally, and are using them as a memorial to those who died.”

The path to the tents featured poster-sized photographs depicting both the humane and inhumane sides of Tiananmen. One showed students giving food to soldiers, whose convoy of trucks had been trapped in the massive crowd and ordered to stop. Another showed a mother giving her small child to a soldier to hold, and the big smiles on both of their faces as the soldier held the boy up in the air.

Another shows a young girl, her yellow dress blowing in the wind, standing at a microphone in front of the students’ Command Center, as she addressed the crowd. She represented a group of children invited to spend the day there on June 1, 1989, the International Day of the Child.

Other photos depicted the inhumanity; a blood-soaked towel, tanks lined up in battle array and the violence of the soldiers as the students were making their retreat.

Siu said, “The truth of these pictures may cause you sadness, but it is important to accept the truth even when it is sad.” www.columban.org

CM OCT11 010_011 final.indd 11

Those who dropped into the display were invited to do calligraphy, brushing their own reflections or the themes presented onto paper. Others recited a poem, read from the writings of the students in Beijing twenty-two years ago, sang or just sat quietly. A few watched a video presentation.

Others expressed their response in art form, drawing, painting or sketching. A small group spent the afternoon putting Tiananmenthemed tattoos on people’s arms while others were on hand just to chat with people.

Siu explained that you could write a statement, make a prayer or expression of hope, and fix it to the prayer-line, containing the cards that had been presented at the novena of Masses that had been offered at various churches around the diocese in the run up to the Tiananmen anniversary.

Siu, herself, attached two reels of cotton thread to the handle of a small, mechanical music box; one black and one white. “Good and evil,” she explained. “I entwine my hands and fingers in the thread and, as I turn the handle, the cotton tightens around my fingers and hands until they begin to hurt.”

–Lee Cheuk-yan She said it reminds her that pain is part of the struggle for freedom and justice, but the music cheers her up and is a source of hope.

When it really hurts, I stop,” she said, “and just reflect that after one setback, we need to replenish our hope and try again.”

She engages passers-by, placing the music box near their ear. “If they stop and ask me, I explain what I am doing,” she said. “I just figure that if they can come to understand something about me, then they have learned something new.”

Siu explained, “Our little display is just one way that a younger generation can learn to relate to the big things about Tiananmen, like why we will pray in this space tonight and have the candlelight vigil.”

Lee said that we must keep the memory of Tiananmen alive, as memory is a powerful weapon in the struggle against oppression.

As the words inscribed on many t-shirts at the memorial read, “Don’t forget June 4.” CM Columban Fr. Jim Mulroney lives and works in Hong Kong.

October 2011

11 9/8/11 9:07 PM

Recycled Sandals

Walking to a Life of Dignity

By Fr. Shay Cullen

J

un is now a happy man because “God has answered my prayers.” Jun said, “He sent me honest work.” Like millions of jobless people around the world, Jun was unemployed and homeless and wandered the streets of Olongapo City, the Philippines, looking for any job he could find to get scraps of food for his family.

They cowered from the lashing rain and typhoon winds in a hovel on the city dump. When the storm passed, they continued picking up bits of plastic and junk that they could sell. There are no free social services, like medical aid and unemployment payments for the

12

October 2011

CM OCT11 012_013 final.indd 12

poor where Jun lives. Jun and his family were on the edge.

That’s where all of us Catholics are called to respond, to help people worse off than ourselves before they get to the edge or fall off into despair and hopelessness.

We can be true to the mission of Jesus of Nazareth and His Church.

His Sermon on the Mount is reflected in the social teaching of the Church. His words and example are the foundation of all the loving service we are bound to give to the poor and the oppressed.

St. James called us to express our faith in action for justice. Preda (People’s Recovery Empowerment

Development Assistance Foundation Inc.) is a human development organization that sets up micro Fair Trade projects for impoverished families. I began this foundation in 1974 as a way to implement the social teaching of the Church and bring about a more just and loving community free from exploitation and abuse whenever possible.

Reducing poverty and suffering is best achieved by giving the economically poor opportunities to help themselves support their families through dignified work.

For millions of people, dignified work is hard to come by in the www.columban.org

9/8/11 9:13 PM

Philippines. Here, a few rich people control the wages and the levers of industry. The Philippines is a wealthy nation but almost all is held by the elite families, about 200 strong, owning or controlling up to 70% of the natural wealth and production capacity. As a result, millions of struggling Filipinos live in poverty and millions more have emigrated in search of jobs and fair wages.

Jun is a devout Christian, and he never became bitter or blamed God for his poverty and joblessness. He knew it was because of the unjust system and the politicians that exploited the poor for their own selfish ends. Jun never lost faith that one day he would be lifted up like one of the poor and oppressed that Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount would inherit The Kingdom.

Then Preda social workers found Jun and his family, hungry and shivering in their shack on the rubbish dump, and the social workers invited them to the Preda shelter to recover and join a job training seminar. Jun learned bag making, became an expert sewer and was soon earning good wages making the popular recycled bags from discarded juice pouches. Jun is a fast worker and was able to pay off the interest free loan given to him by Preda for him to purchase his own sewing machine.

In short order, Jun’s children were no longer suffering from malnutrition, and they went to school daily with all their needs supplied. Jun and his wife Maria built a small house on a hillside outside the town. Their lives were transformed.

While at Preda, they were trained to save their earnings for the day when circumstances changed. After a few years, the market became saturated with www.columban.org

CM OCT11 012_013 final.indd 13

bags as other bag producers had copied the Preda bags and orders declined. Again Jun was facing unemployment as there were only a few orders.

Preda then suggested that he try making sandals from used rubber tires. Jun took the new training course, and soon he was an expert turning out an excellent quality, well finished flip-flop sandals.

These sold well locally and abroad for a few years, and all was well until recently when the fashion changed again and customers no longer requested the sandals.

But then, most recently, came the request from England. The Southampton Street Pastors work with street people, and they give out free sandals to the street people during the summer months. They asked Jun to supply sandals. It was a blessing for him and his family.

It is also a blessing for these people in difficult circumstances in Southampton. Some go barefooted from time to time. The people of Southampton also are fulfilling the mission of Jesus and walking with the poor, leading them to a life of dignity. The distribution of the extremely durable flip-flop sandals is a gift and a contact point for the pastors who reach out with

compassion and understanding to the poor and rejected people, some of whom are homeless.

Jun and Maria, are now doing a hard day’s work every day to produce up to 200 pairs of sandals.

The work supports Jun, his wife Maria and their two children.

Maria helps with the sewing of the straps that make the sandals strong, wearable and durable. It is an idea sandal for indoor and summer wear.

Jun’s livelihood is based on Fair Trade criteria and Catholic Social Teaching. It is at the heart of Preda’s livelihood project to give work with dignity. Jun receives high prices for his sandals, a just wage and social benefits. The manufacture of these sandals has enabled him to build an extension onto his house, buy household appliances and a television and send his children to school with all their needs supplied. The Southampton justice project has helped his family overcome poverty and has brought them a life of dignity and respect.

There is a bright future ahead in the making of Fair Trade recycled sandals and hope of spiritual renewal for those who will wear them. CM Columban Fr. Shay Cullen (in light blue shirt below) lives and works in the Philippines.

October 2011

13 9/8/11 9:13 PM

What is Catholic Social Teaching?

What is its relevance for today?

I

n recent years, especially during the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, which began in 1978, Catholic Social Teaching has won wide acclaim and attention among other Christians, among followers of other religions, and even in those who do not believe in God. This may have begun with the fall of Communism in Europe in the 1980s, and the key role played by the Pope from Poland in that great historical drama; but whatever the reasons, these teachings have come to be recognized by many as more sensible, balanced and sophisticated than the political ideologies associated with both communism and capitalism.

Catholic Social Teaching is that part of moral theology which is concerned with social, political and economic justice. It is not a program in any of these areas.

Practical programs and policies are the responsibility of politicians to develop. These must conform to the moral law. Pope John Paul 11 wrote in Centesimus Annus, 1991, 100 years after Rerum Novarum [the first papal encyclical] of Pope Leo XIII, “The Church has no social, political or economic models to present. Models that are real and effective can only arise within the framework of different historical situations, through the efforts of all those who responsibly confront concrete problems in their social, 14

October 2011

CM OCT11 014_015 final.indd 14

political and cultural aspects. For such a task the church offers her social teaching as an indispensable and ideal orientation towards the common good.” CA 43 Catholic Social Teaching is not an ideology but rather the formulation of the results of a careful reflection on the complex realities of human existence, in society and in the international order, in the light of the Gospel.

Its main aim is to interpret these realities, determining whether they are in conformity with or diverging from the Gospel teaching. It therefore belongs to the field, not of ideology, but theology and in particular moral theology.

Catholic Social Teaching is a set of moral principles or guidelines for action, which have been elaborated and refined through the church’s long dialogue with the world and the problems of human society.

These principles are rooted in the Scriptures, have been developed by the Fathers of the Church and their successors, clarified by councils and popes and finally summed up in the modern “social encyclicals” and other Church documents.

The longing for justice has always been a central element in the major faith traditions. The 1971 Synod of Bishops, which was ratified

by Pope Paul VI, defines justice as an essential ingredient of the Gospel and the Church’s mission; it cites modern injustices, especially

against the poor and powerless for whom the Church should speak in a special way.

The opening lines of The Church in the Modern World [Gaudium et Spes] of the Second Vatican Council stated the centrality of justice to the Christian calling very clearly: “The joys and hopes, the sorrows and anxieties of the women and men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way oppressed—these are the joys and hopes, the sorrows and anxieties of the followers of Christ.”

The modern expression of the Church’s social teaching began more than a century ago with the encyclical of Pope Leo XIII, On the Conditions of Labor [Rerum Novarum]. From this modest beginning, Catholic Social Teaching has grown and expanded rapidly.

It represents a growing social consciousness and concern in the church. It is an effort to spell out what it means to take up the joys and hopes, the sorrows and anxieties of our sisters and brothers all around the world today.

The best kept secret in the Roman Catholic Church is how the Church’s social teaching has been described. It seems to have been forgotten—or has never been known—by the majority of Catholics. Catholic Social Teaching still remains outside the mainstream.

As children of God created in God’s image, humans have a pre-eminent place in creation.

Human dignity is not earned by achievements or bestowed by any authorities other than God. It is not dependent on race, creed, color, economic class, political power, social status, culture, personal abilities, gender or any other dimensions by which people discriminate social gatherings. www.columban.org

9/8/11 9:15 PM

As children of God created in God’s image, humans have a pre-eminent place in creation.

Human dignity is not earned by achievements or bestowed by any authorities other than God.

Everyone has the right to full and authentic development which embraces the social, cultural, economic, political and spiritual dimensions of human life. True human development involves a commitment of solidarity with all people, especially those in poverty and situations of oppression.

While working in Taiwan in the workers’ apostolate there, I met with many obstacles from the then government, police and factory owners because we tried to implement the teachings of Catholic social doctrine. It was at the time when Pope John Paul 11 had clearly elucidated in his encyclical On Human Work, 1981, the rights of workers e.g. workers have a right to a just salary which will support their families, the right to organize and form trade unions, the right to a day off each week to mention but a few. We had these and other quotations from his encyclical pasted onto the walls, www.columban.org

CM OCT11 014_015 final.indd 15

but when the police came they tore them off accusing us of spreading communist ideas. Imagine Pope John Paul 11 being accused of being a communist!

In Myanmar (formerly Burma) the situation is much worse than what it had been then in Taiwan.

Recently the military generals changed into civilian clothes, but as the local people say, “They only changed their clothes but not their mind-set.” Here there is a total disregard for human rights, all dissent is brutally crushed and corruption is rife.

Men, women and children are subjected to trafficking, especially for forced labor and women and children into prostitution in neighboring countries. Many are abused through bonded labor or commercial sexual exploitation.

The military engages in unlawful conscription of child soldiers. It is estimated that there are 70,000 child soldiers in the military.

Children in remote villages and children of the urban poor are at particular risk of involuntary conscription. This is only one of the areas where exploitation takes place in a country where there is abject poverty.

How is Catholic Social Teaching put into practice here? Basically it is not. Most people do not know about it, and even if they did they would be afraid of the consequences of teaching and acting on it. Spies attend Mass and church services to report back what is being said. I teach it here in a seminary and in a higher education center run by the church. Students actively participate, apply the teachings to their local context and dream that their homeland might be governed by the principles of Catholic Social Teaching.

Hopefully my little efforts will have a multiplier effect in the future when these young people go into the world as priests or committed lay people.

It is frustrating to accept the limitations put on us here by the military, but I draw comfort from the words of the late Archbishop Romero: We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.

We lay the foundations that will need further development.

We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.

It may be incomplete but it is a beginning, a step along the way, An opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.

This article was written by a Columban Father who wishes to remain anonymous due to the political instability of the country where he works.

October 2011

15 9/8/11 9:15 PM

The Journey of Our Local Church in Myanmar From Being Evangelized to Being Evangelizers

By Fr. Marino Nanjha Fr. Nanjha with parishioners in Peru

I am a priest of the diocese of Loikaw in eastern Myanmar (formerly Burma), a country with a population of 60 million people ruled by a harsh military government for the past 45 years.

We do not have much industry; the people look to the soil for a living.

Our natural resources of gas and oil are exploited by foreign countries, principally China. I have been working as a missionary in Peru with the Columban Fathers for the past six years. Following is my vocation story which I have tried to write it in a historical context. I hope you enjoy it.

Historical Background

There is evidence of the presence of Christianity in Myanmar as early as 1287. Archeologists have found frescos containing crosses and Latin and Greek words in Pagan, once a flourishing kingdom in central Myanmar.

After the discovery of the sea route to India by Vasco da Gama in 1497, Portuguese missionaries set out for the Far East as chaplains to Portuguese soldiers, sailors and settlers. Portuguese traders, after 16

October 2011

CM OCT11 016_019 final.indd 16

founding Goa as the sea port to the East arrived in our country in 1510 after befriending the King of Pegu. The great Portuguese missionary, Francis Xavier, wrote to his fellow Jesuits in Europe and stated that the kind of missionary sent out should be capable of going unaccompanied or accompanied wherever needed, be it to the Moluccas, China, Japan or to the Kingdom of Pegu.

In 1622, Pope Gregory XV set up the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith to take care of Christian missions independently of secular powers such as Spain and Portugal who had many ulterior motives. The Paris Foreign Mission Society, which was purely a missionary society, was approved in 1659. The first Paris Foreign Mission Society came to Burma from Siam, helped by the Burmese Ambassador in Siam. They reached Pegu and set up a hospital that had enormous success. But the King of Ava, fearing their influence over the people, condemned them to death.

The first group of four Barnabites (the popular name of

the Italian religious order canonically known by the title Regular Clerics of St. Paul) arrived in Burma from Rome in 1743.

They were accompanied by an experienced surgeon. Within a few years all were dead, victims of local political conflicts or natural disaster. In 1754, a second group of Barnabites were sent. They set out from Paris in two different ships which never arrived at their destination. The first sank in the Atlantic ocean and the other in the Gulf of Martaban. In 1760 a third group of three Barnabites were sent out but only two survived the sea journey to arrive in Rangoon in 1761. During the following years more Barnabites were sent to Burma and enjoyed some periods of acceptance by the Burmese authorities.

The number of Barnabite Missionaries dwindled and Oblates of the Blessed Virgin Mary initiated their work in Burma (1830-1860).

By 1837 many Oblates had arrived and, like the missionaries before them, worked among the Burmese in the lowland plains. When the British-Burmese war began in www.columban.org

9/8/11 9:22 PM

Columban Fr. John O’Connell and Fr. Nanjha

Densely populated area in Peru

1852, the situation became very difficult for the Oblates, so Bishop Balma, the man in charge at that time, sought help from the Paris Foreign Mission Society. Bishop Paul Bigandet was appointed Vicar Apostolic of Southern Burma in 1870 and at the time of his death in 1894, there were 35,000 Catholics in Burma.

Thanks to the undaunted courage and effort of so many zealous foreign missionaries the Catholic Church in Burma put down strong roots and established itself firmly in the various parts of the country. The dioceses of Rangoon (lower part of Myanmar), Mandalay (upper region), and Toungoo (eastern part) were well established by the end of the 19th century.

During the latter part of the th 19 century, the missionaries— especially the Pontificum Institutum pro Missionibus Exteris (PIME) missionaries from Italy—began to move up into the hills to work with the non-Burmese tribal people living there. This initiative came primarily from the Toungoo diocese in the east.

During the Second World War, the Japanese armed forces wrought havoc in Burma. Churches were bombed, foreign priests were deported, people were forced to flee to distant places, and priests, Sisters and lay people were ruthlessly murdered. In 1945, when the war was over, the Catholic Church had a difficult time reconstructing churches, schools and parishes.

In 1936, the first group of Columban Missionaries arrived in Banmaw to take charge of the area and in 1939, the Kachin State became a separate Prefecture Apostolic with Banmaw as its center. In 1961, it was erected into the diocese of Myitkyina. The Catholic faith spread rapidly during the time of Columban missionaries as more mission centers and schools were established. But in 1966, the government ordered the missionaries to go home. Schools, hospitals and dispensaries were nationalized. However, some foreign missionaries were able to remain with special permission from the government.

www.columban.org

CM OCT11 016_019 final.indd 17

The church continued growing slowly and the number of native priests and religious increased. On April 3, 1976, Bishop John Howe ordained Fr. Paul Grawng as the first Kachin Bishop. On April 24, 1977, Bishop John Howe handed over the diocese to Bishop Paul Grawng and the indigenous clergy.

The Columbans withdrew by July 1979.

The former mission of the Columbans is now three dioceses, Myitkyina, Banmaw and Lashio.

People, priests, Sisters and the bishops of these dioceses came together in Banmaw to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the Columbans in March 2011.

The archbishop of Mandalay, Paul Grawng, was there. He was the first priest of the Kachin people, ordained in 1965.

Fifty years after the establishment of the hierarchy of Myanmar, there are fourteen dioceses (three Archdioceses and eleven dioceses), and currently fifteen Bishops, 677 priests, 333 men religious, and 1,958 women religious working in the vineyard of the Lord.

October 2011

17 9/8/11 9:22 PM

Mass in Peru

The Present Day

The Catholic Church in Myanmar is gradually gaining momentum in its work of evangelization. It is one of the few countries in southeast Asia where most of the priests and religious are indigenous. The Church’s activities are pastoral and social with little emphasis on education or health care as the State insists on total control of those areas.

Myanmar priests, nuns, and laity are contributing to the mission of the Church in all continents of our planet. Myanmar missionaries are found in countries such as Fiji, Japan, the Philippines, the United States, Italy, Papua New Guinea, France, Tanzania, Peru, Australia, Thailand and more.

When I began to work in San Pedro y San Pablo parish in Peru, I felt quite powerless. I spoke just a little Spanish; I did not know the people, and I was unfamiliar with local customs. I decided to catch buses that took me to different parts of this huge city; I wanted to get to know Lima. Along the way I observed so many people struggling to get to and from work and how 18

October 2011

CM OCT11 016_019 final.indd 18

Housing in Peru

the bus drivers and conductors treated their passengers. I also went to places in the parish where people gather to get to know others and to make myself known to them. I visited the markets, the schools and the soup kitchens (29 in our parish). And so, I gradually began to build up relationships and feel confidence in myself to do something.

Language was a challenge as I needed to become proficient in two languages simultaneously.

Most of the Columbans are English speakers and generally spoke English among themselves, so I felt that I needed to build on the basic grasp of English that I already had. Becoming more fluent in Spanish was easier as I had the chance to speak and hear Spanish all the time in my pastoral work.

I would always make an effort to speak with others; for instance, if I passed by a shop I asked the sellers the names of things on display, and they helped me. I found men, women and children to be generous with their time and very kind; they became my Spanish language teachers.

I felt happier going out to meet people rather than just hanging around in the parish house. However, I did make some problems for myself by eating food from street vendor stalls. My parish priest, John O’Connell, who first came to Peru 53 years ago, insisted that I shouldn’t eat in such places, telling me, “Marino, your stomach is not used to what Peruvians are used to, so please be careful.”

During my six years in this parish I did not build any chapels or support any other construction project, but other priests had already done that. I focused on building up relationships with the people and am so happy to have chosen that focus during my brief time here.

I found the faith life of Peruvians to be quite different from ours in Myanmar. Here they believe God is very present in their lives. One time I went to the celebration of the feast in honor of St. John the Baptist and saw how the devotees danced before the image of the saint in homage to God. They seem to include all that they are living in their relationship www.columban.org

9/8/11 9:22 PM

Fr. Nanjha with Peruvian youth group

with God. All I could do was to affirm the beauty of what they do.

On the other hand, our religious practice in Myanmar is more along the lines of Romanic ritual.

Our Catholic faith has not been integrated with ancient religious rites of our people. We have not put our own stamp on the practice of the Christian faith as have the Peruvians with whom I worked. Also, in Myanmar our church life is quite clerical with little lay participation at any level of leadership. The laity, at least as regards religious practice, are simply expected to do as directed by the clergy and religious.

I am now looking forward to returning to my own people and taking on the mission that my bishop may entrust to me. I am very much grateful to the Good Lord who disposes me in this mission and to all the Columban missionaries who have been unconditionally supporting me with magnanimous hearts. I am happy to have been an overseas missionary. I am proud of my family who has prepared, oriented me and is always present with me www.columban.org

CM OCT11 016_019 final.indd 19

through prayers and moral support.

I am proud of my country and my people who once were evangelized and now can contribute some of its own men and women to be missionaries. I consider it as great blessings for Myanmar to have been a country evangelized and now has become a country which evangelizes. We, as missionaries in the foreign land, are the fruit of the mission works realized by those former missionaries who generously had shed their blood on on our soil. Indeed I have nothing to be proud of myself but of them and their zeal, dedication, sacrifice and love for us. And I am confident that there are more cross-cultural missionaries to come from Myanmar soil.

Fr. Robert Kuhn, of the Phekhon Diocese, who recently returned to Myanmar, and I, of the Loikaw Diocese, are the first missionaries to go to South America. I am from the Kayah State and belong to the Kayan Kangan tribe. We are one of seven tribes in the state, each with our own language, so our common language is Burmese, the language

of the tribe that occupies the low plains of Myanmar and presently rules our country. We come from the part of Myanmar evangelized by the PIME Italian missionaries. We have been blessed by the foreign missionaries, and we feel indebted.

To respond to the baptismal call of mission, our Myanmar bishops constantly invite all Catholics to become missionaries, either locally or in foreign lands.

We are proud to have been missionaries on this continent and we thank the Missionary Society of St. Columban, which has given us this historical opportunity to be short-term, cross-cultural missionaries. With this experience, I am sure we have a deeper understanding of Christian mission, which will help us immensely in our work as Christian missionaries wherever we go. CM Fr. Marino Nanjha is a priest in Myanmar and worked in Peru through the Columban Fathers.

October 2011

19 9/8/11 9:22 PM

August in Japan The Month of Hope

By Fr. Barry Cairn

A

ugust in Japan is a month with a special flavor. It is the month of hope. The monsoon rains have passed and now the rice paddy fields are a vivid mass of green. The harvest will come. There will be food. The gentle waving of the rice plants in the wind somehow symbolizes hope. It is a scene that touches the heart.

August is the hottest month of the year. The heat brings out the cicadas to give us their orchestral overtures performed in competing concert tones. This is also the month of the children’s summer vacation. They too come out armed with nets on long bamboo poles to catch these songsters and put them in woven bamboo cages with their favorite cucumber food.

The hunting grounds, especially in cities, are the thickets of the trees around Shinto shrines and thankfully around our Hodogaya Church in the center of Yokohama City. It is my personal theory that this traditional summer practice has been kept alive by the children 20

October 2011

CM OCT11 020_021 final.indd 20

being able to buy the net and cage so easily and cheaply. Both are available from the ubiquitous $1 stores.

August in Japan is also a scared month. On August 5, the anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, the whole country stops for prayer. At 8:15 am, the time of the bomb, television, radio and district loud speakers broadcast the solemn echoes of the Hiroshima Peace Bell. Japan observes a minute of silence praying for peace.

As Christians in Japan, we are very much part of the truly ecumenical prayer. Call to mind that August 5 is the feast of the Transfiguration. Jesus was ablaze with a white light. This light of Jesus brings peace. Hiroshima too on that day was ablaze with a white light. That light brought death. We pray, “Lord, Jesus! May your light prevail.”

On August 9 we commemorate the atomic desolation of Nagasaki.

I schedule my Mass on that day for 11 am. At 11:02 am, the time of the bomb, we join with the rest of Japan in prayer for peace.

I have noticed that in the last ten

to fifteen years, there has been a subtle change from an anti-war to a pro-peace attitude. On August 15 we celebrate not only Mary Queen of Peace taken up into heaven but also the anniversary of the end of World War II 66 years ago.

Since Pope John Paul II’s visit to Nagasaki in 1981, the Japanese Church observes Ten Days for Peace August 5-15 each year. In all dioceses we have special prayers and gatherings for peace. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Japan issues an annual statement that has an uncompromising challenge. For example, in 2010 the Bishops called on the Japanese people to “reflect on Japan’s past history of aggression…courageously admit failure and implore God for forgiveness, not to belittle ourselves but to face up to the reality of human frailty in the way Christ desires us to do.” These are strong words. Perhaps they are a model for many other nations? The Bishops often quote the Pope’s words in Nagasaki, “To remember the past is to commit ourselves to the future.”

But there is more to the month of August! The 15th is the traditional www.columban.org

9/8/11 9:27 PM

The heat brings out the cicadas to give us their orchestral overtures performed in competing concert tones.

Buddhist All Souls’ Day. It is the custom for people to return to their town or village of origin to visit parents and relatives and to tidy up and pray at the graves of their ancestors. We Catholics join these prayers. We pray that as Mary was taken up into Heaven, so too through her intercession may our ancestors enjoy eternal peace.

Finally, to add to the flavor of August in its second half, I go on my summer holidays. Each year for two weeks I travel by train 660 kilometers south to Wakayama City where I was, after language school, first stationed. I go by train because as a senior I get a 33% discount! Fifty two years ago, when I was 27 in 1959, I arrived in this southern country city when it was in the grips of a deep depression.

Two traditional industries, knitted cotton wear and lumber, had been superseded by imports from overseas. Into this scene came revival in the form of a big, new factory, Sumitomo Steel Works which makes seamless piping. As the junior assistant in the parish, I was in charge of the youth group.

From a starting attendance of a mere ten, the numbers rose to 70, www.columban.org

CM OCT11 020_021 final.indd 21

mostly young workers from the steel works. And now, 50 years later, that “youth group” has a reunion each August. From far and wide, about 30-40 of us gather for a Mass and a meal. The conversations are peppered with, “do you remember when?” There are self-introductions which usually involve an update on their grandchildren and their antics. All are now in their upper 60s, and only a few are able to get part time jobs. Some have drifted from the Church, but they tell me, not from God. So it is an

opportunity to water the seed of faith. I feel that the reunion is worthwhile. It certainly is fun!

Indeed, August is a month with a special flavor in Japan. CM Fr. Barry Cairns lives and works in Japan

October 2011

21 9/8/11 9:27 PM

Sustain a Servant – Support a Project – Supply a Need

Sponsor Benefits

Become a Columban Mission Sponsor

C

olumban Mission Sponsors’ monthly financial commitment makes it possible for the Columban Fathers to continue our mission work without interruption by eliminating the possibility that desperately needed projects will be ended for financial reasons. You join with us and participate in the ongoing, worldwide effort to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ to people who have not heard, or barely heard, the Word.

Columban Mission Sponsors support a variety of Columban projects and initiatives in seventeen countries.

22

October 2011

CM OCT11 022 final.indd 22

Some of those projects include: ❖❖ Building projects ❖❖ Education programs and schools ❖❖ Emergency relief programs ❖❖ Livelihood projects

❖❖ Medical services/ Mental health services

Sponsors tell us that their monthly contact with the Columban Fathers provides an added dimension to their spiritual life because they are participating in a worldwide effort of the mission of Jesus. Also, the frequent reminder that Columban missionaries are praying for them gives added strength and meaning to their daily lives.

Every Columban priest celebrates Mass each week to ask God’s blessing for our sponsors, their loved ones and their intentions.

All Mission Sponsors receive a copy of our monthly e-newsletter providing interesting and inspiring stories of Columban missionaries and our work in seventeen countries around the world.

All Mission Sponsors also receive Columban Mission magazine featuring articles and project updates about our work in the United States and internationally.

❖❖ Migrants/Immigrants ❖❖ Nutrition programs

❖❖ Programs for children and adults with special needs ❖❖ Vocation Development

For more information about the Columban Fathers and our various ministries, please visit our website,

www.columban.org www.columban.org

9/8/11 9:34 PM

Seeking Jesus I recently had the opportunity to live and work in Los Angeles, California, filling in for the vacationing Columban pastor at St. Columban’s Parish where we have ministered since the 1940s.

It was a joy to serve in this vibrant Filipino parish community.

On one of my walks around the community, I stopped and studied a playground mural that provided a representation of the history, struggles and success of the Filipino community in the U.S. while connecting to their roots in the Philippines.

I was reminded of the power of the migration experience which brings the richness of one culture to another, when migrants become bridges between two worlds. In many ways, Filipino migrants to the U.S. have served as cross-cultural missionaries bringing their own witness to God’s love just as Columbans have served in the Philippines since 1929.

During my recent

From the Director

By Fr. Arturo Aguilar visit to our mission in the Philippines, I noted that the Columban story reflects a long history of accompanying the people and witnessing firsthand injustices that flow from greed, violence, corruption and unchecked power. One of the faces on the mural in Los Angeles was that of Filipino national hero Dr. José Rizal. He was a proponent of achieving Philippine independence peacefully

I was reminded of the power of the migration experience which brings the richness of one culture to another, when migrants become bridges between two worlds.

CM OCT11 023 final.indd 23

rather than through violent revolution and believed that the only justification for national liberation and self-government was the restoration of the dignity of the people, saying, “...why independence, if the slaves of today will be the tyrants of tomorrow?”

Many of his ideas reflect key tenents of our current Catholic Social Teaching including the dignity of all people. Dr. José Rizal’s literary works opened the minds of the Filipino people to fight for their rights in their own country. In his prison cell he wrote a poem known as Mi Ultimo Adios expressing not only his love for his country but also that of his countrymen. “Victory is the child of struggle that joy blossoms from suffering and redemption is a product of sacrifice.”

Today, through Catholic Social Teaching we have a roadmap for responding to the needs of our time and a call to embrace those who are different and on the margins. In the Church’s most recent encyclical on the common good, Caritas en Veritate (2009), Pope Benedict XVI says, “The search for love and truth is purified and liberated by Jesus Christ from the impoverishment that our humanity brings to it, and He reveals to us in all its fullness the initiative of love and the plan for true life that God has prepared for us. In Christ, charity in truth becomes the Face of His Person, a vocation for us to love our brothers and sisters in the truth of His plan. Indeed, He Himself is the Truth.” (cf. Jn 14:6) When we are confused and searching for an answer, we can turn to tools like encyclicals, Catholic Social Teaching, Scripture and prayer to ask Jesus to help us understand, to think in a Christian way and to make Christian choices.

One of my favorite scripture passages is from Ephesians 3:17-19 where Paul prays that we will have “the power to comprehend…what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge.” Christ is the fullness of revelation but no human has completely understood the full dimensions of His revelation.

That will only emerge as people of every culture in every age seek in Jesus and the scriptures the answers to their questions and needs.

9/8/11 9:31 PM

Columban Fathers PO Box 10 St. Columbans, NE 68056

NON PROFIT ORG U.S. POSTAGE PAID COLUMBAN FATHERS

“You are the light of the world…your light must

shine before others, so that they may see the good

that you do and give glory to God.” Columban Mission Exposure Join Columban missionaries for an encounter that will fill your heart and change the way you view the world:

Matthew 5:16

Are you ready to let your light shine before others as a missionary priest, bringing Good News to the world?

Mission Exposure Trip to China March 17-31, 2012 For more information and to apply, visit www.columban.org or contact: Columban Center for Advocacy and Outreach Amy Woolam Echeverria ccaoprograms@columban.org 301-565-4547

CM OCT11 024 final.indd 24

Contact us: www.columban.org vocations@columban.org 915-351-1153

Fr. Bill Morton, SSC National Vocations Director Columban Fathers St. Columbans, NE 68056

Japan + Korea + Peru + Hong Kong + Philippines + Pakistan + Chile + Fiji + Taiwan + North America

9/8/11 9:35 PM