Wm september 2014

inside: Inside the farmers' mind • The Better part • Bridge between cultures

growing chasm The disconnect between man and earth

S e p t e mb e r 2 014 • n o. 281 • VO L X X V i • 5 0 p es os • I S S N 0116 - 8142

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editorial

Time to re-connect The Asian Catholic Monthly Magazine

www.worldmission.ph MAILING ADDRESS: 7885 Segundo Mendoza Street Villa Mendoza Subd. - Sucat 1715 Parañaque City, M.M. - PHILIPPINES TEL.: (+63-2) 829-0740/829-7481 FAX: (+63-2) 820-1422 E-Mail: wm.editor@gmail.com OWNER AND PUBLISHER: WORLD MISSION is published monthly by the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus as part of their ministry and program of missionary awareness in Asia. WORLD MISSION magazine is registered at DI–BDT and at the National Library (ISSN 0116-8142).

EDITOR: Fr. Dave C. Domingues, MCCJ REDACTION: Corazon A. Uy (secretary), Joey Villarama and Fr. Lorenzo Carraro, MCCJ (staff writers) COLLABORATORS: Fr. Jose Rebelo,MCCJ (South Africa) Fr. Joseph Caramazza (UK), Kris Bayos (Philippines) and Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil (India) MANAGEMENT: Fr. Raul Tabaranza, MCCJ wm.administration@gmail.com Ma. Corazon P. Molvizar (secretary) Angeles S. de Vera (circulation) PROMOTION: Fr. Dave C. Domingues, MCCJ wm.promotion@gmail.com ART & DESIGN DIRECTION: Ric M. Gindap GRAPHICS & DESIGN: Victor Garcia SUBSCRIPTION RATES: (11 issues and Calendar) Regular (Philippines):.........................P500.00/year Six months (Philippines):...........................P300.00 Overseas–Air mail: Asia................................US$35 Rest of the world.............................................US$40 DISTRIBUTION: WORLD MISSION is distributed to subscribers by mail. Entered as Second Class Mail at the Parañaque Central Post Office under Permit No. 214-89 (March 9, 1989; valid until December 31, 2014). Published monthly in Parañaque City, M.M. Composition: World Mission.

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T

he U.N.’s recently published annual update on urbanization (www.esa.un.org) rings an alert bell. It shows that 54% of the world’s population now lives in cities.

It is amazing that, for the first time in history, majority of people on Earth lives in cities, with the trend toward urbanization showing no signs of slowing down. According to the report, while only 30% of the world lived in urban areas in 1950, that figure is now expected to reach 66% by 2050.

Northern America is the most urbanized region, with 81% of the people currently living in cities. Africa is the least urbanized region, with 56% of the population living in cities.

The first question we may ask is: Is this good or bad? Well, it depends if we are talking about urban slums or smartly-scaled communities. The reality is that, while cities are often associated with economic progress and longer life expectancy, we all know that urbanization brings sustainable challenges such as pollution, environmental degradation and a growing alienation from nature. Moreover, unplanned urbanization often leaves people in massive slum areas without basic needs. Alarmingly, the number of people without access to services like sanitation, electricity and health care could increase to 3 billion by 2050.

Aside from the degrading conditions of many dwellers in the urban cities, there is another great cost, arguably invisible but no less real in its consequences: the rapid urbanization linked to fast moving technological growth is fostering a greater disconnection from the natural world. Kids in urban areas, and the generations to come, will grow ever more alienated from the sources of their food, water, energy and material goods. But, the reality is that the “supermarket mentality,” as practical as it may be to our consumerist mentality, can never replace our natural ecosystems – our

Dave Domingues EDITOR

The generations to come will grow ever more alienated from the sources of their food, water, energy and material goods... It is rather urgent that we help them to regain their rootedness in nature.

forests, grasslands, rivers, oceans, fruit trees, animals, etc. We depend on them and they are, quite simply, the sources of life.

This realization has to lead us not just to acknowledge the irreplaceable value of nature in our decision– making and policies, but has to trigger a greater effort to preserve nature and its resources as a common treasure we should equally share. Knowing that, in a not too far future, four out of five persons may live in urban areas, it is rather urgent that we help our young generations to regain their rootedness in nature and to re-connect to the natural world. Only in this way can we educate them to use the natural resources, not only thinking of their own needs and survival but feeling the responsibility to ensure that such treasure will be there for the needs and survival of future generations.

When was the last time you walked barefoot? Or planted a flower? Or dirtied your hands, planting some vegetables? Or appreciated a peaceful stream of fresh water? Or harvested some fruits? Or visited a farm? Or spent some hours contemplating the ocean?

These questions may seem petty but the fact is that alienation from the natural world has tragic consequences, not only for us as individuals but for our survival in this world enchanted with technology. Can you still be fascinated by the scent of a flower? Can you appreciate the roaring of the sea? Can the melody of a bird still fill your heart?

Now is the time to re-connect.

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your let ters Write to: The Editor, World Mission Magazine • 7885 Segundo Mendoza Street, Villa Mendoza Subd. − Sucat 1715 Parañaque City, M.M. – Philippines • E-mail: wm.editor@gmail.com AWeSOME WOMAN Gazing at the picture of an armless woman…my immediate reaction was to think “how unlucky she can be” and start to sympathizing with and pitying her. But the feeling totally desapeared after reading her beautiful, heartwarming and inspiring story, featured in the August issue of WM. She is amazing and I give her a double-thumbs up. I am in awe and admire her strength, determination and confidence to overcome her not being “normal”… her having a heart for the poor…..even going back to her roots and helping her hometown to get-up, all in spite of her physical incompleteness. She is armless…but she showed the world that she can do much more than those with two arms.

Let me congratulate the editor and staff of WM for your endless well-done job. The articles, insights and information in the magazine are getting better issue after issue. The readers can always find an article they can relate to. Just like an article, by Fr. Dave Domingues, about Fr. Bob McCahill who helps the poor in Bangladesh ….. the phrase “first things first” is a very effective attitude one should consider. I can attest to that for I use it in my daily life – at home, at work and in everything I do. One never gets tired reading the WM and, I’m sure, the thousands of its readers and subscribers are learning a lot from, satisfied and happy in reading the magazine. I do. « MARIA CRISTINA M.V., Quezon City, Philippines (Received by e-mail) BODY AND SOUL MINISTERED

As a Catholic journalist, I find World Mission magazine to be a highly professional, very timely, extremely challenging and deeply spiritual publication. It is indeed a window to the world, helping readers to better understand the life and death issues facing humanity in the 21st century.

It not only helps us increase our understanding of these crucial issues, but helps deepen our sensitivity to the pain and suffering so many of our brothers and sisters are enduring.

And, thus, we are inspired to reach out and help heal their wounds and address the root causes of injustice.

World Mission magazine reminds us that mission involves ministry to soul and body – both ours and others. And its articles and commentaries help flesh out the call of the world’s bishops at Vatican Council II who proclaimed: “The joys and the hopes, the grieves and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these, too, are the joys and hopes, the grieves and anxieties of the followers of Christ” (Gaudium et Spes/Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World). « Tony Magliano, Maryland, U.S.A. (Received by e-mail)

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That Christians, inspired by the Word of God, may serve the poor and suffering.

inside The Promised Land

One of the blunt injustices in the Philippines, and in many other countries, is the shocking contrast between the few who amass vast areas of land and the poor farmers often deprived of their own survival. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, up to a quarter of the world’s population is estimated to be landless, including 200 million people living in rural areas. Failed agrarian reform programs, the greed of several landowners, the false promises made by politicians, and the many difficulties encountered by those who advocate the fair distribution of lands, have culminated in a mere notion of a “promised land” to the poor farmers. These have not only impoverished the farmers and crushed the hopes and dreams of their families, but have threatened the food security of the country as well. Land constitutes the main asset from which the rural poor are able to derive a livelihood. Thus, access to land is important for development and poverty reduction.

06 11

in focus | the growing chasm

world touch

By Leonard Pollara, organic sage consulting

frontiers

Shouting into the silence

By Fr. Shay Cullen, Mssc

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perspective | CHINA ON THE MOVE

Moving people, moving the faith

By Xie Laoshi, contributor

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insight | RESILIENCE: UNTIL WHEN?

Eradicating poverty: Is it possible?

By Henrylito D. Tacio, journalist

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spiritual reflection | Paths to Contemplation

WM special | RIGHT TO LAND

The better part

By Kris Bayos, Journalist

By Fr. Lorenzo Carraro, mccj

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Missionary vocation | Léopold Sédar Senghor

Bridge between cultures

The disconnect between man and earth

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The Still-Being-Promised Land

26

Inside the Farmers' Mind

By Fr. Lorenzo Carraro, MCCJ

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THE LAST WORD

Lydia’s house, Europe’s first church

By Fr. SILVANO FAUSTI, sJ

WORLD MISSION has the exclusive services of the following magazines for Asia: ALÉM-MAR (Portugal); MUNDO NEGRO (Spain); NIGRIZIA (Italy); NEW PEOPLE (Kenya); WORLDWIDE (South Africa), AFRIQUESPOIR (DR of Congo); ESQUILA MISIONAL (Mexico); MISION SIN FRONTERAS (Peru); and IGLESIA SINFRONTERAS (Colombia).

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w o r l dto u c h GLOBAL

City population to reach 6.4B by 2050 Global urban population is expected to increase by another 2.5 billion people by 2050 from current levels of 3.9 billion or 54% of population, with the greatest growth expected in India, China and Nigeria, according to the 2014 revision of the World Urbanization Prospect.

Marking the World Population Day, the updated U.N. report notes that India, China and Nigeria will account for 37% of the projected growth of the world's urban population between 2014 and 2050. By 2050, India is projected to add 404 million urban dwellers; China, 292 million; and Nigeria, 212 million.

Today, 54% of the world's population lives in urban areas, a proportion that is expected to increase to 66% by 2050, states the report produced by the U.N. Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Projections show that urbanization, combined with the overall growth of the world's population, could add another 2.5 billion people to urban populations by 2050, with close to 90% of the increase concentrated in Asia and Africa, according to the report.

The 2014 revision of the World Urbanization Prospects, produced by the U.N. Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, notes that the largest urban growth will take place in India, China and Nigeria. These three countries will account for 37% of the projected growth of the world's urban population between 2014 and 2050.

The urban population of the world has grown rapidly from 746 million in 1950 to 3.9 billion in 2014. By 2045, the world's urban population is expected to surpass six billion. Asia, despite its lower level of urbanization, is home to 53% of the world's urban population, followed by Europe with 14% and Latin America and the Caribbean with 13%.

Much of the expected urban growth will take place in countries of the developing regions, particularly Africa. As a

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result, these countries will face numerous challenges in meeting the needs of their growing urban populations, including housing, infrastructure, transportation, energy and employment, as well as basic services such as education and health care. "Managing urban areas has become one of the most important development challenges of the 21st century. Our success or failure in building sustainable cities will be a major factor in the success of the post-2015 U.N. development agenda," said John Wilmoth, Director of the Population Division in the U.N.'s Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

The report notes that there were ten "mega-cities" with 10 million inhabitants or more population in 1990, accounting for 153 million or 7% of the global urban population. And, currently, there are 28 mega-cities worldwide.These mega-cities are home to 453 million people or about 12% of the world's urban dwellers. Sixteen of these mega-cities are located in Asia, four in Latin America, three each in Africa and Europe, and two in Northern

America. By 2030, the world is projected to have 41 mega-cities with 10 million inhabitants or more.

Tokyo remains the world's largest city with 38 million inhabitants, followed by Delhi with 25 million, Shanghai with 23 million, and Mexico City, Mumbai and So Paulo, each with around 21 million inhabitants.

Osaka has just over 20 million, followed by Beijing with slightly less than 20 million.

The New York-Newark area and Cairo complete the top ten most populous urban areas with around 18.5 million inhabitants each.

Although Tokyo's population is projected to decline, it will remain the world's largest city in 2030 with 37 million inhabitants, followed closely by Delhi, whose population is projected to rise swiftly to 36 million in 2030.

While Osaka and New York-Newark were the world's second and third largest urban areas in 1990, they are projected to fall in rank to the 13th and 14th positions, respectively, by 2030, as mega-cities in developing countries become more prominent. www.chinanationalnews.com

SCIENCE

a multimillion dollar business Every year, hundreds of women from China, Hong Kong and Australia arrive in Bangkok to undergo a particular type of IVF – In Vitro Fertilization and Embryo Transfer – which allows them to choose the sex of their unborn child.

The expectant mothers have the opportunity to discard ova or embryos of the undesired sex and, as always happens, these are mostly women (and couples) who want to have sons. One example among many is that of a 26-year-old woman, originally from Hong Kong, who arrived in the Thai capital with her husband to try for a second child: male. To be sure of the sex, the couple paid at least nine thousand dollars: "In Chinese tradition,” – he said, “having two children, a girl and a boy, is perfection." He adds that "there is nothing wrong with daughters but because of tradition and custom in Hong Kong and China, families want boys."

Church sources in Bangkok confirm that the practice is widespread and "for three or four years now, you can see billboards on the streets, along with ads on TV and newspapers." It is a growing phenomenon, the sources continue, that "generates a remarkable turnover."

The Thai Church "has never taken a position on the matter," they add, "although there are in-depth discussions on the matter. This business involves the more affluent in society, while civil society thinks 'live and let live’' without posing any problems or ethical issues. This is why,” said the source, “the Church needs to make its voice clearly

and loudly heard, because it is an issue that touches the deepest meaning of life."

Moreover, Thailand is the only country in Asia where this particular technique of assisted procreation is still permitted, along with the United States and South Africa, where the cost is much higher. In Bangkok, dozens of clinics of varying professional competence, give future parents

this type of "service" so as to "balance" the gender ratio within families.

In traditional IVF, the eggs are extracted from a woman, fertilized, and then placed back inside the womb for nine months of pregnancy; with sex selection, they are implanted – as is the case in the vast majority of cases – only those that will lead to the birth of a boy. The practice has been criticized by medical orders and ethical organizations around the world, but continues to attract potential clients from all over the continent for a turnover of more than $ 150 million a year. And the demand continues to grow, with an increase, on an annual basis, of approximately 20% and, consequently, a proliferation of centers (more or less recognized) to meet the need.

This Asian nation is, thus, increasingly becoming the preferred destination for Chinese couples who do not want to leave the sex of the unborn child to chance – and who are willing to pay sums up to 30 thousand dollars for a package of treatment that can last up to three weeks to achieve the desired result. An agent could sell up to 200 packages per year in China. The business is also getting interest and attention in Australia. www.asianews.it

Immigration officials have detained nearly 60,000 children without their parents at the southern U.S. border since October, more than double the number picked up the year before. Until 2011, an average of 7,000 a year was apprehended. Government officials now estimate 90,000 will be picked up in 2014 and 130,000 next year. Most are not from Mexico but from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, who are fleeing violence and crime in their home countries. – www.ncronline.org WORLD

jump in death penalty The number of executions worldwide increased last year despite a global trend toward capital punishment abolition. This is the finding of the 2014 report entitled "The death penalty in the

world," compiled by the Italian organization, Hands Off Cain, and presented recently in Rome, Italy. Asian and Middle Eastern nations are in the lead for the number of people sent to their death. Once again, in 2013, China won this sad award, followed at some distance by Iran and Iraq.

According to the report in 2013, there were at least 4,106 executions (an indicative figure because, in several states including China, there is no reliable data available on the number of death sentences) – a significant increase compared

to 3,967 in 2012. Last year, executions became more frequent in Iran and Iraq, contributing to the increase of the statistics.

China remains at the top, with more than three thousand executions last year, a figure similar to that recorded in 2012. It should be pointed out, however, that Beijing has almost halved its implementation of the death penalty since 2007 but, in 2013, still counted for 74.5% of the global total.

Following China is Iran, with at least 687 executions, the

highest figure in 15 years, while there were 172 in Iraq (this is the highest figure reported from Baghdad since the fall of Dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003 following the U.S. invasion). The three leading nations for the death penalty are followed by Saudi Arabia (78 executions), Somalia (at least 27), Sudan (21), North Korea (at least 17), Yemen (13) and Vietnam (8). It should be emphasized that many nations do not provide official statistics and the number could be far greater. www.asianews.it

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VIETNAM

First Catholic university Vietnam’s first Catholic university is no longer a mirage. It is very soon going to become a reality. In fact, according to Paul Bui Van Doc, Archbishop of Ho Chi Minh City, the structure could be ready within a year. It is going to mark a crucial turning point in the history of the Vietnamese Catholic Church, the sign of an eagerly awaited return to the freedom of education, which the communist government has denied the people for 60 years.

The Archbishop of former Saigon proudly explained that “the dialogic approach adopted with the government is producing results.” As bilateral relations gradually relax, he said, bishops have pointed out that more and more universities and private campuses run by foreign Asian, Australian and European entities and universities have been popping up over the past decade. The first of these was established in 2001. “Why then should the Catholic Church in Vietnam be deprived of

this right? Particularly, given the shortcomings in the national education system which are evident from the figures on Vietnamese education.” The Catholic Church can offer its educational philosophy and experience to educate people into becom-

ing responsible individuals for the good of the entire society,” the president of the local Episcopate said.

Having been kept out of the statemonopolized educational system for decades, bishops developed the project and

took action once they found a gap in the institutions. They looked into forging a partnership with the prestigious Catholic University of Paris and came up with the idea of establishing an advanced Institute of Theological Studies in Ho Chi Minh City. Simultaneously, bishops sought pontifical status for the new institution from the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education. Archbishop Paul Bui Van Doc said this will be granted “very soon now.”

The project quickly ended up on the desks of officials in the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and, judging from the first interviews and informal communication established, a lot of headway has been made in the process of obtaining government authorization.

“We are confident. Education is key and for the Church, educational freedom is a crucial means of carrying out the mission of evangelizing today’s society.” www. vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/ Paolo Affatato

“The dignity of the person derives not from his economic situation, political affiliation, level of education, immigration status or religious belief.

Every human being, for the very fact of being a person, possesses a dignity that deserves to be treated with the utmost respect.”

– Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, speaking on migration and human dignity, during his Mexico visit last July. www.zenit.org.

"A growing insecurity caused by unequal access to increasingly scarce natural resources leads to tragic conflicts from which nobody – no elite, no matter how rich – can hide. This is an entirely plausible outcome of a complacent business-as-usual approach to 2015.” – Graça Machel, widow of the late South African statesman Nelson Mandela, pressing U.K.’s Prime Minister David Cameron to take the lead in an international U.N. framework agreement on climate change in 2015. www.theguardian.com

"We emerge out of this long, cosmic process we call evolution. But evolution is about deep relationality.

We are created for love, and that's what keeps pulling us onward." – Sr. Ilia Delio, in her keynote address, at the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, Aug. 14 in Kissimmee, Fla. www.ncronline.org

"I think we have become closed systems, unnatural and detached.

And, therefore, we are not at home in this cosmos. We are not at home in nature, and we're not at home with one another. We are literally lost in space." – Idem, Ibidem

“The solution to the problem of migration requires a profound cultural and social conversion that enables a closed culture to transform into a culture of welcome and encounter.”

– Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, speaking on migration and human dignity, during his Mexico visit last July. www.zenit.org.

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FOOD

Better use of cropland

REFUGEES

Child marriage soars Child marriage among Syrian refugees in Jordan has more than doubled since the start of the conflict, leaving girls vulnerable to health problems, domestic abuse and poverty, the U.N. said.

According to a report by the U.N. children's agency, UNICEF, almost a third of registered marriages among Syrian refugees in Jordan between January and March this year involved girls under 18. Jordan is home to more than 600,000 registered Syrian refugees. The prevalence of such unions has been rising since 2011; before the war, 13% of registered marriages involved children. The surge is likely to have a damaging effect on the girls' future, the U.N. warns, jeopardizing their health as well as their educational and financial prospects.

According to the report, 48% of girls marry men at least 10 years older than them. "Girls who marry before 18 years of age are at increased risk of complications during pregnancy and of being victims of abuse," said Robert Jenkins, UNICEF's Jordan representative. "They also have more limited economic opportunities due to loss of schooling and can get trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty."

The study identifies several factors responsible for child marriage: alleviating poverty or the burden of a large family with many daughters; providing protection for young girls; continuing traditions, cultural or family; and serving as an escape for girls living in an abusive home environment.

Yasmine, a 16-year-old Syrian refugee who lives in a camp in Jordan, told UNICEF she married a 24-year-old man nine months ago. She is five months pregnant. "When I was younger I was dreaming about being a fashion designer, but now I can't achieve that because of my situation," she said.

Yasmine's mother said Syria's civil war had caused many child refugees to drop out of school, which had increased rates of child marriage among refugees. "Some respondents reported that a teenage daughter's poor performance at school could be reason enough for parents to begin looking for a husband for her. In their view, there was little point in continuing with her education," the report says.

Interviews with Syrian refugees in Jordan, conducted by UNICEF and Save the Children , suggest social and familial pressure is at the root of many child marriages.

Maha, 13, said: "My father forced me to get married because he heard about a rape case nearby. He was scared the same would happen to my sister and me. He forced my sister to get married first, and then he made me get married right after that. And I had no choice. I didn't want to get married.

I would've liked to finish my studies, but I couldn't do that."

Although child marriage is seen as a way of preserving cultures and protecting vulnerable girls from the uncertainties of refugee life, humanitarian agencies argue it is a destructive practice. "Child marriage is devastating for those girls concerned," said Justin Forsyth, chief executive of Save the Children. "These girls who, by fleeing the war in Syria, have already been subjected to more than any child should, are at extreme risk of mental health issues resulting from social isolation, stress and abuse."

He said the physical effects of child marriage could sometimes be fatal. "The consequences for girls' health, of engaging in sexual activity while their bodies are still developing, are devastating. Girls under 15 are five times more likely to die in childbirth than fully-grown women."

The world’s existing cropland could feed at least 3 billion extra people if it were used more efficiently, a new study has found, showing that the large increases in population expected in the next three decades need not result in widespread hunger.

More than half of the fertilizer currently poured on to crops in many countries is wasted, according to the study. About 60% of the nitrogen applied to crops worldwide is not needed, as well as about half of the phosphorus, an element whose readily available sources are dwindling.

Cutting waste even by modest amounts would also feed millions, the authors found: between one-thirdand-a-half of the viable crops and food produced from them around the world are wasted – in the developing world, usually, because of a lack of infrastructure such as refrigerated transport and, in the rich world, because of wasteful habits.

The study, published in the peer-review journal Science and led by scientists at the University of Minnesota in the U.S., suggested that a focus on staple crops such as wheat and rice in key countries, including China, India, the U.S., Brazil, Indonesia, Pakistan and Europe, would pay off in terms of producing more food for the world’s growing population. Most forecasts are that the world will number more than 9 billion people by 2050, up from about 7 billion people today. www.theguardian.com/Fiona Harvey

www.theguardian.com/ mark Anderson

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VIOLENCE

A sign of Jonah I have a big problem with Ph.D. clerics who carry automatic weapons. Consider, if you will, Dr. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi al-Husseini al-Qurashi, whose doctorate is in Islamic studies. He is the 40-something Iraqi imam nicknamed Abu Du'a who recently called for the world's Muslims to follow him. He claims descent from the Prophet Muhammad. The U.S. government calls him a Specially Designated Global Terrorist and has posted a $10 million reward for his capture or killing.

As its Caliph, Abu Du'a heads the Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), an amorphous terrorist grouping connected by weapons and hatred of anyone and anything that does not mesh with the most extreme understandings of Islam. They have spread across Syria and Iraq. They kill people. They blow up things.

In late July, in or near Iraq's secondlargest city of Mosul, they blew up the Muslim shrine to the Prophet Seth, the third son of Adam and Eve, known in Christianity, Islam and Judaism. And they blew up a famous mosque and several holy sites. And they blew up the grand Tomb of Jonah across the Tigris in Nineveh. That would be the same Jonah who spent three days in the belly of the great fish, then was beached at Nineveh where he preached repentance to an evil generation, as God directed him. Featured in both the Bible and the Quran, Jonah is well known to both Christians and Muslims. Jesus recalls him in Matthew's Gospel. Abu Du'a and his legions do not like Jesus' followers any more than they like Jonah. It certainly looks as if they are involved in what the world recognizes as genocide.

There once were 1.5 million Christians in Iraq. That was in 2003. Now the U.S. Department of State estimates there are about half a million – some say fewer – mostly Chaldean Catholics and their cousins in the Assyrian Church of the East. These Christians are most seriously under siege. In Mosul, their homes are marked with "N" for "Nazarene," an Arabic slur for Christians. They have protested. They have asked the United Nations for help. They are suffering most deeply in the cities and towns the Islamic State controls.

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Iraq was once a fairly tolerant nation, and when things got bad in recent times, many Christians fled to Syria. Now the minions of the Caliph with the Ph.D. and an automatic weapon present three options for Iraqi Christians: leave, pay a tax, or die.

No one knows how much the tax is. Conversion to Islam is always an option.

Things have been tough there before.

In the 14th century, the Ottoman Empire's forces beheaded 140,000 Christians in Tikrit and Baghdad. New extremist twists make the current situation equally revolting. For example, there were reports (now deemed false) of a fatwa – a religious edict – that the 4 million women and girls in and around Mosul would be required to undergo female genital mutilation.

That the world so quickly accepted these reports testifies to the genuine brutality in Iraq and elsewhere.

The sickness that must control women's bodies is the same sickness that must control memories and minds. It seeks

to destroy all history, all culture, all religious thought that might free people from superstition and fear, from hatred and deceit. Iraq and its people suffer deeply the effects of that sickness. Iraq is ruptured and wounded. Its people are frightened and alone. But the world sees and looks away, distracted by other atrocities. There is Gaza. There is Ukraine. There is Sudan.

There is Syria.

It is not enough to wander the streets of Nineveh or any other city, town or village demanding repentance. Iraq is becoming the center of hatred against all culture and history and religion. From his balcony overlooking St. Peter's Square, Pope Francis said: "Please stop!" But there must be more than a sign of Jonah here.

Phyllis Zagano Phyllis Zagano is a senior research associate-in-residence at Hofstra University and winner of the 2014 Isaac Hecker Award for Social Justice.

f r o n t i e r s

SHOUTING INTO THE SILENCE One of the most important things for a happy meaningful life is to have a goal, a positive purpose that does good for others and for ourselves. It can be helping in the community, volunteering in a Fair Trade shop, supporting in a shelter for the homeless, or raising funds for a worthy cause. by

Fr. Shay Cullen, Mssc | PREDA FOUNDATION

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ome people feel called to be involved with a campaign for peace and human rights and to make this a happier, more peaceful and forgiving world. Some set out to save the environment from destruction and degradation and to protect the planet and the people. Others are dedicated to protecting human rights and ending violence by non-violent means. In other words, doing all we can to bring about justice in the community.

That's no easy task; there is so much injustice, inequality and unfairness that a situation can overwhelm us. That's when we trust in the spirit of truth. When the powerful dominate the poor, it can be heartbreaking and depressing. In the Philippines, just a mere 40 families account for 76% of the growth of the gross domestic product (GDP). Just two families had a combined wealth of $13.6 billion, or equivalent to 6% of the Philippine economy.

One percent of the population owns or controls 70% of the national wealth.

When we look at government figures, it shows that 25 million people struggle to survive in dire poverty and barely survive on about one U.S. dollar ($1) a day. That is 6% of the Philippine population. Those in the next bracket are not much better off. This huge disparity in wealth is at the core of Philippine poverty and hardship. The ruling elite have arranged it all in their favor.

So economic growth figures do not ref lect any improvement in the lives of most Filipinos.

But with a strong belief that good can overcome evil, truth can vanquish lies and deceit, right can overcome wrong, and life can overcome death, then many things are possible. That is the spirit of Pentecost, the power of the inner spirit of hope, compassion and integrity to change the world. This is the spirit that gives us the power to be prophetic. That means to have courage to speak out and denounce evil, wrongdoing, sexual exploitation of children and corruption. That spirit also gives hope and a belief that positive action can eventually bring about a more just society where people have enough for a life of dignity.

A modern prophetic voice that has inspired me over the years is that of Danny Smith who founded the Jubilee Campaign, a registered charity in the U.K. Danny has been tirelessly working for human rights around the world since 1981 and almost single-handedly campaigned with powerful effective results against many injustices.

His most successful campaigns saved children from the cruel abuse of sexual exploitation in the Philippines; he exposed and saved children that were left to die in cruel orphanages in China; he worked to release hundreds of children in prison in Brazil and Manila. In

With a strong belief that good can overcome evil, truth can vanquish lies and deceit, right can overcome wrong, and life can overcome death, then many things are possible. That is the spirit of ... compassion and integrity to change the world.

a powerful campaign in the U.K., he exposed child sacrifices in Africa and in the U.K., and got strong political action to stop it. He inspired and supported many more great causes.

However, the prophetic mission is filled with difficulties and challenges.

Enemies rise up full of envy and jealousy and crush the good and the just.

There is a great silence that the prophetic voice tries to penetrate. Then there is the harsh opposition, the death threats, physical assaults and the assassination of the modern prophets. In the Philippines, the most recent has been Romeo Capalla, an advocate of justice for the farmers of Panay Island and a promoter of Fair Trade. Father Pops Tentorio, Italian PIME missionary, was also gunned down for taking a stand for the rights of the indigenous people in Mindanao. Father Rufus Halley, my classmate, an Irish missionary of the Columbans, was brutally murdered for standing with the oppressed Muslim people in Mindanao, and many more social workers and human rights advocates had the same fate.

The mission for justice is the greatest challenge, the most prophetic and the most dangerous. We all need the spirit of truth to dwell within us to enable us to endure to the end and break through the great silence that ignores injustice and abuse and keeps the poor in bondage.

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perspective • CHINA ON THE MOVE

Moving people, moving the faith

Although the parallel change, in March 2013, in the leadership of China, the most populated country on earth, and the Vatican, where the largest group of believers are in the world, sparked a glimmer of hope for Catholics living inside and outside China, much remains to be seen in terms of the thawing of relations between the two states. While top leaders of both countries are working hard to try to break the impasse, local Church leaders have to contend with the fast-changing landscape of China brought about by rural-to-urban migration, which poses a challenge to the Church’s evangelization efforts. by

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ince their almost simultaneous election in March 2013, a lot of things have been said about Chinese President Xi Jinping and Pope Francis. Among these is the possible resumption of diplomatic ties between China and the Vatican, which have been severed for over sixty years. This speculation was fueled by a simple gesture that Pope Francis did after Xi Jinping’s election, i.e., the sending of a congratulatory message to President Xi. This fact, revealed only recently, prompted a harsh reaction from the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA), which clearly reiterated China’s unbending admonition for the Vatican to cease interfering in China’s internal affairs and to break ties with Taiwan.

In fact, ties between China and the Vatican have never been more frigid in recent years. Since Bishop Ma Daqin’s ordination in Shanghai early in July last year, the Church in China has been living through a very delicate period.

Rendering his ordination illicit, the Chinese authorities placed Bishop Ma under house arrest. Since then, there has been no episcopal ordination in China. It will, therefore, be interesting to see which, between China and the Vatican, will make the next move.

In the meantime, while top Chinese and Vatican officials are at a deadlock, life goes on as usual for the Chinese Catholic population, with its own peculiarities in each region. In particular, the phenomenon of migration and its implications, especially among rural Catholics, is what the Church is focusing on now. The challenge to Church leaders is how to accompany Catholics from a traditional rural set up to allow them to integrate and express their faith in an urban milieu. If anything, these challenges and how they are being addressed from the top level to the grassroots are proof that the Church in China is very much alive.

Church in transformation

For the first time in history, there are more Chinese living in cities than in

 CHOKING. Exodus to the cities has created a spiritual and moral vacuum in people's lives.

As a result of rapid urbanization, Catholics in China grow up in an atmosphere of atheism and materialism where the pursuit of money and the materialistic trends of society leave little space for prayer... leaving a spiritual and moral vacuum in the lives of many. the countryside. At the end of 2012, urban dwellers accounted for 51.27% of China's 1.34 billion people. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, this presented an increase of 1.32% compared to the 2010 figure.

Rapid urbanization in China over the past 30 years has underpinned its economic performance as hundreds of millions of people have left country living for towns and cities in search of better jobs. In 2011 alone, China's rural population fell to 14.6 million. However, urbanization itself is lessening the need for more workers, even though the massive shift of people from rural areas into cities is far from over.

As a result of rapid urbanization, Catholics in China grow up in an atmosphere of atheism and materialism where the pursuit of money and the materialistic trends of society leave little space for prayer. The fast pace at which society is changing is leaving a spiritual and moral vacuum in the lives of many people. Many do not have clear and meaningful parameters to guide their lives.

Since the Church transforms and is transformed by the context in which she lives and develops, she is bound to respond to this vacuum that the pursuit of money and status in society cannot fulfill. She has to extend a helping hand to the often painful transitions people go through while moving from a traditional to a modern society. What contribution can the Church in China make to China’s modernization in the coming years? And how can the Church face the issue of migration which presents inner conf licts in the newlyemerging society?

Nowadays, there are three general categories of Chinese Catholics: those who pray every day, those who go to Mass every Sunday, and those who attend Mass during the four principal feasts of the year: Easter, Pentecost, the Assumption, and Christmas.

Although Marxist ideology is in decline, having lost credibility in society, it does not make things easier for the Church that also has to confront the pursuit of money and secularization that challenge Catholics. The chal-

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lenges the Church faces vary from rural to urban areas. Although Christianity developed in the countryside with around 75% of Catholics living in rural areas, there is also a growing Catholic presence in cities like Beijing, Guangzhou, Tianjin and Shanghai. In villages where the main population is Catholic, the lives of people are regulated by the Church bell that rings in the early morning as well as in the evening calling Christians to attend their daily prayers and Eucharist.

Rural Catholics

Catholicism was part and parcel of village life. In fact, Catholicism strengthened the boundaries and ties of rural communities. The Christian faith that was traditionally passed from generation to generation was based on the strong community links among its members. Major feast days were devot-

edly celebrated and, in many places, are still being observed by the Catholics in China, particularly by the rural sector.

Most rural Catholics attended Christmas liturgy as it fell in winter when they are relieved from farm work. Although Easter and Pentecost usually arrived during busy times of plowing and planting, the farmers left aside their work and walked or traveled for hours to attend Easter liturgies. To say the least, the rural Church was a vital force for the Chinese Church. Catholics from the countryside helped preserve the faith during hard times. Many religious vocations came from sons and daughters of rural families whose Catholic faith was passed on from generation to generation.

Today, however, some of the gains made by rural Catholics are quickly fading away. The image of the Christian village is changing for two reasons. The first is that the work force

The Christian faith that was traditionally passed from generation to generation was based on the strong community links among its members. Major feast days were devotedly celebrated and, in many places, are still being observed by the Catholics in China.

in the rural areas has migrated to the urban areas looking for jobs. The other reason is that children and youths leave their homes to attend school in nearby towns or cities and only return home for a short time every two weeks or so.

That means children and teenagers are growing up without the awareness of important liturgical seasons such as Holy Week. What impact will this have on the future of the Church? It is not rare to see grandparents attending church services with little kids while primary or secondary students may stay at home playing computer games.

Things are changing in China and Catholics are starting to face challenges that are derived from the allure of a changing society. Certain traditional devotions that appealed to those in the past might not be so inspiring to the new generation. The Church needs to respond to the aspirations of the younger set.

Urban Catholics

Urban Christian communities, on the other hand, are more inclined to follow a more personal and individual expres-

Lusa

 IDENTITY. Christian faith strengthens the ties of rural communities in China, giving them a true sense of belonging and identity.

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perspective • CHINA ON THE MOVE

Lusa

 FAITH IN ACTION. In many parishes in China, the Church has become a vital presence through its welfare and educational programs.

sion of their faith. Cultural institutions have increased in the past few years and many charitable organizations have been established in various dioceses of China. Through these endeavors, the Church realizes its capability to encounter society in its various dimensions: in the fields of education (kindergartens), health centers, and assistance to the disabled.

Many dioceses or parishes are operating social services, such as clinics, hospitals, homes for the elderly, orphanages, tutorial or vocational-training classes, medical classes, and guest houses.

The Church has become a vital presence through its welfare and educational programs and has made visible the best side of Christianity, namely, its compassion and concern for the poor and abandoned.

Aside from the corporal, dioceses have also engaged the challenges posed to the faith by the internet. While a lot is already being done through diocesan websites, the development of evangelization programs in urban areas via the internet deserves more attention.

In addition, the Church is particularly challenged to meet the spiritual needs of university students, intellectuals and professionals and, at the same time, respond to the needs of migrants moving to the cities.

Formation, however, continues to be a crucial issue. In spite of the efforts made by the Church, there is still a lack of theologians and formation directors at seminaries and novitiates. In order to solve this problem, some young priests, although only in their 30’s, are already seminary lecturers, have been sent overseas to be updated in theology, scripture, liturgy and other Church-related matters.

Still, the demand for knowledgeable theologians is significant. Since the late 1980’s, theologians and Catholic professors from other countries have given lectures and courses in various seminaries. Catholic students and youth in the urban areas do not always have a deep enough understanding of their faith to answer the questions and challenges of non-believers.

The road ahead

While China is adopting a market economy – which is particularly prosperous in major cities and the Eastern coastal areas – materialism, consumerism, and individualism are prevalent.

Although they improve lives, they also counter the preaching of moral and spiritual values. For example, in one city, a young priest was troubled and wondered if Catholics could invest or speculate in the stock market which some might regard as immoral.

Indeed, the rural-urban split in the Church is a matter of particular interest and is of great concern for local Church leaders. Aside from the difficulty of getting settled in a fast-paced and more modern society, Catholics coming from the countryside into the cities also face many spiritual challenges and temptations. It is in this regard that the Church in China must persist in its efforts to serve society’s physical needs while making Christianity known to those near and far, to those coming from rural to urban settings.

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in focus • THE GROWING CHASM

The disconnect between man and earth Man’s obsession with technology and advancements in food production, trade, and even how time is perceived, has made him seemingly detached more and more from nature and the environment he lives in. What used to be an integral part of man and his survival has now become an accessory which, more often than not, is rendered irrelevant to how life should be lived. Perhaps it would be best to revisit the rudiments of survival, look towards nature, and teach younger generations of its value and importance – before we lose a sense of who we are and what we originally stood for. by

Leonard Pollara | organic sage consulting

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onsidering the behavior of mankind on Planet Earth today brings us to a fantastic reality.

Not in the sense of great fantastic, but rather the sense of “surreal fantasy” fantastic – a very troubling reality. Man is experiencing a fascination verging on obsession with technology. While making our world seem smaller and more intimate, technological advancement is also fueling a false sense of security based on the belief that tech-

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nology alone is promising “a better future.” The further disconnection between each successive generation and an intimate and personal awareness of nature, “the earth,” is becoming a growing chasm that we ignore at the expense of survival.

The “Natural” Man

Historic research, oral tradition, and archeology have revealed that the first men who roamed the earth emerged

as ‘hunters-gatherers.’ This provides a profound insight of the intimate relationship between man and the earth and (acknowledging that we-are-whatwe-eat) a sense of how the first humans were truly men of the earth.

Faith and beliefs, along with traditions, speak of creation. Many creation stories feature spirit animals and floods involved in a transition from a different plane of existence to the current world.

The abundance of the earth in its nat-

 NEAR YET SO FAR. Man's fascination with technology has created greater disconnection.

Man is experiencing a fascination verging on obsession with technology. While making our world seem smaller ... technological advancement is also fueling a false sense of security based on the belief that technology alone is promising a better future.

ural form features as the nurturer or ‘mother’ of all living things. Likewise, in many of these traditions, the ‘father’ holds dominion in the spirit world.

Also, in most of these traditions, there is equality among all living things on earth in respect to their relationship with the Creator. Or, in other words, all living things are on earth by right of creation, regardless of the manner of that creation. No argument can be sustained that proposes that any living thing that exists does not ‘belong’ here on earth. Even if you do not believe that all things are created equal, regardless of the path of creation, we can agree that all things are equally ‘created.’

Scientific research has uncovered the elemental building blocks of life on earth. Carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, potassium, phosphorous and a myriad of essential elements in smaller

amounts run as threads of continuity throughout living organisms. All life on earth is arguably interconnected with commonality at the cellular and elemental level, if at no other.

There is also a mystery surrounding living things. We may have discovered ‘the what’ of life, and yet remain ignorant of ‘the how’; the spark of life, essence, or soul, which this mystery is sometimes called. Yes, this, too, is believed by many to represent a common thread of the life-force energy connecting all natural things.

We should never reject the idea that people are ‘natural’ beings. We may be distancing ourselves daily from the rest of the natural world yet we are surely a part of it. For the purpose of this discussion, let’s focus on those things that we believe we know.

Early primitive man was often nomadic; in many cases, living in what we would consider harsh environments today. Many forces, not the least of which were the sun, ages of glaciation and the rigors of life, among significant predators such as wolves and other men, incited man to find and establish

shelter. Caves were one solution; hide shelters were another. Remaining in a location or place was less energy-consuming than roaming, as long as there were plenty of available sources of food.

In some cases where food was in jeopardy of running out seasonally, and the location proved very favorable, agriculture was born; first, intentionally growing plants and then, adding domesticated animals that were held captive and managed as renewable food sources.

This abundance of food at hand allowed man time to engage in activities other than subsistence alone.

Man, moving into virtually every habitable environment, finally emerged as the top predator across the planet.

This predominance notwithstanding, no one escaped the reality of seasons nor do we to this day. The availability of food, comfort of shelter, and vulnerability to attack were directly tied to these earth rhythms. To a great extent, this is still the case today, although the ‘predators’ mostly manifest as diseases and, tragically, other humans.

Life on earth has emerged and flourished in concert with the seasons

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long before the ascent of man. Life cycles of almost all living things can be seen as expressions of the seasons of the earth.

The earth appears to remain, within all environments in which man lives, a constant. This is true only because of our brief life spans in comparison to the life of the earth. In the face of geologic time, we have existed only brief ly. The earth is indeed a marvelously dynamic and complex symphony of physical systems from which all life has emerged. The human adaptations in response to this dynamism are as diverse as imagination and technology can furnish, speaking, of course, of the level of human development and the resulting technological advancement at any given point in history (e.g. a cave=> a hide shelter=> a hut=> a house=> a tenement=> a castle=> a condo in a skyscraper. And what next?)

Man’s Partnership with Nature

It is really of great value, when considering civilizations today, to recognize that prior to the industrial revolution, most societies were living within the systems of nature. Many had largely developed their technologies and concepts around the idea of the earth or natural elements as deities or spirits. Most of these cultures, as study has revealed, had imputed religious significance to the land, plants, animals and heavens.

From the first man to the man of today, all of mankind is reliant upon access to fresh water for survival. It is possible to survive for up to three weeks without food and only about three days without water. So, a good source of water in a protected location was desirable. In fact, it still is. Looking at the great centers of civilization, one of the commonalities is that most were established at the intersection of or near great rivers. Initially, this solved the problems of fresh water.

Those rivers also probably washed away waste, and offered protection from predation or attack. In likewise fashion, that water may have been

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used in dry times to water food crops grown to sustain populations. [Unfortunately, another commonality of the fresh water in those same places today is that they are polluted to the extent that some are not drinkable even with treatment, a problem that technology cannot solve.]

Travel was undertaken, either during migration or along trade routes. Even with the invention and use of the wheel, most people walked to their destinations. Seafaring populations relied on intimate knowledge of the oceans and currents and seasonality to travel and fish for sustenance.

Nomadic cultures generally moved following natural cycles that were centered around the availability of food.

Non-transient cultures relied largely upon food preservation within the local natural cycles. This was relegated to smoking, drying, salting, pickling, or fermenting of fresh ingredients to preserve them for later consumption. The production of winter stores was always traditionally a community event. Many of the festivals which mankind has celebrated life and death with are centered around the seasons.

Early man had developed predominantly ‘festival’-based cultures. In short, depending upon their level in society, people worked at their lives with very little expectation of regular leisure.

The ever-present urgency was to work to provide for times of scarcity and to ensure survival. They engaged in celebrations to acknowledge death before the onset of winter, and celebrations to acknowledge life and survival with the coming of each new spring; festivals that celebrated natural cycles.

The counting of time was not based on a human-established means as well. The coming of day along with the movement of the moon, stars and sun indicated the passage of time. An awareness of the skies and all the marvels within them were an ever-present companion to early man.

Seasons were tied to the heavenly bodies and the stage of growth of the plants surrounding these early people.

It can be said with certainty that each individual had a personal relationship with the earth, sky and the living world around them. The rigors of living demanded attentiveness to the realities of life on earth.

The earth is indeed a marvelously dynamic and complex symphony of physical systems from which all life has emerged.

The human adaptations in response to this dynamism are as diverse as imagination and technology can furnish.

 LINKED. Throughout all generations, man and nature have been closely connected.

in focus • THE GROWING CHASM

There are many reasons why a clock is not the best measure of a day for everyone.

The self-organizing principles of markets that have emerged in human cultures over the past 10,000 years inherently conflict with the self-organizing principles of ecosystems that have evolved over the past 3.5 billion years.

The “Changed Man”

Unfortunately, that is no longer true for a growing percentage of the population. Of even greater concern is that each successive generation stands separated further from the earth by the entirely man-made pseudo-foundation of technology. This pseudo-foundation is predicated upon man’s “dominion” over the earth.

“The self-organizing principles of markets that have emerged in human cultures over the past 10,000 years inherently conflict with the self-organizing principles of ecosystems that have evolved over the past 3.5 billion years.

The dynamics of ecosystems, within which all human activity takes place, follow the laws of biology, not those of human-created economic systems,” according to Carl N. McDaniel.

We live in a world mostly supported by the consumption of fossil fuels that is the foundation of most of our technology. Fossil fuel exploitation has supported the rapid growth of population.

Concurrently with improved medical skills, cheap transportation and a surge in manufacturing productivity, the reliance upon the industrial chemical com-

plex has coopted agriculture as well.

This has been accompanied by exploding demands for cheap energy across the globe. Unfortunately, this has gone hand in hand with significant environmental degradation.

How do we live in today’s world?

We rise at the sound of an alarm. Why? Because we need to arrive at a place of work at an arranged and specific time.

Of course, that time is based upon a regimented method of measuring each day. Yes, the 24-hour day is based on astronomical cycles of the earth’s rotation that segregates the day into 24 mostly equal segments called hours. Fewer and fewer people understand that this cycle is what we use to define time. Our statement of ‘time’ does not define the cycle.

Previously, man rose when he woke, either with the sun or dawn, driven by a need to meet the demands of life wherever he was. The need to produce something of value, either for sale or personal use, was the motive; survival, the context. After millennia of living in this simple and completely connected way, the rise of technology-based society has altered that relationship almost beyond recognition.

Enter the factory or trade owner who needs regular workers committed to regular hours to produce a predictable output for commercial gain. The imposition of time as a measure of work day rather than the constraints of the day itself, drove more attention to the task and began to move away from attention to day itself. After we complete our day’s work, we return home. The completion of the work day, most often, is not determined by the stage of work but again by the clock. While there are many trades where the clock does not explicitly rule the day, the vast majority of people work a day measured in hours and minutes rather than by sunrise or sunset. There are many reasons why a clock is not the best measure of a day for everyone.

Take, for instance, early agrarian societies. When it was dark outside, work day was over. Nighttime predators emerged and f locks needed to be closed in for security. Lamps were only marginally suitable to working late outdoors. Of course, during harvest season, working in the cool of night under a bright, full or mostly full moon, was often the best choice.

The short season of light is the winter time. After a long growing season, the workers are weary. The resting time, represented by winter, was both natural and welcome. The festivals marking the coming of winter and end of summer were traditionally harvest festivals. Winter was mostly a time to stay warm, indoors, and sleep long nights; in essence, to survive. In traditional local societies, that was the time to spend in storytelling, transforming raw materials into fabric or craft work, and teaching children what else they might learn away from the fields or other farm work. Also, where life demanded constant attention, this time was used for mending and making new tools and materials to prepare for the coming year.

The “Modern Man”

As society developed up to and through the Renaissance and then into the In-

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in focus • THE GROWING CHASM dustrial Revolution, the creation of craft guilds based upon unique skill sets became more pronounced. Similar sequences of events have been observed across all societies where technological advancement surged. The opportunities to specialize and derive a ‘better living’ from plying a specific skill set continued to increase. At the same time, cities continued to grow.

Along with the advancement and growth of technology, embodied in the Industrial Revolution, came a resulting evolution in working class specificity. Each job category became more and more specialized. The work became more demanding and the skills needed to perfect the work became more and more specialized. The advent of mass production and automated productionline technology again escalated the demand for highly specific labor. The perception of opportunity, as well as real opportunities represented in the job markets in cities, were magnets that drew countless people. People began to become more attentive to time of day based upon the relation of that time with their work cycles than earth cycles. This sequence of events has only just happened. That seemed long ago (1800’s), yet in the history of humanity, it represents only a moment on the time line.

Electricity, in the early stages of development was not widespread. Refrigeration, lighting, communications, automotive technology and food processing technologies in the 1900’s changed the world forever. Certainly, there are many other technological advances that have driven world change. Another feature of the Industrial Revolution is that the pace of discovery, development and implementation has escalated to almost fever pitch when considering communication technology advancement today. And then there were world wars.

The huge movement of people and drive to advance technology, as the tool to gain victory, established a new attention and thinking. The urge for dominion of man-over-man shifted somewhat to a drive for dominion over

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 BACK TO NATURE. We cannot afford not to help the new generation to rediscover their vital link with nature and rekindle in them a fundamental love of and intimacy with the earth.

By mere observation, it can be said that people are becoming more disconnected from everything they encounter.

Simply the act of being ‘plugged-in” renders people distant, even from someone they are standing next to. environment for economic gain on a scale never seen before.

During this urbanization period, in densely populated major cities, many people lived in group-housing or tenement apartments and did not tend home gardens. Even so, most people needed to cook their own meals from scratch. That ensured a seasonal awareness of available food. Today, man is able to eat what he wants when he wants. This availability of ‘cuisine on

demand’ has afforded great distance from the earth and seasonality.

When one considers that many people spend their days moving between home and car and work back to car and home, it is not surprising that nature, as a presence, fades into obscurity. Unfortunately, the children of today are more likely to have a romantic or suspicious, detached and unrealistic perspective of the realities of man’s connection to nature than not. Because of

the seeming success of technology in the recent advancement of food preservation and production and the obscene energy waste of a global food economy, we are moving ever more distant from any semblance of natural sustenance.

The materials we live in and on are man-made; few are natural. We see the world on a screen and less in person.

The “Concrete Man”

The most striking personal observation of adaptability of man in this context that comes to mind immediately is not a recollection from the native peoples I have met anywhere in the world, but from a New York City native. He and his family are really very wonderful folks. They would visit a neighbor of my

farm periodically to “go to the country to see Gram-ma.” Every now and then, I would encounter “mom and the boys” exploring our dirt road, but never him. I asked once if he was ill to which “mom” responded: “He’s really uncomfortable here because there isn’t enough concrete.” “Excuse me??” I said. “He grew up in Manhattan and is just really uncomfortable outside here because there isn’t enough concrete. Walking on soft earth or grass makes him really uncomfortable if there isn’t enough concrete around,” ‘mom’ said. You might understand why I was speechless.

For a grown person to have been so distant from the land, in their life experience, as to feel “really uncomfortable” by the simple physical contact with the

earth in the absence of the security of concrete is, to me, amazing.

When you consider the myriad of environments into which man has explored, taken up residence, developed to man’s best perceived use, and persisted in survival and even thrived, there is none more foreign than a major urban center such as New York City. While heralded as one of man’s greatest cities and achievements, it is also indicative of man’s greatest dysfunction as a living member of the community of life on earth. These metropolis cities are indeed, man- made deserts.

Add to that the recent infatuation with electronic technology and you have a less dramatic and more insidious motive to disconnect. By mere observation, it can be said that people are becoming more disconnected from everything they encounter. Simply the act of being ‘plugged-in” renders people distant, even from someone they are standing next to. How easy it is to be engaged in individual issues around the world and yet ignore that which is right in front of you! How easy it is to seduce people to believe that what is presented in this technology is the whole truth and more valid than the survival knowledge of millennia!

So, is the idea that mankind has a predisposition to embrace new things simply an acknowledgment that we can’t resist fascination with the next new shiny object? Have we, as parents, in our efforts to improve on the opportunities that our children have in life, failed to instill a necessary and fundamental love of and intimacy with the earth? The idea that we can solve all our problems with new technology completely ignores the very old and wise saying: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Even at such a fortunate exchange, will we overbalance to our peril before we show the wisdom to learn what is written in nature’s laws? It is very easy to become engaged in curing symptoms. It requires wisdom, maturity, and discipline to address the root causes.

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wm special • RIGHT TO LAND

The still-being-promised land

After the downfall of the dictatorial Marcos regime in 1986, many laws were enacted by the newly-installed democratic Philippine government to ensure the restoration and dispensation of social justice and human rights. Among these is the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law, the goal of which was to distribute land, amassed by the wealthy, to poor farmers. Almost three decades into its implementation, however, false promises by officials and loopholes within the law itself continue to prevent farmers from receiving their due, jeopardizing not only the lives of poor farming families but the food security of the country as well. by

Kris Bayos | Journalist

F

ood, needless to say, is necessary to live a dignified life. The right to food is also a basic human right. However, millions still die of hunger today. Eradicating extreme hunger and poverty is even the first of the eight Millennium Development Goals that the United Nations targets to attain by 2015. A year shy of that deadline, there is still scarcity despite the earth’s bountiful resources.

To end hunger is an advocacy that global leaders share with the Church… for bread is central to the celebration of

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the Christian faith. Pope Francis even said, “it is intolerable that thousands of people continue to die every day from hunger even though substantial quantities of food are available and often simply wasted.” The Holy Father said there has to be a way “to enable everyone to benefit from the fruits of the earth.”

For a confederation of 164 Catholic organizations worldwide, hunger is not caused by mere lack of food but by lack of justice, which causes the unequal access to adequate and nutritious food. To pioneer lay mobilizations to

end hunger, Caritas Internationalis launched last December 10th the “One Human Family, Food for All” advocacy, urging all to “work as one to end hunger by 2025.”

Aside from reducing food wastage and promoting urban gardening, Caritas Intertionalis members are advocating agrarian reform as a means to reduce hunger incidence in their respective countries. The connection between the fight against hunger and the agrarian reform advocacy rings true especially in the Philippines, where

unsuccessful implementation of the agrarian reform program has long worsened poverty levels, increased the unemployment rate, and exacerbated hunger incidence in the rural areas. If it is considered a scandal to see millions of hungry people despite the earth’s bounty, Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo considers it an outright injustice that 97 million Filipinos do not have a fair share in the resources of the country’s 7,107 islands. “According to the social teachings of the Church, the earth belongs to all and not only to some. It is not fair when only a few have lands while the majority are landless,” he said.

As the current Chairman of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace, Pabillo and his predecessors have been at the forefront of agrarian reform advocacy in the Philippines – a country that once taught its neighbors how to plant rice but is now dependent on imports to maintain food security.

Even before Pabillo took the helm of the CBCP NASSAJP, the Catholic hierarchy has been a staunch supporter of farmers who embarked on marches, camp outs, rallies and hunger strikes in a bid to get the government’s attention to genuinely implement social justice through agrarian reform. In fact, the CBCP advocated for the genuine implementation of Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) during the celebration of the Second National Rural Congress in 2008. The country’s prelates, in a statement, said “abandoning the agricultural sector will not only threaten the farmers but also imperil food security itself. Conversely, distributing land to small farmers will provide equitable economic opportunities in the rural area and eventually reduce poverty and unrests.” The CBCP statement has been significant to convince Congress to enact CARP extension with reforms (CARPER) in 2009.

And last January, right after the CBCP plenary assembly, Pabillo and

other bishops sent a letter to President Benigno S. Aquino III urging government to continue the acquisition of private agricultural lands and the redistribution of these to landless farmers under CARP. If it weren’t for the bishops, the farmers’ pleas would fall on government’s deaf ears and their demonstrations ignored by the State’s selective eyesight. Lawyer Christian Monsod, convenor of the Multi-Stakeholder Task Force on Agrarian Reform, quipped: “Government officials are afraid to not talk to the Church. They may say no to us but I doubt it if they can say no to the Church.”

In the letter dated January 22, 2014, bishops, civil society organizations, and farmers groups have requested President Aquino to extend the implementation of the land acquisition and distribution (LAD) component of CARP for two more years or indefinitely, until all private and public agricultural lands are covered by the program. The LAD component of CARP expired on June 30, more than 25 years after the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law was enacted in

1988. The agrarian reform advocates wrote: “Decisive action to ensure the success of CARP will be especially timely, given that 2014 has been declared as the International Year of Family Farming by the General Assembly of the United Nations. There would be no stronger statement that your administration champions the cause of family farmers by sustaining the very program that would give land to the landless, and thus allow the family farm sector to f lourish within our country.”

Their demands also include the installation of a new Agrarian Reform Secretary, the absolution of farmers’ unpaid amortization on their CARPawarded lands, and the creation of an independent commission to audit the government’s implementation of agrarian reform projects. The appeal letter got extensive media coverage but still, the government turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to the request. President Aquino and his allies in Congress are yet to map out the future of CARP three months before a crucial component of the program is set to expire.

It is an outright injustice that 97 million Filipinos do not have a fair share in the resources of the country’s 7,107 islands... the earth belongs to all and not only to some. It is not fair when only a few have lands while the majority are landless.

 INJUSTICE. It is not fair that only a few have lands and the majority are landless.

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Meant to fail

Farmers and agrarian reform advocates have repeatedly called for the resignation of incumbent Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Secretary Atty. Virgilio delos Reyes early in Aquino’s term. Citing the DAR chief’s wanting performance based on the agency’s accomplishment under the current administration, they urged the President to replace delos Reyes saying he “does not fit the role of a transformational leader for the demanding task ahead for CARP.” In September 2013, delos Reyes admitted that at least 822,488 hectares of land remain to be covered by the program before the June 30 deadline and that 210,067 hectares of the balance have been tagged as “problematic.” Delos Reyes also admitted that DAR has yet to start the painstaking process of awarding portions of the Hacienda Luisita to its farmer-tenants, almost three years after the Supreme Court ordered its actual distribution in 2011. The Hacienda Luisita is a 5,000-hectare sugarcane plantation in Tarlac province owned by the Presi-

dent’s family, the Cojuangcos. At least 6,212 tenant-farmers are expecting to own 6,600 square meters of land from the 4,099-hectare distributable area of Hacienda Luisita. Yet despite government’s initial payment of at least PhP471 million as just compensation to Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI), DAR is still struggling to install the beneficiaries in their CARP-awarded lands.

Even the President’s promise of issuing notices of coverage to the LADtargeted properties this year seems doomed to fail because of DAR’s performance. But despite the agency’s backlog and the farmers’ appeals, Aquino kept delos Reyes in power, saying the official still enjoys his trust and confidence. This had raised the brows of agrarian reform advocates. “Is it by design or by incompetence that the CARP is not completed?” Pabillo said in apparent frustration: “I don’t know if it is just a lack of resolve or if there is really an intention not to make agrarian reform succeed.”

But how could one expect Aquino – born to a wealthy landowning clan – to have the heart to support a pro-

Is it by design or by incompetence that the CARP is not completed? I don’t know if it is just a lack of resolve or if there is really an intention not to make agrarian reform succeed (Pabillo said in apparent frustration).

 MARCHING ON. Farmers fight for their rights, demanding a comprehensive agrarian reform.

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gram that will be disadvantageous to his landed kind? Monsod claimed that the Aquinos – both the incumbent President and his late mother, former President Corazon Aquino – have “only paid lip service” to CARP despite being propelled to power by the peasants they promised social justice to and whom they called their “boss.” It can be recalled that Mrs. Aquino was notoriously criticized during her administration for placing loopholes in the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law, such as the stock-distribution option (SDO), as a means for landowners to evade the mandatory coverage of CARP. Under the SDO, corporate landowners may give farmer-beneficiaries the right to purchase capital stock of the corporation instead of turning over their land for CARP coverage. For years, farmers held HLI stock certificates instead of actual land titles, which was supposed to be the essence of the program.

Even Monsod, who was a part of the commission that drafted the 1987 Philippine Constitution and was appointed Election Commissioner during Mrs. Aquino’s presidency, admitted that there was an intention for the CARP to fail from the start. “All social reform laws have loopholes because they were legislated by the elite and for the rich and the powerful to take advantage of,” he confessed.

The various circumventions of the law to avoid CARP coverage have been the ultimate reason why Monsod and other agrarian reform advocates, including the bishops, are urging Congress to either enact a new and genuine agrarian reform law or establish an independent commission that will audit CARP implementation since time immemorial. Among other purposes, the proposed commission would look into the lands that avoided or circumvented the law, such as the voluntary land transfers, unwarranted exemptions and conversions, excessive retentions, or fake joint ventures. The commission can then take steps to have these declared null and void and subject the

wm special • RIGHT TO LAND support services has greatly affected the productivity of farmer beneficiaries.

“It’s best to condone the unpaid amortization and unconditionally award the land to the farmers because there have been no support services to make them productive enough to earn,” the prelate said. Monsod added that recouping the investment in CARP or merely setting targets should not be the government’s motivation. “They missed the point; agrarian reform is not about numbers or deadlines. It is about the outcome. Have the lives of the farmers improved? Has rural poverty been reduced?”

Give it a chance

 A CHANCE. The farmer sector needs a new life, more incentives and sufficient funding.

Let us change politics at the top and develop leadership from below. We must develop leaders among the farmers and give them the chance to run this country because those of us in the ruling elite have failed. lands to coverage and distribution. “If you allow landowners who circumvented and defied the law to keep the land, it will make a mockery of the CARP,” Monsod argued. “They are keeping their land and they brag about the fact that they were able to circumvent the law. How can that be social reform when you allow that to happen?”

SUPPORT SERVICES

Ifugao Representative Teddy Brawner Baguilat, chairman of the Congressional Committee on Agrarian Reform, said that aside from a genuine agrarian reform bill, separate proposals to extend the LAD implementation by five more years and to amend the existing law on CARP have been submitted to the Congressional Committee on Agrarian Reform. He added that, while his Committee can endorse any of the proposed measures, the real battle will be at the plenary debate where landlords dominate the floor. “It cannot be denied that majority of those in Congress are landlords or are scions of landed fami-

lies. But there are younger sets of legislators who are open to the concept of social justice and human rights. There is a general sense of social reform. But let’s see (how they handle their biases) at the plenary,” he said.

But if nothing could be done to extend the LAD component of CARP (beyond 2014), Monsod said the Aquino Administration should set up massive funding for support services “to show what can be done if it is done right.” As it is now, farmer-beneficiaries are complaining of dismal – if not utter lack of – support services such as access to credit facilities, planting technology, irrigation systems and farm-to-market roads.

The lack of support services for farmers was traced to the underfunding of CARP. Initially, the program has a funding requirement of P225 billion for its 20-year implementation. However, the landlord-dominated Congress only allocated P175 billion for the program and appropriated less than the P150 billion funding requirement for the fiveyear extension. Pabillo said the lack of

“Give CARP a chance” has been the farmers’ outstanding appeal to Congress. Monsod said a proper audit of the DAR’s performance, the continued implementation of CARP and sufficient funding for support services will put new life into the farming sector. “Imagine what that can do to the morale of the poor farmers!”

But if nothing can be done to implement agrarian reform under a government controlled by landlords, Monsod said the only hope is to help peasants to rise to the ranks of government. “Let us change politics at the top and develop leadership from below. We must develop leaders among the farmers and give them the chance to run this country because those of us in the ruling elite have failed,” he said.

For his part, Pabillo said it is important for the public to be awaken by the farmers’ plight. “There has to be awareness on social justice issues and there has to be a change of heart. Government will only change if officials have a change of heart. Even if you change the system, it will be futile if the hearts of those in power remain selfish,” he said.

Despite bleak hope for the genuine implementation of CARP, Pabillo said farmers’ mobilizations will persist even beyond the program’s life and until the peasants attain justice. “Until justice is not met,” the prelate said, “the Church’s support to the poor will carry on.”

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wm special • RIGHT TO LAND

Inside the farmers' mind

In an interview with WM, lawyer and agrarian reform advocate Christian Monsod gave an insight into the struggling farmers' mind, what the farmers' dreams, aspirations, and frustrations are, as the fight for land continues, amid the growing indifference shown by the government and influential landowners. As a constitutionalist, Monsod shared his thoughts on why the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Act failed and, on a larger scale, why social reform programs in the country continue to fail, even after a dictatorial regime. Finally, as a fighter for freedom and justice, Monsod warned of possible upheaval and bloodshed if the farmers’ patience continues to be tested, and their rightful share of the land persistently withheld. by

Kris Bayos | Journalist

Why is it that farmers have been resorting to marches, protests and demonstrations lately?

When the President said kayo ang boss ko (you are my boss), he was referring to the farmers, the urban poor, the peasants, the fishermen, and the poorest of the poor. They’re the ones that must be listened to but he’s not listening to them. And it’s ironic that, at the height of a full Cabinet meeting to discuss unemployment and poverty, farmers were being arrested in front of Malacañang for protesting because government is not listening to them.

They are protesting because, after four years in Malacañang, the President had only met formally with the farmers once in June 2012, a stark contrast on the number of times he met with businessmen and foreign investors. These farmers are the moderate ones, not the ideological farmers. They are the ones who want it done the democratic way and yet they are not talked to or listened to despite their reasonable appeals for assistance.

What do you think is the reason why agrarian reform won’t succeed under the Aquino Administration?

The social reform agenda, especially agrarian reform, is not in the radar of the Aquino administration.

That is, maybe, because the President, if you scratch him deeply, is (connected to) Hacienda Luisita. He grew up in Hacienda Luisita and that’s where he

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wants to retire. When it comes to social reform, his heart wasn’t in it and, like his mother (former President Corazon Aquino), only paid lip service.

The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law has been in effect for more than 25 years. What is the government missing in its implementation of agrarian reform program?

They missed the point. Agrarian Reform is a social reform legislation.

The fact is, we have failed to really develop agriculture to make it efficient and productive because we attended to other things. In order to have good agricultural development that will be the basis for industrialization, you have to have a good agrarian reform accomplishment. Successful countries targeted agricultural development with a really good agrarian reform program.

But, in the Philippines, agrarian reform program has not been attended to.

Has the government been remiss in its duties to the farmers as far as CARP is concerned?

The farmers have been shortchanged. Support services have not come. Those who have been reached by support services say that agrarian reform made a big difference in the quality of their lives.

It’s difficult for them to undergo the transition from tenant-worker to owner-cultivator. That is why the government should step in, in a big way, to help

them towards that transition but the government did not. Nobody can blame the farmers for their plight; it’s the government that’s supposed to really help them through this transition.

What is it that we have missed all these years of implementing CARP? Social reform is changing the relationship between landowner and peasant, between employer and employee and between capitalist and worker. That is happening all over the world and we have not done it. We are still feudalistic.

Even if you give the land, you should change the relationship. We need a social restructuring for us to really have sustainable long-term development.

Why do the farmers want a new appointee at the helm of the Department of Agrarian Reform?

As far as the farmers are concerned, with Virgilio delos Reyes at the helm of DAR, CARP will fail for he is not the transformational leader needed for a social reform program. He is overcautious, technicality-oriented and is busy trying to protect himself against cases.

How can the farmers trust the DAR under him when he has unfulfilled promises, and not taking care of the interest of the farmers?

What are the appeals of the farmers in view of the looming expiration of the land acquisition and distribution component of CARP?

Complete it, don’t just stick with the balance. We suggest the creation of an independent commission to investigate the claimed accomplishments of DAR and take a look at these transactions, which are circumventions of the law.

It is a basic principle in agrarian reform that you must not allow the landowner to negotiate directly with the farmers with respect to acquisition and distribution of land because the bargaining positions are not the same. The farmers are in an inferior and weaker position. The DAR should protect the interest of the farmers.

What do agrarian reform advocates want to tell members of Congress?

To enact a law and propose parts of the law that we want, such as the creation of an independent commission that will investigate circumventions of the law and put them back to CARP because if you allow landowners who circumvent and defied the law to keep their land, it will make a mockery of the agrarian reform program. They are enjoying and keeping their land and even

bragging about the fact that they were able to circumvent the law. How can that be social reform when you allow that to happen?

We also want all unpaid amortizations to be condoned because the farmers are unable to pay because the government did not give them the support that was promised to them. How can it be their fault? They have lost many of their lands which is of no real cost to the government because 90% of the farmers are delinquent so what is there to lose? The opportunity cost of condoning is very low. Besides, earning profit or recouping investment should not be the goal of the government.

If CARP would end, is there still hope for the farmers to get land?

If we do end agrarian reform, let’s end it in a way that will energize the rural area. Put new life in the farming sector. Imagine what that can do to the morale of the poor farmers! It’s all they are asking Congress: to give it a chance and to see how serious we are in social change.

We are still feudalistic. The poor never got even break...

The poor can stand poverty but not injustice. Farmers just want justice. They don’t want charity. They don’t want crumbs; they want a place in the table.

 VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. Christian Monsod advocates for the rights of the poor farmers.

Will the advocacy to give land to the landless stop when CARP expires?

When I am asked what is the hope of our country, I say let us change politics at the top and develop leadership from below. We must develop leaders among the farmers and give them the chance to run this country because those of us in the ruling elite have failed.

We will start in the barangay. Support the farmers and peasants who want to run and let them win. If they get elected, they will soon rise among the ranks.

How does it feel lawyering for farmers?

It’s so frustrating even for outsiders like us that I wonder how the farmers really feel when they have outbursts or when they get arrested. They have been knocking on every door, obviously in the Palace, Congress and Supreme Court. But these are all under the control of feudalism. Farmers are short-changed in all of them: legislation, implementation and jurisprudence. The only hope of the farmers is for the people to be awakened to their plight, and to those in the government to be awakened.

As an agrarian reform advocate, what do you want to tell the government?

We made a very fatal assumption in the Constitutional Commission. We thought social change was possible because people, after the EDSA People Power Revolution, had changed. But that was not true. A lot of politicians came in, allied with businessmen, so they continued the old ways. We are still feudalistic.

The poor never got an even break.

You will never know, the farmers might just lose their patience. If they run out of patience, we will have a big upheaval in this country and blood will be spilled if the poor is treated the same way that they have been treated since EDSA. The poor can stand poverty but not injustice. Farmers just want justice.

They don’t want charity. They don’t want crumbs; they want a place in the table.

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insight• RESILIENCE: UNTIL WHEN?

Eradicating poverty: is it possible?

Time and again, governments, research institutions, and even media organizations have released statistics about poverty, with the ultimate goal of addressing, if not solving it.

However, despite the quantitative and qualitative analysis given by these groups, poverty remains. Is it a matter of definition? Is it measured by the lack of food or material possessions? Is it perpetuated by government inaction?

Only when one has understood the true meaning of poverty can one truly begin to deal with it. by

Henrylito D. Tacio | journalist

Data Source: www.nscb.gov.ph

 Philippines. Poverty incidence among families by region, 2012.

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“Even Jesus of Nazareth could not offer any earthly solutions to the problem, except the promise of a celestial one. He said: ‘Blessed be the poor for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.’

Must the poor suffer death in order to come into salvation?” (From “A Fetish for the Poor” by Samito Jalbuen)

A

few years back, 12-year-old Mariannet Amper from Davao City captured the attention of the country when she hanged herself with a nylon rope. She left a letter under her pillow describing her failed hopes and aspirations: “I wish for new shoes, a bag and jobs for my mother and my father.

My dad does not have a job and my mom just gets laundry jobs.” She added: “I would like to finish my schooling and I would very much like to buy a new bike.”

“It is time we recognized poverty for what it is: a brutal denial of human rights,” declared James Gustave Speth in 1998, when he was still the administrator of the United Nations Development Program. “The poor are deprived of many things, including a long life.”

With the absence of basic amenities such as safe drinking water and health care, most people living in developing countries – including the Philippines – have a life expectancy of just 40 years.

Most poor people are illiterate. In the Philippines, only 5% of the population is not able to read, write, and perform arithmetic. But the sad thing is: school dropouts are rising, according to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

Research findings collected by the online news organization Rappler, and posted on its website last March, showed the Philippines as the 5th country in the world with the most number of school dropouts. A study done by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) showed that, for every 100 children who enter Grade 1, only 71 complete elementary education and only 69 will enroll in high school.

Of the remaining 69, only 51 are expected to graduate.

 AWARENESS. It is high time to recognize poverty as a brutal denial of human rights.

The poor are deprived of many things, including a long life.

With the absence of basic amenities such as safe drinking water and health care, most people living in developing countries – including the Philippines – have a life expectancy of just 40 years.

If this trend continues, there might be more illiterate Filipinos in the future.

“Illiteracy imposes severe limits on the access of poor people to knowledge, informed opinions and political participation,” Speth pointed out.

A new study showed that poverty – along with neglect in childhood – may have a direct effect on a child’s brain development. The study, which was published in Jama Pediatrics, found children, living in poverty without adequate nurturing, had a smaller hippocampus, a brain region linked to learning and memory, than those who weren’t poor or neglected.

Nicole Ostrow, in an article dispatched by Bloomberg News, wrote:

“Poor children, even if not neglected by parents, were found to have less gray matter, which is linked to intelligence; less white matter, which helps transmit signals; and smaller amygdala, an area key to emotional health.”

More often than not, children suffer the most when it comes to poverty. Denis Murphy, in an article which appeared in World Mission, shared this reality: “In Tondo (Manila), young girls of 12 and 13 years of age act as prostitutes for truck drivers, security guards, and other men who hang around the piers at night. The girls charge P30 for feeling of the breast and bodies and P300 for sex, often in the back of garbage trucks.”

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Not a Poor Country

The Philippines – with 7,107 islands and a land area of 30 million hectares – is rich in natural resources…but poverty is rampant. “The Philippines is not a poor country,” declares Niklas Reese, a German who is one of the editors of the 500-page Handbook Philippines.

He knows much about the country as he has been living in the Philippines for several years now. In fact, he is an alumnus of the Our Lady of Fatima Academy in Davao City.

Reese cites these reasons: “The numbers of shopping malls, sports utility vehicles, and private subdivisions increase year by year. Many residential enclaves are more luxurious than those found in Central Europe. Natural resources are abundant; its people are educated and skilled.”

But the German lecturer is very much aware that one in four Filipinos live on less than a dollar a day. “The Philippines is not a poor country,” he points out, “but it is a country with many poor people.”

Lusa

 SHOCKING TRUTH. Philippines is not a poor country yet numerous families are homeless.

The Philippines is the 9th country in the world with the most number of stunted children under 5 years old. In 2011, 33.6% of children under 5 were stunted. From 2008 to 2011, stunting prevalence across all regions was never lower than 22%.

The PSA reported that, in the first six months of 2013, the poverty incidence was estimated at 24.9%, slightly better than the 27.9% in 2012.

Poverty by Numbers

Last July, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) released its latest report on the country’s official poverty statistics for the basic sectors for 2012. The PSA report provided the estimates of poverty incidence for 9 of the 14 basic sectors identified in Republic Act 8425, Social Reform and Poverty Alleviation Act, using the income and sectoral data from the merged Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) and Labor Force Survey (LFS).

In 2012, fishermen, farmers and children consistently posted the highest poverty incidences among the nine basic sectors in the Philippines at 39.2%, 38.3%, and 35.2%, respectively.

The other sectors had the following poverty incidences: self-employed and unpaid family workers, 29%; women, 25%; youth, 22.3%; migrant and formal sector, 16.6%; senior citizens, 16.2%; and individuals residing in urban areas, 13%.

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A Matter of Definition

Poverty, however, is a matter of definition. The poor, according to the United Nations, are those living below what is considered the minimum level consistent with human dignity. Social wellbeing covers the basic necessities of food, clothing, shelter, education, and health, among others.

In his book, Poverty as Relative Deprivation: Resources and Style of Living, Peter Towsend defined poverty in terms of relative deprivation. Individuals, families, and groups in the population can be said to be in poverty when they lack the resources to obtain the type of diets, participate in activities and have living conditions or “style of life” which are customary or at least widely encouraged or approved in the society in which they belong.

In some instances, the food threshold is used by experts to help measure food poverty or “subsistence,” which

may also be described as extreme poverty. The food threshold is the minimum income required by an individual to meet his/her basic food needs and satisfy the nutritional requirements set by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute, while remaining economically and socially productive.

According to the PSA, a Filipino family with five members needs at least PhP5.590 (about USD 130), on the average, every month to meet the family’s basic food needs, and at least PhP8,022 (USD 185), on the average, every month to meet both basic food and non-food needs.

“To a man with an empty stomach, food is god,” India’s Mahatma Gandhi once said. To which Pulitzerprize winning American author Pearl S. Buck added: “Hunger makes a thief of any man.” Hunger persists across the country and while the situation has improved, it remains “serious,” according to the International Food Policy Research Institute. Its Global Hunger Index (GHI) score of 13.2 ranks 28th worldwide in 2013; it was 19.9 in 1990.

insight• RESILIENCE: UNTIL WHEN? The Philippines is the 9th country in the world with the most number of stunted children under 5 years old, according to Rappler. In 2011, 33.6% of children under 5 were stunted. From 2008 to 2011, stunting prevalence across all regions was never lower than 22%.

In his article, Murphy painted this painful reality: “Sadly, 12- and 13-year old girls in Tondo never have enough food and are much more like children than young women. There is never enough food in the homes of the poor.

Mothers regularly slap the children to stop them from complaining about the lack of food on the table.”

Oftentimes, those living in rural areas have lower cash incomes compared with those from urban areas. But in matters of health, urban poverty is worse. Recently, the Environment and Urbanization Journal devoted a special issue on health and the city. The opening editorial said: “Most cities (in developing countries) fail to provide the most basic safeguards for good health, such as piped water in every house or at least in every neighborhood; toilets in every home; drainage in the streets (where

stagnant puddles of water breed typhoid fever, cholera, and dengue fever); and emergency services, such as fire controls.”

The Lingering Causes

Despite the government’s efforts in eradicating poverty, the problem remains. Some say the government lacks political will while others contend there is too much graft and corruption among government officials. But there’s one clear reason why the country remains poor: a high population level. In 1980, there were 48 million Filipinos. In 2000, the number swelled to 78 million. By 2012, the population reached 93 million.

Given that the population of the Philippines is increasing at a rapid rate of 2.36% per year, it can be translated as an increase of more than 5,000 people daily. In 1985, the absolute number of people living in poverty was 26.5 million. This increased to 30.4 million in 2000.

“As the Philippines has financially limited resources and a high poverty rate, the rapid increase in population

As the Philippines has financially limited resources and a high poverty rate, the rapid increase in population has become a problem because there is insufficient resource to support the population, leaving much fewer means to improve the economy.

 NATURAL CALAMITIES. In the face of continuous disasters, the poor need greater help.

has become a problem because there is insufficient resource to support the population, which leaves much fewer means to improve the economy,” someone commented.

The Asian Development Bank, in its report, Poverty in the Philippines: Causes, Constraints and Opportunities, said the other main causes of poverty in the country are as follows: low to moderate economic growth for the past 40 years; low growth elasticity of poverty reduction; weakness in employment generation and the quality of jobs generated; failure to fully develop the agriculture sector; high inflation during crisis periods; high levels of population growth; high and persistent levels of inequality (incomes and assets), which dampen the positive impacts of economic expansion; and recurrent shocks and exposure to risks such as economic crisis, conf licts, natural disasters, and “environmental poverty.”

In terms of natural disasters, a report released by World Bank last year stated: “From 1990 to 2006, the country experienced record weather-related disasters, including the strongest typhoon, the most destructive typhoons, the deadliest storm, and the typhoon with the highest 24-hour rainfall on record.”

The World Bank report, "Getting a Grip on Climate Change in the Philippines," added: “These events are projected to continue to intensify, requiring the Philippines to improve its climate resilience and develop its adaptive capacity to alleviate the risk of catastrophic economic and humanitarian impacts.” Filipinos may be resilient, but in the face of continuous disasters and poverty, they need help.

“There is a lot that happens around the world we cannot control,” American Congressman Jan Schakowsky once said. “We cannot stop earthquakes, we cannot prevent droughts, and we cannot prevent all conf licts, but when we know where the hungry, the homeless and the sick exist, then we can help.”

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spiritual reflection • Paths to Contemplation

The better part

The missionary of the Third Millennium must be a contemplative. This is especially true in the Asian context because of the Eastern tradition of Yoga and Zen. Yet, Christian contemplation is essentially different because it is always a personal encounter with the personal God of the Bible and Jesus is the way to God in the Holy Spirit. It is in contemplation that prayer becomes love. by

Fr. Lorenzo Carraro | comboni missionary

“But the Lord answered: “Martha, Martha, you worry and fret about so many things, and yet few are needed, indeed only one. It is Mary who has chosen the better part; it is not to be taken from her” (Luke 10:41-42).

C

ertainly, Jesus did not despise Martha’s service since service is love in action and Jesus had stated that the “Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve.” Yet, when we finish serving, what else is there to do? We continue loving. Love never ends. Prayer is love, especially contemplation: it is the better part that Mary chose when, looking and listening, she focused her heart on Jesus.

Contemplation is experience

"The true missionary of this Third Millennium is the saint," writes Saint John Paul II in his letter Redemptoris Missio (90, 91). The Pope continues: “The missionary must be a 'contemplative in action.' He finds answer to problems in the light of God's Word and in personal and community prayer. My contact with the representatives of the non-Christian spiritual tradition, particularly those of Asia, has confirmed my view that the future of mission depends, to a great extent, on contemplation. Unless the missionary is a contemplative, he cannot proclaim Christ in a credible way. He is a witness to the experience of God, and must be able to say with the Apostles: "That which we have looked upon ... concerning the word of life ... we proclaim also to you” (1 John 1: 1-3).

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Contemplation is experience. It is, therefore, something truly personal.

Study can help, while advice and example can foster contemplation, but only experience can make contemplatives of us. The commitment to experience contemplation is a lifelong commitment and, at the same time, a gift. We must struggle to become contemplative as if it depended only on us; we must expect it in faith because we know that, eventually, it is a gift from God. The mystery of God can be compared to a limitless horizon. The more we go up, the more the horizon expands; and the more we try to approach its borders, the more they go far from us. The same is true of the mystery of God: the more we enter into its knowledge, the more we experience that it is inexhaustible. Only the pure of heart can see God: the simple, those with a pure heart. If God is in front of us as a limitless horizon, our life appears as a continuous journey towards God. Even purity of heart, as any other Christian virtue, is never a totally reached perfection; if you think you have got it, you lose the purity of heart and you can no longer see God. You will deceive yourself like the man in the Song of Songs who wanted to purchase love: "Were a man to offer all the wealth of his house to buy love, contempt is all he would purchase" (Song of Songs 8: 7).

spent most of his life in Japan and, as a scholar of spirituality, was enthusiastic about learning from the tradition of the great Eastern religions. The dialogue with Zen Buddhism became his lifelong commitment.

He writes: "Christians might not only avail themselves of the riches of Oriental meditation but they should become leaders in a movement of which Christ would be the center – a meditation movement which would humbly learn from Zen. I have told Japanese Christians – and I believe it is true – that they have an important role to play in the development of Christianity. Their vocation is to renew meditation within the Church (because of their Zen tradition) and interpret it to the West.”

The best example of the truth of this vision is the life experience of a Japanese Dominican priest, Fr. Shigeto Oshjda who died at Takamori in November 2003. He was a follower of Buddhism and a Zen practitioner when he met Christ through the witness of a German friend during the war. Fr. Oshida shared his spiritual journey: how, following the noble silence of Zen, he had easily believed in the Man who died on the cross proclaiming universal forgiveness. "Forgiveness is silence within silence," explains Fr. Oshida.

"To keep silence is to enter the womb of God. Christ is in the heart of Zen."

Christian prayer facing East

Paths to contemplation

The call to contemplation assumes a special quality in the Asian context because of the presence of Hinduism and Buddhism. Fr. William Johnston, S.J.

The following quotations give us a feeling of the call to contemplation as the most profound human and Christian experience: “There is nothing more

powerful on earth than purity and prayer” (Teillard De Chardin). “Human beings have a noble task: that of prayer and love. To pray and to love: that is their happiness on earth” (The Curate of Ars). “We are put on earth for a little while, that we may learn to bear the beams of love” (William Blake). “Every person is alone in the heart of the earth, pierced by a ray of the sun, and it is soon evening” (Salvatore Quasimodo).

To be a contemplative is a vocation for all of us who struggle for human and spiritual maturity. Contemplation is a gift and a conquest. Contemplation is something to be desired and experienced through different paths that bring us to intimacy with God, the Father, through Jesus, in the Holy Spirit.

Contemplation and self-acceptance

The center of the whole Christian message is the commandment of love: we were born to love. This is the sense of our life: to answer the love God has towards us. What can, however, happen when we don’t love ourselves? Psychol-

ogy has its specific contribution: it is possible to have a relationship of respect and reciprocity with other people only when we accept ourselves, respect ourselves, and basically love ourselves.

Self- acceptance is a necessary condition for the journey to contemplation.

Let our prayer be: “Lord, take me as I am and make me as You want me to be.”

Contemplation as “finding God in all things”

This is the Ignatian way of becoming contemplatives. At the end of his spiritual exercises, St. Ignatius invites us to contemplation to gain Divine Love, which is a call to grow in contemplating God present in all things. It is a vision of God’s immanent and loving presence in all realities so that we may always live, “planted in love and built on love” (Ephesians 3:18).

Let us recognize the degrees of God’s presence in everything that surrounds us and respond to them in love.

First degree: God wishes to be present to us in His gifts. Therefore, let us not take anything for granted. Let our re-

To see Jesus in the face of our friends is contemplation.

To experience joy in wholesome friendship is contemplation.

Really, the affectionate pursuit of contemplative prayer is a bounty and a refuge for every sensitive and mature follower of Jesus.

sponse be gratitude and thanksgiving.

Second degree: God wishes to be present to us in the beauty and goodness of each gift. Let our response be reverence and sobriety. Third degree: God is at work in the heart of the world: “My Father goes on working and so do I,” says Jesus (John 5:17). Response: let us give our loyal service to the building of God’s kingdom. Praise, reverence and service to God: this is where love becomes contemplation.

Contemplation and Consecration

Our baptismal and religious consecration makes us God’s exclusive possession: “Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm” (Song of Songs 8:6).

Consecration will become contemplation when our love becomes tenderness: sensitivity, youthfulness, vulnerability, affection, benevolence, care, compassion, devotion. These are not simply human qualities but spiritual qualities: gifts of the Spirit, born of faith.

Tenderness is also fruit of compassion; virginity of the heart is also silence, loneliness and standing alone in faith. This happens when we become aware that what we have given up in our consecration will never be there: the unending poverty; the long loneliness; when we break down, we fall, we experience rebellion, fragility, the weight of evil, sin; when we experience the silence of God and the apparent inutility of our efforts. To stand in front of God in naked faith is contemplation.

Contemplation and friendship

 ATTENTIVE. To realize God's immanent and loving presence requires our spirit of alertness.

Jesus said: “I call you friends because I have made known to you everything I have learned from my Father.” (John 15:15) To experience Jesus’ friendship is contemplation. To see Jesus in the face of our friends is contemplation. To experience joy in wholesome friendship is contemplation. Really, the affectionate pursuit of contemplative prayer is a bounty and a refuge for every sensitive and mature follower of Jesus, the better part that will not be taken from us.

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missionary vocation • Léopold Sédar Senghor

Bridge between cultures One of the first Black Africans to become a university professor in France, Léopold Sédar Senghor (1906-2001) fought in World War II, survived a German concentration camp, made himself a name as a poet and an intellectual, entered politics, guided his nation, Senegal, to independence, and became its first president. Senghor was a born harmonizer whose career was full of paradoxes; although a Catholic, he headed a predominantly Muslim nation; a fervent supporter of African culture, he also appreciated the culture of Europe. Considered one of the best poets of the 20th century, he was, in addition, a professional politician of great skill and proved to be an able and effective leader.

He received many honors in the course of his life and was named honorary doctor of thirty-seven universities. As the father of the Négritude intellectual movement, he has left an immense legacy in the field of dialogue between different cultures. by

Fr. Lorenzo Carraro | comboni missionary

I

n 1940, the German army invaded France and, among thousands, the young African Léopold Sédar Senghor was also captured. In 1928, he had come from Senegal, West Africa, to Paris on a partial scholarship and continued his formal studies at the Sor-

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bonne. He had subsequently started teaching in French universities.

During these years, the exceptionally gifted young African intellectual had discovered the unmistakable imprint of African art on modern painting, sculpture, and music, which had

confirmed his belief in Africa’s potential contribution to modern culture.

Those were the seeds of what would become Senghor’s famous Négritude intellectual movement.

In 1939, Senghor enrolled in the French army within the 59th Colonial

Infantry Division with the rank of private, in spite of his higher education and his later acquisition of French citizenship in 1932. Together with all the French colonial troops, he interned in different camps and, finally, at Front Stalag 230 in Poitiers.

Front Stalag 230 was reserved for colonial troops captured during the war. The German soldiers wanted to execute him and all the others the very same day they were captured, but they escaped this fate by yelling: Vive la France, vive l'Afrique noire! ("Long live France, long live Black Africa!").

A French officer told the German soldiers that executing the African prisoners would dishonor the Aryan race and the German army. That is how they were spared and herded off to the concentration camps instead.

In total, Senghor spent two years in different prison camps, where he occupied most of his time writing some of his most inspired poems. In 1942, he was released for medical reasons.

He resumed his teaching career while remaining involved in the resistance against the Nazi occupation.

The determined student

Léopold Sédar Senghor was born in 1906 in the village of Joal on the coast of Senegal, about one hundred kilometers from the capital Dakar. His family had converted to Christianity and Léopold was brought up a Catholic. But the Senghors continued to respect the ancestral religion of the Serer and to appreciate the cultural traits of the ethnic group to which they belonged. Later in his life, Senghor would be a fierce advocate for the "inculturation" of the Gospel, arguing that Christianity in Africa and elsewhere should ref lect the local culture, languages and even worldview, and not impose as universal its European expression.

Senghor attended a school founded by the Holy Ghost Fathers, a congregation of Roman Catholic priests and brothers, in a neighboring village, before graduating to a high school

 BRIDGING. In affirming the distinctive African values, Senghor never built walls.

Senghor would be a fierce advocate for the "inculturation" of the Gospel, arguing that Christianity in Africa and elsewhere should reflect the local culture, languages and even worldview, and not impose as universal its European expression. in Dakar which was run by the same Catholic mission. He was a brilliant student especially in humanities, Latin and Greek and, for a certain period, he seemed to be inclined to become a Catholic priest, but he was also strong-willed and considered stubborn by his teachers.

Senghor’s schoolmaster, Father Lalouse, was uneasy with the young student’s attitude of, in particular, challenging the prevailing idea that in order to embrace Christianity, Africans had first to rid themselves of their tribal and cultural legacy. Eventually, Father Lalouse gave in and decided that it was better for the young Senghor to join the public high school and complete his degree in that secular environment. It was after graduation that he won a partial scholarship and moved to France.

Négritude

With the help of Aimé Césaire, a young man from the French Caribbean Island of Martinique in the mid-1930’s, Senghor initiated the poetic, intellectual and political movement known as Négri-

tude. The choice of the term Négritude – derived from the highly derogatory and racist word “nègre” – was deliberately and proudly appropriated to assert and stress what they believed to be distinctive African characteristics, values, and aesthetics.

This was a reaction against the dominance of the French culture in the colonies, and against the perception that Africa did not have a culture developed enough to stand alongside that of Europe. Building upon historical research identifying ancient Egypt with Black Africa, Senghor argued that subSaharan Africa and Europe are, in fact, part of the same cultural continuum, reaching from Egypt to classical Greece, through Rome to the European colonial powers of the modern age. Négritude was, by no means, an anti-white racism, but rather emphasized the importance of dialogue and exchange among different cultures.

Senghor defined the concept in contradistinction to Europe and gave it a more positive meaning. According to Senghor, the Black African is intuitive,

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 DIALOGUE. The Negritude movement promoted the "Africanization" of the Catholic Church.

but the African mode of experience is far from irrational: the experience that proceeds from intuition is fuller and more comprehensive than that derived from a discursive approach.

In the area of political philosophy, Senghor examined African socialism.

For him, socialism is not new to Africans, whose communal principles of social life have been central in precolonial times. Residing part time in France, he wrote poems of resistance in French which engaged his Catholic spirituality even as they celebrated his Senegalese heritage. Senghor is the author of several collections of poetry.

He also edited an original anthology of work by African poets which carried an introduction by Jean-Paul Sartre who spoke famously of Black Orpheus. Senghor’s thoughts are gathered in five volumes under the title, Liberté (Freedom).

Négritude and Christianity

Senghor also co-founded the magazine Présence Africaine with Alione Diop.

Présence Africaine represented the efforts of Catholic African intellectuals in dealing with their dual identity as Christians and Africans. Aloune Diop wrote: “The question of the Catholics in the bosom of the Church can be summed up thus: the African Catholics

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want, above all, to make sure of their double quality as Catholics and Africans. They suffer in Africa the uneasiness of not being able to assume their cultural heritage…It is clear that the solution would be to be able to express their African personality in the very heart of the vitality of Catholicism.”

The vision of the Négritude is born in the context of dialogue with the Christian faith. First of all because in the Négritude, in the very heart of its emergence, there is the inf luence of a Catholic theologian: Pierre Teillard de Chardin. Moreover, the respectful attention and assimilation of the humanistic culture on the part of the Négritude reveals an opening to Catholicism which had deeply imbued that cultural heritage, even if not identifying totally with it.

Thus, the Négritude’s disposition to “dialogue,” and not to “contrast,” has allowed the Christian presence to remain as something that can enrich African culture and vise versa, and not as if it were something alien or heterogeneous. The Négritude movement, with its deep appraisal of the Black African culture, undoubtedly, promoted the “inculturation” of Christianity in Africa and the “Africanization” of the Catholic Church, in particular.

Remarkable and touching is the following statement of the Cameroonian Catholic thinker M. Hebga: “Truly, Jesus Christ is ours and close to us because of the depth of His humiliation as a human being. I can’t help loving Him. So doing, I am not a fugitive or a degenerate. I am a son of my people…A truth imposes itself: whatever the historical vicissitudes of Christianity, with Christ we have a blood-brother in humiliation. Let us not make Him guilty of the weakness of human beings. Christianity is a hundred miles away from imperialism. The message of Christ has never allowed itself to be used as an instrument of human domination; it has always exploded in the hands of those who would have liked to make use of it in order to crush their fellow human beings… This irresistible dynamism ought to create a favorable prejudice and a victorious attraction.”

The wise and humble leader

Having entered politics, Senghor was elected as Senegal’s first president on September 5, 1960. In a way, the country Senghor inherited was politically unique among its neighbors. Under colonialism, Senegal had had a special status among French West African colonies and, as a consequence, those areas had a long tradition of democratic multiparty elections and a number of political parties were already active when Senegal became independent.

Senghor thus took over a country with some kind of democratic legacy, but this was initially short-lived under his presidency. In 1962, his political ally, long-time friend and prime minister, Mamadou Dia, was accused of plotting a coup and imprisoned for life, but released after twelve years in 1974. Senghor responded to the perceived threat by establishing a one-party authoritarian system like so many of its neighbors.

Still, it was perhaps the poet in Senghor that prevented him from going to the extremes of most authoritarian leaders. It was perhaps the poet in him,

missionary vocation • Léopold Sédar Senghor too, that led him to do two things typically unheard of among those with such a tight grip on power. Firstly, in 1976, after 14 years of single-party rule, Senghor reversed his earlier thinking and decided that Senegal should take up its democratic traditions again. As a start, three political parties were officially recognized. More importantly, however, the press was also given far greater freedom, and a culture of fiercely independent journalism developed rapidly.

Secondly, in 1980, Senghor resigned from politics and retired in France. He is one of only two African heads of state who surrendered power peacefully on their own initiative. The other was Julius Nyerere, the saintly Catholic politician, the Father of Tanzania’s independence. Though many problems remain, Senegal today is seen as a beacon of democracy and stability in the region – thanks to Senghor who is celebrated as providing a valuable example for leaders across Africa.

lived her husband. Senghor had other two children from his first wife.

Senghor’s legacy, without doubt, justifies his middle name, Sédar, which is translated as “one who cannot be ashamed.” In the context of the Négritude movement, he coined the famous sentences:"Emotion is Black, Reason is Greek" and “Négritude is the totality of the cultural values of the Black World."

Senghor’s beliefs, however, extended

“One who cannot be ashamed”

Having freely resigned from the presidency, Senghor spent the last years of his long life in France, his country of adoption, attending to his beloved poetry and studies. He was assisted by his devout second wife, Colette Hubert, who had been his French secretary.

Since she entered holy matrimony in 1957 with then-Congressman Senghor, she did not have an easy life, but followed her husband with unfailing devotion and became First Lady of Senegal.

She suffered with him the loss of their only child, Philippe, in 1981. She out-

well beyond those axioms and, until the final years of the 20th century, he continued to work on the open-ended question of Black cultures and Black arts.

Senghor strongly advocated dialogue, encounter, and the coming together of cultures, claiming that metissage (or interbreeding) – in the past as well as in the future – is the necessary condition of any great civilization.

Even in politics, he left a strong mark.

The Father of Senegal’s Independence,

he was a prominent statesman who led by example and helped advance democracy in a continent long considered ‘forgotten by human rights.’

He discovered the roots of his socialism in the African tradition and avoided the Marxist and anti-Western ideology, favoring the maintenance of close ties with France and the Western world.

This is seen by many as a contributing factor to Senegal’s political stability: it remains one of the few African nations never to have had a coup and always to have had a peaceful transfer of power – not a small achievement!

But Senghor was a poet first and foremost. He once famously declared that if he had to choose between his accomplishments as a poet, a thinker or a statesman, he would like his legacy to be that of a poet. The best way to comprehend such a remark, coming from a man who is considered to be one of the most important African intellectuals of the 20th century, and one of the heroes of independent Africa, is to understand that he was not really making a choice at all. What Senghor’s declaration really meant was that his philosophy as a thinker was that of a poet and that, as a statesman faced with difficult political choices, he tried to never lose sight of the poet within himself.

Senghor died at his home in France at the age of 95. His funeral was held on December 29, 2001 in Dakar.

President Jacques Chirac of France said upon hearing of Senghor's death: "Poetry has lost one of its masters, Senegal a statesman, Africa a visionary, and France a friend.”

SHARE IN GOD’S MISSION — BE A COMBONI MISSIONARY PRIEST OR BROTHER!

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the last word

LYDIA’S HOUSE, EUROPE’S FIRST CHURCH by

Fr . SILVANO FAUSTI, s.J. | BIBLIST & WRITER

“Come to my house and stay” – Read Acts 15:36-16:15

E

urope’s first church is born “by chance” and it is all feminine. The race of the Word, which started at Jerusalem, reaches Judea and Samaria. After the encounter between Peter and Cornelius, some Hellenists from Cyprus and Cyrene, possibly traders, go to Antioch and start straightaway to evangelize the pagans. This mixed and problematic community, base camp of Paul’s journeys, was the cause of the “Council” of Jerusalem.

Christianity spread throughout Asia Minor which has cultural traits common to the Jews. The thirst for salvation and the mystery cults, with their related search for relationship with God, facilitate the announcement of the Gospel. They are deep desires that need only to be made explicit and directed towards Christ.

After the experience of the first journey, Paul carefully prepares the second. His companion will be Barnabas and the target will be the communities he has founded and the new ones he will add to them. Everything is planned: where to go, what to do, whom to collaborate with and whom to turn to. The only unknown factor is the time of permanence. Paul, however, knows that everywhere “chains and tribulations are waiting for him” (Acts 20:23): once a community is born, persecution sends him elsewhere.

The plan, however, doesn’t work. Soon, Barnabas divorces from Paul. His companion then will be Silas who, “by chance,” had not gone back to Jerusalem. The target changes: If Barnabas leaves for Cyprus with Mark, Paul, with Silas, diverts towards Derbe and Lystra in order to evangelize the Asia Province. Here they meet, always “by chance,” Timothy who joins them. They go through Phrygia and Galatia, but the Holy Spirit, we don’t know how, forbids them to preach. Then they reach Mysia in order to go to Bithynia but the Spirit of Jesus doesn’t allow it. Then they descend to Troas, the sea door towards Greece. Here, a dream diverts them towards Europe, in Macedonia.

At Troas, Luke, the author of the Gospel and the Acts, also joins them. His presence, even if anonymous, is clear. Suddenly, the account changes from the third person plural “they” to “we” (Cf. Acts 16:10: “We tried to depart”). The meetings with Silas, Timothy and Luke will be determinant for the new mission.

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Evangelization is God’s work. He puts obstacles to our projects and works with the unexpected. What appears as chance is His way of travelling incognito. Not our certainties but the most upsetting novelties reveal God’s will.

The short crossing from Troas to Philippi is, in reality, the jump from Asia to Europe. Beyond Bosporus, Paul and company will meet the Greek-Roman world, a cultural and religious universe different from their own.

Paul cannot make use of the strategy already tested with Jews and Hellenists in Asia. He tries new approaches. It is not by chance that he starts looking for the Jews already settled in the territory; they are familiar with the local mentality. Their inculturation process had started long ago because of commerce but also because of the exile, the Diaspora, their zeal for spreading the Word and, why not, their intellectual curiosity.

The Greek translations of the Bible and the writing of biblical texts directly in Greek witness the Jews’ intent of dialoguing with the prevailing culture.

Arrived at Philippi, the apostolic quartet goes out of the city and along the river bank. It was a Saturday. For lack of something better, it is a place of prayer fit for the Jews and their ablutions.

The riverside becomes a synagogue and the congregation is only of women. The four men sit with them and speak to them of Christ. Among the women listeners there is Lydia, a purple merchant from Thyatira. Listening to Paul, the Lord opened wide her heart. He is already inside: the Word brings Him to the light. Lydia asks for baptism and “compels” them to go to her house. The house of this hospitable woman is the matrix of all the churches in the West. This community, which had not been planned, is the dearest to Paul (Read the Letter to the Philippians). The good seed will spread from here to the ends of the earth. © Popoli – www.popoli.info

REFLECT AND PRAY – Are you aware that Christianity only recently has reached the ends of the earth and that, although it is the most widespread religion, the great majority of people are still non Christian?

– Because of peoples’ mobility, everywhere now is missionary territory. Do you experience the urgency of announcing Christ to the people you meet?

– Do you believe that Jesus Christ appreciates whatever is good in your culture? But that, still, He gives you the fullness of life?

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