St Teresa of Ávila, who lived from 1515 to 1582 in Spain, could never have imagined the internet, though if she were around today I’m certain that she’d be involved in thisdigital continent, as Pope Benedict calls it, and as a woman who travelled considerably, despite being a contemplative nun, she would certain journey along the digital highways – las ‘calles’ digitales – of Pope Francis.
Eighty-three followers of St Teresa, Discalced Carmelite nuns from 24 countries, recently created a virtual choir to sing and record the saint’s poem Nada te turbe – Let nothing disturb you. Sr Claire Sokol of the Carmelites in Reno, Nevada, wrote the music.
My thanks to Sr Mary Carmela OCD of the Carmel of Vilvoorde, Belgium who sent me the link to the video. Sr Carmela belonged to the Carmel of Cebu and has written in MISYONonline.com of how three Filipino nuns left their communities to join that in Vilvoorde, founded in 1469 and the oldest existing community of Carmelite nuns in the world. Another article she wrote for MISYONonline.com, Touches of God, led Sr Marie Paul ThérèseFrom Iligan to Vilvoorde (via the Carmel in Cebu).
Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.
And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
Mother and child in a camp for displaced persons at Kutkai in Lashio
This article appeared in the 31 August 2014 edition of Sunday Examiner, the English-language weekly of the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong and is used with permission. The dioceses of Myitkyina [“MITCHinah”] and Banmaw cover the Kachin State, where Columbans first went to work in 1936. Bishop Zahawang of Lashio, in the neighbouring Shan State, was formerly Auxiliary Bishop of Myitkyina.
HONG KONG (SE): “This incremental genocide of a generation has not attracted the needed attention of concerned people, raising doubts whether there is a deliberate attempt to destroy the youth of our lands,” the bishops of three dioceses in the Union of Myanmar say in a statement issued on August 20. [Full statement here.]
Bishop Francis Daw Tang, from Myitkyina; Bishop Raymond Sumlut Gam from Banmaw; and Bishop Philip Zahawng, from Lashio; say in their statement, “The prevalence of human trafficking and drug trafficking is an undeclared war on our people.”
The bishops are pointing out that a silent war has been raging in their dioceses for over three years, since a ceasefire agreement with the Myanmese Army broke down and hostilities resumed in 2011.
“We have seen the hundreds of innocent people killed and buried in unknown graves, thousands displaced to inhuman camps, destroying their dignity and raising serious questions about their future,” the bishops continue, calling the interludes of peace nothing but an illusion bringing frustrating disappointment.
A former drug educator with Caritas in Myitkyina, Peter Nlam Hkun Aung, told the Sunday Examiner in 2011 that he believes that drugs are one form of artillery being used by the Myanmese Military against the Kachin people.
“Soldiers offer cigarettes and candy laced with drugs to primary school children,” he said. “The children do not know what they are, they just take them. This is part of the war being waged by the military, they just want to turn our people into a mob of zombies.”
Apart from the drug war, the bishops believe that human trafficking is another weapon used to break up the cohesion of the social structure of the Kachin as a people.
“Poor and innocent Kachin women are commoditised by human traffickers and hundreds are forced into modern day slavery and sold across borders,” the three bishops say, adding, “War has wiped out the livelihoods of our people, forcing our young men to seek risky livelihoods.”
Father Cirineo “Dodong” Matulac witnessed the wholesale rape of the Kachin economy during a visit to the city of Muse, just across the porous border from the Chinese city of Ruili in Yunnan province. [Editor’s note: Fr Matulac is a Filipino Columban priest who worked in China before and is now based in Quezon City, Philippines.]
“Thousands of people and hundreds of trucks cross the border every day to trade,” he explained. “Hardwood like teak, precious gemstones like jade and rubies come from the Myanmar side of the border in exchange for cheap and non-durable manufactured goods from China.”
He also visited a camp for displaced people in nearby Manhkan, near the border with the Shan State and the controversial Dapein Hydroelectric Power Plant.
When the government began an expansion of the power plant in 2011 the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) intervened and the government moved against them, bringing an end to the fragile peace that had survived for some 17 years.
Father Matulac said that in the camp he met 56-year-old Hpadau Brang Mai, who talked freely with him as he remembered Father Matulac’s fellow Columban priests who were in the area when he was young.
“He is only one of hundreds of people in the displaced persons’ camp,” Father Matulac explained. “He has five children, but his 23-year-old son was killed by the military when he was working in the field on their farm.”
Brang said that he and his family fled, as they were afraid of the military as they shoot at the people indiscriminately.
Brang has been in the camp for two years and wants to go home, but the war situation prevents him.
Father Matulac said that Brang introduced him to a woman who told him, “There are many families here in this camp who have lost their sons and daughters to the army,’ and Brang added, ‘We don’t know the reason why they shoot us. I think they want to kill us because we are Kachin’.”
Father Peter Maran Tawng, from Caritas Myanmar, says that all up there are over 100,000 people living in displaced persons’ camps, but nobody knows the real number of people driven from their homes, as many parts of the country are inaccessible.
Father Maran said that the mega projects of the Chinese are certainly one reason for the tension with the government. He cited the partially completed Myitsone Hydro-Electric Dam, construction of which is currently on hold, but the people are upset because over 90 per cent of the power generated will go to China.
Gas pipelines into China and a railway line from Yangon to Kunming are also on the planning board and, Father Maran commented, “It seems that the Myanmar government has launched a campaign to slowly wipe out any opposition to these projects.”
Father Matulac added that on a visit to the pristine mountain resort of the Stone Village with seminarians, he was told that in November 2011 the army sent troops there and hundreds of local people died.
“The seminarians told me that some of these young soldiers are taken by force and enlisted in the army and sent to the Kachin state to fight,” Father Matulac said, adding that international agencies estimate that there are as many as 70,000 child soldiers used by the Burmese army and ethnic freedom fighters.
He added that records show a systematic recruitment and even trafficking of children as soldiers by the Myanmese military.
He explained that the seminarians told him, “The young soldiers are only trained to shoot. They fire at anyone, if they see a Kachin man, they think that he is KIA. The soldiers strafe the houses and rape the women, even pregnant women.”
Father Matulac added, “A young man named Columban told me his friend was also killed by the army. He was riding his motorcycle when he happened to pass by a troop of Burmese soldiers and he was shot in the head. Another young man said that his house was strafed by the soldiers. All of them had a similar story.”
The three bishops believe that the rape of natural resources is the reason behind the genocide. “Colonial era laws are enacted to usurp traditional ethnic lands,” they say. “Land questions may ultimately decide the future of peace in this land.”
They add, “We note with great concern attempts to grab the lands of those who are displaced.”
They insist that peace based on justice is the only way forward, but Father Matulac says that a new military vision will be necessary to achieve this.
He points to a sign posted on the military headquarters in Mandalay, which reads, “Tatmadaw (military) and the people cooperate and thrash all those who are harming the union.”
The Filipino missionary says that the operative word is union, as ethnic groups like the Kachin are not regarded as being an integral part of it.
“The silent war in the Kachin villages rages on, while the ordinary people are caught in between,” he concludes.
One of a number of songs celebrating in 2011 the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the Columbans in Banmaw (Bhamo) and the 50th anniversary of the building of St Patrick’s, now the cathedral of the Diocese of Banmaw.
This report by Raymond A. Sebastián was posted on the website of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines yesterday.
DAGUPAN City, Pangasinan, September 8, 2014—In response to the mounting persecution of Christians in many parts of the world, particularly in Iraq and Syria, the head of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) declares September 14, 2014—the “Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross”—as National Day of Prayer for Peace, calling on all Church leaders to celebrate Mass for the special intentions of these modern-day martyrs and to raise funds for them.
“We request the Most Reverend Archbishops and Bishops to oblige all priests to celebrate all Masses that day for the special intentions of the persecuted Christians in Syria and Iraq,” says CBCP chief and Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates B. Villegas in a letter addressed to his brother-bishops.
Special intentions for peace
At the Permanent Council meeting held September 2, the bishops unanimously chose September 14, Sunday as “National Day of Prayer for Peace in Iraq and Syria”, coinciding with the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross.
“In all our Masses on the feast of the Holy Cross, let us unite ourselves with our suffering brothers and sisters, commending to the God who is our hope their pains, their shattered lives and dreams, their bereavement and their loss,” says Villegas.
He explains, “Helpless and defenseless persons are victims of a brutal imposition of a rigid and unforgiving version of faith. Religion is as much a victim, for those who kill and slaughter, wound and maim, destroy, and burn in the name of God, send the world the awful message that religion divides, that faith is oppressive, that belief can engender so much unkindness!”
The prelate urges the faithful to pray that even as many of the persecuted Christians now “see no way out of the misery that has been visited on them, the God who opens paths through the sea and ways in the desert, may make a way for them to the future that can only be His gift!”
According to Villegas, the “Gospel of peace, love and brotherhood is under siege in many parts of the world, especially in Iraq and Syria”.
Villegas notes that the same Gospel of brotherhood and peace invites Filipinos to respond first and foremost through “prayer accompanied by charity and solidarity”.
The archbishop of Lingayen-Dagupan also requests for a charity collection for the Iraqi and Syrian Christians, stressing that it is “Christ in Iraq and Syria” who has been evicted from his home.
He adds, “Places of worship—many of them, thousands of years old—have been razed to the ground by a godless rage with which no genuine religion can ever identify!”
“For many, the food and drink that sustain life are daily issues. They rise from sleep each day to struggle just to keep themselves alive. We must be generous, and the fact that we have our own needs here in the Philippines does not excuse us from the Christian obligation of sharing with our suffering brothers and sisters in Iraq and Syria from our own need.”
The collections, which will be remitted to CBCP Secretariat by September 30, 2014, will then be immediately sent to the charity aid of the Apostolic Nunciatures in Iraq and Syria.
Quoting Matthew 25:40, Villegas shares, “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.
“If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one.But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
Today’s gospel looks at forgiveness, mainly from the point of view of helping someone to acknowledge a wrongdoing and thereby asking for and receiving forgiveness. During this week I kept thinking about a Christian Brother who taught me in Dublin and one incident involving him that I witnessed and another I heard about years later. I’ll simply copy from a previous post, with one or two slight changes.
During my primary school years I came to know an exceptional person, Brother Mícheál. S. Ó Flaitile, known as ‘Pancho’ from the sidekick of the Cisco Kid, a syndicated comic-strip [above] that we used to read in The Irish Press, a no longer existing Irish daily newspaper. Our ‘Pancho’, like the Cisco Kid’s friend, was on the pudgy side, though minus the hair and moustache. He organized an Irish-speaking club and arranged for me to be secretary. I don’t think I was too happy at the time to get that job but I realized later that he had spotted my ability to write. Other teachers had encouraged me in this too.
My class was blessed to have had Brother Ó Flaitile in our last two years in secondary school, 1959 to 1961, when we were preparing for our all-important Leaving Certificate examination. He taught us Irish and Latin. He probably should have been teaching at university level. What I remember most of all about him was his character. Everyone described him as ‘fear uasal’, the Irish for ‘a noble man’ – as distinct from ‘a nobleman’. A stare from him made you feel humbled, but not humiliated. He had the kind of authority that Jesus had, as we read in the gospels.
I remember one event in our last year. ‘Pancho’ used to take the A and B sections for religion together in our last class before lunch every day for religion class. One day he scolded a student in the B section for something trivial or other and the student himself and the rest of us took it in our stride and forgot about it. We were nearly 70 boys aged between 16 and 18. ‘Pancho’ was probably around 60 then. The next day Brother Ó Flaitile apologized to the boy in question and to the rest of us because he had discovered that the student hadn’t done what he had accused him of. Whatever it was, it had been very insignificant. But ‘Pancho’’s apology was for me a formative moment. I mentioned it to him many years later when he was in his 80s. He told me he didn’t remember the incident, but he smiled. He died in the late 1980s.
Some years ago a classmate told me about an incident between himself and Brother Ó Flaitile in 1959 when we were on a summer school/holiday in an Irish-speaking part of County Galway. If my friend had told me the story at the time I would not have believed him. He got angry with ‘Pancho’ over something or other and used a four-letter word that nobody would ever express to an adult, least of all to a religious brother and teacher whom we revered. The lad stormed back to the house where he was staying and before too long felt remorse. He went back to ‘Pancho’ and apologized. The Brother accepted this totally and unconditionally and never referred to the incident again.
After my father, I don’t think that anyone else influenced me more for good when I was young than ‘Pancho’.
Looking back on the first incident I figure that the student in question must have gone to ‘Pancho’ afterwards and explained to him what had really happened. Brother Ó Flaitile was the kind of authority figure whom you felt free to approach in such a situation. If that is what happened, and I believe it was, then the opening words of today’s gospel were what we all experienced in class the following day: If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one.
Brother Ó Flaitile’s asking for forgiveness that day was all the more powerful because he was more than three times our age, an authority figure, a religious brother and a truly revered person. What he did showed why he was revered, as did the ‘four-letter word incident’ with my classmate.
For me ‘Pancho’ exemplified the Christian leadership that Jean Vanier, founder of L’Archeand, with Marie-Hélène Mathieu, co-founder of Faith and Light, talks about in the video below. He knew and called each of us by name and loved each of us, especially when we were ‘the enemy’, wrongdoing or perceived to be such, and led us by example, most powerfully of all when he asked our forgiveness for having judged one of us wrongly.
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Schola Bellarmina, Brussels, Belgium
Antiphona ad introitum Entrance Antiphon Ps 118[119]:137, 124
Iustus es, Domine et rectum iudicium tuum;
You are just, O Lord, and your judgement is right;
fac cum servo tuo secundum misericordiam tuam.
treat your servant in accord with your merciful love.
Ps 118[119]:1. Beati immaculati in via: qui ambulant in lege Domini.
Happy are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord.
Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto, sicut erat in principio et nunc et semper et in saecula saeculorum, Amen!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end, Amen!
Iustus es, Domine et rectum iudicium tuum;
You are just, O Lord, and your judgement is right;
fac cum servo tuo secundum misericordiam tuam.
treat your servant in accord with your merciful love.
[The text in bold is what is in the Ordinary Form of the Mass. The fuller text is used in the Extraordinary Form, the ‘Tridentine Mass’. It may also be used in the Ordinary Form when it is sung.]
At his General Audience last Wednesday, 3 September, Pope Francis once again expressed his concern for the Christians of Iraq, many of whom have been driven from their homes. It cannot be stressed enough that their ancestors accepted the gift of our Christian faith in the time of the Apostles, that they are Arabs and that the places from which they have been driven by ISIS are the places where their ancestors have lived for thousands of years.
The Pope’s words of encouragement and solidarity:
Today, I want to reassure my closeness to Christians, to the defenseless and persecuted. You are in the heart of the Church. The Church suffers with you and the Church is proud of you. It’s proud to have sons and daughters like you. You are its strength and you offer a concrete and authentic testimony of salvation, forgiveness and love. I embrace all of you. May the Lord bless and protect you.
+Louis Raphael SakoPatriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church
Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako, head of the Chaldean Catholic Church, to which most Iraqi Catholics belong, published an impassioned statement on the website of the Church on 3 September. He calls what is happening ‘genocide’. Some extracts:
. . . The curtains have been drawn on the painful events, and 120.000 Christians are uprooted from their historical homeland because the Political Islam does not want them there, and the world is silent, standing still, either because it approves or because it is incapable of acting . . . These people were living in their hometowns in prosperity, pride and dignity; in the blink of an eye, they were ousted from their homes, terrified and fleeing on foot in search of a shelter. It is a scene that takes us back to the dark centuries of the past although it has become a horrific reality of our present civilization!
What these peaceful Christians and loyal citizens experienced is a real genocide, a sad ending, and a proof of the privation of the religious, human, moral, and national values. Therefore, it is a shameful stain in history. Everybody should know is a threat for all.
Few days ago we saw the 13 year old girl on Ishtar satellite channel, screaming: ‘I want to go back to my own town, Qaraqosh. I am tired of this life here; I would rather die for it rather than living here in humiliation’. It’s a loud call to the conscience of the world!
This BBC report was published 9 August
Let us, with Pope Francis, embrace our suffering Christian brothers and sisters in Iraq and others being persecuted there, at least through our prayers, most of all as we celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
Readings(Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)
GospelMatthew 16:21-27 (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition: Canada)
From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?
“For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done.”
A Man for All Seasonsis a movie made in 1966, written by Robert Bolt and based on his stage play with the same title. It is based on the life of St Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England during the time of King Henry VIII. His position would be similar to that of Prime Minister today. More refuses to sign a letter asking Pope Clement VII to annul the marriage of the King to Catherine of Aragon who had not borne him a son. Eventually More is found guilty of high treason and sentenced to death.
During his trial Sir Thomas More discovers that Richard Rich, who had given perjured testimony against him, had been made Secretary of Wales as a reward for this. The laws of England were about to be extended to Wales, a country of 20,779 square kilometres in the southwest of the island of Britain which also includes England and Scotland. More says to Rich, Why, Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world – but for Wales? [2:12 – 2:21 in the video above].
On Sundays in Ordinary Time the First Reading and the Gospel are linked thematically whereas the Second Reading is from on the Letters of St Paul read over the course of a number of Sundays. But this Sunday it is closely related to the other two readings in that it reminds us that as followers of Jesus we are called to be living sacrifices: I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters,by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:1-2).
The Prophet Jeremiah discovers the cost of doing God’s will: I have become a laughingstock all day long; everyone mocks me . . . For the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and derision all day long (Jeremiah 20:7,8).
St Peter cannot abide the thought of any such thing happening to Jesus: God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you. He receives an extraordinary rebuke from Jesus: Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.
Pope Francis
Canonizations of Sts John XXIII and John Paul II, 27 April 2014 [Wikipedia]
Pope Francis on his recent visit to Korea touched on some of these things. I quoted from his homilies and addresses there last Sunday and would like to do the same this Sunday. In hisaddress to the delegates at Asian Youth Day on 15 August he said [emphasis added]:
This great gathering of Asian young people also allows us to see something of what the Church herself is meant to be in God’s eternal plan. Together with young people everywhere, you want to help build a world where we all live together in peace and friendship, overcoming barriers, healing divisions, rejecting violence and prejudice. And this is exactly what God wants for us. The Church is meant to be a seed of unity for the whole human family. In Christ, all nations and peoples are called to a unity which does not destroy diversity but acknowledges, reconciles and enriches it.
How distant the spirit of the world seems from that magnificent vision and plan! How often the seeds of goodness and hope which we try to sow seem to be choked by weeds of selfishness, hostility and injustice, not only all around us, but also in our own hearts. We are troubled by the growing gap in our societies between rich and poor. We see signs of an idolatry of wealth, power and pleasure which come at a high cost to human lives. Closer to home, so many of our own friends and contemporaries, even in the midst of immense material prosperity, are suffering from spiritual poverty, loneliness and quiet despair. God seems to be removed from the picture. It is almost as though a spiritual desert is beginning to spread throughout our world. It affects the young too, robbing them of hope and even, in all too many cases, of life itself.
Yet this is the world into which you are called to go forth and bear witness to the Gospel of hope, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the promise of his Kingdom.
Pope Francis is expressing, from a different angle, what Jesus is rebuking Peter about: the basic values by which we live, seeing everything through the eyes of Christ or seeing them through the eyes of others.
6th Asian Youth Day (AYD2014)
In his homily at the closing Mass of AYD2014 Pope Francis once again put before the young people of Asia, and before all of us, the values of the Gospel – and the choices that this may demand:
Returning to the theme of this Day, let us reflect on a second word: ‘Youth’. You and your friends are filled with the optimism, energy and good will which are so characteristic of this period of life. Let Christ turn your natural optimism into Christian hope, your energy into moral virtue, your good will into genuine self-sacrificing love! This is the path you are called to take. This is the path to overcoming all that threatens hope, virtue and love in your lives and in your culture. In this way your youth will be a gift to Jesus and to the world.
As young Christians, whether you are workers or students, whether you have already begun a career or have answered the call to marriage, religious life or the priesthood, you are not only a part of the future of the Church; you are also a necessary and beloved part of the Church’s present! You are Church’s present! Keep close to one another, draw ever closer to God, and with your bishops and priests spend these years in building a holier, more missionary and humble Church, a holier, more missionary and humble Church, a Church which loves and worships God by seeking to servethe poor, the lonely, the infirm and the marginalized.
I was delighted to see Pope Francis reminding the young people that, while they are part of the future of the Church, they are also a necessary and beloved part of the Church’s present. When I was young I used to get irritated at adults telling us that we were ‘the future’ of the Church / the nation / whatever, which we were, but forgetting that we were also part of the present. And among the canonized and beatified martyrs of Korea we find children, adolescents, young adults, middle-aged and older persons, all ready to take up their cross and follow me, just as St Thomas More had done some centuries earlier on the other side of the world and as St Peter did on a cross hung upside-down.
In A Man for All Seasons St Thomas More is shown to be a man of great inner peace and joy, the latter not something superficial but something deep in his soul. Pope Francis speaks of this to the young delegates:
Finally, the third part of this Day’s theme – ‘Wake up!’– This word speaks of a responsibility which the Lord gives you. It is the duty to be vigilant, not to allow the pressures, the temptations and the sins of ourselves or others to dull our sensitivity to the beauty of holiness, to the joy of the Gospel . . . Dear young people of Asia, it is my hope that, in union with Christ and the Church, you will take up this path, which will surely bring you much joy.
Those final words of Pope Francis above echo the beautiful challenge of Pope Benedict to the young in the closing part of his homily at his inaugural Mass on 24 April 2005:
At this point, my mind goes back to 22 October 1978, when Pope John Paul II began his ministry here in Saint Peter’s Square. His words on that occasion constantly echo in my ears: Do not be afraid! Open wide the doors for Christ!’ The Pope was addressing the mighty, the powerful of this world, who feared that Christ might take away something of their power if they were to let him in, if they were to allow the faith to be free. Yes, he would certainly have taken something away from them: the dominion of corruption, the manipulation of law and the freedom to do as they pleased. But he would not have taken away anything that pertains to human freedom or dignity, or to the building of a just society.
The Pope was also speaking to everyone, especially the young. Are we not perhaps all afraid in some way? If we let Christ enter fully into our lives, if we open ourselves totally to him, are we not afraid that He might take something away from us?Are we not perhaps afraid to give up something significant, something unique, something that makes life so beautiful? Do we not then risk ending up diminished and deprived of our freedom? And once again the Pope said: No! If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. No! Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide. Only in this friendship is the great potential of human existence truly revealed. Only in this friendship do we experience beauty and liberation.
And so, today, with great strength and great conviction, on the basis of long personal experience of life, I say to you, dear young people: Do not be afraid of Christ! He takes nothing away, and he gives you everything. When we give ourselves to him, we receive a hundredfold in return. Yes, open, open wide the doors to Christ – and you will find true life. Amen.
The Martyrs of Korea, St Thomas More and St Peter all discovered when they chose to lay down their lives for Jesus Christ and for the Gospel the truth of the words of Pope Benedict, He takes nothing away, and he gives you everything, words that echo those of Jesus himself as he speaks to us in today’s Gospel, For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
Let us continue to pray for Christians in Iraq and Syria who have been driven from their homes. These are descendants of people who became Christians in the time of the Apostles. they have been driven from their homelands.
The news from Iraq leaves us incredulous and alarmed: thousands of people, many Christians among them, are being driven from their homes in a brutal way; children are dying of thirst and hunger while fleeing; women abducted; people massacred; every type of violence; destruction everywhere; destruction of houses, of religious, historic and cultural heritage. Yet all of this grievously offends God and grievously offends humanity. Hatred is not borne in the name of God! War is not waged in the name of God! All of us, thinking about this situation, about these people, let us be silent now and pray.
After pausing to pray, he continued:
I thank those who, with courage, are taking aid to these brothers and sisters, and I hope that an effective political solution, both at the international and local levels, can put an end to these crimes and restore law. The better to ensure to those dear peoples of my closeness I have appointed as my Personal Envoy to Iraq Cardinal Fernando Filoni, who will leave Rome tomorrow.
A few days before Pope Francis arrived in Korea on his recent Apostolic Journey, 13-18 August, on the occasion of the 6th Asian Youth Day, the Regional Director of the Columbans in Korea, Fr Donal O’Keeffe, was interviewed on Korea Today, an English-language current affairs program on South Korea’s Arirang TV.
Fr O’Keeffe speculated, in the context of the beatification of 124 Korean martyrs on 16 August, that the Pope would emphasise the heritage that the Korean church of today had received from the witness of the martys, and to show similar witness, even if it would not involve having to lay down their lives.
As it turned out, Pope Francis put great emphasis on this. (Emphases added below.)
In his address to the Bishops of Korea on 14 August he called on them to be guardians of memory and guardians of hope. Being guardians of memory means more than remembering and treasuring the graces of the past; it also means drawing from them the spiritual resources to confront with vision and determination the hopes, the promise and the challenges of the future.
In his homily on the Solemnity of the Assumption the Pope said: As Korean Catholics, heirs to a noble tradition, you are called to cherish this legacy and transmit it to future generations. This will demand of everyone a renewed conversion to the word of God and a passionate concern for the poor, the needy and the vulnerable in our midst.
In speaking to the delegates to Asian Youth Day on 15 August the Holy Father said to them: Just as the Lord made his glory shine forth in the heroic witness of the martyrs, so too he wants to make his glory shine in your lives, and through you, to light up the life of this vast continent.
The Bishop of Rome continued the same theme in his homily at the Beatification Mass on 16 August: The victory of the martyrs, their witness to the power of God’s love, continues to bear fruit today in Korea, in the Church which received growth from their sacrifice.
16 August was a very busy day for Pope Francis, who spoke to leaders of the Apostolate of the Laity: The Church in Korea, as we all know, is heir to the faith of generations of lay persons who persevered in the love of Christ Jesus and the communion of the Church despite the scarcity of priests and the threat of severe persecution. Blessed Paul Yun Ji-chung and the martyrs beatified today represent an impressive chapter of this history. They bore witness to the faith not only by their sufferings and death, but by their lives of loving solidarity with one another in Christian communities marked by exemplary charity. This precious legacy lives on in your own works of faith, charity and service.
Faith as a gift, as a heritage received from earlier generations and therefore to be handed on by us to future generations, was spoken of by Pope Francis
in his homily at the closing Mass of Asian Youth Day on 17 August: The martyrs of Korea – and innumerable others throughout Asia – handed over their bodies to their persecutors; to us they have handed on a perennial witness that the light of Christ’s truth dispels all darkness, and the love of Christ is gloriously triumphant. With the certainty of his victory over death, and our participation in it, we can face the challenge of Christian discipleship today, in our own circumstances and time. Further on the Pope reminds the young delegates from all over Asia that they are part of the Church in the present: As young Christians, whether you are workers or students,whether you have already begun a career or have answered the call to marriage, religious life or the priesthood, you are not only a part of the futureof the Church; you are also a necessary and beloved part of the Church’s present!
The Vatican website, www.vatican.va, has a link to all of the Pope’s homilies and addresses here.
Readings(Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)
GospelMatthew 16:13-20 (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, Canada)
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.And I tell you, you are Peter,and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
Pope Francis in Korea, 13-18 August 2014 [Wikipedia]
In his homily on the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, 29 June 2013, Pope Francis said: I would like to offer three thoughts on the Petrine ministry, guided by the word ‘confirm’. What has the Bishop of Rome been called to confirm? By ‘Petrine ministry’ the Pope was speaking of the ministry of the Bishop of Rome, of the Pope, the successor of St Peter. He said that the Pope is called to confirm in faith, to confirm in love and to confirm in unity. Here is what he said about confirming in faith.
The Gospel speaks of the confession of Peter: ‘You are Christ, the Son of the living God’ (Mt16:16), a confession which does not come from him but from our Father in heaven. Because of this confession, Jesus replies: ‘You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church’ (v. 18). The role, the ecclesial service of Peter, is founded upon his confession of faith in Jesus, the Son of the living God, made possible by a grace granted from on high. In the second part of today’s Gospel we see the peril of thinking in worldly terms. When Jesus speaks of his death and resurrection, of the path of God which does not correspond to the human path of power, flesh and blood re-emerge in Peter: ‘He took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him . . . This must never happen to you’ (16:22). Jesus’ response is harsh: ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me’ (v. 23). Whenever we let our thoughts, our feelings or the logic of human power prevail, and we do not let ourselves be taught and guided by faith, by God, we become stumbling blocks. Faith in Christ is the light of our life as Christians and as ministers in the Church!
On his recent Apostolic Journey to the Republic of Korea Pope Francis through his words and actions carried out his ministry of confirming in faith, as well as in love and in unity, not only the people of Korea, not only the delegates to the 6th Asian Youth Day, but all of us.
At the Mass in the World Cup Stadium in Daejeon – the Diocese of Daejeon hosted AYD2014 – on the Solemnity of the Assumption the Bishop of Rome said [emphasis added]:
Today, in venerating Mary, Queen of Heaven, we also turn to her as Mother of the Church in Korea. We ask her to help us to be faithful to the royal freedom we received on the day of our Baptism, to guide our efforts to transform the world in accordance with God’s plan, and to enable the Church in this country to be ever more fully a leaven of his Kingdom in the midst of Korean society. May the Christians of this nation be a generous force for spiritual renewal at every level of society. May they combat the allure of a materialism that stifles authentic spiritual and cultural values and the spirit of unbridled competition which generates selfishness and strife. May they also reject inhumane economic models which create new forms of poverty and marginalize workers, and the culture of death which devalues the image of God, the God of life, and violates the dignity of every man, woman and child.
As Korean Catholics, heirs to a noble tradition, you are called to cherish this legacy and transmit it to future generations. This will demand of everyone a renewed conversion to the word of God and a passionate concern for the poor, the needy and the vulnerable in our midst.
The same day at the Shrine of Solmoe, known as ‘The Birthplace of Catholicism in Korea’, Pope Francis met with the delegates to AYD2014 and once again spoke of the importance of baptism along with the two other sacraments of initiation into the faith, Confirmation and the Eucharist:
Dear young friends, in this generation the Lord is counting on you! He is counting on you!He entered your hearts on the day of your Baptism; he gave you his Spirit on the day of your Confirmation; and he strengthens you constantly by his presence in the Eucharist, so that you can be his witnesses before the world. Are you ready to say ‘yes’? [Yes!] Are you ready? [Yes!] Thank you! Are you tired? [No!] Really? [Yes!]
Beatification Mass
On Saturday 18 August Pope Francis beatified Paul Yun Ji-chung and 135 martyr companions at the Gwanghwamun Gate, Seoul. In his homily he emphasised the gift of faith that we are called to pass on, no matter what the cost:
The victory of the martyrs, their witness to the power of God’s love, continues to bear fruit today in Korea, in the Church which received growth from their sacrifice. Our celebration of Blessed Paul and Companions provides us with the opportunity to return to the first moments, the infancy as it were, of the Church in Korea. It invites you, the Catholics of Korea, to remember the great things which God has wrought in this land and to treasure the legacy of faith and charity entrusted to you by your forebears.
The Holy Father linked the sacrifice of these martyrs of Korea with the situation in today’s world and what our Christian faith demands of us:
The example of the martyrs also teaches us the importance of charity in the life of faith. It was the purity of their witness to Christ, expressed in an acceptance of the equal dignity of all the baptized, which led them to a form of fraternal life that challenged the rigid social structures of their day. It was their refusal to separate the twin commandment of love of God and love of neighbor which impelled them to such great solicitude for the needs of the brethren. Their example has much to say to us who live in societies where, alongside immense wealth, dire poverty is silently growing; where the cry of the poor is seldom heeded; and where Christ continues to call out to us, asking us to love and serve him by tending to our brothers and sisters in need.
Pope Francis spoke of the joy of being a Christian, one of his basic themes since becoming Pope:
If we follow the lead of the martyrs and take the Lord at his word, then we will understand the sublime freedom and joy with which they went to their death . . . The legacy of the martyrs can inspire all men and women of good will to work in harmony for a more just, free and reconciled society, thus contributing to peace and the protection of authentically human values in this country and in our world.
In his address to leaders of the apostolate of the laity the Pope spoke once again of faith as a gift, as a legacy handed down to us:
The Church in Korea, as we all know, is heir to the faith of generations of lay persons who persevered in the love of Christ Jesus and the communion of the Church despite the scarcity of priests and the threat of severe persecution . . . This precious legacy lives on in your own works of faith, charity and service. Today, as ever, the Church needs credible lay witnesses to the saving truth of the Gospel, its power to purify and transform human hearts, and its fruitfulness for building up the human family in unity, justice and peace. We know there is but one mission of the Church of God, and that every baptized Christian has a vital part in this mission. Your gifts as lay men and women are manifold and your apostolates varied, yet all that you do is meant to advance the Church’s mission by ensuring that the temporal order is permeated and perfected by Christ’s Spirit and ordered to the coming of his Kingdom.
The faith was introduced to Korea by Korean laymen who were part of a delegation to Beijing and who discovered the faith there.
The inspiring words of Pope Francis were meant not only to confirm Korean Catholics in their faith but all of us. Faith is the most precious gift that God has given us but one that can be lost by individuals and by whole areas of the world. North Africa is one example, where the Christian faith disappeared everywhere except in Egypt and Ethiopia after the rise of Islam. Western Europe is another example, where the Christian faith has been rapidly disappearing in recent decades, as it has to a lesser degree in North America.Two generations ago Quebec in Canada had a flourishing Church that was sending missionaries to many parts of the world, including the Philippines, but where it is now pretty much on the margins.
The words of Jesus to Peter show us clearly that our faith is a gift: Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.
May we thank God each day for the gift of our faith and ask for the grace for ourselves and for Pope Francis to live it as the Korean martyrs did, with the sublime freedom and joy with which they went to their death.
In the words with which Pope Francis concluded his homily at the beatification of the 124 martyrs:
May the prayers of all the Korean martyrs, in union with those of Our Lady, Mother of the Church, obtain for us the grace of perseverance in faith and in every good work, holiness and purity of heart, and apostolic zeal in bearing witness to Jesus in this beloved country, throughout Asia, and to the ends of the earth. Amen.
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The following petition was added to the Prayer of the Faithful at the Pope’s Mass for Reconciliation in Myeong-dong Cathedral, Seoul, on 18 August before he flew back to Rome:
Prayer for Cardinal Filoni for Iraq:
For Cardinal Fernando Filoni, who cannot be with us because he was sent by the Pope to the suffering people of Iraq in order to assist our persecuted and dispossessed brothers and sisters, and all the religious minorities who are afflicted in that country. May the Lord be close to him in his mission.
May we continue to pray for all who are being persecuted in Iraq and Syria, especially those who are suffering because they are Christians.
A report on Arirang TV, Korea, a few days before the beatifications.
Antiphona ad introitum Entrance Antiphon Cf Ps 85[86]:1-3
Inclina, Domine, aurem tuam ad me, et exaudi me.
Turn your earl, O Lord, and answer me;
Salvum fac servum tuum, Deus meus, sperantem in te.
save the servant who trusts in you, my God.
Miserere mihi, Domine, quoniam ad te clamavi tota die.
Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I cry to you all the day long.
Laetifica animam servi tui, quia ad te, Domine, animam meam levavi.
Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, Lord, I lift my soul. Inclina, Domine, aurem tuam ad me, et exaudi me.
Turn your earl, O Lord, and answer me;Salvum fac servum tuum, Deus meus, sperantem in te.
save the servant who trusts in you, my God.Miserere mihi, Domine, quoniam ad te clamavi tota die.
Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I cry to you all the day long.
[The text above in bold print is sung or said in the Ordinary Form of the Mass; in the Extraordinary Form of the Mass the whole text above is sung or said.]
What are you willing to die for? was the very challenging question that Pope Francis presented to the thousands of Catholics from Korea and other Asian countries gathered for the beatification of 124 martyrs in Seoul, Korea on 16 August. And it is also challenging for all of us who claim to be Catholics and Christians. His message was clear in calling on the youth and people to reject a life of selfish gratification based on gross materialism and living for wealth alone and instead to strive for equality and protect the poor and their human rights.
The Pope visited a Catholic home for the elderly and embraced some of them showing compassion and love. In Korea, as in many wealthy nations, there are serious pockets of neglect of the elderly. Although the Republic of Korea (South Korea) is one of the wealthiest nations in the world half of the old folk live in poverty. Instead of cherishing and respecting them all with a life of dignity and sufficiency like western materialistic societies many of the senior citizens are marginalized and rejected as people of little value.
Many are locked away in retirement homes and some tied to beds and chairs and given tranquilizer drugs that leave them in a state of semi-conscious stupor that accelerates dementia. New legislation in Belgium and Switzerland and the Netherlands allows them to be helped to kill themselves by ‘assisted suicide’. Where will this trend end? Soon the practice could be for nasty relatives and government care-givers to bully and persuade them to kill themselves and not go on being a financial and medical burden to the rest of us. This is an attitude arising from loveless, selfish materialism.
The Pope reminded us that the early Catholics of Korea sacrificed themselves for their needy bothers and sisters, They knew the price of discipleship . . . and were willing to make great sacrifices. The Pope pointed out that their love and courage and rejection of the strict unbending and unequal social structure of their day is an inspiration for people alive today. Their belief in Jesus of Nazareth and his teaching of a Kingdom of love, equality and social justice led to their execution. The rich can’t stand talk of equality.
Pope Francis’s compassion for the bereaved families of the hundreds of school children who drowned when the MV Sewol sank on 16 April this year showed through also when he and the organizers of the Mass of Beatification did not allow the authorities to drive away the protestors, one on hunger strike, demanding the truth about the sinking of the ferry. The Pope had met them in private and now embraced them in public. Bishop Peter Kang U-il of Jeju stated that to forcibly move people crying for justice in order to celebrate Mass simply could not happen – if it did the Mass would have no meaning.
When Pope Francis comes to visit the Philippines in January he will find many martyrs, including priests and pastors, human rights workers, who gave their lives for the poor and exploited and who were executed by death squads run by military and local government officials.
St Andrew
Kim Taegŏn
First Korean priest, one of 103 Martyrs of Korea canonized by Pope St John Paul II in Soeul, May 1984. [Wikipedia]
One of the worst suspected and accused military generals, the darling of the previous government of President Gloria Arroyo who herself is in detention for plunder awaiting tria,l is retired Army Maj Gen Jovito Palparan Jr. He was arrested recently after more than two years on the run from the charges of allegedly running death squads wherever he was assigned around the Philippines and allegedly left a trail of blood of assassinated civilians who dared to criticize the government. Known as ‘The Butcher’ for these alleged crimes, he will be put on trial for the disappearance and suspected murder of two student activists.
Like the Korean martyrs we should be ready to give up some comforts of oureasy life and defend abused children and those poor people exploited by the rich one percent that owns 70 percent of the Philippines. We need the spiritual commitment and belief in what is right and good and to be ready to put aside selfish desires and greed to help others in great need.
This is the heart of the Pope’s message. When Francis comes to the Philippines I hope he will not be feted and manipulated by glory-seeking rich elites and publicity-seeking politicos. He will, we hope, visit the poor and victims of abuse and survivors of last November’s Supertyphoon Haiyan/Yolanda. He will see little reconstruction of homes, schools and public services. Political corruption is still rife and raging wherever there is money to be stolen. His message will be equally challenging for sure and we will do well to heed it and act in solidarity with those in great need wherever they may be.
Raw sugar production in the Philippines [Wikipedia]
Fairness and justice is what the poor and the oppressed need from those elected to protect and serve them.When the people are in greatest need and government officials turn away then the people have been betrayed, abandoned and left without help. This is what I experience every day in our struggle to get justice for the victims of human trafficking child sexual abuse. But there is little justice. The rich and powerful can buy their way out of their crimes. It happens also to the farmers and the urban poor that their oppressors kill with impunity.
That is what is happening to the Panay Fair Trade group in Panay island in the central Philippines. Some members of the Panay Fair Trade Farmers’ Cooperative have been harassed, brutalized and their leaders assassinated. One day last March Romy was with his mother-in-law at the public market when a motorcycle with two men drew close to him and opened fire, shooting him in the head. His mother-in-law went into shock and the killers escaped on the motorbike .They were only fifty meters from a police station. Romy Capalla, died on the spot. He paid the ultimate price for his solidarity with the poor. The same day fifteen kilometers away the small sugar mill of the farmers’ cooperative was mysteriously burnt to the ground by unknown arsonists. But the Philippine government has turned a blind eye to it all.
The eyes of the world are not closed. A solidarity group of international observers for the Fair Trade movement from Europe and around the world will travel to Panay Island this August month in a demonstration of solidarity and support and also to speak out to the authorities to end the killing of the farmers and the leaders and respect human rights. The solidarity delegates will visit politicians, church leaders and speak with concerned groups to raise the awareness of the violations to human rights and the harm and great injustice done to the farmers.
The delegates from Europe, who include members of DWP and GEPA, Germany, and members of CTM Altromercatofrom Italy, together with thousands of Fair Trade supporters will join with the Philippine Fair Trade organizations such as Preda Fair Trade, CCAP and others to protest the violation of the human rights of the farmers and their families.
There are killer death squads assassinating farmers and one squad killed their leader Romy Capalla.
These are independent farmers growing sugar cane on the own land or as rightful tenants and not part of the big sugar growing plantations. They have successfully broken away from the control of rich sugar barons who set a low payment for the sugar cane and a high price to mill it.
This economic control causes the farmers to remain mired in cruel poverty and their children can’t go on to a better life. The farmers’ leaders and organizers are a dedicated group of human rights advocates and Fair Traders who are trying to bring a new and better life to the thousands of small farmers who are exploited in the sugar industry of Panay Island.
Fair Trade organizations in Europe buy Muscovado Sugar from the Panay farmers at a fair price and the farmers have prospered and have been able to raise funds to build their own sugar grinding and processing mill. They also sell Muscovado sugar locally to the supermarkets and make a good living, free from the dominating barons who feel threatened as more and more farmers want to join the association and mill their sugar at the association’s mill at a lower cost. They then earn more and prosper too. This is strong competition and the murderous attack on the members and Romy Capalla and the burning of the mill is believed to be the work of a few of these sugar barons. Romy will be remembered and celebrated as a staunch defender
of human rights.
Brown sugar examples: Muscovado (top), dark brown (left), light brown (right) [Wikipedia]
His brother is the retired Arrchbishop of Davao, Ferdinand R. Capalla. Romy was instrumental in setting up the project and his group had great success in organizing the farmers into this Panay Fair Trade sugar-producing cooperative where the small farmers held onto the land and planted their own sugar cane. They harvested and milled the sugar cane themselves in that small sugar mill that produced the Muscovado that is healthy and exported to stores around the world. They also have local sales.
Throughout the Philippines the plantation owners and the super-rich families form the ruling elite and they own or control 70% of the economy, manufacturing and agriculture in the Philippines. A few of the rich sugar planters apparently see the independence of the farmers having the own mill as a threat and a dangerous precedent for others . They want to control the entire sugar harvest and fix prices. But the strong organization begun by Romy Capalla resisted that and began the Fair Trade alternative.
All help and assistance is needed to support the Philippine Human rights defenders and Fair Traders. The greed of a few has destroyed the lives of the many. As always, they who do the most good are rejected, condemned and made to appear bad. It is the story of the Gospel , it is the hardship of trying to do justice ,changing the world for the better and doing what is right. We must never lose heart and take our stand.
