More on the Assisi Day of Reflection and dialogue 2011



Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson.jpg

The “Day of
reflection, dialogue and prayer for peace and justice in the world: Pilgrims of
Truth, Pilgrims of Peace,” is to take place in Assisi on 27 October. The event needs our prayer and solidarity.

Cardinal
Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and
Peace had a press conference in which he said, “Following two and a half
decades of collaboration and joint witness among religions, it is time to
assess the results and to re-launch our commitment in the face of new
challenges.”

Continue reading More on the Assisi Day of Reflection and dialogue 2011

Reflection, Dialogue and Prayer: pilgrims of truth, peace and justice in Assisi 2011

The Pope’s called for a few days (a journey) of reflection on truth and peace in the world in Assisi on October 27. This gesture recalls the first Assisi meeting of religious leaders in 1986. But you know this. You’ve also heard that among some rigid Catholic-types there’s been an expressed outrage. Sad, I think. The past events have been “interesting” due to the way the event was organized and perhaps on how it was conceived to bring non-Christians together for prayer when the notion of prayer is not common to all religions and philosophy, but a complete dismissal of the gesture is unwarranted. I trust that Pope Benedict knows what he’s doing. The emphasis is not on prayer; the papal emphasis is on a pilgrimage. The list of participants is incomplete but it is expected that those who participate will represent the major religions and philosophies of the world and number under 100.

The theme for the Assisi meeting: “A Day of Reflection, Dialogue and Prayer for Peace and Justice in the World: Pilgrims of Truth, Pilgrims of Peace.”

The program for the Assisi meeting was rolled out today (in Italian).

Poverty Eradication and Intergenerational Justice: Stewardship, Solidarity and Subsidiarity

This coming year Pope Benedict is going to spend time teaching matters of Justice. In fact, he’s called for a new emphasis on Justice several times in the past year. St John’s University is a college operated by the Congregation of the Mission (the Vincentians), the religious order founded by the great Saint Vincent de Paul who had a special love for the poor and marginalized but also taught that one can’t effectively serve the poor without an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. For Saint Vincent de Paul, in order to walk with the poor one had to first first walk with the Lord. To that end, the Vincentian Fathers, Brothers and laity organized the Vincentian Center for Church and Society.


Next week, there is the 7th Biennial Vincentian Chair of Social Justice at St. John’s University (Queens, NY Campus) on “Poverty Eradication and Intergenerational Justice: Stewardship, Solidarity and Subsidiarity” to take place on October 22, 2011. 

More information can be found here: Poverty Eradication and Intergenerational Justice.pdf

Society is built upon gift of self and a well-formed conscience tells Croats, us

Thumbnail image for students sing for Pope in Zagreb June 4 2011.jpg

I am very glad that the first engagement of my visit should
be with you, representing as you do key sectors of Croatian society and the
Diplomatic Corps. My cordial greetings go to each of you personally and
also to the important communities to which you belong: religious, political,
academic and cultural, the world of the arts, finance and sport. I thank
Archbishop Puljic and Professor Zurak for the kind words they have addressed to
me, and I thank the musicians who have welcomed me in the universal language of
music. This dimension of universality, characteristic of art and culture,
is particularly appropriate for Christianity and the Catholic Church. Christ is fully human, and whatever is human finds in him and in his word the
fullness of life and meaning.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Continue reading Society is built upon gift of self and a well-formed conscience tells Croats, us

Educating Young People in Justice and Peace

…and this is the Holy Father’s theme for the 45th World Day of Prayer of Peace of January 1, 2012.

This is a theme that Pope Benedict comes back to with some frequency in his addresses to bishops, to the diplomats, gatherings of priests and religious and encyclicals. It all has to hang together: lectio divina, Scripture study, liturgical praxis, the spiritual and moral life and matters of justice. In the ’60s and ’70s we would often see a separation of faith from justice which led to a radical reduction of the human person, virtue and politics. As it was said, “The theme engages an urgent need in the world today: to listen to and enhance the important role of new generations in the realization of the common good, and in the affirmation of a just and peaceful social order where the fundamental human rights can be fully expressed and realized,” (LOR online).

The English edition of the L’Osservatore Romano has a spot on the papal choice here.
And, what is our work going to be in the near future: to listen, to enhance, to work and to pray for peace and justice today.
Enhanced by Zemanta

Prayer, Doctrine, Life and Evangelization: are we coherent?

In weekly classes on the Catholic I’ve been stressing a few (of many) points:

  • lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi (prayer, doctrine, life): all have to cohere
  • the Incarnation is a fact: in faith we encounter this fact, this Person, experience the exceptionality and the wonder
  • the contemporaneousness of Jesus Christ
  • the witness of the Catholic faith is true and it is true for all people

Turkson.jpg

In November the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace Peter Cardinal Turkson, 63, gave an interview to Zenit on his new work as the head of a Roman office after being a pastor of a diocese in Ghana. Cardinal Turkson is a trained biblical scholar.
My point of bringing this matter up is that those of us who make the claim to be faithful Catholics need to live the faith as though Jesus Christ truly mattered and that what we profess at Mass and in prayer is lived according to correct doctrine while sharing the Good News of Salvation coherently. Cardinal Turkson is not the first to say that we don’t always understand social justice, but we need to put a greater effort in doing so. How do we imitate the love of God for other?