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The cry of the poor

12 Jul 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The prophet Amos, from whom we hear this Sunday, urged the Jewish people to keep the needs of the poor always in mind. Pope Benedict XVI issued an encyclical Tuesday that calls for a new world financial order guided by ethics and the search for the common good. Caritas In Veritate (Charity in Truth) has been in the works for two years and its publication was delayed to incorporate fallout from the recent economic crisis. In the third encyclical of his pontificate, Benedict denounced a profit-at-all-costs mentality for bringing about the global financial meltdown. He pressed for reform of the United Nations and international economic and financial institutions to give poorer countries more of a say in international policy. "The economy needs ethics in order to function correctly--not any ethics, but an ethics which is people-centered," Benedict wrote. He has spoken out frequently about the impact of the crisis on the poor, particularly in Africa, which he visited earlier this year. But the 144-page encyclical marked a new level of church teaching by linking the Vatican's long-standing social doctrine on caring for the poor with current events. While acknowledging that the globalized economy has "lifted billions of people out of misery," Benedict pinpointed the unbridled growth of recent years as having caused unprecedented problems as well, citing mass migration flows, environmental degradation, and a complete loss of trust in the world market. He urged wealthier countries to increase development aid to poor countries to help eliminate world hunger, saying peace and security depended on it. He specified that aid should go to agricultural development to improve infrastructure, irrigation systems, transport, and sharing of agricultural technology. Father Drew Christiansen, S.J., editor of the Catholic newsweekly America and a leading social ethicist, said he was most intrigued by the pope's call for a new sector of society to work alongside government, market, and civil society: for-profit entities that work for the common good, which Christiansen suggested could include "fair trade" product makers and micro-finance institutions. "I am not sure these enterprises yet constitute a sector of economic life," Christiansen wrote. "But they are harbingers of a different, conscientious kind of economics that would not repeat the mistakes of the last 30 years." Source: An article by the Associated Press

Poor charity in truth encyclicals social teaching social doctrine economy drew christiansen fair trade micro-finance economics benedict xvi united nations caritas in veritate

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Christian-Muslim malaise hits Malaysia

17 Jan 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

"You shall be called by a new name," Isaiah prophesizes of Zion in this Sunday's first reading. That may be the only solution to religious tensions in Malaysia surrounding the use of the word "Allah" by Christians in the mostly Muslim nation. At least nine churches have been vandalized in the dispute. "Allah" is the common term for God in Malay-language Bibles, but the government and many Muslim groups insist that the word should be reserved for use in Islam. The attacks began after a court ruling on December 31 that overturned a government ban on the use of "Allah" by Christians. That ruling has been stayed while the government appeals. Government officials condemned the violence Monday but defended their position, saying conditions are different in Malaysia than those in neighboring Indonesia or in Arab nations where "Allah" is the common term for God. In a sign of the country's racial and religious complexity, a leading Hindu organization said it would hold a candlelight vigil at a church in solidarity with the Christian minority. Source: Articles by Seth Mydans for the New York Times and Ecumenical News International

Muslims malaysia christians allah

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Religious tensions high in Nigeria after massacre

14 Mar 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The land and its produce figure prominently in Israel's desert sojourn as described in this Sunday's reading from the Book of Joshua. Conflicts over land in Nigeria are partly blamed for religious tension that led to the March 7 massacre of close to 500 Christians at the hands of ethnic Fulani Muslims. Rampaging Fulani herdsmen reportedly used machetes to kill the mostly ethnic Berom victims overnight, including many women and children, in three farming villages near the city of Jos in Plateau state. About 75 houses also were burned. Plateau state lies in Nigeria's "middle belt" and has dozens of ethnic groups living in near proximity to each other. Plateau is predominantly Christian in a country almost evenly divided between Muslims in the north and Christians in the south. The area has been the site of intense clashes over land, and Jos has been under a military curfew since more than 300 people--mostly Muslims--were killed in religious-based violence in January. Officials speculate the March 7 attack was in reprisal for the January violence. Gabriel Osu, the Catholic archbishop of Lagos, said the Sunday killing is a major setback for the country's effort to gain the confidence of the international community. "Do you know that because of things like these, anywhere Nigerians travel to they are subjected to dehumanizing scrutiny?" he said. "Any act of violence at this time is totally condemned, and the government should make haste to fish out all identified perpetrators of such heinous crimes against God so that we can move forward as a people united under one umbrella," Osu said. International observers have called on the government to tackle the root causes of the ethnic tensions, which have seen thousands killed here in recent years. The U.N.'s human rights chief Navi Pillay said: "What is most needed is a concerted effort to tackle the underlying causes of the repeated outbreaks of ethnic and religious violence . . . namely discrimination, poverty, and disputes over land." Source: Articles by Aminu Abubakar for Agence France Press, Associated Press, and Compass Direct News

Muslims plateau jos berom fulani nigeria massacres christians navi pillay gabriel osu

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Bishop has some choice words for Israel

31 Oct 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The psalmist this Sunday promises to bless God’s name forever and ever, and Jesus points out in this Sunday’s gospel that despite his less than reputable profession, Zacchaeus, too, is a “descendent of Abraham.” Whether God still considers descendents of Abraham to be the "chosen people,” however, has been called into question by a U.S. bishop in controversial remarks. Presenting the final document of a month-long Vatican synod of Middle Eastern bishops, Greek-Melkite Bishop Cyrille Salim Bustros of Newton, Mass. rejected the idea of a biblical rationale for Israel as a Jewish state, sparking immediate criticism from Jewish spokespersons. Speaking at a news conference last Saturday, Bustros said that for Christians, “The concept of the promised land cannot be used as a base for the justification of the return of Jews to Israel and the displacement of Palestinians.” The advent of Jesus, he said, meant that Jews “are no longer the preferred people, the chosen people; all men and women of all countries have become the chosen people.” Bustros added that “sacred scripture should not be used to justify the occupation by Israel of Palestine.” Bustros’ remarks sparked condemnation from Israel and Jewish organizations. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) protested what it called “shocking and outrageous” comments. “By stating that God’s covenantal promise of land to the Jewish people ‘was nullified by Christ’ and that ‘there is no longer a chosen people,’ Archbishop Bustros is effectively stating that Judaism should no longer exist,” ADL National Director Abe Foxman wrote in a letter to the new Vatican official in charge of Catholic-Jewish relations, Cardinal-elect Kurt Koch. “This represents the worst kind of anti-Judaism, bordering on anti-Semitism.” The Vatican’s chief spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, responded to the criticism by distancing the synod from Bustros’ remarks. He said Monday that personal comments by individual synod participants “should not be considered as the voice of the synod in its entirety.” The final document, or “Message,” was the only text that expressed the approval of the full synod, Lombardi said. The Message mainly dealt with the plight of Christians in the Middle East, but it devoted a section to Israel and Jews. Calling for a furthering of Jewish-Catholic dialogue, it condemned anti-Semitism and anti-Judaism, noted “the suffering and insecurity in which Israelis live,” and affirmed Israel’s right to live at peace within its “internationally recognized borders.” But it also noted “the impact of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the whole region, especially on the Palestinians who are suffering the consequences of the Israeli occupation. It went on to say that “. . . we see that a just and lasting peace is the only salvation for everyone and for the good of the region and its peoples.” Source: An article by JTA.org

israel chosen people cyrille salim bustros promised land anti-defamation league abe foxman christians middle east federico lombardi jews palestinians synod of bishops

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Christian minority under attack in Iraq

07 Nov 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

This Sunday’s first reading relates a terrifying scene of religious persecution and violence targeting Jewish people because of their faith. An al Qaeda attack that killed 58 worshippers and wounded scores more in a Catholic church in Baghdad last Sunday was aimed at driving the embattled Christian minority out of the country, said Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Survivors of the attack recounted tales of hiding in the church vestry after gunmen burst into the building during evening Mass and began shooting worshippers. Two priests were among the dead in what was clearly designed to terrorize Iraq’s already dwindling Christian minority. Madeline Mikhal survived the siege and offered reporters details of the harrowing attack. She was among more than 70 people who pressed together in the priests' vesting room after it began. The group blocked the door with a dresser and knocked out the fluorescent lights and waited in the dark. In the sanctuary parishioners dived beneath the pews seeking cover. But the dozen or so gunmen, some wearing vests covered with explosives and carrying grenades and other weapons, took aim at the scrambling congregation. "Those who couldn't find a place to hide were killed," Mikhal said. A priest, whom Mikhal identified as “Father Rafael,” had taken shelter with them and later shielded her from the shrapnel of a grenade tossed into their midst by one of the terrorists, sustaining serious injuries in the process. The Christian community in Iraq, which once numbered nearly 1.5 million, has dwindled by at least two thirds. Hundreds of thousands have fled the country amid the sectarian violence unleashed by the 2003 U.S. invasion. The community has been hounded by Islamic militants who view them as U.S. collaborators. The attack was widely denounced. Pope Benedict XVI called it "senseless violence, made even more ferocious because it struck defenseless people who were gathered in the house of God." Source: Articles by Ahmed Rasheed for Reuters, Raheem Salman and Ned Parker for the Los Angeles Times, Martin Chulov for Guardian.co.uk, Brian Hutt for christianitytoday.com, John Leland and Anthony Shadid for the New York Times, and thetablet.co.uk

iraq terrorism benedict xvi baghdad al qaeda christians

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Should Christians in Pakistan start packing?

12 Dec 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“Blessed is the one who takes no offense at me,” Jesus says in this Sunday’s gospel, fully aware that his witness, as well as that of the imprisoned John the Baptist, has aroused the hostility of religious elites. Troubling reports out of predominantly Muslim Pakistan suggest that the Christian minority increasingly finds itself arousing hostile religious prejudice. Observers say Christians are subject to persecution in Pakistan, where their beliefs are said to make them "unclean." A recent death sentence for blasphemy leveled against a Christian woman is provoking worldwide criticism. Aasia Noreen had offered water to a group of women farm workers suffering from the heat in her village in Pakistan's Punjab province. She was rebuffed by the women who said that because she was a Christian her water was unclean. Noreen defended her faith and was subsequently arrested and charged with blasphemy. Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy law originally was drawn up by the British in the Indian Penal Code of 1860 and was aimed at keeping peace among the sometimes strident adherents of the subcontinent's diverse faith traditions. Not only did Pakistan inherit the laws after independence and partition from India, but it added to them. In the 1980s General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq's military dictatorship introduced a variety of loosely worded clauses, including a death sentence for those deemed to have “defiled the sacred name of the Prophet.” Muslim fundamentalists defend the law and have threatened its critics. One politician who called for Noreen to be pardoned now faces a fatwa--an Islamic religious decree--for alleged apostasy. Another politician who is trying to have the blasphemy laws amended has been warned of reprisals. Adding to the global criticism, Pope Benedict XVI last week called for Noreen's freedom. Source: An article by Omar Waraich for TIME

Prejudice pakistan persecution christians aasia noreen

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Discrimination defined online way out of line

27 Feb 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Saint Paul encourages the Corinthians not to be judgmental but rather to wait for the Lord who “will bring to light what is hidden.” A judgmental definition of religious discrimination had been hidden in an obscure document on a university website for years without apparently raising a stir. After receiving complaints last week, however, the University of California at Davis eliminated the text that defined religious discrimination in the United States as "institutionalized oppressions toward those who are not Christian" because it was itself discriminatory The definition appeared in an online glossary of a "Principles of Community" diversity statement to which students and students groups were asked to pledge their commitment. The Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative legal aid group, says one of its lawyers notified UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi last week that the language violated the constitutional rights of Christian students. Campus spokeswoman Julia Ann Easley said the university removed the glossary the same day. The school's Office of Campus Community Relations estimates the definition had been around for six or seven years. Source: An article by the Associated Press

discrimination christians alliance defense fund university of california at davis religious discrimination

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A world of intolerance regarding religious differences

14 Aug 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Saint Paul struggled to bridge the tension between Jews and Gentiles in the early days of the Christian faith, this Sunday's selection from the Letter to the Romans shows. Religious strife is still a problem today, with religion-linked violence and abuse rising around the world between 2006 and 2009, according to a study released Tuesday. Christians and Muslims are the most common targets of violence. "Over the three-year period studied, incidents of either government or social harassment were reported against Christians in 130 countries and against Muslims in 117 countries," said the study by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion and Public Life. As of 2009 more than 2.2 billion people, or nearly a third of the world’s population, lived in countries where religious restrictions had risen substantially since 2006, the study said. That same year, governments in 101 nations--more than half the nations of the world--used at least some measure of force against religious groups. In regional terms the Middle East and North Africa had the highest proportion of countries in which government-imposed restrictions hampered people's freedom to practice their faith. Egypt, under now-deposed leader Hosni Mubarak, stood out, earning itself a ranking in the top five percent of all countries in 2009 for government-imposed restrictions such as a long-standing ban on the Muslim Brotherhood and for social hostilities based on religion, including attacks against Christians. The country with the highest rate of religious-linked social hostilities was Iraq, followed by India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Indonesia, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Israel, and Egypt. Although no European countries made it into the top 10, five of the 10 countries in the world that saw a substantial increase in religion-related social conflict were in Europe: Britain, Bulgaria, Denmark, Russia, and Sweden. Religion-related terrorist violence was included under social hostilities, and terrorist groups with ties to religion were found to be active in more than a third of the 198 countries included in the study. Source: An article by Karin Zeitvogel for Agence France Presse

Muslims christians pew research center religious violence forum on religion and public life

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Shifting attitudes toward same-sex relationships

04 Sep 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Our culture has grown increasingly polarized, and many of those fomenting divisiveness use the mantle of religious righteousness to justify their efforts. Jesus' message Sunday is a radical departure from and critique of the status quo, says PrepareTheWord’s “Who’s Listening?” reflection this week. Few contemporary issues generate as much divisive rhetoric as that of gay and lesbian rights, especially the charged issue of same-sex marriage. Differences of opinion are often explained away along religious lines: Nonreligious folks support its legalization, while the devout are against it. But that generalization glosses over some real differences in the way religious groups perceive the issue, according to a new Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) survey. The study finds that all major religious groups support employment discrimination protections for gay and lesbian Americans. But even on the more contentious issue of same-sex marriage, these groups are on both sides of the debate. The nation as a whole is evenly divided on the issue of gay marriage, finds the survey: 47 percent favor its legalization while another 47 percent oppose it. Two-thirds of those who aren't affiliated with any religion or who are affiliated with one other than Christianity support same-sex marriage. What is surprising is that 52 percent of Catholics and 51 percent of white mainline Protestants also support gay marriage. In contrast, 60 percent of black Protestants and 76 percent of white evangelicals are against its legalization. Official Catholic Church teaching opposes gay marriage and the social acceptance of homosexuality and same-sex relationships but teaches that homosexual persons deserve respect and pastoral care. Explanations for variances between official teaching and rank-and-file opinion can be found in nonreligious factors, observers argue. Catholics, for example, are more likely to live in urbanized states than evangelicals, predisposing them to adopt more socially liberal ideologies. The support gap between black and white mainline Protestants might be attributed in part to differing cultural pressures within those racial communities. Overall, nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of Americans agree that gay and lesbian relationships should be accepted by society, including majorities of all major religious groups except white evangelicals. Religious differences may not matter much in several generations: The main theme of the PRRI study, “Generations at Odds: The Millennial Generation and the Future of Gay and Lesbian Rights,” is that younger people are supporting gay rights at much higher rates than their elders. Sources: Postings by Dino Grandoni for TheAtlantic.com and on PublicReligion.org and AmericanCatholic.org

same-sex marriage gays lesbians christians public religion research institute

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Arab spring may leave region’s Christians out in the cold

02 Oct 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“Change is always uncomfortable. Some kinds are traumatic,” writes Alice Camille in "The endangered vineyard," this Sunday’s Prepare The Word scripture commentary. Christians in Syria face an uncertain future as Syria plunges further into unrest every day. They fear that in the event President Bashar al-Assad falls from power they may be subjected to reprisals at the hands of a conservative Sunni leadership. For many Syrian Christians, Assad remains predictable in a region where unpredictability has driven their brethren from war-racked places like Iraq and Lebanon and where others have felt threatened in post-revolutionary Egypt. They worry that the struggle to dislodge Assad could turn into a civil war, unleashing sectarian bloodshed in a country where minorities, ethnic and religious, have for the most part found a way to coexist. The plight of Christians in Syria has resonated among religious minorities across the Middle East, many of whom see themselves as facing a shared destiny. In Iraq the number of Christians has dwindled to insignificance since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, driven away by bloodshed and chauvinism. Christians in Egypt worry about the ascent of Islamists. Christians in Lebanon, representing the largest minority by proportion in the Arab world, worry about their own future in a country where they emerged as the distinct losers of a 15-year civil war. But while the promise of the Arab revolts is a new order shorn of repression and inequality, worries linger that Islamists, the single most organized force in the region, will gain greater influence and that societies will become more conservative and perhaps intolerant. Source: An article by the New York Times

iraq egypt lebanon religious minorities islamism christians syria bashar al-assad

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