Accompaniment: to walk with
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- Written by Leo Guardado
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Let me begin with Matthew 14:13-21, the story that teaches us about feeding 5,000 people. The story comes immediately after Matthew provides the reader with the news that John the Baptist’s head had been placed on a platter and displayed at a fancy birthday party at King Herod’s palace. Essentially, the government killed the baptizer because he had become an inconvenience. John, let us remember, was the one who had greeted Jesus while both were still in the womb (Lk 1:39-55) and who had prepared Jesus’ way by baptizing him into his prophetic vocation (Mt 3:13-17).
Uneven democracy in Asia
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- Written by Jojo Fung sj
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Asian democracy is invariably uneven, ranging from the regressive democracy of Myanmar, Philippines and Vietnam to the more authoritarian in China, South Korea, and finally the more robust democracy of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. Democracy is a phase in the political theory of Barbara Geddes who explains how the different kind of totalitarian regimes, from military, single-party, personalist, or amalgams of pure types, morph into different post less-totalitarian and more democratized regimes. In other words, democratization leads to the downfall of dictatorship which is facilitated by poor short-term economic performance. On the other hand, greater economic development leads the citizens to demand for greater democratic governance.
Resilience: Life-force of Indian Democracy
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- Written by Marina D'Costa & Denzil Rodrigues
- Hits: 63
Some people broke my office window in the middle of the night and came in to search for evidences against them, they give me death threat” said a Jesuit priest from Gujarat who is a human rights activist. I was in his office to learn about his works and it was the time of national 2014 elections. During this time, when many citizens were buying the pro-development agenda of a promising political party; there were some who were constantly ensuring the safeguard of democracy. This tug of war among the citizens got the nation a ruling government which is no less than a nightmare.
The Power of the State and the Freedom of the Individual
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- Written by Hans-Gerhard Neugebauer
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On February 8th, 2018 the Neue Zürcher Zeitung gave an article dealing critically with the coalition treaty negotiated the day before between CDU/CSU and SPD the title “More state – less freedom”. Neither the coalition treaty not the criticism is of interest here. I would rather like to direct your attention and your interest towards the connection between state and freedom insinuated in that title. If that title is based on a quasi-physical model of communicating tubes, then the inversion “Less state – more freedom” is valid, too, and the comparative formula “The more state – the less freedom” and its inversion are valid as well. That those formulas express the political creed of a lot of contemporaries doesn’t need closer explanation. Hence I want to turn to the question which understanding of freedom on the one hand and state on the other is manifested in those formulas supplementing one another.
Thinking about a Europe of the future
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- Written by KAVOe
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The international Tainach Summer Conference 2018 of the Catholic Academics Association and the Catholic Education Centre Sodalitas on the topic "Thinking about a Europe of the future" started on Saturday evening with a brainstorming session of around 30 participants from Slovenia, Slovakia, Ukraine and Austria.
Democracy and synodality. Final declaration.
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- Written by MEIC
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The MEIC, Italian member of Icmica Pax Romana, meeting in the monastery of Camaldoli in Tuscany for its annual session, asked itself, by listening and dialogue, how to imagine and implement forms of participation in society and within the Christian community.
Democracy
We look with great concern at this historic moment, which is characterised by a crisis of democratic forms of participation and governance and, more deeply, of the very principles of democracy. The idea prevails that governing means opposing interests, thus exasperating rather than healing the social divisions: between Italians and foreigners, between north and south, between poor and rich, between young and old, between those who have guarantees and those who have not, between national needs and European responsibilities ...
We are aware, as men and women who care about civil and democratic life, that we have responsibilities in not having always grasped the extent of this process of degradation of democracy. As Christians and citizens we therefore consider it urgent:
- to rediscover those values and that civil passion that inspired the moment of the country's democratic construction when it was possible to combine a political vision of the common good with skills;
- to actively participate again in the social and political debate, convinced that, in the confrontation between different instances and in the search for adequate mediation, a cohesive civil community is built which is open to the future;
- to commit ourselves to building itineraries of political culture, relaunching the European project on a popular and institutional level for an inclusive coexistence, based on solidarity, in the context of a social market economy;
- collaborate with other associations and lauch study initiatives to meet the global challenges of our time, such as the divorce between truth and communication and the separation between finance and the real economy, seeking possible solutions and promoting good practices at the local level (as also suggested by Pope Francis in Laudato Si');
- promote the introduction of new forms of participation in the system of representative democracy in order to inform, discuss and deliberate on key issues.
Synodality
Synodality is a constitutive dimension of the Church, a dimension yet to be realized in the ordinary experience of our communities. As Christians we therefore consider it urgent:
- to create networks of relationships, contributing to the development of a model of the Synodal Church that recognizes and values the charisms of each individual;
- to initiate a reflection on the role of the laity in the decision-making processes of the Church, starting from the parish level, valuing the skills of each person in a style of co-responsibility with equal dignity;
- to contribute to fraternal dialogue among the Christian Churches, promoting an exchange of good practices and experimenting with forms of synodality;
- to have formative paths to common synodality for lay people and priests;
- to promote community discernment on ecclesial and civil matters, and to exercise co-responsibility in the decision, execution and verification of the choices made.
Translated from Italian by Philippe Ledouble
When immediacy can put democratic life at risk
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- Written by Renato Balduzzi
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The collapse of the Morandi bridge in Genova and the story of the ship Diciotti waiting for disembarkment of refugees in Sicily: as often happens, many Italians suddenly discovered themselves experts in great infrastructural works and migratory flows and used above all the social medias to convey opinions, invectives, often grudges.
Authority and participation in the life of the Church and the civil society
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- Written by Cataldo Zuccaro
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Ethical foundations of the State's authority
1 From anthropology of indigence to justice and from justice to love: the ethical foundation of authority and participation.
Human life is enclosed within two parentheses that open and close it and that are expressed emblematically in the crying of the newborn and in the rale of the dying. These gestures, whose immediate explanation is in the biological field, can be assumed as a sort of metaphysical parable of the person. They are the sign of a need, not a need focused on a particular good, but, much more radically, they express "the need to be". The person is able to respond to many of his or her needs, but can never eliminate the need for his or her life. The perspective of which we speak is not that of Marx or Freud, for whom man is rich in needs; in these authors the needs are grasped at the moment of their historical expression. In the argumentative line of reflection that is instead presented here, one does not want to deny the existence of needs in the plural, but to emphasize the fact that they find their hermeneutic root in the person as "being of need".
From fear to dialogue
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- Written by Warsaw statement
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The SIIAEC (*) Pax Romana Assembly held from 20th to 22nd April 2018 reflected on the question of Solidarity in Europe. The European Union was supposed to set good example of democracy, human rights and rules of law, but nationalists and populists have come to power in several EU countries, although in a democratic way. The situation in such countries, earlier belonging to the Soviet Bloc, requires special attention. Their ruling parties believe that political will is above law. We know of this attitude and its consequences from recent history. The aim of this statement is to invite our members to take part in the renewal of the EU project.
Who is this stupid God?
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- Written by Nonon Baang
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On June 28, 2018, Duterte gave a speech at his hometown, Davao City, where he slammed the “God” From the book of Genesis as “Stupid”. “What He did was, Eve eats the apple, then she wakes up Adam... So Adam eats the apple. Then malice was born. Who is this stupid God ? That [expletives] is really stupid if that’s the case,” Duterte said.
This “God” that he was referring to is “the Alpha and the Omega”. God is omnipotent. God is bigger than anything, everything, and anyone. God does not need defending nor proving. Any speeches against our God are irrelevant including that of Duterte’s. Such blasphemous speech was a blessing in disguise that paved the way to a sudden national awakening. Filipinos have realized that the popular President, who was then against our Pope, is really against our God, the Father, and against our Christ.
As a result, the President's popularity and approval ratings went downhill from 72% in December 2016 to 45% in June 2018, according to the country’s Social Weather System (S.W.S.). The way to enlightenment has been hard and excruciating. The majority of the population have become disoriented. There has been no clear leadership to oppose the populist. They do not know where to stand and whom to trust.
The policy of the enemy comfortable and dangerous
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- Written by Riccardo Saccenti e Giovanni Pieroni
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The recent statements by the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Salvini, on the need to “census” the Roma present in Italy, accompanied by regret at the impossibility of expelling those of Italian nationality, arouse not only astonishment but also concern and challenge us, as citizens and as Catholic associations who live the reality of ordinary people every day, to adopt a position that we believe necessary.
The choice to use such arguments to find political consensus seems even more serious because it is carried out in the Italian context, which has recently been fuelled by fears, threats of alleged invasions, resentment and anger against "the other". It is an approach that recalls the ghosts of a past that we thought far away, and that instead in our country, as in the rest of Europe, reappears with the face of new sovereignties. There is a risk of passing on the idea, unacceptable because it is false, that belonging to a culture automatically means behaving outside the law and therefore finding no place in our social fabric.
Building a policy for Italy by choosing the convenient strategy of continually identifying "enemies" against whom to oppose, be they migrants, stepmother Europe and now the Roma, perhaps demonstrates a skill in tactics, but unfortunately reveals intellectual and political poverty that we fear will have to be paid in the future by the country.
Translated from Italian original by Philippe Ledouble.
Sailing against the tide to save democracy
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- Written by Giuseppe Elia
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The political events of recent months in Italy have revealed a change, not only in the political forms and orientations that characterize the new government, but also in the conscience of the country. We have cultivated for many years the idea that Italians, apart from their defects, were still a hospitable people, open to Europe, capable of dealing seriously with the difficult moments of its history. Today everything seems overturned, as if a great anxiety were eroding our thoughts and changing our beliefs: the processes of globalization and the financialisation of the economy seem unmanageable to us and generate serious social inequalities, and therefore produce in us the need for a defense, which increasingly takes the character of closure. And it is the same mechanism by which we live the migratory phenomena, which we would like to do but we cannot regulate as we like: it is not enough to say that the numbers of migrants in our country are relatively small (also compared with other European countries), because the perception is different. In this situation, which is no different from that of many other realities present in Europe and the United States, the ideal and cultural references on which society was based and on which politics drew have also changed.
The challenge of a Christianity incarnated in daily life
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- Written by Marta Margotti
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The creation of a movement formed by Catholic graduates and professionals was an idea pursued with determination by Don Giovanni Battista Montini, Igino Righetti and Angela Gotelli, when, at the beginning of the thirties, they led the branches of the Federation of Catholic University Students (FUCI). The announcement of the new proposal of religious formation and Christian militancy addressed to former university students was made in 1932, during the congress of the FUCI of Cagliari, and the following year, after a long gestation, the Movement of Catholic Graduates formalized its foundation, starting its activities in the dioceses and at the national level, not without effort.
Sick democracy, wrong therapy
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- Written by Simone Esposito
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Davide Casaleggio, member of the "Five star movement", gave an interview on the overcoming of representative democracy and on Parliament, which will soon become useless, was welcomed by a predictable and vast rag of clothes, starting with the political opposition forces. Appeals to the President of the Chamber (and party colleague of Casaleggio) Roberto Fico, vain evocations of Venezuela, and so on. Such reactions are the faithful thermometer of a widespread inability to generate a culturally and politically equipped response to the season just begun.
The disunity of Catholics in Europe
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- Written by Anthony Favier
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From the beginning of his pontificate in 2013, Francis called on European Catholics to oppose the "globalisation of indifference" by mobilising themselves, in particular, to help migrants. Five years after Lampedusa, has Francis' message never been so hard to hear among European Catholics? At the level of the baptized, parishes or Christian associations, a thousand acts of generosity are undoubtedly carried out. On the other hand, it has to be said that countries with a strong Catholic culture are falling one after the other into the camp of anti-immigration parties. Bavaria, Austria, Hungary, Poland, Italy now, by different but converging paths, have all joined the club of countries determined to defeat the European Union's policy of reception quotas. Spain, which hosted the drifting Aquarius, and Portugal may be saving Catholic honour even if they are not on the most important migration routes. Halfway through, France is finding it difficult to get away from the moral stance. The emphasis of public speeches does not hide the difficulties of taking action.
Human Rights and Catholic Social Teaching
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- Written by Forum Européen des Comités Nationaux des Laïcs
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On the occassion of the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the European Laity Forum made up of 18 countries met in Lisbon/Portugal on the topic of Human Rights, Christian values and Catholic Social Teaching. Through inspiring presentations on foodbanks, refugees, media and peace we were confirmed that a way of life and activities, following the Gospels and Christian Social Teaching, also contributes to the realisation of Human Rights. That is what Christians can bring, and should bring to the public sphere.
Silence and prayer at Pi Church Barcelona
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- Written by Anna Vilà
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With silence and prayer. This is how a thousand people accompanied the families of Catalan political and social leaders in jail and in exile on Tuesday. The Basilica of Santa Maria del Pi in Barcelona welcomed the prayer of members of seven religious confessions. Each confession chose texts from their spiritual tradition to demand "a resolution of the Catalan conflict in a dignified, non-violent, and respectful of Human Rights way."
During an hour the Basilica remained silent. The representatives of the confessions, mainly women, read some of their sacred texts. Specifically, Montse Castellà, from Buddhists for Peace and Human Rights, took part; Moriah Ferrús, from the Jewish Community of Catalonia; Conxa Adell, Benedictine of the monastic community of Sant Pere de les Puel·les; the Choir of the Orthodox Church Protecció de la Mare de Déu; Aicha Mahmassani, from the Commission of Women of the Islamic Cultural Council of Catalonia; Marta López Ballalta, pastor at the Barcelona-center Protestant Church; and Gagandeep Singh Khalsa, spokesman for the Sikh community in Catalonia. In between prayer and prayer, the relatives lit 18 candles that presided over the celebration.
A word from the bischops of Catalunya
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- Written by Nuria Sastre
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In this period of Lent, a time of personal and community reflection and change, we cannot forget the political and social events that have taken place in Catalunya over the past months.
It is within that context that we, as bishops of the Catalan dioceses, appeal to everyone to strive to re-establish mutual trust in the society which is ours, with its great cultural, political and also religious plurality. Social cohesion, concord, feeling close to one another and respect for the rights of everyone living in Catalunya, these must be among our main goals at this time.
CoE: Summer session of the Conference of INGOs
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- Written by Philippe Grolleau
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THE HIGHLIGHTS of the Summer session, from the 25th to the 29th of June 2018 : (order of business)
During its summer session, the Conference of INGOs bodies have chosen to address new, relevant and diverse subjects which will be discussed with different stakeholders engaged for human rights, the rule of law and democracy.
At the Human Rights Committee meeting (Tuesday from 9.30 to 13.00), invited speakers will contribute to a debate on data protection and monitoring activities. Member INGOs are invited to actively contribute to the discussion on the future activities of the committee on the subjects of Freedom of expression and Poverty. The association “Regards d’enfants” will present the work of a group of school children on the theme “Human Rights and Sport”.
CoE about the Soros bill
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- Written by Anna Rurka
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As the President of the Conference of INGOs, I am extremely concerned by the criminalization of essential human rights work by NGOs in the context of migration that this bill proposes. The modification of the Criminal Code by this Bill targets organizations and professionals who are merely providing legitimate and necessary assistance to asylum-seekers. In addition, this draft Bill would criminalise the ‘production or dissemination of informational materials’, and other ‘organizational activities’ such as advocacy. These two elements alone risk seriously undermining the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of association which are guaranteed by the European Convention for Human Rights, itself the cornerstone of Hungary’s membership of the Council of Europe.
