The laborious change to a new way of thinking

Asia / Oceania

China

First CCFMC block seminar is a great success

In mid-May a nine-day seminar, as part of a first series of seminars on the CCFMC on mainland China, has been successfully completed. For the time being this will be the last of three CCFMC seminars and it has been the basic milestone on the way to the growing importance of formation programs of the Franciscan Family in China.

Father Leonard Chen OFM, who has taken on the coordination of the CCFMC program on mainland China, was very enthusiastic about the success of this first series of seminars. This series is the result of the action plan for China that had been decided two years ago in Bangkok.

The program had been planned and organized by Father Leonard Chen OFM in cooperation with Father Joseph Ha OFM. Apart from Father Chen and Father Ha, Father Lawrance Fan OFM and Father Joseph Song OFM acted also as contributors to the seminar, which was held from 13 to 21 May 2010 in the Church of the Immaculate Conception located in Dong Zhihui in Shaanxi Province. It was attended by 26 Franciscans from nine congregations from seven different Provinces.

The seminar covered the CCFMC lesson units on life and mission and also included topics such as: Francis’ spirituality in relation to pastoral activities, justice and peace as well as environmental issues. Furthermore, the seminar program covered the elaboration of an action plan, cinema shows, a Taizé Prayer Experience as well as an excursion. Special emphasis was put on practical aspects as well as the implementation of what had been heard in everyday life; it was helping the participants to renew their personal life as well as that of their congregation in the context of local and national culture.

The Taizé Prayer Experience showed that creativity is in demand when it comes to the design but mainly also to the signifi-cance of liturgy for spiritual formation. One of the most important program items was the excursion to a cemetery where the participants had the chance to pause and pray for those who had already been enfolded by the arms of “Sister Death“. Above all, the purpose was to reveal to the participants that their determination to learn and to undergo the formation in Franciscan mission charism had allowed the conclusion of the first series of seminars.

An action plan was formulated towards the end of the seminar. Its chief point is the continuous support and spread of the CCFMC. In September 2010 the participants want to start with a second series of seminars on the CCFMC lesson units. For this purpose, more Franciscans Brothers and Sisters are to be invited to attend.

One goal that became apparent throughout the seminar was the desire to strengthen the ties to the CCFMC network, not only to maintain relations but also to reinforce the cooperation and partnership required in the spread of the CCFMC. Sr. Jeanne Luyun SFIC, the coordinator for the region of Asia/Oceania, delivered a message to Father Leonard OFM as well as the seminar participants. This message was received with a lot of enthusiasm and also had an encouraging effect.

Philippines

Top performance by the CCFMC Study Group

In the Philippines an extremely successful one-year project on the Comprehensive Course on the Franciscan Mission Charism came to its close on 22 May 2010: the CCFMC Study Group. Since 14 February 2009 an average of 25 to 30 participants from 13 congregations of the Franciscan Family came together once per month. Guided and supported by Sr. Dorothy Ortega SFIC, Father Baltazar Obico OFM, Sr. Jeanne Luyun SFIC as well as other experienced CCFMC resource persons, the participants worked with the CCFMC lesson units. This study program had been organized by the national CCFMC Team of the Philippines in cooperation with the CCFMC SFO-FFC Desk and in coordination with the CCFMC Desk for Asia/Oceania.

The lesson units 4 (Initial and Ongoing Formation) and 25 (The Permanent Role of Franciscans in the Church) were vivified and explained by Maria Renita F. Fabic, the CCFMC national coordinator. She stated that for the Franciscans conversion is a permanent element of their life of faith. Francis had already discovered this. She also pointed out that God would call on all people prepared to do penance to rebuild the Catholic Church, just as he had called St. Francis to rebuild the Church of San Damiano. Franciscans will have to put the values of the Gospel at the center of their life again before they evangelize others. This involves a. o., a life-long formation and prophetic witness.

The Study Group program was highly valued by the participants and they recommended a continuation of the program. They suggested that the program that had just been concluded should serve as a basis for the follow-up study program. This would allow them to receive formation as animators and facilitators for the CCFMC. This suggestion was very much welcomed by the CCFMC Coordinator.

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World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth

Pronouncement of the World People’s Movement

http://pwccc.wordpress.com/2010/05/31/world-pronouncement-of-the-peoples/

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Signs of the Times

”Between mysticism and social pastoral care-

On the present situation of liberation theology in Brazil”

This was the theme of a remarkable event on 24 June 2010 at the Franciscan Secondary School of Kreuzburg located at Grosskrotzenburg, Germany. The Franciscan Bildungswerk (Educational Institute) together with the Mission Center of the Franciscans and the readers’ initiative ‚Public- Forum’ had been the inviting organizations. Even the soccer game between Cameroon and the Netherlands during the Soccer World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa did not prevent 300 visitors to come to the large auditorium of the Secondary School. It was a great joy that the event was also attended by many young people. This was certainly owed to the prominent guest, Professor Leonardo Boff from Brazil, who is still the most renowned liberation theologian in Germany, but not least to his conversational partner, Professor Udo Schmaelzle OFM, who is an essential figure for the Secondary School of Kreuzburg.

The conversation between the two theologians began with a surprising initial statement by Leonardo Boff. The status of the liberation theology was not his primary concern but the integrity of creation was the biggest challenge of our days. For insiders this is not much of a surprise, as he has been a passionate advocate of the so mercilessly exploited Mother Earth. “We would need three times the planet earth to allow the living standards for all people of the affluent societies of the rich industrialized countries“, he says. He reminded of the so-called Earth Charter, which had been published ten years ago. Being such a humble person, he did not mention that he had also made significant contributions to the Earth Charter. After the first UNO Eco-Summit 1992 in Rio the former President of the Soviet Union Michael Gorbatschov had been very dissatisfied with the result. He had summoned an expert committee to develop an earth charter for the UNO, which was to be as co-equal and binding as the fundamental human rights charter. He summed up his concerns as follows: “if we want to preserve earth as a habitation for coming generations, we all have to be converted. But you are only able to be converted if you have spirituality.” For this reason he invited religious leaders to his commission, one of them being Leonardo Boff. His words of assignment to him were: “You have to make sure that this document contains spirituality, otherwise it does not need to be written at all. “

Since then integrity of creation has become the main issue for Leonardo Boff. Some regarded it as an escape from his time of suffering in the dispute on the issue of liberation theology. He, in contrast, always emphasized that this was only the logical extension of the basic concern of liberation theology, namely not only to listen to the cry of the poor but also to the cry of the tormented planet earth, the animals and the plants. They are a coequal part of creation, which he virtually describes as the visible body of the triune and loving God. Ecology thus turns into an eminent theological issue and also needs to be at the center of the Church’s pastoral care. We are certainly far away from it, as everyday problems are much closer to home and the problems and conflicts in close-up range, such as the public debate on the cases of abuse within the Church, obstruct our view of such global threat scenarios. As painful as the present crisis may be for the Church, it may not turn into an overall predominant issue.

It was quite impressive that Leonardo Boff stayed cheerful and calm even when asked extremely difficult and provocative questions. Although he would certainly have good reason when looking at his biography, he did not utter any animosities or sought personal reckoning. Even when the sensitive situation of liberation theology came up for discussion during the evening, he remained the sovereign advocate of the Church of the Poor. Of course, he knows that in some circles of the Church and societies in Europe the raise of the liberating Church of Latin America is being regarded as “a quickly bygone mistake, thank God,” He simply contrasts this with his own experiences. He reports of still approx. 100,000 basic communities in Brazil that define Church life at the grass-root level. “In its substance the Church has always been the Church of the people, and not a Church of hierarchy. “ According to the conciliar document “Lumen Gentium“ the Church is the Church of God’s people. It is the Church of saints and the Church of sinners. It takes care of those who “have fallen among robbers” and calls the self-sufficient to conversion. This is the practice of the basic Church in Latin America. It is thus not a parallel Church, but the true Church taking care of the holistic well-being of humanity. In terms of liberation theology these basic communities are vitally alive. Millions of people come together week after week to deal with their problems in the spirit of the Holy Scripture. Life is celebrated and hope is given there. And, therefore, it is not at all surprising that it is those Christians enthralled by the Jesus project, who nowadays take a stand for the preservation of the rain forest, who fight for the rights of the indigenous population, and who do not simply surrender to the greed for profit of a ruthless economic system. For this reason the basic communities still have not lost their charisma, even though they are not taken care of from ”above”. They manage themselves, because they are convinced that the Spirit of God is always present where two or three people get together in his name. This is the hope for people and the hope for the project of Jesus, who had never passed by a person in distress.

This certainly addresses the core problem of today’s crisis within the Church. The issue is the biblically founded and indispensable “Option for the Poor“. This asks for a Church that lives and feels with its poor; a Church that raises its voice where economic structures no longer leave space for people that are not of interest as consumers or producers. And part of this is also the merciless exploitation and destruction of nature whose primary victims are the poor again. The Church has lost sight of this for a long time. Therefore, it is also partly responsible for what is going wrong today.

Even though the two discussion partners (Boff and Schmaelzle) put different emphasis on various problems in these areas based on their different experiences, they were in line with their basic conception of the global crisis within society and the Church. They both know that matters cannot be solved without rethinking and rerouting.

However, given every understandable criticism towards the present status of the Church, which became apparent during the discussion, Boff puts more confidence in the Church and in the religions as a whole than many contemporaries in this part of the world. When asked whether the Church wasn’t the cause of the problem rather than its solution, he answered very decidedly: “The Church and the religions are not responsible for everything; they are certainly part of the problems, but they are also part of the solution, because basically they are very healthy. “ In an interview with Radio Vatican which he gave from Großkrotzenburg, he even went into some more detail. “The Christians are somewhat bewildered, as they see that the Church has gotten into a moral crisis … But this is no reason for me to leave the Church, for the dark side of the Church is possible, it is part of it, belongs to it. We all have our dark sides and we all have to strive to overcome them. This also applies to the Church. Weaknesses and illnesses are possible, but they are not the heart of the Church, its heart is rather the Gospel. “

We are all together responsible that this becomes visible again. This is how his plea for the Church could be summed up. It is about liberation from errors and restraints. We are living in many dependencies making life inhumane. Liberation is a process to be able to live a humane life. Boff says that the Lord’s Prayer shows us how this can be done. It talks about basic trust in the Father who art in Heaven and justice so that everyone has his/her daily bread. Trust and justice belong together.

Andreas Müller OFM