Anne Marie Brillante, a member of the Mescalero Apache tribe in New Mexico, says the recent removal of a cherished painting from St Joseph Apache Mission that had been prominently displayed in the Church came as a real shock.

"Hearing we had to choose, that was a shock" Brillante said tearfully, recalling the moment she learned of the incident.

Integration of cultural identity and faith

The painting in question, an 8-foot "Apache Christ" created by Franciscan friar Robert Lentz in 1989, had been hanging behind the church's altar for 35 years.

For Brillante and many other parishioners, it symbolised the harmonious integration of their indigenous cultural identity and Catholic faith.

On June 26 while the region was grappling with devastating wildfires, the church's then-priest, Peter Chudy Sixtus Simeon-Aguinam, removed the icon along with other indigenous artifacts.

The action left Brillante and her fellow parishioners stunned and hurt.

"To her, and many others in the Mescalero Apache tribe... who are members of St Joseph Apache Mission, their indigenous culture had always been intertwined with faith. Both are sacred" explained a community spokesperson.

Brillante, who serves on the mission's parish council, found herself at the forefront of a community struggle to preserve their cultural heritage within their spiritual home.

Pope Francis had apologised

The removal of the artifacts seemed to suggest that their Apache cultural identity was incompatible with their Catholic faith, a notion that deeply wounded Brillante and others.

The incident has reopened old wounds for Brillante, reminding her of historical attempts to erase indigenous culture.

It appeared to contradict recent efforts by the Catholic Church to reconcile with indigenous communities, including Pope Francis's 2022 apology for the church's role in residential schools.

"Our former priest opened old wounds with his recent actions, suggesting he sought to cleanse us of our 'pagan' ways" Brillante explained, highlighting the emotional toll of the incident.

Path forwards

While the Diocese of Las Cruces has since returned the items and replaced Simeon-Aguinam with another priest, Brillante is looking for more.

For her, the way forward necessitates a deeper understanding and respect for the Apache way of life within the Catholic Church.

As she continues to advocate for her community, Brillante remains hopeful that this incident will lead to meaningful dialogue and lasting change.

Source

• AP

The comments about parish sacramental celebrations come from Palmerston North's Bishop emeritus, Peter Cullinane, in an article published in Tui Motu.

Citing examples of the Church's mistakes, Cullinane says the lack of training for diocesan priests in ministry to Maori combined with the Church entrusting the ‘Maori Mission' to specialist groups ensures that most Maori do not feel 'at home' in our parish church celebrations of Eucharist.

He says that developing a sense of inclusiveness does not come about by running parallel Maori and European churches.

"The Church in our country is greatly indebted to the Religious Orders to whom the ‘Maori Mission' was entrusted," he writes.

Cullinane mentions the Society of Mary, the Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion, the Mill Hill Missionaries and the Congregation of Our Lady of the Missions in particular.

"Their work continues to bear fruit, and any alterations to pastoral practices need to safeguard the right of Maori to continue to experience life and worship in the Church in ways that are natural to them."

Nevertheless, Cullinane says, running a Maori Mission parallel to parishes had serious unintended side effects.

He writes it is against that background that introducing te reo into parish Eucharists seems a tiny gesture - but it is about recognition of tangata whenua, inclusion and belonging.

"Of course, it would be mere tokenism if it were not to follow through in all the ways required by respect for the rights of Maori in wider society and Te Tiriti o Waitangi."

Our celebrations of the Eucharist are meant to feed into our daily lives, Cullinane points out.

"Eucharistic life involves the rejection of racial prejudice and discrimination wherever these occur.

"In this way, the use of te reo in parish Eucharists should whet our appetites for the kind of hospitality, listening, sense of community and inclusiveness we have been talking about on the synodal journey."

He suggests that the next step is to experience Eucharist on a marae and recognise Maori's warm and welcoming ways.

"This way, people can see how these properly belong to the gathering stage of coming together for Eucharist.

"Respect for the rights of the home people can be only a first step in our reaching out to the many others in our society who suffer from inequalities …

"It also involves our support for other ethnic groups who can be victims of racial prejudice. Anything less than a prophetic stand for all these is less than Eucharistic."

Failure to address prejudice or help people disadvantaged by personal, social or economic conditions, proves the Second Vatican Council's claim:

"The split between the faith which many profess and their daily lives deserves to be counted among the more serious errors of our age," writes Cullinane.

Source

• Tui Motu

The English poet reputedly opened the contest by uttering as many different imprecations as he could in the languages he had studied.

Byron recalled later that he swore "in all the tongues in which I knew a single oath or adjuration to the gods, against post-boys, savages, Tartars, boatmen, sailors, pilots, gondoliers, muleteers, camel-drivers, vetturini, post-masters, posthouses, post, everything."

Realizing that he was running out of words, the nobleman switched to English slang. He eventually exhausted his reserves and fell silent.

At that moment, the gently spoken cardinal is said to have uttered these crushing words: "And is that all?"

The prince of the Church then unleashed a seemingly unending stream of London slang, much of it unknown to the poet.

Lord Byron described the cardinal later as "a monster of languages … a walking polyglot … who ought to have existed at the time of the Tower of Babel, as universal interpreter."

The cursing contest story is told by Charles William Russell in his monumental 1858 biography "The Life of Cardinal Mezzofanti."

Russell, an Irish Catholic priest, added a note of scepticism, saying that while the anecdote was "still current in Rome," it was "doubtless a mere exaggeration of the real story."

Cardinal Mezzofanti is regarded as one of the greatest — if not the greatest — language learners of all time.

He was not merely a polyglot, or speaker of multiple languages, but a "hyperpolyglot," a person fluent in six or more languages.

Mezzofanti's nephew claimed that the cardinal was acquainted with 114 languages.

Russell himself estimated that Mezzofanti spoke 30 languages with "rare excellence," including Armenian and Maltese, a further nine fluently (including Algonquin), and 11 "less perfectly."

Giuseppe Gasparo Mezzofanti was born on Bologna's Via Malcontenti on Sept. 17, 1774.

A precocious learner, he was ordained a priest in 1797 and named a professor at the venerable University of Bologna.

Briefly removed from the post after refusing to swear loyalty to Napoleon Bonaparte's Cisalpine Republic, he ministered to foreigners wounded in the Napoleonic Wars, expanding his knowledge of European languages.

Mezzofanti claimed that he could familiarize himself with a new language in two weeks by asking the recuperating soldiers to recite well-known prayers in their native languages, which he would then use to build up his mastery.

He credited God, not just his native skills, with helping him to pick up foreign tongues.

"Through the grace of God," he said, "assisted by my private studies, and by a retentive memory, I came to know not merely the generic languages of the nations to which the several invalids belonged but even the peculiar dialects of their various provinces."

Mezzofanti moved to Rome in 1831, serving as a member of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. Continue reading

The apology is only a first step towards reconciliation.

The pilgrimage began Monday, July 25.

The first act on the Canadian "penitential pilgrimage," was the return of two pairs of children's moccasins on 25 July.

"I am sorry," he said.

Cultural destruction

"I ask forgiveness, in particular, for the ways in which many members of the church and of religious communities cooperated, not least through their indifference, in projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation promoted by the governments of that time, which culminated in the system of residential schools.

"We want to walk together, to pray together and to work together so that the sufferings of the past can lead to a future of justice, healing and reconciliation," said Francis.

"I am here because the first step of my penitential pilgrimage among you is that of again asking forgiveness, of telling you once more that I am deeply sorry," he said.

Saying the Church's actions were "catastrophic," Francis called the Indigenous culture "a treasury of sound customs and teachings centred on concern for others, truthfulness, courage and respect, humility, honesty and practical wisdom".

Christian faith, he said, "tells us that this was a disastrous error, incompatible with the Gospel of Jesus Christ".

He said it is painful for him to think of how the values, language and culture of Indigenous communities "was eroded, and that you have continued to pay the price of this."

Reconciliation

After issuing an impassioned apology, Francis gave voice to his vision of reconciliation by visiting an Indigenous Catholic congregation at Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples congregation in Edmonton.

The church, built in 1913, welcomes Indigenous and non-Indigenous faithful.

"This place is a house for all, open and inclusive, just as the Church should be, for it is the family of the children of God where hospitality and welcome, typical values of the Indigenous culture, are essential," he said.

"A home where everyone should feel welcome, regardless of past experiences and personal life stories.

"It pains me to think that Catholics contributed to policies of assimilation and disenfranchisement that inculcated a sense of inferiority — robbing communities and individuals of their cultural and spiritual identity, severing their roots and fostering prejudicial and discriminatory attitudes.

"And that this was also done in the name of an educational system that was supposedly Christian," Pope Francis said.

"One cannot proclaim God in a way contrary to God himself," the pope said.

"Nothing can ever take away the violation of dignity, the experience of evil, the betrayal of trust" suffered by the students, he said.

Nothing can "take away our own shame as believers."

"That happened because believers became worldly and, rather than fostering reconciliation, they imposed their own cultural models" on the students, he said.

Unfortunately, he said, "this attitude dies hard, also from the religious standpoint".

"Indeed, it may seem easier to force God on people, rather than letting them draw near to God," Pope Francis said. "Yet this never works, because that is not how the Lord operates."

"He does not force us, he does not suppress or overwhelm; instead, he loves, he liberates, he leaves us free. He does not sustain with his Spirit those who dominate others, who confuse the Gospel of our reconciliation with proselytism," the pope said.

"While God presents himself simply and quietly," the pope said, "we always have the temptation to impose him, and to impose ourselves in his name."

Build a positive legacy

Day two of his pilgrimage began with Mass, attended by an estimated 50,000 people.

In the course of the homily, Francis challenged humanity to envision the future.

In addition to being children of a history that needs to be preserved, we are authors of a history yet to be written, the Pope said, noting that we are marked by both light and shadows and by the love we did or did not receive, he said.

He said that while we are the children of parents, it is good to ask ourselves what kind of society we want to build and bequeath to those who came after us.

Later in the day he visited Lac Ste Anne, a famous Catholic pilgrimage site in Canada that holds spiritual significance for the nation's indigenous people.

The pope blessed a bowl of the lake's water, which was brought up to a small wooden structure shaped like a teepee, overlooking the lake.

Francis made the Sign of the Cross towards the four cardinal points, according to Indigenous custom.

The pope prayed by the water's edge in his wheelchair before sprinkling the crowds with the blessed water.

He concluded the day celebrating a Liturgy of the Word at the Shrine of Ste Anne, with a crowd of mostly Indigenous people in attendance, estimated at around 10,000.

Condemnation of old and new colonialism

On day three, Francis travelled to Québec where he met with government authorities.

Speaking with Canada's Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, Francis criticised the "colonialist mentality" that oppressed Indigenous peoples in the past and continues today, while apologising once more for the role played by the Catholic Church.

"In the past, the colonialist mentality disregarded the concrete life of people and imposed certain predetermined cultural models," he said.

He also warned of modern-day colonialism.

"Yet today too, there are any number of forms of ideological colonisation that clash with the reality of life, stifle the natural attachment of peoples to their values and attempt to uproot their traditions, history and religious ties," he added.

Calling for "the legitimate rights of the native populations and to favour processes of healing and reconciliation between them and the non-indigenous people of the country," Francis labelled the "deplorable system" of residential schools in Canada as an example of "cancel culture".

The Pope reiterated that the Holy See and the local Catholic communities wish to concretely promote the indigenous peoples' rights.

"It is our desire to renew the relationship between the Church and the Indigenous peoples of Canada, a relationship marked both by a love that has borne outstanding fruit and, tragically, deep wounds that we are committed to understanding and healing," he said.

Francis observed that the suffering inflicted by the colonising mentality does not heal easy.

"Multiculturalism is fundamental for the cohesiveness of a society as diverse as the dappled colours of the foliage of the maple trees," he said.

"With its universal dimension, its concern for the most vulnerable, its rightful service to human life at every moment of its existence from conception to natural death, is happy to offer its specific contribution," said Francis.

Controversy

Francis's "Penitential Pilgrimage" is not gone without further cultural controversy.

Some members of First Nations in Manitoba say they're angry that Pope Francis was given a headdress as a gift following his apology on Monday for the role members of the Catholic Church played in Canada's residential school system.

After the Pope's apology in Maskwacis, Alberta, Wilton Littlechild who is honorary chief of Ermineskin First Nation presented the pontiff with a headdress.

The Pope wore the regalia over his traditional papal head covering until it was removed shortly after by a member of his staff.

"For them to gift [the Pope] this sacred item was disappointing," said Kevin Tacan, a knowledge keeper and spiritual advisor from Sioux Valley Dakota Nation in western Manitoba.

"It's become a thing to recognise political leadership, and it's not meant to be that way."

Tacan said headdresses are traditionally earned by members who are doing significant work in service of the community.

"[People] have to prove themselves constantly. They have to continue to prove themselves going into the future, that they still deserve to have it."

Others supported the idea of the gift.

Phil Fontaine, a residential school survivor who has served as both national chief of the Assembly of First Nations and grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, said Littlechild followed protocols in requesting permission to present the headdress.

"He went to the elders. He went to the leadership and requested permission to present that gift. So [it was] entirely consistent with the way they followed their customs and protocol," Fontaine said.

Tacan acknowledges some, like Fontaine, support the gift but he doesn't agree with them.

"I suppose [the Pope is] the leader for them. But I don't believe that the Pope is the leader for the rest of us," he said.

"How do we invite the fox into the chicken coop and say, 'OK, you're the head rooster in here?' It doesn't work that way."

"If somebody has a vision or if the community decides, 'This is a good leader, let's pick him,' they go over and they put a blanket around him, put a headdress on him," he said. "They will decide."

He said medicine men can also decide if someone deserves a headdress.

"He already knows — he got the information from up there," Wakita said.

He doesn't believe many people understand the meaning of the headdress anymore.

"I'm sorry to say that our people, they don't understand the sacredness of this. Not the importance — the sacredness of something that came from the Creator."

Sources

• RNS
• RNS
• Vatican News
• CathNews
• CNA
• CBC

The more the Church has sought to make its services more "inclusive" and "relevant", the more Christians have converted to other denominations where they think things are done properly (notably Roman Catholicism), and the more those curious about Christianity have avoided the C of E.

Confirmation of this absurd situation arrived yesterday in new guidance for faith schools from the Church, preposterously named a statement of "entitlement and expectation".

No, this does not refer to David Cameron's catastrophic attempts to build a post-Downing Street business career, but what hymns should be chosen for singing in assemblies.

The diktat has it that strongly "confessional" hymns are to be avoided because they may make children and teachers alike feel uncomfortable.

They are said not to be sufficiently "invitational", which seems to equate Anglican worship with a cheese and wine party.

Those of us (and I speak as an atheist) who thought one of the purposes of religion was to make people feel guilty about having done things frowned upon by the Bible, and to expect God to be both unhappy about our behaviour but to forgive us our trespasses, will wonder what is wrong with a little discomfort.

Apparently, the halfwits who run the Church of England (and are running it into the ground) feel it is dangerous because "there should be no assumption of Christian faith in those present."

It is all, of course, about diversity: and the increasingly toxic idea that causing someone the mildest offence (such as assuming that someone in a Christian school might actually subscribe to Christianity) is equivalent in gravity to gratuitously amputating one of their limbs without permission or anaesthetic.

In a Church of England school, it is surely a reasonable assumption that the children are there because their parents subscribe to the basic tenets of the Church of England and the Christian faith; and that the teachers are grown up enough to know what to expect when they sign up for such a job.

The children, like generations before them, can like it or lump it until they reach the age where the law says they are masters of their own destiny.

The teachers, having reached that age, if they feel the institution insufficiently diverse, should go and work somewhere else.

Millions of us who found the Christian story somewhat far-fetched nonetheless went through our educational careers being culturally enhanced by the magnificent tunes that many of our hymns featured.

The doctrine, except for the precociously devout, were neither here nor there.

One obvious casualty of this bonkers pronouncement will be one of the most ravishing hymn tunes ever written, Repton - recognisable immediately from its opening lines:

Dear Lord and Father of mankind
Forgive our foolish ways!

One can almost hear the squeals of anguish from the Church's imbeciles-in-chief.

Can we really be expected to tolerate being told that some of our ways might be foolish?

And even if they were, why would it be God's place to forgive them?

That magnificent tune comes from Sir Hubert Parry's oratorio Judith.

In these culturally benighted times, when the nearest most children come to being inculcated with an idea of beauty is being force-fed pop music and the inanities of CBeebies, when otherwise would they have a chance not just to hear, but to participate in, the music of a composer so great as Parry?

One must also doubt that they are encouraged to sing another of his majestic tunes, Jerusalem - which although not a hymn appears in most hymn books - given the entirely erroneous associations made for it with English nationalism and, therefore, colonialism, fascism, imperialism, white supremacy and all the rest of the largely imaginary components of our growing litany of cultural self-hatred.

It is suggested, instead, that other favourites such as Kumbaya and Lord of the Dance - neither of which one could pretend has the slightest association with a high aesthetic or cultural enrichment - are perfectly safe, because they do not entail undue grovelling to the Almighty for real or imagined wickedness.

It does not seem to occur to the those advocating this censorship that few take any notice of the words anyway, and that in life we all have to put up with things - including aspects of the Church of England - that we find tedious or that we disagree with; but that in putting up with them we are provoked to think, mature, and eventually form our own conclusions.

The Church of England has done its best to desecrate - and I choose that verb carefully - its cultural heritage.

Worshippers have been driven away by having to endure the Princess Margaret Bible and the Rocky Horror Prayer Book. Organs have been replaced by guitars and tambourines. Continue reading

• Simon Heffer writes a weekly column in the Sunday Telegraph

The bishops noted that they had carefully considered the matter, noted the learned opinion supporting their decision, and then made their choice.

In a sense this is not a news story at all: this is the version that has been the favourite for many years for the proposed 'new' lectionary.

Many other bishops' conferences have seen it as being an ideal replacement for the Jerusalem Bible (dating from the 1960s) and The Grail translation of the Psalms (of similar vintage) that have been in widespread use since the renewed lectionary made its appearance in 1970 and which has been virtually the only translation in use since the three-volume edition of 1981.

So why a new translation now?

While neither biblical scholarship nor language remain the same - and much has changed since the 1960s - this is not the primary reason mentioned either by the Scottish Catholic bishops, nor the others who are pushing for the adoption of the new lectionary.

The reasons for their choice, according to Bishop Hugh Gilbert, are that they 'expect a Lectionary to embody, for example, accuracy, dignity, facility of proclamation, and accessibility.' These are laudable but surely no more than one would expect.

Moreover, it does not explain why, since the actual lections will remain the same, there is a clamour among episcopal conferences for a different translation.

This decision, when taken by other episcopal conferences, has drawn criticism.

Critics point out that the ESV-CE uses non-inclusive language (which will undoubtedly create problems of reception at parish level) and that it is a formal equivalence translation (it might sound 'biblical' but lacks ease of comprehension).

Its upholders point out, however, that it is in keeping with the principles of Liturgiam authenticam issued by Pope Benedict XVI; and it is clear that its most enthusiastic supporters are those who share the 'restorationist' vision of a very fixed and formal liturgy that characterised the thinking of the retired pope.

So, this change of translation owes more to Vatican liturgical politics under Benedict XVI than to felt pastoral need or any deep awareness of better underlying Hebrew / Greek editions (of which there are several but which are not reflected in ESV-CE).

A more fundamental assumption

What does not get any attention is the fundamental assumption that is at work now, as it was in 1981 (and to a lesser extent in 1970 when the lectionary was printed in both Jerusalem Bible and Revised Standard Version editions): that there should be a single translation used throughout the lectionary.

So embedded is this assumption that most people concerned with the lectionary look aghast when this is questioned and genuinely ask: but what is the alternative?

There is an alternative - one already adopted in the 1973 English-language edition of the Liturgy of the Hours - which is to use a range of translations depending on what portion of scripture is being translated and how it is being used.

Indeed, the very fact that in the current lectionary there is a distinct translation of the Psalter (and there is going to be a distinct version of the psalms in the proposed lectionary), shows that the 'one size fits all' approach to translations is faulty.

Why should there be a range of translations and translation dynamics in a lectionary? One can pick out four key reasons:

One size does not fit all

First, while many people think of the bible as if it were a highly consistent book - much like a modern single-authored volume - this is very wide of the mark.

At the simplest level, the bible is an anthology - many authors, several languages, texts from over a long span of time (just think of the difference between Shakespeare's English and our own), and a wide variety of cultures.

Consequently, it is better to think of our collections of books for reading in the liturgy as a hotchpotch - this way we do not build up false ideas that 'the bible' is some sort of instruction manual.

If it is a hotchpotch, the way we translate should reflect this. Poetry (e.g. the Song of Songs) should have a different style of translation from the narrative (e.g. 1 Samuel). Law (e.g. Deuteronomy) should be rendered in a different way from wisdom literature (e.g. Sirach).

Even when we are translating a single biblical book, we should use different dynamics.

For example, Luke's gospel should have a storytelling style for parables, another for the Passion narrative, and another for the sayings of Jesus.

Different kinds of discourse react differently in translations.

Years ago, many school children learned this when they had to translate Caesar's De bello Gallico and bits of Ovid: what worked for one, did not work for the other.

Alas, those who think of one size fits all in translations have forgotten this.

A matter of style

Second, what is needed is not a stand-alone translation for study purposes but one for use in lections - short pieces - in a liturgy with real people.

Therefore, a passage that will be used with a large assembly on a Sunday may have to have a simpler style than one for use on weekdays where there may be more opportunity to explain what is being heard.

The same gospel passage may be used for a baptism, on a Sunday, or in a votive Mass: its emphasis may need to shift for these situations.

Moreover, in its use on a Sunday it, and its related first reading from the Old Testament, may need to be co-ordinated to one another - because the link between them may be based in the ancient Jewish translation of the scriptures in Greek (known as the Septuagint) and which was the de facto version of those followers of Jesus among which the writings (which we now call 'the new testament') made their appearance.

So, sometimes, a completely fresh translation - from the Septuagint - may be needed for a specific liturgical situation.

This is a far more demanding job than opting for an off-the-peg translation or thinking it is simply a matter of language style.

Obscuring the task

Third, again because the lectionary is a book for the liturgy, we have to think of the variety of liturgical situations.

Sometimes a eucharist may take place with a large body of participants, sometimes it will be a small gathering around the Lord's Table.

A translation that works well with a great concourse - and which then will need to be used with a public address system - may sound ponderous within an intimate group where the readings are proclaimed in what is the normal voice of people in an average-sized room.

Likewise, it is one thing for a gospel to be sung on a great feast, another to be read for quiet rumination as a gathering seeks to absorb with a reflective calm the food offered at the Table of the Word.

Each situation requires a specific kind of translation and so we should have a range of versions offered with advice on which to use in each setting.

This is a demanding task - but that is what the proclamation of the Word calls forth from us - and offering just one 'this will fit' translation not only does not help, but it obscures the task and the challenge.

Moreover, we now have the technology - not around in 1981 - to do this economically and easily.

A single audience?

Fourth, everyone knows that the greatest challenge in any act of communication is that you may have a single audience, but they are the very opposite of 'one sack, one sample': people come in all shapes and sizes!

If one is teaching a class, one can try to get people of the same age and roughly the same ability - yet some will understand what they hear far more than others (hence exams!) - so one must often go at the speed of the slowest.

Now compare the assembly on a Sunday in the average parish: some will be members of the scripture study group, while others would be shocked to hear that the four gospels do not all agree with one another.

Some will be children, while other will be worried about what to cook for lunch, and others will be thinking about getting onto the golf course, others will listen with that intensity that only comes through a lifetime of faith and worship - it is a very mixed group indeed.

In some places, everyone will have English as their first-language, while elsewhere English will be, at best, the common working language, a lingua franca.

A translation for such a mixed group has to fear more turning off those who do not understand it more than it fears the person who objects that it sounds 'dumbed down' (they can go home and look up the text!).

There have been in the past special translations of the lectionary for children's celebrations and for school celebrations - but they are often only accessible to a small group of specialists.

Moreover, when a catechist suggests the use of one of these to a presbyter, it is not unknown that he simply rejects the suggestion on the basis that 'he has the official book.'

So, these specialist translations need to have the dignity of being 'official.'

In a similar vein, I have seen a bible translation specially designed for those for whom English is a second language, and have even heard of a biblical scholar who intends to translate the New Testament in to 'airline English' - the very simple, but precise form of English that is used in aviation.

Let's not forget, any sentence with many subclauses may make a great text to read in the quiet of the study, but when heard in a gathering can become little more than a specimen of that infamous language: Double Dutch.

But we need an accurate translation!

Many will say but do we not need an accurate translation that reflects as closely as possible the Hebrew and the Greek?

Yes - every student of the scriptures needs an up-to-date formal equivalent translation such as the Revised Standard Version or the New Revised Standard Version.

Even if you have command of the original languages, you still need this on your desk. But this is a need of the study, when you enter the chapel - or even more a large parish church - you are engaging in worship, not study. And worship has very special needs, and no one translation can fulfil them.

In the strange run towards a new, single translation - inspired by a document that few now respect - the bishops' conference of the English-speaking world are missing a great opportunity!

• Thomas O'Loughlin is a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Arundel and Brighton and emeritus professor of historical theology at the University of Nottingham (UK).
• His latest book is Eating Together, Becoming One Taking Up Pope Francis's Call to Theologians (Liturgical Press, 2019).
• First published in La Croix International, republished with permission of the author.

The Army considers Sunday church services an ‘essential service', as they offer spiritual health; a vital component of wellbeing.

They say that as frontline welfare responders to the economic and social effects of the Covid-19 crisis, they have seen first-hand the struggle many New Zealanders are facing with emotional and financial needs and societal and family disconnection.

The COVID-19 Public Health Response Bill makes no allowance for or trust in religious gatherings, "which further indicates this Government's low view of spirituality as a fundamental part of overall wellbeing," Salvation Army Maori Ministry director Lt-Colonel Ian Hutson says.

Hutson says the Bill shows a lack of trust in iwi, hapu and community groups to work within the Covid-19 guidelines, despite the proven leadership of Maori in protecting the health and wellbeing of whanau during Levels 3 and 4.

A range of academics has called for public consultation given the nature of the new law, backed by the Human Rights Commission which said there was a risk of "overreach" when sweeping powers were granted in times of national emergency.

"Mistakes are made and later regretted. This is precisely when our national and international human rights, and Te Tiriti, commitments must be taken into account."

The law will sit on the statute books for two years, but Parliament will have to actively renew the Act every 90 days.

The government has bowed to pressure and will now allow public scrutiny of the law by means of a select committee.

Source

• scoop.co.nz
• nzherald.co.nz
• rnz.co.nz
• newshub.co.nz
• Image: healthnavigator.org.nz

Fr. Suess is in Rome as an official of the Synod of Bishops on the Amazon, and is regarded there as an expert on the region.

The priest was asked about a ceremony held in St. Peter's Basilica Oct. 7, which seemed to use both traditional Christian symbols and unexplained symbols of indigenous Amazonian culture.

"It is definitely the case that there is a noticeable sentiment against the synod on the part of certain media here.... Someone wrote that it was a pagan rite," Fr. Suess responded.

"So what?" the priest asked. "Even if that had been a pagan rite, what took place was still a worship service. A rite always has something to do with worship.

"Paganism cannot be dismissed as nothing".

"What is pagan? In our big cities we are no less pagan than in the jungle. That's something to think about," he said

Vatican Media eventually removed those comments from its interview with the priest, with no note or indication of the redaction.

Anyone who wants to understand how the Vatican's synod of bishops on the Amazon has become such a flashpoint for controversy, or why five carved statues were removed from a Roman church and tossed into the Tiber River, should think carefully about Fr. Suess' comments, and their publication by the official media organ of the Holy See.

On Oct. 21, five statues were taken, apparently quite early in the morning, from the Carmelite Church of Santa Maria in Traspontina, four blocks from St. Peter's Basilica. They were thrown off a nearby bridge into the Tiber River.

On Friday the pope announced that they had been recovered, apologized to anyone offended by their submersion in the Tiber's waters, and said they might make an appearance at Sunday's closing Mass for the synod.

The statues had become recognizable to Catholics around the world. They were featured prominently in an Oct. 4 tree-planting ceremony that kicked off the Amazon synod. They have been a part of daily "moments of spirituality" at the Carmelite church. They have been inside St. Peter's Basilica, at an Amazonian Stations of the Cross, and at many other events surrounding the Amazon synod and they have been alternatively described as symbols of the Blessed Virgin, the Andean pagan idol Pachamama, and ambiguous symbols of "life."

At the synod, they are symbols of controversy.

Figures used prominently in unexplained and unfamiliar rituals or spiritual expressions, even with persons prostrating themselves in front of the statues, led journalists to ask what connections the figures have to indigenous religious rituals.

In short, to ask whether they have a pagan provenance, and, if so, what it means for them to be used in a Catholic context, and in the sacred space of a church.

The Church's long-considered and nuanced views on inculturation are complex, and the Gospel is always expressed in the context of some culture. Continue reading

The only other language on offer at the time was German — there was no te reo Maori, and definitely no Samoan on the menu. (To put that in context, it was the ‘90s and I was one of a handful of non-Pakeha girls in my year.)

I came top of my class for French. But after graduating, I was quickly brought down to earth the following year when I took a sabbatical in France and couldn't, for the life of me, understand a word anyone said.

It was my first time in a full-immersion environment, and my brain was exploding.

After a few weeks, though, things slowly started making sense.

Before I knew it, I was conversing, thinking, and even dreaming in French.

Back in New Zealand, I began a law and arts degree at the University of Auckland, and resumed my language studies.

In my first year, I received the Senior Prize for French — an award normally reserved for students in their final year.

By comparison, I was a pretty average Japanese student. But I had realistic expectations — I knew I wouldn't fully grasp the language until I'd had a chance to live there.

Some years later, while working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, I had the opportunity to learn Mandarin Chinese when I was seconded to the New Zealand Commerce and Industry Office in Taipei.

The job required a professional standard of Mandarin, which meant two years of intensive training. To give you an idea of Mandarin's level of difficulty, it takes only six months to get to the same standard in French.

I studied at the International Chinese Language Programme, which was renowned for its ability to train Chinese speakers.

Many of my classmates were from Ivy League schools in the US. Quite a few identified as "ABCs" — American-Born Chinese — who'd already learned to speak Mandarin from their parents but couldn't read or write it.

The experience was one of the most intense and rewarding things I've ever done.

At the end of two years, I was able to speak, read, and write one of the world's most difficult languages.

Of course, you don't master the language within two years.

Your reward for all that time and effort is a solid basis on which to keep building your Mandarin skills … for the rest of your life.

Still, having spoken Mandarin now for more than a decade, I'm sometimes complimented by native speakers who say I speak without an accent.

The same goes for French, which I've spoken for more than a quarter of a century.

You might say that I have a bit of an affinity with languages.

I've proved, at least to myself, that I have the ability to learn languages, and I understand what it takes to learn a difficult one to an advanced level.

So why can't I speak Samoan?

Why do I struggle so much with the language that is a part of my heritage, and central to my identity? It's a question I've asked myself many times. Continue reading

• Tupe Solomon-Tanoa'i is an international civil servant and former diplomat.

The emergence of writing, the move from scroll to codex, the printing press, the spread of literacy, the development of electronic media (radio, telephone, film, and television), and the subsequent rise of digital communication (social media, websites, digital publishing) provide obvious examples.

Yet, it distorts the history of religion and media to simply note that religious figures adopt new ways of expressing themselves.

They also resist media change, or alternatively, they adopt new forms of media which they imagine as mere containers for unchanging messages that support unchanging religious practice.

These anxieties and simplifications must be examined, for new media cultures encourage new ways of understanding ourselves and support particular forms of religious practice while making others seem less "natural."

Resistance to new media and its power is long established.

Jeremiah (chapter 36) reports that the prophet adopted the new form of the scroll to send a word of the Lord to King Jehoiakim, and that the king responds by feeding the scroll into the fire.

Tom Boomershine describes this as the first recorded act of religious resistance to new media and its power.

Judaism was formed in the era of scroll, and the Torah as scroll has a ritual function not replaced by the codex, in which pages are bound between covers.

Christians have also thought that the sacrality of the word is tied to its form.

The early church embraced the codex, the new media of its day, and later Christians wondered whether the word of God and the mission of the church were well served by changes to that form.

Printing made it possible to put vernacular translations of the Bible into the hands of lay people and required the church to ponder the implications of this change.

We saw similar struggles in explorations of whether the word of God could be expressed through film and television, in debates about the value and challenges of Bible apps, and in discussions of whether Christian community can be sustained in digital spaces and through social media.

While some Christians distrust new media, others embrace media change without considering the way that their faith claims and practices will change in new media cultures.

They imagine new media as the arrival of increasingly sophisticated amplifiers allowing an unchanging message to reach ever larger and more distant audiences.

But in fact, different media make possible quite different ways of thinking and relating. Continue reading

Image: Amazon

The CQ Tick is a measure of an organisation's cultural capability as a critical competency for 21st Century leaders - and for their organisations to win diverse customers and to retain diverse staff - is the cultural capability to work with people who are not like them. Continue reading

That is the question being asked after the Methodist Church in Fiji recently decided that it will continue to have an Indian Division in the church.

Last year the superintendent of the Indian Division of the Church, Reverend Dr Immanuel Reuben, tabled a motion proposing the name of the Indian Division of the Church be changed.

The motion was subsequently withdrawn.

Church Secretary for Communications Reverend James Bhagwan says since the motion had been withdrawn, there will be no name change.

When questioned by Fijivillage, the Methodist Church in Fiji said the name Indian Division reflects a historical aspect of the church's work. It is not representative of Indo Fijians in the country.

Church Secretary for Communications Reverend James Bhagwan says the name is not race-based but is more culturally-based.

He says looking at the makeup of the Indian Division of the Methodist Church, probably 50 percent are non-Indo-Fijians. They have no problem belonging to a Division that calls themselves Indian Division.

He says the name reflects the Indo Fijian culture, as the majority of the services is done in the Hindi language.

Asked if having an Indian Division is against the Constitution, Bhagwan says it is not.

The Methodist Church in Fiji today has 56 divisions. Fifty-three of the divisions are geographic and three are based on language and culture.

These are the Indian Division (Hindi and English Speaking, with a focus on mission to the Indo-Fijian community), the Rotuman Division (for the Rotuman speaking and cultural community) and the Wesley Division (English speaking).

Source

• Fijivillage
• Fijivillage
• Fiji Sun
• Methodist Church Fiji
• Image: Facebook

It's beneficial on many levels to recognize what's popular, and to honestly discern: How is a particular cultural phenomenon affecting the life of Christian believers?

How can this phenomenon be "baptized" and used to help people of faith?

Believers know that everything in our world expresses some positive reflection of divine truth. This conviction is born from the belief that creation is good and was made from the overflowing of God's love.

Since all things are vestiges of God, therefore, they participate in a great analogy of being.

This means that created things share in God's wisdom, power, and beauty, and they manifest these divine realities in our world today.

Our task as we look at our culture is to discern these heavenly truths, name them, and draw them out of things.

This exercise has been called by several names, the most popular being the sacramental principle.

This principle holds that created things can be visible signs of invisible grace, namely, that they are indications to us of divine favor in the hustle and bustle of our lives.

And so, whether it's Roman myths, Pokeman Go, fidget spinners, or the recent eclipse, everything is a breathing word of God, who is the Author of all things, and so can be a source of transcendence, faith, and goodness.

This interplay between heaven and earth is a powerful and uplifting assertion. But is it true? Can all things really reflect heavenly realities?

Let's go ahead and step back and peruse Western culture today. What do we see? One predominant and surprising trend is the television show, Game of Thrones.

The show has an unprecedented fan base, has received extensive awards, and has become a topic of conversation across our society's spectrum.

The show is violent, sexually explicit, crude, despairing, full of plots that are manipulative and coercive, praises vicious and merciless characters, mocks virtue and shows how to use it against people, and screams utilitarian barbarism. Continue reading

• Fr Jeffrey F Kirby is a Catholic priest of the Diocese of Charleston, South Carolina.

As the pastor of a multigenerational, multicultural, and multilingual (Spanish, Vietnamese, and English) parish, I at times feel responsible for untying a lot of wet knots.

Farm workers from Central Mexico founded the parish where I serve, La Purisima Church in Orange, California, in 1923.

They gathered under a pepper tree for Mass until they saved enough money for a wooden mission church.

The parish built a new church in 1958 and another in 2005.

Normally new construction signals a healthy community coming together.

However, the Hispanic community came to believe that the parish was discriminating against their community and started picketing on the sidewalk before the new church opened in 2005.

Protests continued through 2014.

I did not serve at the parish during most of its history and can comment only on the repercussions.

However, I don't believe enough people considered the effect the new large worship space, driven by donations from mostly white parishioners, could have on others.

For example, a large new sanctuary meant fewer Sunday liturgies. But who gets the favoured morning or best vigil times?

Neglect leads to public protest

The new Mass schedule offered 10 liturgies in English, one in Vietnamese, and one in Spanish.

This created a sense of loss and alienation for the Latino community, who founded the church and yet felt they were not welcome.

The new church, they felt, neglected to value them as agents of their own pastoral needs or religious practices.

The energy of the parish focused on the new building and not on the pastoral life of the Latino community.

Eventually, their alienation and disempowerment found expression in picketing, which began before construction was completed and lasted for almost a decade.

Over the next nine years, the parish went through three different diocesan pastors until, in early December 2014, Bishop Kevin Vann asked me to pastor La Purisima.

I accepted the assignment with the mutual understanding that the manifest unhappiness of the Hispanic community had not arisen overnight and could not be cured instantaneously.

It would take some time to untie this knot.

Armed guards

My first pastoral decision was to unemploy the armed guard hired to "keep the peace."

I also began the typical task of putting names to faces and meeting my staff, who shared in the task of ministering to this diverse community of 4,000 parishioners.

My next decision was to declare a pastoral amnesty and a new beginning for everyone in the parish.

The war was over between the different language groups and everyone had won.

There would no longer be any in groups or out groups or welcomed or unwelcomed people.

Anyone seeking the Lord would be welcome.

Access to parish facilities and involvement in Masses was open to all.

Meanwhile, I refused to assign blame for the conflicts, instead focusing on parishioners' experiences.

Three weeks later, just as I thought things were settling down, 30 families picketing in front of the church surprised me.

Armed with a thermos of coffee, some paper cups, and a trembling heart, I headed out to the sidewalk. Surprised and startled, they eventually took me up on the coffee, but hesitated on my offer to speak with them in my office regarding their concerns. Continue reading

He was speaking after a Justice and Development Commission Seminar entitled "Reading the Signs of the Times in Fiji - Catholic Social Teaching and Socio-Political Issues".

"There are times when the church will tell village leaders - your ideas are not well founded, your decisions are not right, that needs to be corrected," Chong said.

In particular the Catholic church is concerned about two of the proposed village by-laws that have been distributed for discussion and feedback:

One calls for the establishment of a committee with representatives from the various religious denominations within the village. This is to ensure members of their denominations comply with the decisions of the Village Council and Bose Vanua (council of chiefs) and that traditional and cultural obligations are respected and adhered to.

The other relates to establishing churches in villages. Under the by-laws any request to establish a church should be submitted to the Turaga-ni-Koro (head of the village) to be discussed in the Bose Vanua. The principles and teachings of these churches must be aligned to the iTaukei culture.

Chong warned that no culture was 100 per cent correct and forcing such a legislation was harmful even to the iTaukei.

The seminar's participants included of Catholic politicians, chiefs, clergy, members of the Fiji Council of Churches, lay church leaders and representatives of the non-government organisations.

"The conference is not about telling people what party to vote for or to support a particular party. We are inviting all politicians regardless what party they belong to," Chong said.

It is expected that similar seminars will take place in the Western and Northern Divisions later in the year.

Source

• Island Business Facebook
• Fijivillage.com
• Fijisun.com
• Image: Fijisun.com

Last week, his administration rescinded former guidelines allowing transgender students to use the public school bathrooms of their choice.

And evangelical leaders report having direct access to the Oval Office. For all his clear foibles, Trump seems to be heeding concerns that drew much white evangelical and Catholic support during the 2016 election.

So it's an interesting time for conservative Christians — traditional Orthodox, Catholic, and evangelical Protestants — to consider withdrawing from American public life.

And yet in the coming weeks and months, expect to hear a lot about the Benedict Option. It's a provocative vision for Christians outlined in a new book by Rod Dreher, who has explored it for the past decade on his lively American Conservative blog.

To Dreher, Trump's presidency has only given conservative Christians "a bit more time to prepare for the inevitable."

He predicts for traditional Christians loss of jobs, influence, First Amendment protections and goodwill among neighbors and co-workers. Even under Trump, says Dreher, the future is very dark.

The Benedict Option derives its name from a 6th-century monk who left the crumbling Roman Empire to form a separate community of prayer and worship. Benedict of Nursia founded monasteries and a well-known "Rule" to govern Christian life together.

By many accounts, Benedictine monasteries seeded the growth of a new civilization to blossom throughout Western Europe after Rome's fall.

In his book for a mainstream publisher (Penguin's Sentinel), Dreher insists that conservative Christians today should likewise withdraw from the crumbling American empire to preserve the faith, lest it be choked out by secularism, individualism and LGBT activism. Continue reading

• Katelyn Beaty is editor at large at Christianity Today magazine and author of "A Woman's Place: A Christian Vision for Your Calling in the Office, the Home, and the World" (Simon & Schuster).

Responding suggestions some villagers have made for a village by-law stating that everyone living in villages should attend church every Sunday Permanent Secretary for iTaukei Affairs Naipote Katonitabua says no one can be forced to attend church services.

He told Fijivillage that according to the 2013 Constitution, people have the right to attend or not to attend church services.

The constitution states that there is freedom of religion but no one should be forced to follow a particular religion.

Issues have also been raised on what happens to the villagers who are Seventh Day Adventists as their sabbath falls on Saturdays.

Katonitabua says that the leaders of families within the Tokatoka and the Mataqali should know what Sundays meant to their forefathers.

He says they received many reports during the village by‑law consultations of villagers not attending church.

Katonitabua says over time people have come up with new ways of life that badly affected the church attendance on Sundays.

However he says while there are rights to worship our own religion, there are also limitations which are needed to respect the vanua.

He says the whole purpose of the Village By-Law Consultation is to bring back the respect that villages had before.

Katonitabua says the villagers are now well involved on village activities and particularly looking at the welfare and the well-being of the village.

He says there is a great amount of support from the elders of the village in terms of safeguarding tradition and culture.

Source

• fijivillage.com
• fijivillage.com
• Image: shaylamartin.com

This week, for instance, the Christmas tree to be displayed in St. Peter's Square arrived at the Vatican.

It's an 82-foot-tall fir tree, cut down on Nov. 13 in a forest outside the small town of Scurelle (13,000 souls) in the northern Italian province of Trento. The Italian army moved it in a helicopter to a staging location, where it was put on a truck for the ride to Rome.

It's already been put up in the square, which is the traditional annual signal that the holidays are upon us.

Also this week, the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo launched its 41st annual exhibit of 11 nativity scenes from around the world, while Vatican personnel are working feverishly to prepare the massive nativity scene that each year dominates St. Peter's Square.

During a presentation of the exhibit last Thursday, local schoolchildren performed a "living" nativity scene, while Italian Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, now the head of the Pontifical Academy for Life, was on hand.

(In a touching footnote, the theme of the living scene was "In Amatrice, the bell tower strikes the Holy Night," a tribute to a small Italian town famed for its pasta sauce that was wiped out by an August 24 earthquake.)

The Roman Academy of Arts also held an event for children aged 4 to 11 on "the nativity scene as play," teaching kids how to make their own.

All this offers a reminder of just how central the iconography of Christmas, especially the nativity scene, is to Catholic culture. Herewith, then, three things one can glean about Catholicism from observing the special place that the nativity scene occupies in the Vatican, and in Catholic hearts. Continue reading

• John L. Allen Jr. is the editor of Crux, specialising in coverage of the Vatican and the Catholic Church.

In a homily at a Mass at St Peter's Square on Sunday for the Jubilee of the Sick and Disabled, the Pope called for mutual solidarity and acceptance.

Francis criticised the modern "objections" raised "to a life characterised by serious physical limitations".

"It is thought that sick or disabled persons cannot be happy, since they cannot live the lifestyle held up by the culture of pleasure and entertainment," the Pope said.

"In an age when care for one's body has become an obsession and a big business, anything imperfect has to be hidden away, since it threatens the happiness and serenity of the privileged few and endangers the dominant model," Francis continued.

"Such persons should best be kept apart, in some ‘enclosure' - even a gilded one - or in ‘islands' of pietism or social welfare, so that they do not hold back the pace of a false well-being," the Pope added.

"In some cases, we are even told that it is better to eliminate them as soon as possible, because they become an unacceptable economic burden in time of crisis."

Francis said that when people shut their eyes in the face of sickness and disability, they fail to understand the real meaning of life which "has to do with accepting suffering and limitation".

"The world does not become better because only apparently ‘perfect' people live there - I say ‘perfect' rather than ‘false' - but when human solidarity, mutual acceptance and respect increase."

"The happiness that everyone desires," the Pope added, can only be "attained only if we are capable of loving".

"It is always a matter of love; there is no other path."

The Jubilee for the Sick and Persons with Disabilities, which ran from June 10-12, was part of the Year of Mercy.

For the first time in a papal Mass in St Peter's Square, on Sunday the Gospel was dramatised by a group of intellectually disabled persons.

This was so the text could be understood by pilgrims with mental disabilities, the Vatican announced.

At the Mass, people with disabilities did various liturgical roles.

Sources

• Vatican Radio
• Catholic News Agency
• Aleteia
• Image: Daily Mail

Tauira - a word that in te reo (the Maori language) illuminatingly means both student and teacher introduces readers to Maori methods of teaching and learning.

Tauira is based on extensive interviews with 25 Maori people in the early 1980s.

"Although my name's on the cover, it's very much our book," says Metge.

"The book helps us understand that period of time and the people who grew up and worked in it," she says.

"But it also throws up ideas that are relevant to the present day situation in terms of different ways of learning."

The book's focus is on the role of education outside the classroom.

Metge shows that Maori ways of learning flourished alongside the school system, especially in rural Northland, the Bay of Plenty and on the East Cape.

"In those days, particularly, there was a tendency to equate education with schooling."

"But children learn a lot of their knowledge and their personal identity outside of school."

She says those educational practices had a particular form and philosophy.

Maori focused on learning by doing, teaching in context, learning in a group, memorising, and advancement when ready.

Parents, grandparents and community leaders imparted cultural knowledge as well as practical skills to the younger generation through daily life and storytelling, in whanau and community activities.

Dame Joan Metge, who is now 85, was awarded the Royal Society of New Zealand's inaugural Te Rangi Hiroa Medal in 1997 for her outstanding scientific research in the social sciences.

In 2006, she won the third Asia-Pacific Mediation Forum Peace Prize, previously won by José Ramos-Horta.

Source

• education.auckland.ac.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• Image: nzportraitgallery.org.nz/ Sofia Minson