The claim is made by in Abuse and Cover-Up Refounding the Catholic Church in Trauma, a new book by New Zealand born anthropologist, theologian and international scholar, Fr Gerald Arbuckle SM.

Using the psalmist's image, Arbuckle says the Church was once a "strong mountain of great prosperity", but that power and prestige previously granted the Church has all but disintegrated.

Arbuckle describes the Church as the People of God who are demoralised and who are not sure what to do.

"The gap between Church rhetoric and reality is a chasm."

"Lay people feel betrayed, disillusioned, and angry," writes Arbuckle.

He says the suppression of public grief has only intensified the sadness and rage in people's hearts, destroying people's trust in their leaders.

"The short-sighted fear of scandal has been, and is, the curse of the Church…. Because it is an easy and much-used cover for cowardice, it exploits the future in the interests of the present, preferring scandal of missions to come to that of hundreds now", notes Arbuckle; quoting 1907 ‘modernist' George Tyrrel.

‘Pulling no punches', Arbuckle labels the culture of abuse and the system of cover-up as "systemic corruption."

"Sexual abuse cover-ups are systemic institutional evil because the culture of the church in this matter is corrupt", writes Arbuckle.

Arbuckle laments the contemporary tragedy of the disappearance of evil and contrasts it with the vision of the People of God, as outlined by Pope Francis; "to create a culture where each person has the right to breathe air free of every kind of abuse.

A culture free of cover-ups, which end up vitiating all our relationships".

Calling for major culture change in the Church, Arbuckle says the church must seek forgiveness, mercy, and repentance.

Published by Orbis Books, Abuse and Cover-Up: Refounding the Catholic Church in Trauma is praxis-oriented book focusing on the cultural reasons for this trauma and how the People of God can move forward.

Pivotal to the discussion, Arbuckle asks two fundamental questions:

Why is the culture of the Catholic Church, despite Vatican II's emphasis on collegiality and transparency, still prone to covering up abuses of power?

How can this culture change for the Church to move forward?

An anthropologist, Arbuckle maintains that because of its ruthless excavation and exposure of the preconceptions on which we base our lives, anthropology is among the most challenging disciplines of the entire academic curriculum.

"Applied cultural anthropology does not tell us what we want to know, rather it unsettles the foundations of what we thought we knew already."

Reviews of the book are positive.

"Among the many books on clergy sex abuse, this work of the anthropologist and theologian Gerald Arbuckle is, without doubt, the most helpful. . . . A book that must be meditated upon by the Vatican officers and all the bishops", writes the triple doctoral graduate Peter Phan, Ellacuria Chair of Catholic Social Thought at Georgetown University.

"Not just an analysis of the phenomenon of abuse and cover-up, but also the action plans and strategies needed for refounding the Church", writes Massimo Faggioli, Church historian, Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University, Philadelphia.

Source

• sm.org.nz

Arbuckle is noted scholar in both theology and anthropology. He is the author of many books, the most recent being: Laughing with God: Humor, Culture, and Transformation (2011); Culture, Inculturation, and Theologians: A Postmodern Critique (2010); Humanizing Healthcare Reforms (2013); Catholic Identity or Identities? Refounding Ministries in Chaotic Times (2013); The Francis Factor and the People of God: New Life for the Church (2015).

In announcing the list, Spirituality and Practice notes: "Every year from the more than 300 books we review on this website, we choose the Best Spiritual Books. In addition to 50 adult books, we also include 15 Best Spiritual Children's Books.

"These are titles that have most impressed and inspired us. Since we only review books that we want to recommend to you for your spiritual journey, this selection actually represents the best of the best."

Spirituality and Practice is a multi-faith and inter-spiritual website, founded by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat.

"The site's name reflects a basic understanding: spirituality and practice are the two places where all the world's religions and spiritual paths come together. While respecting the differences among traditions, we celebrate what they share in common."

Launched in 2006, Spirituality & Practice consolidates nearly 50 years of the work of co-directors Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat and their various publications and projects, including Cultural Information Service, Living Room Learning, Values & Visions, and the Spiritual Literacy Project.

In their review the Brussats commented: "We commend the author for bringing such clarity, depth, and daring to the well-worn topic of loneliness!"

Source

• spiritualityandpractice.com
• spiritualityandpractice.com
• bbi.catholic.edu.au
• Image: chausa.org

Responding to the award, Gerald Arbuckle says he is 'delighted' and particularly pleased that a book on contemporary fundamentalism has been so acknowledged internationally.

"I hope the book, in some small way, can contribute to an understanding that fundamentalism in all its forms threatens the very the very peace of the world.

I also hope it shows we can do something to stop this danger", he told CathNews NZ Pacific."

In Fundamentalism at Home and Abroad, Gerald Arbuckle argues fundamentalism is not just a radical form of Islam but is a reaction to cultural chaos.

The citation states: "A masterpiece on an ultra-important topic.

Its chapter on Catholic fundamentalism should be produced as a mass-distributed pamphlet for every parish.

Fights the too-loosely-held notion that the opposite of faith is doubt, rather it is certitude."

He labels fundamentalists as dangerously simplistic people who look for certainty and who fear a loss of identity.

"While for most people fundamentalism in the modern world has become synonymous with a radical form of Islam, Fundamentalism in many shapes and forms is also very much present in Western societies", Fr Arbuckle writes.

Fr Arbuckle observes that Fundamentalist economic, political, nationalistic, religious movements are rapidly developing in the world today. He is quick to echo Pope Francis, saying that these movements are anti-Gospel.

Reviewing the book, Fr James Lewis Heft, Alton M. Brooks Professor of Religion at the University of Southern California says the book is carefully argued book by a 'veteran cultural anthropologist'.

"Someone once remarked, 'The opposite of faith is not doubt, but certitude.' Arbuckle not only describes the cultural contexts that generate destructive and deaf certitudes but also proposes many practical and pastoral responses to them," writes Lewis Heft.

Stephen Bevans SVD, Professor Emeritus of the Catholic Theological Union calls the work "timely".

In addition, he says that Arbuckle's sixteen practical pastoral responses to this phenomenon might help reconcile Christians among themselves and people of all faiths and political persuasions.

Gerald Arbuckle is co-director of Refounding and Pastoral Development, a research ministry, in Sydney, Australia.

The award-winning author, the New Zealand Marist priest is internationally known for his expertise in helping church leaders minister effectively in a postmodern world.

The views in Fundamentalism at Home and Abroad are similar to those expressed by Pope Francis to journalists on a plane trip home from 2015 trip to Africa and in a letter dated November 2017 Pope Francis acknowledged the gift of Fr Arbuckle's book.

Fundamentalism at Home and Abroad: Analysis and Pastoral Responses is available in Paperback and Kindle form from Amazon.

Source

• Supplied
• Image: Supplied/litpress.org

It is the longest-running American cartoon series ever. It is frequently on our screens also.

Like Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, it is primarily written for adults, but it is more especially loved by children and adolescents.

It portrays in a humorous, but blatantly honest, way the political, economic and social chaos of our contemporary world.

The series recount the animated adventures of Homer Simpson and his lower-class family. Homer, the father and husband, is a lazy, beer-drinking safety inspector; Bart, is the border-line juvenile, ten-year-old boy, who evokes fear in his teachers.

Lisa is his socially conscious sister and saxophone player. The most loathsome character is Mr Burns, the owner of a nuclear power-plant and a cruel example of the worst form of contemporary neo-capitalism, that is fueled by greed and the profit motive at any cost.

Through the behavior of this family and equally dysfunctional members of the community, political hypocrisy, the rise of fake news, consumerism, fundamentalism in politics and religion, environmental abuse, corporate greed, neglect of people on the margins of society, are all uncovered in stark and often parodied ways.

The Simpsons is richly laced with satire, sarcasm, irony, and caricature as the authors seek to morally expose reality as it is - violent, filled with uncertainties, fears about the future of the planet, fears of violence in all its shapes, prejudices against ethnic minority groups.

This is the real-world of chaos we live in!

This paper concentrates on one notable form of the violence - fundamentalism, as portrayed in The Simpsons. It is threatening to tear apart both the Christian church and the entire world.

This paper first briefly explains its nature and its causes. Then the example and leadership of Pope Francis show us how we need to react to fundamentalism in a Gospel way.

Understanding Fundamentalism

Fundamentalism in its multiple different expressions is today vigorously alive at home and abroad. Pope Francis is right: "Fundamentalism is a sickness that is in all religions." And NOT just religions!

All institutions are capable of fundamentalist reactions. It is a form of organized rage and anger in reaction to the fear-evoking unsettling consequences of rapid social and religious change. Fundamentalism is an authoritarian reaction to the fears of political, economic or religious chaos.

Fundamentalists find rapid global change emotionally extremely disturbing and dangerous. Cultural, religious and personal certitudes are shaken.

Consequently, fundamentalists simplistically yearn to return to a utopian past or golden age, purified of dangerous ideas and practices. They intolerantly band together in order to put things right again - according to what they decide are orthodox principles. They seek to build walls around themselves. History must be reversed.

To get things back to ‘normal', fundamentalists react to threats to their identity in militant ways, whether in the use of words and ideas or ballot boxes or, in extreme cases, bullets and bombs.

Because fundamentalism is at depth an emotional reaction to the rapid experience of change, fundamentalists are not open to rational discussion and dialogue.

Here in Australia there are fundamentalist groups who seek to preserve the so-called ‘pure, orthodox Australian culture' from the ‘endangering ways of foreigners,' particularly Muslims and Asians. It matters little to adherents that such a culture has never existed.

In summary, for most people fundamentalism today is solely synonymous with radicalized Islamists.

This is unfortunate. Fundamentalism takes many shapes, though most often with much less observable violence.

Populist Leaders

Fundamentalist crusades often become populist movements. That is, the main quality they share is an appeal to the people as a whole, with an emphasis on the ordinary citizen as opposed to political and religious power elites.

The elites are described as trampling upon the rights, values, and voices of the legitimate people. Populist leaders, for example Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen in France, with the use of extremist language and behaviour assert that innocent citizens are plagued by remote, powerful and malign enemies. They must be named and marginalized or silenced.

Outbursts of rage in the West and in Islamic countries can be whipped up by mischievous politicians and others preying on an ill-informed and wronged people. These leaders offer unsophisticated simplistic solutions to complex problems.

The sad lesson of history is that fear and contempt are the most predictably powerful motivators for galvanizing one group to hate and dominate another.

All Capable of Fundamentalism

The disturbing fact is that every individual and culture is capable of developing fundamentalist attitudes and actions.

We need to be alerted to the danger that our own prejudices, if left unchecked, can solidify into fundamentalist behaviour.

Pope Francis: Axioms to Guide Leadership

Francis, leading by example and word, articulates seven Gospel-based practical axioms that a leader needs to embrace to respond appropriately to fundamentalism.

Axiom 1. The Gospel condemns violence, vengeance and hatred; Jesus Christ challenged the violence of fundamentalism in word and action.

There is no doubt what Pope Francis thinks of violence: "Let us say once more a firm and clear ‘No!' to every form of violence, vengeance and hatred carried out in the name of religion or in the name of God." His leadership against the violence of fundamentalist movements is also uncompromising.

Axiom 2. Understand the violent conditions that lead to, and flow from, fundamentalist movements.

For example, he points to the economic and social inequalities in society that foster fundamentalism.

And he writes: "Today, everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized; without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape."

Axiom 3. Respond according to Gospel Values

He clearly and repeatedly articulates the moral principles that must guide us in resolving injustices. For example, he often returns to the truths inherent in the parable of the Good Samaritan.

"People's paths are riddled with suffering, as everything is centered around money, and things, instead of people."

In light of the Good Samaritan parable, he calls for "the revolution of tenderness…Tenderness means to use our eyes to see the other, our ears to hear the other, to listen to the children, the poor, those who are afraid of the future.

"To listen also to the silent cry of our common home, the planet, of our sick and polluted earth. Tenderness means to use our hands and our heart to comfort the other, to take care of those in need."

Axiom 4. Every person and culture is capable of fundamentalist beliefs and actions; hence, fundamentalist movements can and do exist in the church.

As a good leader Francis is humbly self-critical of the institution he leads - the church - when its members stray from Gospel values.

For example, he identifies fellow Catholics who sadly take a fundamentalist view of their faith.

Fundamentalism is a sickness that is in all religions…Religious fundamentalism is not religious, because it lacks God. It is idolatry, like idolatry of money…We Catholics have some - [and not some, many] - who believe in the absolute truth and go ahead dirtying the other with calumny, with disinformation, and doing evil. (Pope Francis)

He recognises that Catholic fundamentalists are nostalgic for the Church's security and power structures of the 1950s. But it was a Church closed in on itself, neglectful of the Gospel mission to a world outside.

He wrote: "I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out in the streets, rather than a Church that is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security."

The church's primary task is to evangelize, not to protect itself from the sufferings of others especially people who are poor and vulnerable.

Axiom 5. Cultivate the difficult art of dialogue, the antidote to fundamentalism.

Francis as a good leader believes in the importance of struggling to dialogue with people who have different views - something that is abhorrent to fundamentalists.

For example, in Cairo, in April 2017, he reached out to Muslims by firmly joining with Muslim leaders in denouncing extremism.

His dialogue is not of an abstract theological kind but a "face-to-face encounter, creating space for the two faiths to start work together in the cause of peace."

He writes: "Confronted with disconcerting episodes of violent fundamentalism, our respect for true followers of Islam should lead us to avoid hateful generalisations, for authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence."[i]

In speaking to young people Francis said: "Today, we adults need you to teach us how to live in diversity, in dialogue, to experience multiculturalism not as a threat but an opportunity."[ii]

But he is realistic. He warns that with most attempted dialogues "we don't listen; we just reload."

Axiom 6. The gift of hope inspires courage to act creatively and courageously in times of chaos.

Francis is a leader inspired by the gift of Gospel hope. Hope is the rare ability to see a different and more positive future in the midst of chaos and to be inspired by the energy to begin to change things.

Hope prevents us from becoming paralyzed by chaos. It stops us from seeking refuge in the false securities of fundamentalism. He says:

To Christians, the future does have a name, and its name is Hope. Feeling hopeful does not mean to be optimistically naïve and ignore the tragedy humanity is facing.

Hope is the virtue of a heart that doesn't dwell on the past, does not simply get by in the present, but is able to see a tomorrow…A single individual is enough for hope to exist, and that individual can be you. And then there will be another ‘you,' and another ‘you,' and it turns into an ‘us'….When there is an ‘us' there begins a revolution" [of tenderness].

As a prophetic leader Francis is physically courageous. Recall, for example, that he declined to ride in an armored car, preferring instead a blue Fiat car, with its windows down, while visiting Cairo in April.

Axiom 7. Ultimately Gospel love calls us to abhor prejudice, discrimination, and hatred no matter where it is found, as it is said: "You shall love the Lord your God…[and] You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Mark 12: 30,31).

Back to Homer of The Simpsons! Boorish he is. But he has one redeeming quality - his vices are controlled and his wounds are healed by his love of his family.

But it is a love that rarely goes beyond his family. However, the Gospel love of Francis extends to all peoples. "Love makes us similar. It creates equality. It breaks down walls. It eliminates distances. God did this with us!"

One final quotation from Francis challenges any would-be fundamentalist in our midst: "A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not the gospel." No more needs to be said.

• Gerald Arbuckle, SM, Ph.D., a Cambridge University graduate in applied cultural anthropology, is internationally known for his expertise in helping Church leaders minister, particularly in Catholic Healthcare, effectively in a postmodern world.
• Image: The Guardian

"It is idolatry, like idolatry of money … We Catholics have some — and not some, many — who believe in the absolute truth and go ahead dirtying the other with calumny, with disinformation, and doing evil."1

We are seeing something close to a global epidemic of fundamentalism. Pope Francis is right: "Fundamentalism is a sickness that is in all religions."

And it strikes at the heart of the common good, because it prevents people from growing as individuals and contributing to the welfare of others.2

Fundamentalism is "a religion of rage."3 Fundamentalists are people who are outraged when they see the world around them disregarding their revered religious values.

They respond in dangerously simplistic but militant ways to fears that they will lose their identity.

They use words, or recourse to the ballot box, or, in extreme instances, bullets and bombs. Those who dare to question them are intolerantly scapegoated as enemies of the truth.

REACTING TO CULTURAL CHAOS
Fundamentalist movements are most active and culturally apparent whenever there are periods in which radical political, social or economic changes cause cultural trauma in a nation as a whole or in smaller institutions or communities.4

These changes threaten to devastate treasured personal and cultural identities and respected moral values. Feelings of bewilderment and frustration result.

People then search for quick explanations of what is happening and ways out of their overwhelming confusion.

The atmosphere is ready for the unsophisticated solutions offered by fundamentalist populist and often demagogic leaders.

For most people, fundamentalism in the modern world has become synonymous with a radical form of Islam. Islamic fundamentalism has replaced communism as the specter plaguing Western minds.

It is a menace that looms ever larger following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington D.C.5 and the more recent terrorist assaults in London, Paris, Brussels, Orlando, Istanbul, Baghdad, Dhaka, Nice and Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray and the ostensible inability of the Western nations to destroy the clandestine and brutal al-Qaeda network and the Islamic State (ISIS).

In the Middle East, Islamic extremists are killing fellow Muslims and persecuting, even murdering, Christians and other minorities. Continue reading

Sources

• Catholic Health Association of the United States; award winning article by Fr Gerald Arbuckle SM Ph.D. He is a cultural anthropologist and author.
• Image: Chafraud Depravitch

Earlier this year he received a lifetime achievement award in Practical Theology from the Broken Bay Institute.

Arbuckle's essay, "Fundamentalism as an Enemy of the Common Good" which was published in Health Progress (Nov-Dec 2016) won first place in the Best Essay Originating with a Magazine or Newsletter: Professional and Special Interest Magazine (Including Clergy and Religious).

The judges comments were: Excellent, well written piece. Valuable citations, provocative, and persuasive.

The Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada has nearly 250 publication members and 500 individual members in the association.

Member print publications reach 10 million households plus countless others through members' websites and social media outlets.

Arbuckle was born and educated in New Zealand. After his ordination he studied philosophy in Rome and then at Cambridge University where he was trained as as social anthropologist.

In the late 1980s he began to apply anthropological insights to religious organizations.

He then concentrated on the challenges confronting faith-based healthcare systems in USA, Canada, and Australia.

He now lives in Australia where he is a consultant to private and public healthcare systems internationally on how best to maintain the original founding values of healthcare.

He is the author of close to 20 books.

Source

• Amazon
• Catholic Press Association
• Catholic Press Association awards 2017
• Image: sm.org.nz

The Australian Institute of Theological Education (BBI) presented a Lifetime Achievement Award in Practical Theology to Dr Gerald Arbuckle.

Arbuckle is an internationally respected theologian and anthropologist.

The presentation took place at the launch of Arbuckle's latest book, Intentional Faith Communities in Catholic Education.

Principals joined with senior leaders from Catholic schools offices for the launch of the book hosted by BBI on Thursday 4 May at the Polding Centre offices of the Archdiocese of Sydney.

The book examines the challenges faced by Catholic schools in Australia in an increasingly secularised society.

It features 24 practical recommendations of direct relevance to Catholic school leaders; ensuring their schools are communities where the faith thrives and is witnessed effectively.

In launching the book, the Headmaster of St Joseph's College, Hunters Hill, Mr Ross Tarlinton said it captures the essence of what it means to be a leader in a Catholic school today.

"There is an enormous responsibility on Catholic school principals to ensure the faith mission of their school permeates all aspects of school life and they can't achieve that goal if they aren't personally committed to living out their own faith as well", Tarlinton explained.

"And if we aren't genuine about that, we are as St Paul reminded us, simply like noisy gongs or clanging symbols".

Copies of the book are available through St Pauls Publications Australia.

Source

bbi.catholic.edu.au

Image: Supplied

"I am personally thrilled by the award; Catholic health and aged care ministries are unique", Fr Arbuckle said in a phone conversation.

"The award acknowledges the emphasis that I and so many others have been giving to two fundamental issues, the values of Jesus Christ, the Good Samaritan, and the maintenance of these values through appropriate formation of staff".

Fr. David Kennerley provincial of the Society of Mary New Zealand, says the province shares Arbuckle's pleasure and the recognition of his professional achievements.

"The award highlights Gerry's ability to reads the signs of the times", Kennerley said in a statement.

"Gerry's life-long commitment to learning, sterling research and belief in the power of Scripture to build up a people who best reflect God's greatest dream is truly inspirational and a wonderful witness to the Marist Charism", he said.

The Maria Cunningham Lifetime Contribution Award takes the name of Sr Maria Cunningham RSC OAM.

For all her working life, Maria Cunningham worked as a nurse, a nurse educator and a leader of Catholic health care ministries.

By giving this award to Arbuckle, Catholic Health Australia acknowledges his lifetime dedication to Catholic health and aged care services in the United States, Canada and Australia.

Catholic Health Australia co-ordinates the largest network of hospitals and aged care facilities in Australia.

Arbuckle began ministry in healthcare with his 1995 address, "Refounding the Mission and Values in Chaotic Times".

Delivered in the United States, the address became the catalyst for an increasing involvement in health ministry and the start of his various roles as a board director, consultant, researcher and author of health sector publications.

Among his extensive list of healthcare publications, Arbuckle wrote three well received books; two receiving international awards

• Healthcare Ministry: Refounding the Mission in Tumultuous Times
• Catholic Identity or Identities? Refounding Ministries in Chaotic Times, and
• Humanizing Healthcare Reforms.

In 2008 the Government of New South Wales appointed Arbuckle to the Independent Panel overseeing the reform of the state's public hospital system and three years later he delivered the Martin D'Arcy SJ, Memorial Lectures at Oxford University on the need to humanize national healthcare reforms.

Source:

• sm.org.nz

In his book Arbuckle argues that a values-based approach would change healthcare and systems and be a much better approach to healthcare than the current financial perspective.

In Humanizing Heathcare Reforms, Arbuckle suggests that without being able to identify clearly the values and goals that unite their members, healthcare organisations are unlikely to be able to meet the demands of the constant and varied pressures they face.

Dr Maria Theresa Ho, Former Associate Professor and Associate Dean, Head of the Medical Program, Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney, Australia, says the message the book conveys is "critically relevant, timely and desperately needed."

The book is described as a much needed, very-accessible book, and as an essential read for anyone interested in a better approach to healthcare reform.

During 2010 Fr. Arbuckle worked at Campion Hall, Oxford University, researching issues confronting the National Health Service in England. In 2011 he gave the Martin D'Arcy Memorial Lectures at Oxford University upon which this book is based.

Those interested can order the book from Amazon.

Source:

• SMNZ
• Image: HPSI

Jesus Christ was the master storyteller. The people connected with his parables because they related to issues of immense personal importance, such as unjust judges, rowdy neighbours, bullying employers, disastrously dry weather. But he always left plenty of room for the imagination of his listeners to make connections. That is why, two thousand years later, his parables can still spark immense interest. People still feel Jesus is talking about them and their problems.

Take the following parable about greed and the misuse of power. It is about a rich man, Dives, and a poverty-stricken Lazarus (Luke 16: 1-31). There is the opening scene. Dives was extravagantly clothed in purple and linen garments. He daily ate excessively on the very best foods. The purple dye of his clothes was reserved only to those who were especially wealthy and powerful, a social class distinguished by its oppression of the poor.

Lazarus, however, was not only an impoverished beggar but he was also covered in weeping sores. Lazarus' sores place him well below even the status of a beggar. Lazarus was socially a non-person. Exhausted and starving, Lazarus had no energy to defend himself against the equally ravenous street dogs. They awaited his death in the hope of relieving their hunger. The storyteller notes that Lazarus lay at the gate of the rich man (v.19). He was so hungry that he had no energy to sit upright which would have given him some chance to chase the dogs away.

In scene two the roles were reversed. The rich man was in hell, "where he is being tormented…[and ] in agony in [its] flames" (vv. 23-24). Lazarus, by contrast, was at peace beside the prophet Abraham (v. 23). The rich man struggled to get things back to his past position of wealth and power by bullying. As someone used to commanding social inferiors, the rich man addressed Abraham in a lordly manner. Lazarus must intercede for him. Abraham refused. The rich man must change his entire life and become committed to justice and solidarity with the oppressed.

Dives still did not get the message. He was so accustomed to having his commands obeyed, because of his wealth and power, that he tried once more to manipulate Abraham into doing what he wanted. Wealth had blinded him to the realities of poverty and his own role in the oppression of the poor. So he pleaded for special treatment for his family: "if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent"(v.30). Abraham sharply refused. He again reminded Dives of the principle of solidarity, that is, all peoples are equal before God. His family had been warned enough. No new sign will bring them to their senses, spiritually blinded by their own self-importance.

As in the time of Jesus, we can make connections with our present world. We know that the rich are getting richer, the poor poorer. On the global scene capitalism is ruling with less and less controls and concern for the common good. Economic rationalism, as it emerged in the 1980s, takes for granted that profit is the sole measure of value and the economics profession serves as its priesthood. Think of the often staggering amounts of payouts to executives of large corporations, especially in times of economic turbulence. Little wonder that people complain that greed, not concern for the equitable distribution of wealth, is outrageously out of control in the senior levels of the business world! The moral of the story of Dives and Lazarus remains relevant. That is the sign of a master storyteller.

_________________________________

Gerald A. Arbuckle, sm, is the author of Laughing with God: Humor, Culture, and Transformation (2008).

5/4/12

This is most unfortunate.

The fact is that there can be no constructive change at all, even in the Church, unless there is some form of dissent. A reasonable degree of diversity and dissent is essential for any organisation, including our Church, if we are to have a future. People who invented motorcars were dissenters. Cars were at first considered to be dangerous and troublesome disturbers of the peace. Imagine what would have happened if they had been effectively marginalized from society. We would today still be riding horses!

By ‘dissent' I mean simply the proposing of alternatives - and a system that is not continuously examining alternatives is not likely to evolve creatively. Open organizations encourage people who propose alternative ways of doing things because they know that organizations age and produce deadwood. New ideas and ways of doing things may guarantee that life and vitality will continue. They are the seedlings out of which the future is born. However, seedlings are very fragile. They can be smothered long before they have had a chance to develop and become vigorous plants.

So also with proposals for alternative ways of thinking and acting.

Organizations, the Church included, are built to administer, maintain and protect from harm that which already exists. In contrast, creative or dissenting people are designed to give birth to that which has never been in existence before. The alternatives they propose are seen as chaotic, something to be vigorously avoided by those taking comfort in the predictable and safe ways of tradition.

We surely need dissenters in the Church today - people who can invent new ways to respond to the pastoral needs of our age. Old methods are simply not working. Bl John Paul II wisely declared that ‘Conformity means death... A loyal opposition is a necessity…What would one say of the practice of silencing those who do not share the same views?' We need, he said, evangelizers who initiate ‘new and bold endeavours.'

Confronted with the possibility of anxieties that new ways can evoke, people usually act to reaffirm an organization's identity, structures, and boundaries. Pressure is placed on individuals to conform. If they do not, the sanctions escalate. It is then that witch-hunts flourish. Inventive dissenters are ignored, condemned simply because they question the status quo.

The Old Testament prophets were truly dissenters. And they suffered for this. King Ahab condemned Elijah as "you troubler of Israel" (1 Kings 18:17). Likewise, the prophet Amos, faced banishment for pointing out pastoral defects of the Israelites. He was labelled a "conspirator." Amos had been reported to the king for naming reality: "the country cannot tolerate his speeches" (Amos 7: 10-17). Jeremiah was branded with the word "treason" (Jer 38:4) for daring to challenge the status quo. Of poor Hosea the people cry: "The prophet is a fool. This man of the spirit is crazy" (Hos 9:7). Israelites wanted the prophets to collude in their refusal to apply values of justice and compassion to the society of their time: "To the seers they say, ‘See nothing! To the prophets, ‘Do not prophesy to us; tells us flattering things; have illusory visions.'" (Isa 30: 10-11).

Yet the prophets do not fail God. They are driven to find ways to bring the covenant's values alive in the world in which they lived.

We desperately need contemporary prophets in the Church, loyal dissenters, who creatively show that the Gospel can come alive in our rapidly changing world. Like their predecessors they will not be discouraged by efforts to marginalize them and be branded with pejorative names.

Gerald A. Arbuckle, sm, an anthropologist, is the author of Refounding the Church: Dissent for Leadership and Violence, Society and the Church: A Cultural Approach.

But Gerald Arbuckle says that the protesters are "neither unrealistic nor impractical." He says they are receiving support from two sources that come from "opposite ends of society."

Read Gerald Arbuckle's Blog.

It is rare these days to hear good news about the global economy. We still fear that another world recession will smother us. We do not trust the banking world. We know that the rich are getting richer, the poor poorer. On the global scene capitalism is ruling with less and less controls and concern for the common good.

But there are two small, but remarkable, signs that people are not giving up hope. And surprisingly they come from opposite ends of society.

The first challenging glimmer of hope is Occupy Wall Street and its many supporting groups around the world. On our television screens we see, for example, occupiers at Zuccotti Park, New York, and groups of people huddled together under small, fragile tents outside St Paul's cathedral, London. In Zuccotti Park people have congregated on an inhospitable concrete space right in the middle of the nation's top financial district. St Paul's is also close to London's financial centre. These people surely are utopian dreamers, dreaming of a society that no longer marginalises the poor and controls the greed of the rich.

It is so easy to dismiss the protesters as impractical and unrealistic. But anyone acquainted with Catholic social thinking recognizes that our principles of social justice conform in no small way with the aspirations of the protesters.

A recent report on what is happening at Zuccotti Park contains some deeply moving incidents. The park certainly attracts the homeless and mentally ill who benefit from the free meals and company. This raises serious questions for the protesters. What should they do? Remove them?

But one spokesperson answered for the rest: "We decided we would not marginalise these people like the rest of society does. I guess, we've created own welfare state, and I mean that in the best sense of the term." She and others have organised for drug counsellors and social workers to offer help for these people. What example! Before we rush to condemn these protesters around the world, let us ask ourselves this question: What are we doing to live out the Gospel imperative to work with people on the margins of society, as many protesters are doing? These people are rightly annoying our conscience.

The second tiny sign of hope is contained in two recent articles in, of all places, The Harvard Business Review. Among a small group of influential thinkers and business people there is a growing recognition that the primary purpose of business is not to make money - the more the better. They believe that in business institutions society and people are not something to be accidentally added to what they are doing, but they should be at the very centre of their concern. They believe that their firms must be more than agents for creating profit. Rather their core mission calls them also to be instruments for achieving societal purposes and for providing significant livelihoods for those who work in them and surrounding society. They are prepared to spend time, talent, and resources on national and community projects in which people are prepared to work together for the common good.

Corporate social responsibility, in brief, is to be integral to all project planning and implementation. This is surely a quiet revolution. Unrestrained capitalism is being turned upside-down - at last! As in the case of Occupy Wall Street movements this revolution in thinking - technically termed "creating shared value" - on the part of some business firms, even major ones - is thoroughly in line with our Catholic social principles.

The authors of the articles give examples of business firms that are beginning to place social responsibility at the heart of their operations, not as something on the periphery: IBM, Nestle, Unilever, Procter & Gamble. But they warn that "our understanding of the potential of shared value is just beginning."

Readers may be interested in reading the articles in The Harvard Business Review: Michael E.Porter, "Creating Shared Value," (January 2011), and Rosabeth Moss Kanter, "How Great Companies Think Differently: Instead of Being Mere Money-Generating Machines, They Combine Financial and Social Logic to Build Enduring Success," (November 2011).

Gerald A. Arbuckle, sm, an anthropologist, and recently a Government appointed member of the Independent Panel to oversee the value-based reform of the NSW public hospital system. He is author of Healthcare Ministry: Refounding the Mission in Tumultuous Times (2000).

Image: Society of Mary New Zealand

Millenarian cults are social movements common throughout history. They proclaim for devoted believers the destructive end of one era and the dramatic coming of another more perfect world.

These movements flourish during periods of social, economic and political chaos. Visions of the Nazi new world order or the Marxist classless society are particularly tragic examples of millenarian movements.

Less well-known are the past and present "cargo cult" movements in Melanesia (i.e. Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu), in the South Pacific. They also are millenarian movements. It is claimed that specified ritual actions and bizarre practices will suddenly and spectacularly bring their adherents a life of bountiful material goods (called locally "cargo") under messianic leadership. Trust the leaders. Ancestors will come from the skies in planes and boats carrying all kinds of Western goods. The "cargo" message of the messianic leaders is: repudiate the past by dramatically destroying crops and houses as the pre-condition for the coming of the "new heaven" of prosperity. Then sit and wait for the ancestors. When the rituals fail there is great despondency, but new leaders emerge claiming that their predecessors did not have the "right rituals". So the cycle of destruction and hollow promises of impressive prosperity begin all over again.

Surely, readers will say, this cannot apply to New Zealand. After all, we are reasonable people. Think again. We have our own modern millenarian cargo cults, especially at election times. For example, the way in which healthcare reforms have been promoted in quite recent times by politicians at election times have sadly followed the "cargo cult" pattern.

Think back to the 1980s. Proposed healthcare reforms were presented in a populist style. People were enthusiastically assured that the "cargo" of better choice, more efficiency, and updated services would arrive. But there were preconditions. Previous political leaders and the wisdom of the founders of our universal healthcare had to be demonised. Politicians promised that if hospitals were conducted as businesses they would be more efficient and profitable at the same time. That is, healthcare had to be measured in money terms. So, for example, locally elected boards had to be destroyed with lightning speed.

You know the results. We voted for the "reforms". The neo-liberal reforms were introduced into the national healthcare system with incredible speed. The consequences? The promised "heaven" never materialised. Chaos in our much-loved health system intensified.

So in the 1990s local control had to be reintroduced, while the lives of thousands of people had been negatively and needlessly affected by the ideologically led reforms. In England, also, today neo-liberal "cargo-cult reform" continues to follow "reform" with breath-taking speed. In the National Health Service since the mid-1980s there has been some significant form of organizational disruption almost annually, due to policy decisions emanating from Whitehall, with the latest dramatic proposed re-structuring in 2010. Each so-called reform promises "heaven-on-earth" to citizens in the healthcare services. Present structures are speedily destroyed, previous politicians are condemned for having foolish policies. The result - rarely is there any improvement in services. In fact, chaos intensifies. The pattern is the same in Australia.

What is the lesson? Beware of politicians who promise immediate and dramatic benefits if they are elected. Beware of politicians who simplistically condemn anything good done by their opposition parties.

There is a German saying that "the wise person has a long ear and a short tongue." How true! Look for the politician who is prepared to listen, respects the dignity of human life. Do not trust the politician who offers dramatically quick benefits and has no regard for true human values of the past and the necessity of sound planning and sustained hard work. Jesus Christ so wisely warned: "Beware of false prophets who come to you disguised as sheep but underneath are ravenous wolves. You will be able to tell them by their fruits…I repeat, you will be able to tell them by their fruits" (Matt 7:15-16, 20).

_________________

Gerald A. Arbuckle, sm, an anthropologist, is the author of Violence, Society, and the Church which further discusses the above theme.

• Image: Society of Mary NZ

Read Gerald's blog below:
The parable of the compassionate Samaritan is a classical example of the teaching of Jesus about our neighbour. Any one who is in need, no matter who they are, is our neighbour (Luke 10: 25-28). To make his point strongly, Jesus tells us that it is a Samaritan, a foreigner and one despised by the Jewish people, who goes to the aid of the dying Jew. Two pillars of Jewish society, the priest and the lawyer, ignore the plight of their fellow countryman.

Moreover, there is another reason why the listeners to the story would have been profoundly shocked that the Samaritan is the unexpected care-giver. He of all people was not expected to be generous and compassionate, simply because he belonged to a class of merchants, namely wine and oil sellers, considered in their business dealings to be shady, if not thoroughly dishonest. Also remarkable, the Samaritan spontaneously shared with the severely injured stranger not from his surplus, but as a trader he gave of his capital - oil, wine, and money. The reason? People in need have a right to share equitably in what God has created.

This parable, told two thousands of years ago, continues to influence people's lives today, even if they profess no religion or know nothing about the story. The story, says Charles Taylor, a leading Canadian philosopher, is one of the original building blocks of our Western civilisation. Chris Marshall, Victoria University, repeats this insight. He writes that "it is hard to think of another story that has been more influential in moulding personal and political virtue."

They are right. The parable became the original founding story of all healthcare services in the Western world. Inspired by the parable permanent charitable institutions first sprang up within a generation or two after the end of the persecution of the Christians in the 4^th century. Christians formed a miniature welfare state in the Roman empire which for the most part lacked social services. Later the monasteries in particular continued to emphasize the fact that compassionate care and hospitality for the marginalized in society is at the very heart of the Christian message. Every stranger in need is a neighbour, the image of God, and to whom the love and compassion of God ought to be demonstrated.

So in recent times we find Barbara Castle, when Health Minister in Britain in the 1970s, stating in parliament that their universal healthcare system "is the nearest thing to the embodiment of the Good Samaritan story that we have in any aspect of our public policy." And our own Michael Joseph Savage, as prime minister of New Zealand, when establishing in 1938 the beginnings of our own universal healthcare system, also recognized that its roots are to be found in the parable: "What is more valuable in our Christianity than to be our brother's keepers in reality?"

Why does this story of compassion have such a lasting impact? Compassion is a value originally founded on kinship obligations, whether natural or symbolic. The Hebrew word is derived from the word for womb, implying the need to feel for others because they are born of the same mother. God is that mother, and we are all children of that womb and must accordingly feel with, and care for, each other as brothers and sisters. Thus the Samaritan feels the inner pain of marginalization that the victim - his brother - is experiencing.

Compassion asserts that there is nothing more urgent than the pain of another person because that other person is profoundly, intimately, deeply connected to us through our common origins as human beings. The more one feels the pain of the other person the more one is anxious to remove the injustices and oppressions that cause that pain. For this reason compassion is a powerfully subversive value, a value that can turn society upside-down. And this is why it had, and continues to have, a lasting impact on our cultures.

As New Zealanders we are proud of our universal healthcare services, with its founding roots in the Good Samaritan story, but we must be ever vigilant. Healthcare is not commodity, to be available only to those who have money. It is a fundamental right. When people on the margins of our society begin to find it difficult to access our healthcare services, then we have grave reasons to be worried. We must relearn the fundamental message of the Good Samaritan story and insist it always be at the heart of our welfare and healthcare services.

_________________________________

Further information on this theme is available in Arbuckle's book: Laughing with God: Humor, Culture, and Transformation (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2008).