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

Nearly 70 percent or about 3 million of the total 4.3 million population of this underdeveloped province are Christians. Around 675,000 are Catholics. Additionally, there are around 90,000 Catholics in West Papua out of a total of 1.1 million inhabitants.

Catholics in Papua live in the dioceses of Jayapura, Timika, Manokwari-Sorong, Agats-Asmat, and the archdiocese of Merauke. Among these five, Jayapura diocese is the oldest.

Over the last several years, especially since Franciscan Bishop Leo Laba Lajar turned 75 four years ago, Catholics in Jayapura diocese have appealed to the Vatican via Indonesian bishops to appoint a native Papuan. A similar appeal came from Timika Catholics after the death of Bishop John Philip Saklil in 2019.

The Vatican recently granted Jayapura's request by appointing Father Yanuarius Theofilus Matopai You, 61, to replace Bishop Ladjar.

Bishop You's appointment is not just good news for Papua Catholics. It elevates their cultural identity that has been underestimated for decades and also shows recognition of the maturity of the faith of local people who embraced Christianity over a century ago.

The Catholic mission in Papua began in 1894 when two Jesuit missionaries arrived in the area now known as Fakfak. Soon, the territory was handed over to Sacred Heart Missionaries (MSC) who in the early 1900s sent a group to work among Papuans. Later, Franciscan missionaries joined them.

In 1949, a more structured Catholic Church began with the establishment of the Prefecture Apostolic of Hollandia, which later became Jayapura diocese.

Not having a local as their bishop was a big concern for Papuans who have lived for decades under the shadow of violence.

Poverty, brutality and discrimination since Papua was annexed nearly 60 years ago forced them to look for some kind of recognition, which was hard to obtain from the Indonesian government.

Their only hope was the Catholic Church. But for many Papuans, the Church was "near yet far."

They felt as if the Indonesian bishops had abandoned them and developed distrust in the hierarchy.

Retired Franciscan Bishop Leo Laba Ladjar (left) of Jayapura Diocese in Indonesia's Papua province announces the name of Father Yanuarius Theofilus Matopai You (right) as his successor

Last year, Catholics in Papua even issued a vote of no confidence in the leadership of the five bishops in Papua and the Indonesian Bishops' Conference in general. They demanded that all bishops in their region be replaced by native Papuans who would know better the geographical, anthropological and social dynamics of Papuan life.

It became a serious issue with disappointment in the Catholic Church having grown sharply.

Now, their wish has come true. But is having a native Papuan bishop the ultimate goal? Is there any difference between having a native and non-native Papuan prelate?

Bishop You may be the first ethnic Papuan bishop but a taste of what it's like to have a "Papuan" bishop came in the form of Bishop John Philip Saklil of Timika. He was appointed by Pope John Paul II when Timika diocese separated from Jayapura.

Bishop Saklil was born in Papua, but since his parents came from Maluku, he was not considered a native bishop.

His siding with the people, even openly opposing Indonesian corporations encroaching in Papuan forests, earned him their love.

Papuans want other bishops in the region to act bravely. Will Bishop You be able to meet people's expectations? Only time will tell.

Catholics in Jayapura diocese recognize the new bishop as someone who has been faithful and committed to serving the people.

Ordained a priest in 1991 after completing four-year training at the Fajar Timur Institute of Philosophy and Theology, where he is currently the president, Bishop You has served Papuan Catholics in different parishes.

Having a doctorate in anthropology from a Papuan university, he is believed to be the right person to assume the role of bishop. He knows the struggle of the people.

This doesn't mean non-native Papuan bishops are not good shepherds.

Papua's situation is more complex than in any other part of the country. Bishop You's appointment narrows the gap between Papua-born Catholics and outsiders.

The appointment of an indigenous Papuan as bishop gives a strong signal that the Universal Church is listening to them. It shows that the Catholic Church recognizes Papua to be part of the Universal Church.

The impact of that is tremendous. Amidst people's helplessness in the face of uncertainty, due to decades of intimidation, discrimination and violence, the Catholic Church hasn't abandoned them.

It's important for Papuans that the Church stands by its people. It's believed that this will help restore people's trust in the clergy.

The presence of native Papuan bishops can rebuild the shattered hopes of Papuan Catholics who feel the dominating presence of people and clergy from outside Papua.

It's certainly not the case that this means Catholics are also pushing for Papua to separate from Indonesia.

They want a native Papuan bishop, not for political purposes nor to support independence. They simply want a Church that is increasingly rooted in Papuan culture.

They just want a leader who understands their situation and life struggles.

Francis made the comments to an online conference on religious life in Latin America.

Urging the religious to renounce the criterion of declining numbers Francis warned that failure to do so "can turn you into fearful disciples, trapped in the past and giving into nostalgia."

"Nostalgia is fundamentally the siren song of religious life," Francis told them.

Religious should focus on evangelization instead and "leave the rest to the Holy Spirit," Francis said.

"I would like to remind you that joy, the highest expression of life in Christ, is the greatest witness we can offer the holy people of God whom we are called to serve and accompany on their pilgrimage toward the encounter with the Father," he said. "Peace, joy, and a sense of humour."

Francis also told them he is saddened by consecrated men and women who have no sense of humour, who take everything so seriously … To be with Jesus is to be joyful," he said.

Pope Francis also warned the conference against misusing liturgy by placing an emphasis on ideology.

He delivered his cautionary advice to the online conference in a video message last Friday.

"Let us not forget that a faith that is not inculturated is not authentic.

"For this reason, I invite you to participate in the process that will provide the true sense of a culture that exists in the soul of the people," Pope Francis says in the video.

"When this inculturation does not take place, Christian life, and even more so the consecrated life, ends up with the oddest and most ridiculous Gnostic tendencies.

"We've seen this, for example, in the misuse of the liturgy [where] what is important is ideology rather than the reality of the people. This is not the Gospel."

Francis's video message was featured at a virtual conference on religious life organized by the Confederation of Latin American and Caribbean Religious (CLAR).

The conference focus was on inculturation.

John Paul II described this concept as the process by which "the Church makes the Gospel incarnate in different cultures and at the same time introduces peoples, together with their cultures, into her own community."

"May the Holy Virgin protect you. She knows all about the encounter, fraternity, patience, and inculturation," he finished.

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Image: Catholic News Agency

Everyone has strong opinions based on years of personal experience.

In the 1960s and '70s, Pope Paul VI implemented revolutionary liturgical reforms laid out by the Second Vatican Council, but after his death in 1978, the Vatican put a stop to the changes.

It is now time for a second phase.

In a previous column, I recommended that the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in Rome update the process by which it considers liturgical questions.

I argued for more transparency and consultation in keeping with the principle of collegiality promoted by Vatican II and the principle of synodality promoted by Pope Francis.

The purpose of a transparent and collegial process is to develop good liturgy that is supported by a consensus within the community.

In this column, I offer my own ideas on improving liturgy as an attempt to get the conversation going, inviting liturgical scholars and others to consider my proposals (transparently and collegially).

Inculturation

The Roman rite was developed in Italy and Western Europe centuries ago. St. John Paul II wrote beautifully about the importance of inculturating Christianity — grounding it in cultures beyond its European base.

The unanswered question is how to carry out inculturation in concrete terms in the liturgy today.

Each bishops' conference needs to be encouraged to gather scholars, poets, musicians, artists and pastors to develop liturgies for their specific cultures.

When liturgy is out of touch with local culture, it becomes boring and dies.

These new liturgies need to be beta-tested before adoption.

Ministry

Bishops' conferences should discuss whether new liturgical ministries are needed and who may be called to perform liturgy.

• Can the work of liturgy be separated from the work of administration?
• Do all liturgical leaders have to be celibate, male, full-time employees?
• Can a deacon or layperson anoint the sick or hear confessions? In an age of declining numbers of priests, such questions must be faced.

Ecumenism

Besides liturgical renewal, Vatican II emphasized improving relations with other Christian churches.

One way to do that is to move our liturgical ceremonies closer together.

Is the Eucharist a sign of the existing unity among churches, or can it also be a means of fostering unity? The former excludes intercommunion; the latter does not.

The church might also allow Catholics' spouses to share Communion if they share our faith in the Eucharist.

In 2015, a Lutheran asked Francis what she should do at Communion when she joins her Catholic husband at Mass.

The pope answered sympathetically, but indicated his reluctance to changing church policy.

He ended by saying, "Talk to the Lord and then go forward."

Many took this to mean the woman should follow her conscience.

Theologically, if a couple is united in the sacrament of matrimony, how can we not allow them to be united at the Eucharist?

Pastorally, the practice of barring the non-Catholic parent from Communion gives the children the impression that the church thinks their parent is a bad person.

Translations

When he headed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, insisted that liturgical texts be translated word for word from the Latin.

Experienced translators and liturgical scholars disagreed, and consider the resulting English translation woefully inadequate.

There was another, better translation done in 1998, which was approved by the English-speaking bishops' conferences but rejected by Rome.

It is more important that the meaning of the text be communicated clearly than that the translation be literal.

There is no reason the hierarchy could not allow priests to use the 1998 translation as an alternative, allowing the priest decide which translation works best in his parish.

This option would be limited to the priest's prayers at Mass, since it would be too confusing to change the people's responses without extensive preparation.

Pre-Vatican II Mass

After the Pauline reforms of the liturgy, it was presumed that the "Tridentine" or Latin Mass would fade away. Bishops were given the authority to suppress it in their dioceses, but some people clung to the old liturgy to the point of schism.

Benedict took away the bishops' authority and mandated that any priest could celebrate the Tridentine Mass whenever he pleased.

It is time to return to bishops the authority over the Tridentine liturgy in their dioceses.

The church needs to be clear that it wants the unreformed liturgy to disappear and will only allow it out of pastoral kindness to older people who do not understand the need for change.

Children and young people should not be allowed to attend such Masses.

Eucharistic prayers

The Eucharistic prayer is sadly given little attention by the faithful or many priests reciting it.

Too many focus exclusively on the consecration of the bread and wine while ignoring the meaning of the prayer.

There are currently 13 approved Eucharistic prayers, though most priests use the shortest, Eucharistic Prayer II.

The Eucharist developed out of the experience of the Last Supper, which was a Passover meal.

As a result, Eucharistic prayers were modelled on the Jewish Passover or Sabbath prayers (Berakah) said by the father of a family at the meal.

They begin by remembering and giving thanks and praise to God for his actions on behalf of his people. For Jews, that begins with creation and includes God's works recounted in the Old Testament.

Like the Passover meal, the Eucharist is a sacrificial meal through which the family is united with God and one another. It is also an opportunity to remember and renew their covenant with God.

We give thanks to God for his actions through history, especially for Jesus' life, death, resurrection and promise to return. Through the Eucharist we renew our covenant with the Father through Christ.

More important than the transformation of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ is the transformation of the community into the body of Christ so we can live out the covenant we have through Christ.

We do not worship Jesus, in this sense; with Jesus we worship the Father and ask to be transformed by the power of the spirit into the body of Christ.

The church needs more and better Eucharistic prayers based on our renewed understanding of the Eucharist.

It would also be nice to have Eucharistic prayers that use more biblical language.

When the Gospel reading is from Luke, the priest could use a Eucharistic prayer evoking the language and theology of Luke. A unique "preface" for each Sunday that picked up themes from the Scripture readings could also tie the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist more closely together.

Other Eucharistic prayers might develop other themes — the church's concern for the poor, or for justice, peace, healing and the environment. All of these new prayers would require beta testing before adoption.

Kiss of peace

Originally, the kiss of peace occurred at the conclusion of the Liturgy of the Word, where it symbolized the agreement of the community to commit itself to what it had heard in the Scriptures.

With proper explanation, it would be a good idea to provide this ancient practice as an optional alternative to its current place before Communion.

Fermentum

After the Lord's Prayer, the priest breaks off a piece of the host and drops it into the cup. In ancient times bishops instead sent this piece, called the "fermentum," to parishes in their dioceses, whose pastors would put it in their chalices as a symbol of communion.

The practice could be revived during Holy Week, when the bishop could send the fermentum from Chrism Mass, in Holy Week, for pastors to drop in their chalices on Holy Thursday or Easter Sunday. On special occasions (perhaps Eucharistic Congresses), the pope could share fermentum with bishops around the world, who would place it in their chalices.

And as ecumenical relations improve, the pope might share the fermentum with the Ecumenical Patriarch or other Christian bishops. Popes have already shared episcopal rings and croziers with non-Catholic bishops; sharing the frementum would be a logical next step.

I doubt I will see many of these reforms in my lifetime, but we need to begin talking about the future of liturgical reform. The conversation will reveal what we think about Christ, the church and our place in the world.

• Thomas Reese SJ is a senior analyst at Religion News Service, and a former columnist at National Catholic Reporter, and a former editor-in-chief of the weekly Catholic magazine America. First published in RNS. Republished with permission.

Now, after a move to New Orleans, he is planning to enter the seminary of the Josephites, an order of brothers and priests who have ministered specifically to the African-American community since 1893. In the meantime, he has devoted himself to developing Black Catholic Messenger, an online publication he co-founded in October 2020.

I spoke with Mr. Tinner Williams about his faith, the Black Catholic Church in the United States and the hope of reviving a proposal for a uniquely African-American way of celebrating the Mass, in light of Pope Francis' recent calls to inculturate the liturgy.

What do you hope people understand about the idea of an African-American rite?

That it has nothing to do with segregation. Recognizing and even creating Black institutions, in America especially, is not segregation.

Segregation was when white people were excluding Black people. Black people creating things for themselves is not segregation.

How do you understand the role and power of inculturation in the Catholic Church? What is the significance of cultural rites?

It shows that the church is truly Catholic, in the sense of being universal, which is evident throughout history.

The diversity of the church is expressed when it says, "We recognize your culture and your culture in fact should be a part of your Catholicism, right down to the way you sing your songs, preach your homilies and overall celebrate and worship Jesus."

There are precedents for it because, as Catholics should know, there are 23 Eastern Catholic churches that do exactly that and that have done so for centuries or even millennia. For that process to continue to occur—there's nothing "un-Catholic" about that.

Why is an African-American rite so important?

We are in some ways a nation within a nation.

We're not completely at home, in my opinion, within America; we were more or less excluded from it for over 500 years, now.

So we're still in that process of trying to figure out: Where do we fit in?

And it seems that the church, especially in America, is still trying to figure out where they're going to let us fit in.

What do you envision for an African-American rite? What might be included in this rite?

Well, it would certainly have a hell of a lot of gospel music.

It might even involve changing some of the propers of the Mass, like the "Hallelujah" and the Kyrie, changing those to a gospel song themselves (which many Black parishes do now).

It will probably involve some dancing. The Zaire rite itself switches the sign of peace and moves it earlier in the Mass, to before the consecration of the gifts.

I've been in some Black parishes here in the U.S. that adopt some of those changes in the Mass, so they're doing a kind of fusion between the gospel Mass and Zaire use.

I imagine those changes might be integrated into an African-American rite. Beyond that, I don't know that I have any particular theories about what a Black Catholic rite would like, but I do know the music would be different, for sure, and the vestments would be particularly Afro-centric—which again, many Black Catholic priests use now, but in an unofficial capacity, I guess.

What would the African-American rite mean to you specifically in your experience?

The Black Catholic rite would personally mean a new chapter, a new era for Black Catholics in America, especially from a clerical perspective.

Priests would have to learn about how to celebrate that rite.

It would become part of the education of becoming a Black Catholic priest, who is going to work with Black Catholic people and Black Catholic parishes; it would change a lot of things for me.

We will probably have seminaries dedicated to priests who are going to serve in those parishes. That's one thing Black Catholics have never had really: a seminary of their own.

It would open the floodgates to all those kinds of institutions and structures within the church that we've kind of been asking for—or needed—for 200 years.

The church has kind of just slammed the door in our face, especially the church in the U.S, so having a rite would fling some of those doors open. Read more

The Mass included traditional Congolese music and the Zaire Use of the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite (Zaire Use).

An inculturated liturgy can teach Catholics to better appreciate the diverse gifts of the Holy Spirit, Francis said on Tuesday.

In the preface to a new book ("Pope Francis and the ‘Roman Missal for the Dioceses of Zaire'", he explained:

"This process ... is an invitation to value the various gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are a treasure for all humanity."

The Zaire Use - which Francis celebrated last year - was formally approved in 1988 for the dioceses of what was then known as the Republic of Zaire (now called the Democratic Republic of the Congo).

It was the only inculturated Eucharistic celebration approved after the Second Vatican Council.

The Zaire Use was developed after a call to adapt the liturgy in "Sacrosanctum concilium," Vatican II's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy.

"One of the main contributions of the Second Vatican Council was precisely that of proposing norms for adapting to the disposition and traditions of various peoples," Francis said on Tuesday.

"The experience of the Congolese rite of the celebration of Mass can serve as an example and model for other cultures."

Francis added his voice to that of Pope St John Paul II, who in 1988 urged the bishops of Congo to complete the Congolese rite by adapting the other sacraments and sacramentals.

Speaking of his new book, Francis said the subtitle, "A Promising Rite for Other Cultures," "indicates the fundamental reason behind this publication: a book that is the testimony of a celebration lived with faith and joy."

Referring to his post-synodal apostolic exhortation "Querida Amazonia," Francis said:

"We can take up into the liturgy many elements proper to the experience of indigenous peoples in their contact with nature, and respect native forms of expression in song, dance, rituals, gestures and symbols.

"The Second Vatican Council called for this effort to inculturate the liturgy among indigenous peoples; over 50 years have passed and we still have far to go along these lines."

The authors' basis for drafting the new book involved "The spiritual and ecclesial significance and the pastoral purpose of the Eucharistic celebration in the Congolese Rite," said Francis.

"The principles of the need for scientific study, adaptation and active participation in the Liturgy, strongly desired by the Council, have guided the authors of this volume.

"This publication, dear brothers and sisters, reminds us that the true protagonist of the Congolese Rite is the People of God who sing and praise God, the God of Jesus Christ who saved us."

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Image: Catholic News Agency

Francis described how upset he became when he heard a snide comment about the feathered headdress worn by an indigenous man at mass on Sunday. Read more

But now there is something new, something that is tilting the balance in favor of the peripheral, the local, and the particular.

You could see it happening in the gentle battle over liturgical space in the run-up to the synod's opening.

On October 4 in the Vatican Gardens and on the following night at a church not far from St Peter's, dozens of indigenous leaders and church workers led offerings and prayers, using objects and forms of worship from the region: a canoe, a mandorla, the image of a pregnant woman, as well as placards of Amazon martrys such as Sr. Dorothy Stang.

It was joyful, generous, and unmistakably Amazonian: the faithful People of God speaking and praying and dancing in their own way.

Yet at the big papal Mass in St Peter's the next morning, Amazonia was all but banished.

If the pope in his zinger homily hadn't invoked the Holy Spirit to "renew the paths of the Church in Amazonia, so that the fire of mission will continue to burn," you would have had no idea the synod was even taking place.

Indigenous leaders sat at the front and brought up the gifts but were silent: there were no intercessions for the region, no readings in an Amerindian language, and almost everything was Italian and solemn.

The center was back in charge.

But not for long.

The next morning the Amazonian people were in St. Peter's Basilica with Pope Francis, along with the canoe and the martyrs and Our Lady of the Amazon.

In a remarkable move, unprecedented at previous synods, the pope processed from the Basilica with the indigenous peoples, in their midst—el pastor con su pueblo—as they joyfully chanted, "The sons and daughters of the Forest, we praise you, Lord."

As they left St. Peter's and crossed the square to the synod hall, I thought of Jeremy Irons in Roland Joffé's film The Mission, the Jesuit who walks with his people into a hail of colonialist bullets.

There had been no shortage of rhetorical bullets in the run-up to the synod:

• superannuated cardinals telling Amazonian Catholics they were heretics for proposing to ordain married men;
• a panel of traditionalists (Cardinal Burke in the front row) claiming the synod would not "civilize the savages" but would instead "make the civilized savages"; and
• an EWTN-owned news outlet reporting that the ceremony in the Vatican Gardens—in which native peoples honored God's creation—was an essentially pagan, pantheistic affair.

In his speech opening the synod, the pope spoke of his pain at overhearing someone at the previous day's Mass mock the feather headdress of the leader who brought the gifts to the altar.

"Tell me," the pope asked the 300-odd participants, "what difference is there between wearing feathers on your head and the three-cornered hat used by some officials in our curial departments?"

In that opening address Francis was clear about where he and the synod would stand.

They would look at the Amazon region with the eyes of disciples and missionaries, respectful of the ancestral wisdom and culture of its peoples, and rejecting any approach that was colonialist, ideological, or exploitative.

They would not try to "discipline" the locals.

For whenever the church has had this mindset, Francis warned, it has failed utterly to evangelize.

The Jesuit pope reminded the synod's participants of the ill-fated sixteenth-century missions of the Jesuits Roberto Di Nobili, SJ, and Matteo Ricci, SJ, whose bold attempts at inculturation, in India and China respectively, were quashed by the pettiness and colonialist mindsets of church leaders at the time.

Without being planted in the local culture, the Gospel cannot take root: "homogenizing centralism," said Francis, is the enemy of "the authenticity of the culture of the peoples."

This synod would go the other way.

"We come to contemplate, to understand, to serve the peoples."

What matters, then, is the people of Amazonia, and especially the 3 million or so indigenous gathered in 390 peoples who, for the first time, are the central concern of a synod.

It is their welfare, their pastoral needs, that are at the heart of this gathering, as well as the natural world to which they are deeply, symbiotically connected.

Both are threatened with destruction as never before.

This life-or-death urgency demands, in turn, that the church examine the nature of its presence, how it can be embedded and inculturated, how it can it stand with, and promote the life of, its peoples in an area where one "regional vicariate" might be the size of half of Italy yet have just a handful of priests.

The issue is one of agency.

The synod is a test of the church's ability to implement the vision of Laudato si' in a region that almost daily dramatizes that encyclical's call to conversion.

Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ—a key drafter of Laudato si' who will also be drawing up the final document on which the synod will vote on October 26—told Commonweal that because "the Amazon region exemplifies the inextricable connection between the social and natural environments, the fate of people there and of their natural surroundings" there could be "no more concrete manner than this [synod] to lift Laudato si' off the page and put it into action."

This is the first ever "territorial" synod. Continue reading

True, the synod will discuss the possibility of ordaining married men because there is a shortage of priests to serve such a huge area, but that will be only one topic discussed.

The synod, which will take place Oct. 6-28, will primarily include bishops from the Amazon region called to Rome by Pope Francis.

Sheer size makes the Amazon important, as it includes Brazil and eight other countries with millions of people over thousands of square miles.

But for Pope Francis, the Amazon is also important because it touches on so many themes of his papacy: concern for the marginalized, evangelization and protection of the environment.

Human exploitation

The indigenous peoples of the Amazon have been the victims of exploitation and genocide for centuries.

They have been considered less than human by European and Latin exploiters, of value only as slave labor and beasts of burden. They have been pushed from their ancestral homes deeper into the jungle. Rape was common. Those who opposed the invaders were murdered.

Nor is this merely history; much of it is still going on as loggers, cattlemen, miners and agribusiness continue to press on indigenous peoples and land.

It is no surprise that the pope, who has made the marginalized a focus of his concern, wants the world to cry out in protest against these atrocities.

Nor is the church innocent in the face of these abuses.

Church looks other way

Although historically a few priests and religious stand out as voices for justice, until recently the church was part of the system that denigrated indigenous cultures and tried to turn the natives into European Christians.

Too often the church looked the other way rather than challenge the exploiters.

Inculturation

Besides defending the human rights of indigenous peoples, the pope wants the synod to look at how Christianity should be adapted to indigenous cultures.

This is quite controversial with Francis' conservative critics. They believe that the European version of Christianity is somehow perfect and pure.

In fact, Christianity adapted itself to European culture in ways that would be unrecognizable to early Jewish Christians.

The Apostles would be shocked by Baroque churches filled with statues and paintings.

The Mass looks little like the Last Supper with Jesus that they commemorated.

European Christians also took Greek philosophy and used it to develop a sophisticated theology to explain Christianity.

It even adapted Roman law and governance structures for its use.

I am not saying that this adaptation was wrong.

European monopoly on Christianity

Christianity was successful in Europe because it did adapt to its culture.

What is wrong is the monopolistic vision of European Christianity that does not allow other cultures to adapt Christianity as it did.

Rather than allowing Christianity to adapt to local cultures, the European church imposed itself like other colonial powers.

An indigenous Christianity

The synod needs to discuss what Christianity should look like in indigenous cultures.

• What should the Mass and other sacraments look like?
• What should the local leadership look like?
• How should the faith be described?
• What in indigenous cultures is an expression of the Spirit and can be part of an indigenous Christianity?

For theological conservatives, this will be the most controversial topic at the synod because they believe that 19th-century European Catholicism is the absolute norm by which everything else must be judged.

They know little about their own history and how Christianity was inculturated in Europe.

Environmental protection

The third key topic of the synod is the protection of the Amazon environment, a topic of critical importance with global warming threatening life as we know it.

This is the topic that will be most controversial with political conservatives and business interests.

The Amazon jungle has been referred to as the lungs of the Earth, but while human lungs change oxygen into carbon dioxide, the rainforest converts CO2 into oxygen.

The use of fire to clear land in the Amazon is not only adding more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, it is also mortally wounding the complex ecosystem capable of reversing the process on a massive scale.

The jungles are also home to innumerable species that will be wiped out when their habitat is gone.

The world is at a tipping point that will determine the lives of people for centuries to come.

Future generations will look back on this generation and curse us if we do not make the sacrifices necessary to preserve our planet and its ecosystem.

The synod will not magically solve these environmental problems, but it will bring them to international attention in a unique way.

I am not optimistic about the future, but for the first time in a long time, I am proud of my church for being on the right side of history.

• Thomas Reese SJ is is a senior analyst at Religion News Service, and a former columnist at National Catholic Reporter, and a former editor-in-chief of the weekly Catholic magazine America. First published in RNS. Republished with permission.

Father Michael Czerny, a Jesuit priest and longtime Vatican official who Pope Francis will make a cardinal a day before the synod opens, recently issued a plea for the Church to realize the urgency of greater attention to the Amazon region and not to be distracted by "contemporary misconceptions and pernicious practices" regarding it.

Czerny, who will serve as a special secretary to the Amazon synod, cautioned that "the social and the natural cannot — and the environmental and the pastoral must not — be separated," — likely as an indirect response to retired German Cardinal Walter Brandmüller who said that the synod's working document is "heretical" and should be rejected.

Brandmüller went on to ask: "What do ecology, economy, and politics have to do with the mandate and mission of the Church?"

"Dangerous compartmentalizations — intellectual and spiritual, economic and political — have put human life in jeopardy on Earth, the common home of humanity," Czerny countered.

Such disagreements are not new, and for nearly four decades the region of the Amazon has been politically contentious and theologically divisive.

But in the lead-up to next month's gathering, a network of far-right groups in Brazil headed by a controversial traditionalist with a long history of opposing Vatican II seems eager to capitalize on next month's events to gain new momentum.

One of the primary hubs of resistance to the October gathering is the Pan-Amazon Synod Watch, which was created by the Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira Institute (IPCO) and its "sister organizations," the right-wing Societies for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP).

Oliveira founded the TFP in 1960 as a bulwark against "communist" influences in society and the Church. Oliveira died in 1995, but he remains a powerful totem among traditionalist Catholics who favor an Ancien Régime view of the Church and a functioning hereditary nobility, primarily in Latin America and parts of Europe.

The organization, which claims to be the "largest coalition of associations in defense of Christian civilization," has long sought to boost its visibility by conducting campaigns that are attractive to a wider number of Catholics, including the America Needs Fatima program in the United States.

The synod on the Amazon is giving it a new campaign with which it hopes to spread its message.

"Based on the solid, two thousand-year doctrine of the Catholic Church as well as serious scientific studies, this site aims to alert all those who are legitimately concerned about the news circulating about the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region, to be held in October 2019 in Rome," states the TFP-sponsored website.

In Rome on the eve of the synod, the organization will host a daylong workshop on "The Truth of the Amazon," led by a number of traditionalist thinkers who are skeptical of the synod's major areas of focus, including the Italian historian Roberto de Mattei, who penned a biography of Oliveria.

The Pan-Amazon Synod Watch website warns that the synod could turn the Church "into a structure-less and essentially ‘tribal' organization, in clear opposition to twenty centuries of Christianity." Continue reading

• Image: Crux

In an interview with La Croix Africa, Father Léonard Santédi (pictured) explains the concept of inculturation.

La Croix Africa: What is inculturation?

Father Léonard Santédi: Inculturation is an encounter between life and the Christian message and culture, understood as a way of living in the world.

In this perspective, the Gospel message encounters a culture, enriches it and transforms it by enabling it to display all its harmonics.

However, in welcoming this message, a culture simultaneously enriches the heritage of the church.

Here, it is also important to note that the Gospel message is always transmitted via a culture. It is not something chemically pure.

On the contrary, it is lived out within a culture without limiting itself to that culture because it is a revealed message that transcends all cultures.

Therefore, the Gospel is always inculturated. The Gospel as we received it in Africa was influenced by Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek as well as Latin culture.

The West added its own vision before it arrived in Africa and Asia. This is why we are able to speak of African or Asian Christianity.

Jesus' message is received on African soil. From this marriage, new fruits develop which enrich the church's heritage.

This new Christianity is not a certified copy of Western Christianity. Continue reading

• Father Léonard Santédi is a professor of theology, a former member of the International Theological Commission and rector of the Catholic University of the Congo in Kinshasa.

He said that they are asking these religious groups to follow the proper channel and liaise with the village headmen.

"New religious and church groups are being set up in villages and they come in with principles and beliefs that have contradicted traditional protocol."

"We have received submissions in which villagers are concerned that more people turn up to do religious works and not so many when the village headman calls for duties to be done," he said.

"In villages today, when the village headmen calls for a meeting, hardly anyone turns up, but when there is a church job to carry out all church members attend."

"But these church members live in the villages and there are more financial levy collected for the churches rather than the vanua."

The issue has emerged in the course of a series of consultation meetings with district representatives.

Source

• fijitimes.com
• Image: i.ytimg.com

Accepting children into family life was a more inclusive process. Traditional Samoan values promoted the protection of children, not the infliction of suffering upon them.

He says when the missionaries arrived in Samoa from Europe, they didn't bring just the gospel.

They also brought their own culture, and biblical interpretations, with them.

The missionaires own world view flavoured the kind of Christainity they preached.

Nove said this discovery opened his eyes, and took him on a journey which challenged many of the old ways he had accepted to be true.

"We all contend with a kind of legacy that is left over from our parents, or from a previous generation," he said.

"My own parents had the best intentions when they smacked me: It was considered the proper way to discipline a child."

"When I entered into parenthood myself, I took that learning with me, and started smacking my own children. But then I learned that there are more and better ways of parenting."

Nove says becoming an adult is a process, rather than an automatic change of attitude.

"I started talking to my children more, and sharing my feelings with them."

"I discovered that parenting can be a classroom in itself.

If we are not prepared to learn from our children, then we are not prepared to give the best mentoring and teaching that we have to give them, ourselves."

Reverend Nove Vailaau is an ordained minister at the Congregation Christian Church in Samoa.

He carries out his ministry in Porirua East, New Zealand.

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• Image:d20umr41za4hgv.cloudfront.net/

It is a revision of the 2005 law of the same name.

When the two laws are placed side by side, the consistent trends, and the new directions to China's religious policy quickly emerge: greater control and regulation.

Religious scholars in Hong Kong and Taiwan say the amendments will tighten state control on both legal and illegal faith groups according to a report on GlobalPlus.

Compared to 2005, the 2016 law:

• increases scrutiny of imported religious materials, particularly of religious news websites,
• makes new mention of religious schools, which are to be regulated in the same manner as other religious institutions.
• There is also fresh attention to financial matters, including banning registered religious groups engaging in certain types of investment and commercial activity.
• Religious charities and non-profit organisations — already subject to a new set of regulations earlier this year — were also mentioned for the first time in the 2016 law.

Ucanews.com reports that Reverend Choy Siu-Kai, Assistant Professor of the Alliance Bible Seminary, said the amendments granted extra powers to monitor and administer religious groups.

"If any religious conflict occurs there is a greater chance of the rights of the religious people and their communities being infringed," he said.

He added that will be more difficult to "enjoy religious freedom as guaranteed by the constitution."

Professor Shih Chien-yu, Secretary General of the Central Asian Studies Association in Taiwan, was also concerned. "It stresses localization, legalization and sinicization," Shih told ucanews.com.

"Simply speaking, the religious policy in China is now to prevent or cut off direct intervention from foreign religious forces and to try and keep religious policy concrete and aligned with the law," he added.

Source

• eastasiaforum.org
• globalpulsemagazine.com
• Image: uchinavisa.com

The 66-year-old curate delights the faithful by dancing the sevillanas - a traditional dance linked to flamenco - in the aisle of the church during mass. Watch Fr Pepe dancing

"He stood for equal opportunity, justice and dignity for every Fijian," said the Prime Minster of Fiji, Voreqe Bainimarama, in his message of condolence.

"Every Fijian joins me in mourning the passing of Archbishop Petero Mataca, the former head of the Roman Catholic Church in Fiji. He was a towering figure in the church and the wider community, serving as the Archbishop of Suva for a remarkable 36 years."

"Archbishop Mataca was a man of great integrity who was always prepared to take a stand for what is right. I came to deeply appreciate his personal qualities when he and I co-chaired the National Council for Building a Better Fiji. We shared a vision of a nation in which a common and equal citizenry work hand in hand for the common good and I deeply valued his commitment and support as we strove to meet that common objective."

"It is sad that Archbishop Mataca did not live to see the first genuine democracy that he so passionately believed in take hold in Fiji after our General Election in September. But when it happens, it will be in large part because of the building blocks he did so much to set in place."

"I will never forget his courage in standing up to the forces of division in Fiji, nor the great moral authority he exercised as Archbishop for the common good. As I mourn his passing, I renew my commitment to achieve Archbishop Mataca's vision for our beloved nation."

"He stood for equal opportunity, justice and dignity for every Fijian. And those are the principles on which a better Fiji is being built."

Dans un communiqué de condoléances, mardi, le Premier ministre Franck Bainimarama a rendu un vibrant hommage à un « homme d'une grande intégrité, toujours prêt à s'engager pour ce qui est juste .

"Pacific Conference of Churches General Secretary, Reverend Francois Pihaatae said Mataca has contributed immensely towards the development of the country and religion"

"Mataca had lived a life dedicated to service of God, and was passionate about social justice and addressing the needs of the under-privileged," he said

Pihaatae said that under his leadership, the Roman Catholic church made significant contributions to national development including the building of 12 secondary schools.

He added Mataca would be remembered for the emphasis he put on localising positions within the local church at a time when Fiji was taking its initial steps as an independent nation.

Acting general secretary of the Methodist Church in Fiji Rev Dr Epineri Vakadewavosa said Mataca "was committed to the ecumenical movement and understood that the journey of searching for visible unity of the Body of Christ was a long road that required a patient and loving heart."

"In the times when the church in Fiji was able to speak with one voice, he was with us. In the times when we could not find our common voice, he held his hand out in friendship." and reconciliation."
Source

• The Jet
• FBC
• The Fiji Times
• NewPad-pacific
• Image: NewsPad-pacific.info

The multi-award winning Lost in Translation, starring Bill Murray and Scarlet Johansson, displays a relationship that unfolds between two Americans - a middle-aged man and a younger woman - when they meet in Japan.

Portrayed against the backdrop of Tokyo's metallic and Perspex landscape, Lost in Translation is the story of two people desperately searching for different things and hoping they can find them in one another.

But they don't, and they are left at the end of the film with a lonely emptiness both had sought to escape. They are ships that pass in the night, never noticing each other apart from what they want from each other. It is the portrayal of a relationship that isn't to be.

Each is saying to the other in their own misguided way: "Look at me!" They do not engage with each other or listen, but instead just seek to attract the notice and attention of the other.

Sometimes I think Catholics are like this couple in the way we engage with God.

My faith, all about me

What we want from our faith is all about ourselves rather than God or the faith community we share.

We can have, as Catholics, just as we do in our ordinary relationships every day, a single-minded focus on our needs, what we have sacrificed, what hurt we have endured or what splendid things we have done in our care or service of others. It's all about me!

And, as a result, we tire of God and we protect ourselves against other people.

We overpower what God or other people might ask or want of us; we maintain a relentless focus on our measured contribution and ourselves; we keep away from anyone or anything that might upset the calm and disciplined world we create and control.

And love passes us by - love of God and love of others.

The death of our faith and our love

As with the two would be lovers who pass as ships in the night, our faith dies and even our love dies for lack of nourishment.

This is the intimately personal level at which we can warp and distort our humanity as well as our Christian faith and all that it holds as a means to grow. It happens almost unconsciously even as we keep telling ourselves we are only doing what seems natural. But we aren't.

Therein lies the ambiguity: apparently good things - loving, serving, believing, worshipping - end up being bad things that distract and destroy.

And there's something else that complicates this surprise even further.

Life: what we put in, and the worlds we inhabit

Life cuts both ways and our lives do not simply amount to what we put into them or do with them, inspired or misguided as the contributions may be.

The worlds we inhabit - families, workplaces, hobbies, interests, friends, what we see and read - also shape who we are and what we become.

Those influences can enhance or distort us - as individuals, communities and nations, as believers and as Catholics.

All of us are parts of cultures that set the terms for how we grow or decline as human beings, as communities, as nations and as a Church. Rendering the Christian message in words, symbols and structures that communicate across cultures is never easy.

What began in Israel two millennia ago was interpreted by Greeks and structured by Romans. Then, 1,500 years after Jesus, all that was challenged when Christianity moved out of its European comfort zone into Asia and then Africa.

In Asia, Christianity got a mixed reception - some were attracted, many repelled it and some sought to exterminate it. The vast majority remained indifferent to what appeared to be a culturally alien import.

Today, the ambiguities of such "culture contact" are no less pressing. The Catholic Church in most parts of Asia is a minority community.

Yet its communities and leaders recognise the need for many adaptations to local customs and practices if the person and message of Jesus is to be intelligible in cultures far removed from anything Jesus and the early Christians could be expected to appreciate.

Framing the gospel message

Framing the message in a language and through symbolism that can be grasped by those not familiar with the Greco-Roman culture that Christianity adopted to explain itself is not all that happens when Christianity localises or "inculturates".

The cultures to which Christianity reaches for language and symbols also transform elements of the message not often anticipated or even consciously recognised.

At times, absorbing a local culture that may be common even to hundreds of millions of people can have the desired effect of sharing the message.

But, often unconsciously, elements of particular cultures can contribute to massive distortions of the Christian message.

Historical examples abound - from popes who ordered torture and executions as ways of defending the Catholic faith to Catholic communities who hated and killed Jews because they allegedly were responsible for killing Jesus.

Some cultural absorption and adaptation is necessary, as is evident in the way Catholics celebrate sacraments. The Passover, the use of water in baptism and the use of oil in several sacraments, are obvious instances of the employment of pre-existing symbolism to express Christian beliefs.

Distorting the Christian message

However, there is the use of cultural and political forms developed from European historical models that are today simply anachronistic, such as the monarchical papacy and the titles used by cardinals and bishops.

And then there are cultural adoptions that are downright sinister and a contradiction of the Gospel, some of them operating in Asia. Many Asian societies have inherited cultural patterns of respect, organisational hierarchy and the allocation of status that come from cultures developed long before the Gospel was preached in them.

Yet, and presumably unconsciously, Catholics, especially clerics, can model patterns of authority and social status that owe more to the native culture than the Gospel. Because Confucian societies may place clerics on a special pedestal as learned and superior beings, the clerics can come to see themselves as authoritative and significant people who don't need to seek out and serve the needy and the humble.

In Buddhist and Hindu cultures, religious people can be seen as "special" and otherworldly rather than engaged in the world of everyone else, with its pains and uncertainties.

Hiding in a status and suffocating the Gospel are easy traps to fall into in any culture unless there is the circuit breaker of an objective look at our behaviour in the light thrown on it by the person and message of Jesus.

Otherwise, hypocrisy reigns. The ambiguity of people who are falsifying the faith that they believe themselves to be the successful embodiment of is not far from the ambiguity of two people who think they're in love with each other but haven't really met.

Michael Kelly SJ is a Jesuit priest and the executive director of UCA News.

Source: UCA News

Image: UCA News

Joseph Walters, a prominent evangelical church leader in Papua New Guinea, says the Speaker did the right thing, and there are many people who support what he did.

He said ,"Papua New Guinea has basically originated from an animistic society and a lot of ancestral worship and those things that we used to pay homage and respect to were unmystically, paganistically-based and that's where our argument is that carvings and statutes and other stuff that people with their hands actually have connotations and connections through the spirit world that are just as painful."

The speaker, Theo Zurenuoc, removed carved panels from the front of the building, despite a call from prime minister, Peter O'Neill, to stop.

The Post Courier reports that he said he will not be sitting down for a discussion with the PNG Council of Churches over the objects that were removed from the Parliament House.

"I do not want to sit with them, it's not necessary,'' he said, adding that this was because some of them had strong beliefs in some cultures that were not appropriate.

Source

• Radio Australia
• Radio New Zealand Intenational
• Post Courier
• Image: PNGBlogs/Rocky Roe

Conference General Secretary Fr Victor Roche is strongly against the opinion of the Speaker that the traditional carvings and decorations in Parliament are elements of cult and demonic practices and are unworthy of a Christian country.

"What's happening to the Parliament building is really ridiculous if true that behind the move are fundamentalist Christians who cannot distinguish between the novelty of the Gospel and what of the past needs to be preserved and treasured at least for collective and historical memory," said Fr Roche.

Source

• PostCourier
• Image: Aso.typad.com

Among the 22 new cardinals receiving a biretta on February 18 from Pope Benedict XVI, 10 hold positions in the Roman Curia. Italians comprise seven of the 22, making them the largest group. Only three are from outside Europe or North America. So this consistory hardly reflects the recent demographic shifts in the Church, or the increasingly important part played by the developing world.

This has prompted the leading Indian theologian, Michael Amaladoss SJ, to reflect on the Church's attitude to multiculturalism in general.

This report first appeared in the Indian Jesuit magazine Jivan.

One of the major concerns about globalization is that, through market forces and media bombardment, one single consumer culture could come to be enforced upon the rest of the world; a culture that emanates from the USA.

It insinuates itself via mass media, technology, communications and the way people dress and feed themselves. It does not concern itself so much with deeper cultural elements such as language, philosophy, literature and ways of living, thinking and relating.

Thankfully, this is still a multicultural world. I was surprised to hear that stated recently by the French Bishops' Conference, as the French are usually exceptionally fierce on matters of national culture. However, a statement from them last October spoke of the end of the West's traditional, distinctive identity, due to waves of immigration.

The desire to impose one culture upon another remains a constant temptation, locally as well as globally. In India there is a dominant culture that seeks to make all others subordinate, which has an impact especially on the Dalits and indigenous peoples. Indeed, some would say that the unity of a nation depends on the unity of its culture; some would like to see total religious homogeneity.

So the defense of multiculturalism and religious pluralism is a necessary and constant duty, and we are pleased that they both receive protection from the Constitution of India, with special measures for the protection of minorities. Read more

Sources

• UCA News
• Image: The Boston Globe