As kindred spirits in Christ, they both knew the grave dangers facing humanity - dangers still staring us in the face. And they wrote and spoke with urgent appeal to a largely blind and deaf world.

In "The Development of Peoples" Pope Paul wrote, "God intended the earth and everything in it for the use of all human beings and peoples. Thus, under the leadership of justice and in the company of charity, created goods should flow fairly to all. …

"All other rights, whatever they may be, including the rights of property and free trade, are to be subordinated to this principle. They should in no way hinder it; in fact, they should actively facilitate its implementation" (No. 22).

Blessed Pope Paul's emphasis on the priority of the common good over profit, free market completion and private ownership of production, led him to condemn these aspects of capitalism that have "given rise to hardships, unjust practices, and fratricidal conflicts that persist to this day" (No. 26).

While that was certainly true in 1967 - 50 years ago when Pope Paul wrote those words - it is even truer today.

According to a post at the Institute for Policy Studies (see: http://bit.ly/2o29Inc), the money handed out last year as bonuses on Wall Street was double the amount made by all U.S. minimum-wage workers combined. The poorest half of the population own 2.5 percent of American wealth, while the top 1 percent owns 35 percent of the wealth.

And globally it's even worse. The poorest half of the earth's population owns 1 percent of the earth's wealth, while the richest 1 percent owns 46 percent of world's wealth.

In response to the tremendous disparity of wealth between rich and poor, Pope Paul declared, "The superfluous goods of wealthier nations ought to be placed at the disposal of poorer nations." He asked world leaders to "set aside part of their military expenditures for a world fund to relieve the needs of impoverished peoples."

With prophetic words Blessed Paul declared, "We cannot approve a debilitating arms race. It is our solemn duty to speak out against them. If only world leaders would listen to us, before it is too late!"

Enter Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Remarkably, just 10 days after Pope Paul's landmark encyclical, Rev. King delivered his like-minded speech "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" (see: http://bit.ly/2nihVXe).

Dr. King lamented the U.S. war on poverty's surrender to the U.S. war in Vietnam. He said America would never make the needed investments to end poverty as long as wars like "Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic, destructive suction tube."

And to those who criticized his linking the evils of racism and poverty with the evils of war he responded, "Have they forgotten that my ministry is in obedience to the one who loved his enemies so fully that he died for them? What can I say to the Vietcong or Castro or to Mao as a faithful minister of this one? Can I threaten them with death or must I not share with them my life?"

Good Friday lessons that lead to Easter joy, from two kindred spirits.

• Tony Magliano is an internationally syndicated social justice and peace columnist. He is available to speak at diocesan or parish gatherings about Catholic social teaching. Tony can be reached at tmag@zoominternet.net

It must continue in the world and in the Catholic Church, a US bishop, Edward K. Braxton, told participants at a Vatican conference.

" The racial divide in the United States and, sadly, in the Catholic Church in the United States is not something of the past. It is very much something of the present," he said. Read more

On Friday, Francis gave a thunderous speech after accepting the prestigious German Charlemagne Prize, which is for "services of Western European understanding and work for the community".

The Pontiff criticised a "resignation and weariness that do not belong to the soul of Europe".

He asked of Europe three times "What has happened to you"?

Echoing the famous "I have a dream" speech by US civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Francis offered his vision of Europe.

"I dream of a Europe where being a migrant is not a crime but a summons to greater commitment on behalf of the dignity of every human being," Francis said.

"I dream of a Europe that promotes and protects the rights of everyone, without neglecting its duties towards all," he continued later.

"I dream of a Europe of which it will not be said that its commitment to human rights was its last utopia."

The Pope said this at a ceremony attended by Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

In his speech, Pope Francis urged Europeans to undergo a "memory transfusion", citing a phrase by Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, to remember Europe's fractured past when confronting issues that threaten again to divide it.

The Pope urged the birth of a "new humanism" based on capacities to integrate, dialogue, and generate.

He strongly condemned current calls for uniformity, or arguing against integration of new ideas or peoples.

He also said youth unemployment was sapping the continent of its dynamism, and he called for new economic models that are "more inclusive and equitable".

Francis urged European leaders to reject calls for re-nationalisation, to remember the devastating history that preceded their unification, and to "build bridges and tear down walls" in the face of the continuing migrant crisis.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Associated Press
• Zenit (Text of the Pope's address)
• Image: Zenit

Among other eras in history, he considers the prime of classical Athens, when he could have enjoyed the company of luminaries "around the Parthenon as they discussed the great and eternal issues of reality," along with "the great heyday of the Roman Empire."

These considerations of ancient Greece and Rome, in what would be King's final speech, speak to his close engagement with the Classics throughout his writings.

As one whose courses consider how classical ideas have contributed to public dialogue in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, I want to address here two particular points of contact with ancient Greece that loom large in King's thinking and teaching: King's advocacy of the Greek concept of agape, transcendent love for others, is critical to his message; and his embrace of Socrates as a model of civil disobedience, is revealing of his method.

More than "love"
At the core of King's social teaching lies the necessity for human beings to embrace an all-encompassing love for one another.

But the English word "love," with its abundance of associations, was too imprecise for what he wanted to convey. In order to express more clearly the type of transcendent love for humanity he was advocating, King turned frequently in his speeches to the ancient Greek he had studied at Crozer Theological Seminary and Boston University.

Building on the work of contemporary theologians - the American Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969), the Swede Anders Nygren (1890-1978) and the German Paul Tillich (1886-1965) - King underscored the distinctions between the Greek words eros (romantic love), philia (the love of personal friendship) and agape. Continue reading

Sources

• ABC Religion & Ethics. The article is by Timothy Joseph, an Associate Professor and the Chair of the Department of Classics at the College of the Holy Cross.
• Image: Unheard Voices

The Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College in Atlanta honoured Gülen with its 2015 Gandhi King Ikeda Peace Award.

The award was made in recognition of Gülen's "life-long dedication to promoting peace and human rights".

Past recipients of this award include Nobel laureates Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu and Mikhail Gorbachev, as well as Rosa Parks.

Representatives of the chapel, which has presented the award since 2001, say the award is designed to promote the importance of positive social transformation by honouring "those who demonstrate extraordinary global leadership toward reconciling differences".

Continue reading

Aretha Franklin, poet Nikki Giovanni and President Barack Obama were among those who attended the more than four-hour ceremony. King's children and other leaders spoke before the president, invoking his "I Have a Dream" speech and calling upon a new generation to help fully realize that dream.

The crowd, some of whom came out as early as 5am (10am Sunday, NZ time), included people of all ages and races. Some women wore large Sunday hats for the occasion.

The president arrived late morning with his wife and two daughters, which drew loud cheers from those watching his entrance on large screens.

Cherry Hawkins travelled from Houston with her cousins and arrived at 6am to be part of the dedication. They postponed earlier plans to attend the August dedication, which was postponed because of Hurricane Irene.

"I wanted to do this for my kids and grandkids," Hawkins said. She expects the memorial will be in their history books someday. "They can say, 'Oh, my granny did that.'"

Hawkins, her cousin DeAndrea Cooper and Cooper's daughter Brittani Jones, 23, visited the King Memorial on Saturday after joining a march with the Rev. Al Sharpton to urge Congress to pass a jobs bill.

"You see his face in the memorial, and it's kind of an emotional moment," Cooper said. "It's beautiful. They did a wonderful job."

Actress Cicely Tyson said her contemporaries are passing the torch to a new generation and passed the microphone to 12-year-old Amandla Stenberg. The girl recalled learning about the civil rights movement in school and named four young girls killed in a 1963 church bombing in Birmingham, Ala.

"As Dr King said at their funeral, 'They didn't live long lives, but they lived meaningful lives,'" Amandla said. "I plan to live a meaningful life, too."

About 1.5 million people are estimated to have visited the 10-metre-tall statue of King and the granite walls where 14 of his quotations are carved in stone. The memorial is the first on the National Mall honouring a black leader.

• Read more: www.stuff.co.nz
• Image: Bakersfield Now