Newspaper Page Text
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PAGE 5-May 29, 1975
Ecumenical
Reconciliation: The Unbeliever
BY REV. JOHN J. CONSIDINE, M.M.
(Father John ./. Considine, M.M., is the editor of the
“Bulletin of Research and Planning Department,
Maryknoll, New York. He is founder of Fides
International Service, an information and research unit
of the Holy See. In 1960, Maryknoll loaned Father
Considine to organize and direct the Latin America
Bureau of the National Catholic Welfare Conference in
Washington which, among other responsibilities,
directs the Papal Volunteers for Latin America. He is
the author of many books, among them,
“Fundamental Catholic Teaching on the Human
Race,” Maryknoll Publications, 1961, and “The
Missionary’s Role in Socioeconomic Betterment,”
Newman Press, 1960).
“There is nothing in the world that I would
like more to do, dear Uncle, than work with
you among the Frizians.”
The date was the eighth century. The place
was Winborne Monastery in Anglo Saxon
England. The writer was Sister Lioba (now
Saint Lioba) niece of St. Boniface, the first to
answer her uncle’s call for religious volunteers
to work among the tribes of what now is a
portion of southern Germany. Among scores of
women missionaries, Sister was laboring for the
tribes when Boniface with an axe destroyed the
sacred oak of the Frizians and was likewise in
the field when the Frizians finally martyred the
firey missionary who today is patron of
Germany.
To more or less degree, choice souls in every
century have answered Christ’s plea that the
believers go to the unbelievers. In our latest
head count (Catholic Almanac 1975) the
foreign born and native born men in mission
lands (prelates, priests, and Brothers) total
74,307 plus the similarly foreign and native
bom religious women who toal 214,207. This
provides us with a final total approximate of
288,415, an all-time high.
Today a somber cast hangs over both
Catholic and Protestant world missions in the
presumably complete destruction of Christian
hopes in China, the world’s largest nation of
750,000,000.
To a less degree, the spread of economic and
political imperialism in Western Europe has
shown this area its full vigor of a
self-supporting, self-governing and
self-propagating Christian program.
In our own land we have experienced a
period of spiritual tepidity which promises to
right itself by the 1980’s,yet which meanwhile
has slowed the full-hearted spirit of sacrifice
which is demanded for life-long dedication to
the world apostolate. However, “there’s
nothing to fear but fear,” nothing to dissolve
this fear like keeping eyes and heart on the
wide horizons of the world. In the face of a
slow-down there have been reassuring gains.
The Growing Up of Africa: As consoling in
Church growth as any area of the globe in this
period is the continent of Africa. The African
continent with 42,000,000 Catholics is as
deeply alive to economic, cultural, religious and
political evolution as any area on the globe.
Zaire, the former Belgian Congo, is an
example. It is ruled by an African Catholic who
respects the heavily Catholic populace in his
nation but who comes down with a hard hand
on any liberties taken by the Catholic hierarchy
that hark back to olden days. More than 40
African bishops are headed by an African
cardinal. On one occasion the President
required the Cardinal (a boyhood friend) to go
into exile for a period for his “impertinences.”
The President of Nigeria, a vital nation
counting a fifth of Africa’s population, is a
Moslem. He is not hostile to his 3,500,000
Catholic citizenship. Yet recently, when a
sector of his realm engaged in armed rebellion
upon the subdual of the revolt, he ordered
some 300 Catholic missionaries out of the
country for siding with the rebellion. He has
henceforth refused entrance to badly needed
Catholic missioners.
An indication of the prestige earned by the
Church in Africa is the selection of two African
archbishops as major officers in Rome’s Sacred
Congregation of Evangelization.
Horizons of Eurasia: Curiously, Christian life
in Eurasia, both Catholic and Protestant, faces
two formidably active competitors for souls. In
the first instance it is the Moslem and in the
second the Communist.
In the first instance the Moslem may be
respected for his deep spiritual discipline,
though we regret his active hostility toward all
other faiths. In the second instance we face the
Communist with, far more important, the
Communist’s brutal hostility toward everything
spiritual. Since Communism’s first great
explosion of 1917, its world center flourishes in
Russia: the union of 15 Soviet Socialist
Republics which stretch from the Baltic to the
Pacific with Moscow the capital. In recent years
more and more good souls, forced in fear into
the Red ranks, have become disillusioned in
their adherence.
/
Witchdoctors Are Not Forever
< —
BY REV. A.J. CONINX, W.F.
(Father Anthony J. Coninx, W.F., of Belgian
nationality, is a member of the White Fathers of
Africa. Ordained a priest in Canada in 1960, he
worked for five years as a missionary in Zambia,
Central Africa. He is the editor of Missionaries of
Africa Report and heads the Direct Mail Fund Raising
Program of the White Fathers in the United States.)
During one of my first safaris in Africa, I sat
around the fire in the evening listening to some
elderly tribesmen talk about falling stars. They
believed that each falling star streaking across
the sky contained the spirit of an ancestor. “It
comes from far away to kill someone in our
villages,” one said, and the circle of solemn
faces nodded gravely.
Not only was I eager to enlighten them, I felt
it was my missionary duty to do so. But
although I spent long evenings in discussion
with them, I failed to convince them that
falling stars are merely pieces of rock which
bum to ashes in the atmosphere.
“Ah, you Basungu are very clever in many
ways,” one of the ancient ones said, resting his
hand on my shoulder as if he were consoling a
son. “You put pieces of iron together and make
a car run all by itself. You make machines
which fly above the clouds, but as for
understanding the power of the spirits in our
world . . . well, perhaps one day if you stay
long enough with us you too will feel the
BY REV. SIMON E. SMITH, S.J.
(Father Simon E. Smith, S.J., as executive secretary
of Jesuit Missions, is coordinator of the mission
activities of more than 1,000 United States and
Canadian Jesuits serving in local churches in over 50
foreign countries. He was associate dean of Weston
School of Theology in Cambridge, Mass, and co-editor
of “New Testament Abstracts” for many years before
becoming director of International Ministries for the
New England Jesuits. He has served on the missions in
Baghdad, Irag, and holds graduate degrees from
Weston School of Theology and Harvard Divinity
School. He has published in several theological and
mission journals.)
Something big has happened in the Church’s
thinking about its missionary role.
P? simplistic definition of the missionary’s
role was: Go out and preach the Gospel to the
pagans, baptize them, catechize their souls and
bring them whatever possible of culture and
civilization. But no single modem mission” fits
that description.
A profound indication of the change that has
taken place in our thinking is that this very
article on ecumenical reconciliation with
unbelievers is itself under the overall heading of
“reconciliation,” not evangilization.
A modern missionary approaches
“unbelievers” not with a desire to root out
their evil beliefs, to impose his own forms of
Christian belief and practice, but rather with a
desire first to learn and to make his own the
beauty, depth and sensitivity of belief in (bd
already present in Islam, or Buddhism or
Hinduism or whatever.
If Christ, the Church and Christianity are the
fulfillment of non-Christian religions (as
Vatican II teaches), it follows that Christ, the
Church and Christianity are already somehow
present in them. Hence, the first function of a
missionary is discovery of the Christ already
present and somehow incarnate in another
culture, but maybe not immediately discernible
to the foreigner.
The missionary’s first priority is sensitivity to
the values in the culture he comes to encounter
and with which he seeks reconciliation. Matteo
Ricci in China and Roberto de Nobili in India
are justly vaunted as examples of genuine
cross-cultural sensitivity.
presence and power of the spirits and you will
need our witchdoctors to protect you from
them.”
Thus do cultures meet - Africa and the West
-- around the glowing embers of a fire under a
sky full of threatening “ghosts.”
And such exchanges of opinions are far from
fruitless. Through them, the missionary gets to
know and respect his people. He begins to
understand the enormous differences in
backgrounds and traditions, and to realize the
up-hill struggle some people must go through to
catch up with the 20th century, But what does
he accomplish?
For example, friends often ask me: “Are you
getting any results from your missionary work
in Africa?”
A simple question that is difficult to answer.
The first difficulty is the size of Africa. It’s a
continent of 355 million people who live in 49
countries, 16 of which are among the poorest
nations in the world. Political, social and
economic conditions vary greatly from North
to South and from East to West. So do
problems and achievements.
What are the results then in a missionary
sense? The key one, in my opinion, is this: The
Today, we realize that the suffering of most
“unbelievers” is not purely spiritual (ignorance
of Jesus, darkness of paganism), nor even
personal and physical (disease, poverty,
hunger), but something far more massive and
overwhelming: oppression, alienation,
victimization.
The poverty which characterizes so much of
the Third World where most of today’s
“unbelievers” live is itself the result partially of
social structures, like exploitative trade
relations and an unjust international economic
order.
The realization by missionaries, bishops of
Third World churches (like Helder Camara) and
religious leaders in general (like Pedro Arrupe)
that poverty is a bigger obstacle to conversion
than many of us in the Western world realize,
has led the Synod of Bishops to declare that
“action on behalf of justice and participation in
the transformation of the world fully appear to
us as a constitutive dimension of the preaching
of the Gospel.”
In other words, if we are to really bring
Christianity to the “unbelievers,” we must be a
part of combatting the evil structures which
cause their suffering. Our actions are more
eloquent than rhetoric alone.
We in the United States and European
Christians, for the most part, live comfortably.
Actually, we have an overabundance of nearly
everything. The “unbelievers” in India, say, or
Uganda, or South Africa, or Korea or China see
us primarily as affluent peoples - affluent way
beyond our needs - who are responsible for
their misery because we do not share enough
with them.
It is, therefore, our responsibility to truly
practice our Christianity by cooperating with
the goals of the Church to bring about a more
equal distribution throughout the world. We do
not have to go out into the missions to be a
part of them. We can make our own personal
contribution by supporting political issues that
will result in a genuine sharing. Until that
happens - and it actually is happening, albeit
gradually -- the whole question of ecumenical
reconciliation with unbelievers remains
academic.
But Christ, the Church and Christianity are
more than academic . . .
African Church has come of age; she is vigorous
and alive, ready to give as much - if not more -
than she received from Christians coming from
outside of Africa.
There are now more than 42 million
Catholics in Africa, about 4,600 African priests
and 154 African bishops. The Church has been
implanted; the Gospel is being preached - and
it is being preached increasingly by Africans.
Certainly, missionaries have undergone some
severe hardships in Africa. They were the
necessary pioneers, and then the willing
crutches on which the new Church could lean.
But when more and more African nations
became independent, self-important and
stronger, missionaries were looked upon as
reminders of the nations’ colonial past.
African Church leaders today, however, are
looking upon missionaries as necessary bridge
builders, representatives of older churches that
are linking Christian communities in all parts of
the world.
This is a good sign, because missionaries once
again are being esteemed for their concern for
souls -- not only for their expertise in the social
and welfare fields. The bishops of East Africa
made this clear in their “Special Message to
Missionaries” in December 1974: “A new
missionary era has begun,” they said. “A new
missionary spirit has been initiated between the
older and younger churches. It consists in
fraternal give-and-take.”
And speaking of the continuous need for
missionaries, Bishop Patrick Kalilombe of
Lilongwe, Malawi, said: “Even if there were
enough local people to evangelize an area, it
would not be our ideal to say that missionaries
therefore are not wanted. Evangelization should
always be between churches. We should not
make the mistake of confusing self-sufficiency
with isolation.”
Yes, the elderly tribesman around that fire
were wrong about the spirits in falling stars.
And missionaries, by preaching the Word, do
help free the people from the tyranny of
superstition.
Witchdoctors are not forever!
I
KNOW
YOUR
FAITH
(All Articles On This Page
Copyrighted 1975 by N.C. News Service)
A Shift in Focus
As to the Moslem, Pope Paul on the occasion
of Vatican II made strong overtures to friendly
communion. In the early 20th century much
savagery took place between Moslem and
Eastern Christians.
The discovery of oil in Arabia will bring
important changes among Moslems. The classic
Moslem world is a solid block of nations on the
shores of Africa from Egypt through to the
Atlantic and in Western Asia from Iraq to
Pakistan with the desertic Arabian Peninsula in
between. How will the minority of Eastern Rite
Christians fare in this oil change?
More directly affecting Christians was the
Westward march of the Moslem in centuries
gone by. They reached the southern tip of the
Philippines just as the Spaniards reached the
northern tip. Their Filipino colony gives grief
today to the Christian Filipino government. At
a world congress on the Malay Peninsula in
1974, the Moslems sharply condemned the
Filipinos for maltreatment of their brethren.
Manila immediately acted solicitously.
Christianity in the huge continent of Asia
continues with miniscule dimensions. Yet zeal
and hope prevail. India, Sri Lanka, Japan,
Taiwan, Korea inch ahead. Oddly enough, the
most densely Catholic area is the Flores
Archipelago, shared by Indonesia and Portugal.
Far off Asia’s major highways three quarters of
a million Christians thrive and increase.
The America: Our U.S. and European
Churches may take pride in their solicitude
toward genuine missionary territories
throughout Central and South America. Added
to contributing toward lack of clergy and
Sisters to fill basic custodial responsibilities is
the difficult task of huge numbers of forest
Indians. Bolivia, as an instance, is officially a
Spanish language nation while only 40 percent
of the populace speak Spanish.
Christ Two Millenia Later: As we approach
within 25 years of the 2000th year since the
birth of Christy we may note that almost a
billion of the world’s estimated 3,789,000,000
dwellers follow Christ by various pathways:
Catholics 552,000,000
Protestants 325,000,000
Orthodox 92,000,000
969,000,000
“EVEN IF THERE WERE ENOUGH
local people to evangelize an area, it
would not be our ideal to say that
missionaries therefore are not
wanted . . . We should not make the
mistake of confusing self-sufficiency
with isolation.” In Papua, New Guinea,
Father Peter Miria is ordained in a
ceremony celebrating his ties to the
local culture. (NC Photo by The
Advocate, Melbourne, Australia)
Truth Through Dialogue
BY REV FREDERICK McGUIRE, C M.
Back in 1946 the Chinese people were
struggling to recover from eight years of
devastating war. In the north the fighting
continued between the armies of Chiang Kai
Shek and Mao Tse Tung. As a nation they were
financially bankrupt. Food, clothing and
medicines were in short supply. In an effort to
alleviate some of the suffering endured by
millions, the Churches organized a vast relief
effort. Shanghai was the center for this activity.
United China Relief, Church World Service,
Friends Service Committee, Catholic Welfare
Committee representing Catholic Relief
Services, Church of the Brethren, Lutheran
Service Committee and several more voluntary
agencies were serving the needy regardless of
religious belief or unbelief. The better to
coordinate their efforts, they formed the China
Relief Agencies Coordinating Committee. They
pooled their resources and distribution was
handled by the agency best equiped for the
task.
Prior to World War II there was antagonism,
suspicion and jealousy among the various
Christian denominations. The agony of the war,
to a large extent, was responsible for
eliminating all of this. With death hovering
overhead the pettiness of denominational
differences was buried.
Almost 20 years after these Shanghai
happenings: Vatican Council II addressed itself
to the question of ecumenism among Christians
and the relationships between Christians and
non-Christians. In a foot-note on page 662 of
“The Documents of Vatican II” we find these
words: “Through centuries missionaries often
adopted the attitude that non-Christian
religions were simply the work of Satan and the
missionaries’ task was to convert from error to
knowledge of the truth. This Declaration
(Non-Christian) marks an authoritative change
in approach. Now, for the first time, there is
recognition of other religions as entities with
which the Church can and should enter into
dialogue.”
The missionary of 40 years ago had earnestly
desired to share the Good News with the
non-Christian nations. But I believe he had too
little knowledge of the religious instincts of
those to whom he preached. Moreover, he
frequently looked upon non-Christian religious
practices as works of the devil. There was no
such a thing as dialogue.
There was also a great hesitancy to permit
the newly converted to study for the
priesthood. It was not until 1926 that Chinese
priests were welcomed into the episcopacy. In
1949 a French priest who had spent 40
consecutive years in China told me that no
Chinese priest was worthy of ordination as a
Bishop. Somehow or other, the whole point in
Jesus Christ’s life and death seems to have been
missed. Loudly we proclaimed that He died
that ALL men might be saved. We tended to
forget, however, that all Christians, - Protestant,
Orthodox and Catholic - number less than one
billion in a world population racing toward four
billion. Are those three billion men, women and
children outside the saving mercy of God?
Surely not. But they have a right to hear the
word of God and we who, through no merit of
our own, have received the followers of the
truth, have an obligation to provide them with
the opportunity to hear.
No one will ever know how much harm has
been done by the scandal of Christian disunity.
In our approach to the non-Christian peoples of
our world, there must be a true spirit of
ecumenism. More than this, we must exercise
true humility and accept dialogue as our
methodology.
Let us remember well these words from the
Decree on Ecumenism: “Before the whole
world, let all Christians profess their faith in
God, one and three, in the incarnate Son of
God, our Redeemer and Lord. United in their
efforts, and with mutual respect, let them bear
witness to our common hope, which does not
play us false. Since in our times cooperation in
social matters is very widely practiced, all men
without exception are summoned to united
effort. Those who believe in God have a
stronger summons, but the strongest claims are
laid on Christians, since they have been sealed
with the name of Christ.”
(Father Frederick A. McGuire, C.M. is the
development director of CARA in WAshington, D.C.
He was formerly the director of the Division for Latin
America at the United States Catholic Conference.
Father McGuire has published in numerous scholarly
journals as well as popular Catholic magazines.)