Meanwhile in China, there’s trouble at the internet café
May 16, 5:20 pmPosted by Jie Zi
I am a Catholic and an internet café owner in China.
More than a decade ago, I agreed with the widespread view that running an internet café was close to criminality. But now that it’s more common to have a computer than a TV set at home, my mindset has changed.
I run it purely to earn my living. I believe that, as long as I hold on to my principles – don’t allow kids in, exhort those internet addicts who come day and night to go home and rest, give occasional help to people who are jobless, broke or homeless – I’ve done my bit as a Catholic.
I used to run a fashion shop. Everyone thought it was a nice job, but I didn’t earn nearly enough and, for one reason and another, I decide to close it. It was by chance that I opened the internet café next.
It has given me a stable income, enough to pay my child’s expensive school fees and insurance. Gradually, I’ve also paid back old debts. Although it’s not a job I like much, it has given me income and flexibility with my time.
There were only six computers for a long time after I started it. But recently, I renovated the shop and put the number of computers up to 15, hoping to earn some more money for a good education of my child.
In our culture, parents prefer not to have their children studying in local schools. People who are better off will pay to send them to better schools elsewhere. I was thinking I might be able to do that too.
But less than a month after the expansion, the Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai was kicked out of the political arena.
Right across the country, the atmosphere abruptly grew tense; there were crackdowns across each and every business. Illegal internet cafés – which are often seen as hotbeds of juvenile delinquencies – became a major target.
My dream of earning big money was over.
In the face of this “clean-up” operation, along with several other operators, I started to play hide and seek with the government officers. We found that people appreciated us as “revolutionaries” and were willing to help us in our “guerilla war,” in which we evacuated when the “enemy” approached and returned when the “enemy” left.
Our shops were closed in the day, with the computers hidden away. At night we brought them back and did business as usual. When anyone heard any sign of trouble, the other café owners would be alerted.
Our “enemy” was not stupid though. They were motivated by monetary reward. The more cafés they closed, the more money they earned, so they started staging raids even in the middle of the night. There was a sudden boom in sales of second-hand computers, all of them confiscated.
I always thought our officers were only effective in their combat with illegal gambling. Now I know that when there are rewards in other areas, they are every bit as efficient. Strangely reassuring!
Now I dare not open my shop, even at night, as so many have been closed and their owners arrested. If a café has an income exceeding 50,000 yuan (US$7,900), the owner will be arrested on criminal charges.
So we’re taking this as a sign of the times and we’re certainly not going to try to swim against the tide. We just call a halt and wait until it blows over.
Some people would argue that black is black, white is white and because we’re not licensed, we’re in the wrong. I would certainly like to be white! Some of us have even talked about pooling money to run a properly licensed internet café. But it’s so difficult.
Applying for that business license costs around 400,000 yuan (US$63,000.) In China, there are many mysterious people in various equally mysterious government departments. They are like statues of Buddha that you have to appease by “paying homage.” Even then, you need a strong back-up and good guanxi – relations – to be confident you’ll be granted a license.
Including the investment in the computers and renting the shop, you probably need a million yuan to open an internet café. And if you had this one million, why would you open an internet café with it? There are lots of other things I’d rather do with that sort of money.
Meanwhile,“Operation Black Café” is still in full spate. Will my dream ever come true?
What do you think of this? Please share your comments.
Which Asian cardinal has the most clout?
May 16, 3:35 pmOver the course of three blog posts, Alessandro Speciale talks you through the presence and authority that Asia’s cardinals have in the Vatican.
That Asia’s voice doesn’t carry much weight in the Vatican is probably something that readers of ucanews.com already suspect. But maybe not so many people outside Rome know that there are factual ways to measure influence in the Sacri Palazzi – and thus verify if this suspicion is actually grounded in reality.
Generally, the most common meter of clout in the Curia is to look at memberships of the various Vatican departments; here you will find the names of the Pope-appointed cardinals and bishops who participate in the Congregations’ and Pontifical Councils’ meetings and decisions. Of these departments, Congregations are usually considered most important, especially for Church governance – with those for the Doctrine of the Faith ranked number one, then Bishops and Propaganda Fide, who are tasked with selecting bishops, immediately after that. With exceptions, Councils are sometimes looked on as more ‘lightweight’ departments.
In these posts, I will look at how Asia is represented in those departments. Let’s start with a look at cardinals who are members of Congregations.
A quick scan of the Annuario Pontificio – the Holy See’s yearbook – shows that there are two Asian cardinals (out of a couple of dozen) in the fundamental Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, responsible for all doctrine-related issues as well as sex abuse cases and other key discipline matters. They are cardinals Dias and Alencherry, both from India.
But there are several Vatican Congregations – those for Bishops, Saints, Clergy and Religious, plus the Segnatura Apostolica AKA the Vatican’s ‘Supreme Court’ – where there are no Asian cardinal members at all. This is understandable for the Congregation for the Bishops, as most of Asia is still considered missionary territory, so it is Propaganda Fide who manages the bishop selection procedure. It’s less understandable when it comes to Religious, or Clergy, or Saints.
Surprisingly, one of the Vatican Congregations with the highest Asian representation is that for Liturgy, which takes care of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. Here you have four Asian red hats – Dias, Ranjith, Gracias and Pham Minh Man – plus Cardinal Tong who is a member of the Vox Clara committee which oversees English language translation of liturgical texts worldwide.
Then there is the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (Propaganda Fide), where the Asian representation is also strong: Cardinals Ranjith, Toppo, Pham Minh Man and Tong are members, while the secretary, Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai is its secretary and its prefect, Cardinal Filoni, is also an Asia expert.
Another ‘Asian’ Congregation is that for Oriental Churches, manned by Cardinals Delly (the Iraqi Chaldean patriarch), Dias and Alencherry.
Already from this first installment, you may have realized who is the real Asian powerbroker – if there is any such figure – in the Vatican: it is Cardinal Ivan Dias, the 76-year old former prefect of Propaganda Fide.
A member of seven Vatican departments, comprising four Congregations (Doctrine of the Faith, Propaganda Fide, Liturgy and Education) and three Councils, he is a true veteran of the Vatican. Under its auspices, he organized the visit of Pope Paul VI to India, way back in 1964. He is now retired but, in accordance with Vatican law, retired he will keep his posts until he turns 80.
The other Asian cardinals don’t come nearly as close: Cardinals Gracias, Pham Minh Man and Toppo are each members of three Vatican departments.
In my next post on this, I will look more closely at Pontifical Councils.
Please feel free to make comments on this, or ask Alessandro for more information or clarification.
In Vietnam child labor is still the rule, not the exception
May 16, 2:42 pmPosted by Joseph Nguyen
Despite Vietnam’s progress towards modernity, thousands of youngsters from poor families in a northern province still have to drop out of schools and seek jobs in the cities since their parents can not afford their school fees.
Marie Nguyen Thi Huong from Huu Vy parish in Thai Binh province works for a bakery in Hai Duong city and earns 2.5 million dong (US$120) a month.
She has been away from her family four years and has had to move many times in pursuit of work.
Now 18, she dropped out of school when she was a ninth grader. “I wanted to study further but my parents could not cover the fees,” she says.
She is one of seven children; four have left school early and now work to support the family. Huong said many young people from her parish leave schools early and work for a living. She knows only a very few people who are lucky enough to stay on and study at college.
Her gloomy views are shared by Bishop Peter Nguyen Van De of Thai Binh, who says students in his diocese leave school in their thousands since their parents could not support them.
“In the past three years, out of 7,000 secondary students aged 11 to 15 in this diocese, 4,000 have not entered high schools,” he says.
Once they get to the cities, they find good jobs are few and far between. “Many of them polish shoes of people, or sell newspapers or lottery tickets on the streets,” says the bishop.
For this vast number of young, rootless people, drug abuse and other troubles are close companions – and a comfortable life is far, far away.
Would you like to share your thoughts on this?
A (belated) Mother’s Day tribute
May 16, 2:22 pmPosted by Ahtasham Chaudhry
Editor’s note: A characteristic of Mother’s Day is for recalcitrant sons to remember it late or forget it altogether. This blog is slightly behind the times now, as Mother’s Day was celebrated in many countries last Sunday, but not for reasons of omission; technical problems have caused us a few delays this week. We post this today with apologies to the blogger, Ahtasham Chaudhry, and to mothers everywhere.
It is always hard for families of the 3.7 million overseas Pakistanis to celebrate Mother’s Day every year, me being one of them. I could not hug my mom or buy her a gift as she left for the USA four years ago to live with my brother, a doctor.
Sending her good wishes on Skype brings tears on both sides and I could see the happiness glittering in her eyes.
Many in our Muslim society questioned its existence not many years ago and Mother’s Day events were limited to Christian circles and Church buildings only. The situation is completely different now and many more people celebrate the best gift that God created for all living beings.
And yes, she deserves that title. To me a mother is an impersonation of God. He created an angel for all seasons, with a pure heart to love, caring hands to nurture children, a shrewd mind to guide them, a robust body to endure labor and a remarkable spirit to bear the worst circumstances. I thank my guardian angel.
Please fee free to share your thoughts about mothers.
A postcard from chaotic Kathmandu
May 14, 8:10 pmPosted by Chirendra Satyal
Returning to Nepal after visiting Sri Lanka for a week has me wondering how two south Asian nations can be so very different. Like the roads in and around Colombo, everything seemed to flow so smoothly there – unlike rough, rugged Nepal.
The moment I landed in Kathmandu I was reminded how little electricity we have; even the X-ray machine for checking hand baggage was off.
When I got in a taxi, the driver said the fare had increased as petrol was short, again.
As we made our bumpy way home, I saw bulldozers demolishing squatters’ homes at Bagmati Bridge.
The river itself was smelling unusually foul. It could well be the most polluted main river that runs through any capital city.
Arriving home, I found the electricity cut-off times had been increased from nine to 10 hours a day, and there was also a shortage of cooking gas. It was late by then, so I just went to bed and dreamed of Sri Lanka and the seaside.
My first phone call next morning was from a “high caste” neighbor urging me to make the “strike tomorrow successful” . The Brahmin-Chettri castes, who ruled Nepal until as recently as four years ago, wanted to make sure their rights were not curtailed in the new constitution that is being written.
The strike took most vehicles off the streets and closed most shops. Cycle-rickshaw pullers, cows and even goats had the roads to themselves.
It made it a good day for a stroll.
I saw some tourists, laboriously pulling and rolling their bags to their hotels.
I saw a man giving a fiery speech to a gathering crowd about the fallacy of trying to divide the country along ethnic lines. I saw another mob of youngsters waving sticks and demanding that the country not be divided at all.
One of them snatched a Nepalese flag from a small shop, as riot police helplessly looked on. Shouting “we want New Nepal ” in English, he and his band headed into the main tourist area, while the frightened tourists either scattered or tried to click pictures.
But finally, I looked across the road in front of the old Royal palace and, seeing the purple jacaranda trees, I said to myself: “Think positive! There’s no pollution today and many more strikes to come this month will make Nepal feel even more peaceful.”
And on that cheery note I headed home, to see if there was any chance of cooking some lunch.
Please feel free to comment on this snapshot of life in Kathmandu.
How well do you know your Ricci?
May 11, 5:23 pmPosted by Paddy MacLachlan
Today is the anniversary of Matteo Ricci’s death; the 402nd, to be exact.
We’ve marked that on ucanews.com with an extract from an excellent, deeply researched article by Father Yves Camus SJ, on the life and countless achievements of Matteo Ricci. As Fr Camus argues, Ricci is remembered first and foremost for his missionary work – and rightly so. But his extraordinary skills as a diplomat and mediator are often overlooked.
The piece first appeared in Thinking Faith, the online journal of the British Jesuits. Another first-class article on the same topic is by Nicolas Standaert. It is a matter of historical record that Ricci had an enormous influence on the course of Chinese history, but Matteo Ricci: Shaped by the Chinese discusses the equal impact that the Chinese people and their culture had upon him.
If you’d like to dig a little deeper, numerous books have been written but, in our opinion, two of them stand out. Like many others, A Jesuit In The Forbidden City explores the truly fascinating dynamic between Ricci and Ming dynasty China. But perhaps because it is written by a Chinese author, R. Po-chia Hsia, it is a little more appreciative of the finer subtleties of the relationship.
It’s sometimes forgotten that Ricci’s commitment to inculturation and equal rights was ahead of its time and not universally acclaimed; his immediate successor, for instance, frankly and openly disapproved of his approach. Hsia does not flinch from these more controversial aspects of the Ricci story and tackles them with insight in the epilogue to the book.
Our other choice takes a very different approach. The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci, by Jonathan D. Spence, focuses on the tricks Ricci used to help Confucian scholars improve their memory skills. Juxtaposing the China of those times with Counter-Reformation Europe, this is a rich and throughly readable narrative that the New York Times Book Review called “an extraordinarily delicate achievement.”
We’re delighted to announce that you can now find out more about both these books and, if you wish, order them from amazon.com directly through Give Us This Day. And yes, we will get a little commission if you do order this way – so as well as enriching your mind, you’ll also be helping our cause. Just click on the title that interests you.
Where do you stand on subway seats?
May 11, 2:58 pmPosted by Joseph Pak
Like so many springs, we all used to leap from our seats on the bus to make room for an old person, as soon as they got on. It was almost competitive; we’d be getting ready to jump to our feet even if we saw old people waiting at the bus stop as we drew near.
More than just common practice in Korea, it was seen as a moral duty, especially for teenagers, to show respect to the grandfathers and grandmothers who brought them up through difficult times.
Nowadays you don’t see the same generosity, on the bus, the subway or any public place. At the same time, the numbers of aged people are growing while the young ones are decreasing.
So, amid loud laments over the decay of social morals, the people who run the subways found it necessary to designate certain seats only for old people, disabled people and pregnant women. The seats in the four corners of each carriage were allotted to them, with young and healthy people discouraged from taking them.
But now, when an old person enters a carriage, a strange sort of tension arises among the younger passengers: will he come and stand in front of me and make me feel obliged to give up my seat – or make me feel guilty when I pretend not to notice him – or will he just shuffle on over to the corner?
And while the government-subsidized subways give with one hand, they’re strongly tempted to take away with the other. At present, they offer unlimited free travel to those aged 65 and over, regardless of distance or duration. The longest line runs for 164 kilometers! The companies have floated the idea of limiting the benefit, but have always met with an outcry.
For the moment at least, the free ticket remains a symbol that Korea still respects the aged, and wants to pay them back. But it’s also a certificate that says you are now officially old. In today’s youth-obsessed society, that may not be a good thing. Where would you stand?
Please feel free to comment on this.
Now that’s what you call multicultural!
May 10, 4:27 pmPosted by Paddy MacLachlan
The All Irish Dance Championship, which is the highest possible accolade accolade in the world of Irish dancing, has been won – for the third year in a row – by a 17-year-old biracial Jew from Greenville, Ohio.
Drew Lovejoy first got the itch at the age of two or three, when he says: “my mom got tired of the Disney films so she started me on all the old classics with Gene Kelly and Fred Astiare – all the old classics. I would stand in front of the TV and dance.
“We had a friend at our synagogue, a 10-year-old girl, who was an Irish dancer and she invited us to a competition in Indianapolis. Right when we walked in, I saw the bioys dancing and I said “Mom, that’s what I want to do.”
When describing his ethnic and religious background, he explains: ”my mom is white and Jewish – she converted when I was four, and I also was converted to Judaism. My dad is black and Baptist. My mom married my stepfather, my Abba, when I was nine. I’ve always grown up Jewish, so I consider myself Jewish.”
And when asked for advice to kids from different backgrounds who might want to try irish dancing: ”Irish dance is still pretty Irish, but diversity is breaking in. There are some Asian and black dancers, and as I’ve said, also Jewish dancers. It’s a great community. It’s so much fun. They’ve embraced me. It’s great, so I’d tell those kids to just go for it.”
Would you like to comment on this? Please feel free.
A mystery illness grips rural Vietnam
May 10, 3:34 pmPosted by Paul Tran
A small community in the central province of Quang Ngai has been struck by a fatal skin disease which has so far defied diagnosis.
Local health care workers have recorded a total of 190 cases, 98 of them since the start of this year. Since the first case was reported last April, 21 have proved fatal. Two elderly people have died of it in the past week alone. One of them leaves behind a wife who is also afflicted by it.
The disease is characterized by thickened skin – keratosis – on the hands and feet, ulcers that look like burns and stiffness in the limbs.
Its initial symptoms are a rash, high fever and loss of appetite. If not treated promptly, the disease can cause eye and liver problems develop as well as damage to other organs.
First stage research suggests that the victims may have contracted infections through their respiratory or digestive tracts. Blood samples taken from a sample of patients showed that just over half of them contained the rickettsia virus, a potentially dangerous bacteria transmitted by lice, fleas, and mites. But a senior spokesman from the Ministry of Health said the virus is only one of the agents, not the source of the disease.
The Ministry has deputized 70 dermatologists and epidemiologists to help the local doctors in treating the victims and to search for the disease’s root cause. They are examining local people’s food, water, hair and blood, and spraying antiseptic in affected areas.
So far, though, the disease remains unidentified.
The “tourists” who come to work on building sites
May 9, 3:04 pmPosted by Paddy MacLachlan
In yesterday’s ucanews.com, we posted a feature about a Jesuit priest who is helping the new influx of laborers who are heading for Kerala from poorer parts of India. In it, the writer commented that:
The massive influx of workers into Kerala is a true sign of changing times. For the last couple of decades, planeloads of Keralites have been flown to Middle Eastern countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, to service the massive construction boom.
Now the tide has turned and thousands of impoverished Tamils, Bengalis, Oriyas and Biharis are flocking into the thriving state of Kerala, where they fill the new demand for labor.
But this turnaround trend is not confined to Kerala. A surprising amount of Sri Lanka’s brand new infrastructure is being built by Chinese labor. In a country where native labor is plentiful, eager for work and hardly likely to be expensive, this seems an extraordinary import.
Even more bizarre, the Sri Lankan government seems coy about who these workers are; it insists, in fact, that they are tourists and goes so far as to boast that they welcomed 90,000 Chinese “tourists” last year.
There is a possible explanation. Many of these infrastructure projects, like the giant, multibillion dollar Hambantota sea port, are being funded by the China Export-Import Bank and built by Chinese contractors, such as the China Harbour Engineering Co.
It is not inconceivable that the use of a Chinese contractor is a prerequisite of the loan. Whether it is or not, it means that the money lent by a Chinese bank goes straight back into Chinese coffers, while the local workforce sits idle.
Even worse, there are mutterings about the wages, accommodation and status of the Chinese workers.
It has been widely documented that the Indian, Pakistani and Sri Lankan workers who build the gleaming new cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi are paid a pittance and kept in appalling conditions.The whisper is, it’s even worse for these Chinese.
And at least the laborers who head for the Middle East do so voluntarily, albeit misguidedly. Is the same true here?
Would you like to share your thoughts on this?
Happy birthdays, dear Buddha, happy birthdays to you
May 8, 5:10 pmPosted by Paddy MacLachlan
Like the present Queen of England, Buddha has more than one birthday. But while Her Majesty gets a paltry two (her real one and the state version,) Buddha has several, depending on what country you’re in.
Japan is first to light the candles, on April 8th. In most East Asian countries (and Australia for that matter,) the date is decided according to the lunar calendar. But there are more than one lunar calendars used in Asia, so it gets complicated.
According to the most prevalent calculations, it takes place on the eighth day of the fourth lunar cycle of the year so, technically, it should be today. Yet in most countries this year, the celebrations were held last weekend on the 5th. In South Korea it’s on May 28th, unless you happen to be a Tibetan Buddhist, in which case you have to wait till the following day.
In Thailand, where it’s a huge event in the nation’s annual calendar known as Visakha Bucha, it falls this year on June 6th and lasts a week. This is justified by the fact that the Thais combine the feast of Buddha’s birthday with his enlightenment and death, which not all other countries do.
It would indeed take the wisdom of a Buddha to work it out. On the upside, if you’re a devout Buddhist and for some reason you miss the local celebration, there’s usually another one around the corner.
Here are some stunning shots of last weekend’s celebrations, which we present with thanks to the Huffington Post.
East? West? It depends on where you’re coming from
May 7, 9:55 amPosted by Joseph Pak
When I first read Murder on the Orient Express, I couldn’t understand why the railway had “Orient” in its name but was in Europe, not in Asia. As I understood it, Europe was the West and Asia was the Orient. Yet this express only ran from Paris as far as Istanbul. How come?
I was equally confused about the term “Middle East,” as this area seemed to me to be located to the west of the Asian continent, not in its middle.
My confusion multiplied when I came across the term “West Asia,” which is just to the east of the Middle East.
I thought I had the “Far East” figured out, but then I started reading a political monthly from Hong Kong called the Far East Economic Review, which had very little coverage of Korea and Japan, even though they are geographically farther east than Hong Kong is.
These terms were created mainly by the English; explorers, invaders, empire builders and cartographers. From their perspective, eastern Europe was the Near East, then there was the Middle East, then from Pakistan to Japan was the Far East. The terms represented their experience of world, their sense of distance from the rest of the world to its epicentre, London.
Some people say it is imperialistic. But I don’t think so. Every culture has perceived the world in the same way.
For two millennia, East Asian people have called the vast area from Xinjiang province all the way to the shores of the Atlantic, simply as “West.” China itself is “Central.” Korea and Japan are “East.”
With all these perspectives that are skewed according to where you are, it was no surprise that, during an FABC general assembly in Korea in 2004, a Korean presenter mistranslated the word “West” (Seoyeok in Korean, or Xiyu in Chinese) as “India.”
In fact it was entirely understandable. In many contexts, especially related to Buddhism, “the West” can actually be translated from Korean as “India,” because it is Buddha’s birthplace. For the same reason, in some contexts it may even be translated as “Heaven” itself.
The presenter made the error while introducing a piece of Korean music that was about to be performed. His mistranslation caused an Indian theologian priest there to be deeply moved, because the priest could detect no Indian tint in the music. Here, the priest thought, was a real merging of two cultures!
Yes, I like his inculturation analysis, even if it was based on wrong data. And the music truly is an intercultural masterpiece; it blends Korea and the West, ancient and modern. Here it is – wherever you come from, I hope you like it.
The kissing conundrum
May 7, 9:34 amPosted by Joe Torres
On the delicate subject of kissing, it seems that some Philippine bishops are not singing from quite the same hymnsheet.
A recent nationwide outbreak of summer diseases like chickenpox and measles has prompted Bishop Arturo Bastes of Sorsogon to ban kissing, or beso-beso as we Filipinos call it, when offering the sign of peace during Mass.
“We should avoid physical contact!” the bishop has declared.
He is clearly neither keen on kissing nor sold on snogging. During the Asian SARS outbreak nine years ago, he declared a ban not just on kissing but even on touching images of saints or other objects of veneration.
Bishop Honesto Ongtioco of Cubao has agreed with Bishop Bastes. He says that refraining from kissing is one way of preventing the spread of viruses.
But Bishop Jose Oliveros of Malolos believes otherwise.
“I don’t think the Lord will allow [kissing] to be a source of the spread of sickness,” he says. “Is He not the Lord of our body and soul?”
In the meantime, while the bishops mull it over, couples who are due to get married soon in Sorsogon and Cubao are on tenterhooks. While the ban is in place, they wonder, will the groom be allowed to kiss the bride?
What do you think? Please share your opinion.
What will the new rules mean for Caritas?
May 4, 4:08 pmPosted by Alessandro Speciale
The news that the Vatican has laid out new, much more stringent rules for Caritas Internationalis (reported in editor’s choice on ucanews.com) should probably not be too surprising, especially in the light of its recent history.
After being made a “public juridical person” under Vatican law by John Paul II in 2004 – that is, an official body of the Church – it was probably to be expected that the Vatican would assert tighter control and oversight over Caritas Internationalis. The events that preceded the confederation’s General Assembly last May – the Vatican vetoed the reelection of the then secretary general, Lesley-Anne Knight, on accounts of alleged lack of “coordination” with Curia officials – only helped to bring it forward.
Caritas Internationalis leaders, starting with the new secretary general, Michel Roy, have warmly welcomed the new rules and tried to dispel the impression that they were some sort of crackdown on the confederation. Others, like the head of Caritas France, François Soulange, have publicly voiced their fears over the lost “autonomy” of the organization.
But even Roy could not deny that a much deeper “integration” with Vatican departments – as he portrayed the new rules – have a potential downside: slowing the response time of Caritas Internationalis to international crises and events.
The new Vatican regulations state that every public statement, position or act of Caritas Internationalis will have to be vetted by the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum” – the Vatican’s ‘minister for charity’, so to say – or by the Secretariat of State.
The Vatican’s centuries-old bureaucracy would never be called a rapid response unit. So there is a fear that Caritas initiatives could be lost in the corridors of the Curia, its voice muted.
To be fair, the rules have a proviso that allows the confederation to team up with other aid organizations and with foreign governments in the case of “grave humanitarian emergencies.” But in all other instances – for example the simmering war between Sudan and South Sudan – Caritas will have to wait for Vatican approval.
Roy says that the new rules actually put in to law what is already the confederation’s “good practice” and that so far the Vatican departments have responded quickly when it was needed.
But if the new rules will have to be judged to look forward, the capacity of Caritas Internationalis to respond – both with words and action – to future global events will be one of the issues to keep an eye open for.
Please feel free to comment on this.
When is the best time to baptize?
May 2, 5:17 pmPosted by Anthony Law
A former colleague of mine was baptized this Easter, together with her husband and their two-year-old daughter. I was invited to be the godfather of this family of three.
This event – and the disparity between their ages - got me thinking. I initiated a topic on my Facebook page to collect some opinions, especially from friends from other Christian denominations, on the ideal age for baptism.
They share a common wish to do their best for their kids and to take them to Sunday school to ensure a sound Christian upbringing. But there’s a difference of opinion on whether little ones should be given the free will to choose to be baptized earlier or later.
Some say that children should be free to look for the way that suits them best when it comes to experiencing God; they see it as a matter of basic human rights. Many of them also say that their children they will know what is good for them.
My argument to that is that parents never ask for their babies’ preference on milk formula and diapers!
Not being trained theologically, I don’t want to focus on the point of view that baptism is “a gift of God” which calls us to be His children. I just want to look further at this issue with logic.
I try to compare our faith as a seed – and bringing babies for baptism is like the action of planting that seed.
Everyone does it in the hope of seeing it flower and bearing the fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control.
So, I would say, the earlier you plant, the more time you have to tend and nurture – and thus the better harvest you can expect.
But of course, planting the seed is just the very first step. Like my fellow godparents, I must not forget to water it regularly. It will help to keep their faith alive – and our own, too.
And let us never slacken in doing good; for if we do not give up, we shall have our harvest in due time (Galatians 6:9)
Would you like to comment on this? Please feel free.
When football meets faith, everyone’s a winner
May 2, 4:37 pmPosted by Marie Nguyen
Could this catch on at the San Siro Stadium or Stamford Bridge? My Tho diocese in the southern Vietnamese province of Tien Giang staged a tournament last weekend that combined soccer skills with catechism answers.
A total of 16 teams from 12 parishes entered the tournament in My Tho city. The players were 15-35 years old.
Before their 20-minute matches, five players from each team were given 10 minutes to answer a set of multiple-choice catechism teasers.
One player, Joseph Nguyen Minh Tam from the Queen of Peace team, said the event raised awareness of the need to practice one’s faith. It was certainly staged in a very different spirit to the usual professional match.
“We competed against each other in a friendly way,” said Tam. “We didn’t shout or swear at each other even though we lost our match.”
Father John Baptist Nguyen Tan Sang, head of the organizing committee, described the tournament as a way to bring basic catechism knowledge to young people who have received no formal Church teaching. “It also creates opportunities for them to interact and respect each other, and it’s great preparation for our Faith Year that will be launched in October,” he said.
The three teams with the highest combined scores from each segment will go on to a further round in Autumn, against teams from neighboring provinces of Dong Thap and Long An.
It only remains for us to say: “Come On You Saints!”
What do you think of this? Please leave a comment.
Being nasty about nuns (AKA kicking the habit)
May 1, 6:16 pmPosted by Paddy MacLachlan
One of the biggest Church talking points of the last few days – and it may come to be remembered as one of the biggest Church talking points of the last few decades – is the Vatican’s order for sweeping reforms of the leadership of the US Women Religious.
Few topics on ucanews.com have attracted readers in such high numbers. Every Catholic news service and most Catholic blogs have devoted acres of space to the issue, recording every new statement and development.
There can be little doubt that the majority of opinion is on the side of the nuns. So, purely in the interest of balance, we made sure to highlight the Vatican’s response in full, which was made available today, on ucanews.com.
And in further pursuit of that interest, we also reproduce here a blog that says, essentially, that the nuns are quite wrong and deserve every moment of the thorough dismantling that is surely coming their way.
The piece is entitled Let The Dead (Nuns) Bury Their Dead. Here is a particularly florid extract from it:
Much ado is being made about the Church finally reforming the dissident nun communities in the U.S. But I say, let these spiritually dead orders bury themselves until there aren’t anymore of them left, which won’t be long now to wait.
This sounds terribly harsh because it is. Here’s the deal: 80% or so of nuns in America belong to these dying orders. Their average age is like 70. They are going the way of the dodo. They have focused for decades on social activism (often devoid of Christ), reiki, labyrinths, women’s ordination, and all manner of other falsehoods, warped priorities, and heresies. Yes, there are faithful nuns in these orders, ones who believe in Jesus Christ and are obedient to the Church, but the majority of their sisters are wonky.
Would you like to respond to this? Please feel free.
A journey to the other half of myself
April 30, 5:08 pmPosted by Rock Ronald Rozario
Outside Kolkata's Victoria Memorial Hall
I’ve just been to India for the first time in my life, traveling round the Indian state of West Bengal for a couple of days. So it was just a short trip but it was very significant to me.
My destination was Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal, the largest predominantly Bengali state in India and once the capital of all India during British colonial rule.
I’m an ethnic Bengali, a member of the largest ethnic group in South Asia, numbering more than 250 million. Sadly, Bengal is not a nation. In 1947 the sub-continent was divided into India and Pakistan, based on religious grounds, and united Bengal was cut into two pieces: West Bengal with its Hindu majority was allocated to India, while East Bengal with its majority of Muslims was given to Pakistan and became East Pakistan.
This was a historic blunder of course. But more than that, many people deem it a political conspiracy, aimed at blocking the advancement of the largest and most progressive nation in India.
Suddenly the Bengali people, with their universal language, heritage and history, were divided. They now required visas simply to visit their loved and dear ones on the other side of the barbed wire fence. And that visa process is a tough and bitter experience, I can tell you.
So for me, this was a journey to the self, a journey to half of the soul of Bengali ethnicity, culture and nationalism.
Decades have passed since the division took place and but the solidarity of the Bengalis has never waned. Maybe one day will not need to go through such hassles to meet each other and our wish to be re-united in a single state us will be realized.
But I’m not sure how far away that day is.
Would you like to comment on this? We would be happy to hear your views.
Children say the funniest things …. about faith
April 30, 4:43 pmPosted by Paddy MacLachlan
Three-year-old Reese :
‘Our Father, Who does art in heaven,
Harold is His name.
Amen.’
After the christening of his baby brother in church,
Jason sobbed all the way home in the back seat of the car.
His father asked him what was wrong. He replied:
‘that preacher said he wanted us brought up in a Christian home,
but I want to stay with you.’
One particular four-year-old prayed,
‘and forgive us our trash baskets
as we forgive those who put trash in our baskets.’
A teacher asked her children: ’and why is it important to be quiet in church?’
One bright little girl replied, ’because people are sleeping.’
A mother was preparing pancakes for her sons, Kevin 5, and Ryan 3.
The boys began to argue over who would get the first pancake.
Their mother saw the opportunity for a moral lesson.
‘If Jesus were sitting here, He would say,
‘Let my brother have the first pancake, I can wait.’
Kevin turned to his younger brother and said,
‘ Ryan, you be Jesus !’
A woman invited some people to dinner.
At the table, she turned to her six-year-old daughter and said,
‘would you like to say the blessing?’
‘I wouldn’t know what to say,’ the girl replied.
‘Just say what you hear mummy say to God,’ her mother answered.
The daughter bowed her head and said,
‘Oh God, why did I invite this lot?’
Let’s wish “God speed” to the running priest
April 27, 5:03 pmPosted by Joe Torres
The famous “running priest” of the Philippines has finally decided to hang up his Nikes and become a monk.
“Part of my decision to join a religious order is my frustration with the institutional Church,” said Catholic priest Robert Reyes.
Reyes became known as “the running priest” after initiating a long series of protest runs, hunger strikes and prayer rallies, on a variety of social and political issues.
He first caught the attention of the media in 1995 when he led protest rallies during the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference summit in Subic.
He said later that his unconventional approach has led him into trouble with his superiors.
“Their idea of priesthood was that of the typical parish priest, who is expected primarily to do housekeeping, make sure the church roof is not leaking, and most of all that the collection is coming in,” Reyes said.
When he came to Palawan, a province known for its pristine environment and natural resources, Reyes said his belief that “a priest cannot separate his commitment to God’s kingdom [from his] active involvement in environmental issues” was reinforced.
Reyes did his farewell run in Palawan last Tuesday, to call for justice after last year’s killing of the environmental journalist Gerry Ortega.
“Have you gone nuts, Father?” the citizen journalism site Rappler asked the priest, on learning of his decision to join a religious order.
“No, I’m pursuing my faith,” he said.
What would you say to Father Reyes if you had the chance?
