June 14, 2020

Creatively responding to yearning for God, and meeting spiritual and pastoral needs: Jesuit priest uses social media to reach out to the faithful as churches remain closed

Rock Rozario, Dhaka Bangladesh May 26, 2020 La Croix Bangladesh-based Indian Jesuit priest John Chinnappan has been using online platforms to meet the spiritual and pastoral needs of local Catholics. (Photo supplied) On…

June 13, 2020

Understanding Diakonia, Gaudium et spes: “The Church … is interested in one thing only – to carry on the work of Christ … for he came into the world … to serve and not to be served.”

“On this earth Christ’s kingship is exercised, not through power, but in gentleness and through service.” Yves Congar cited here Jesus’ instruction to the disciples when they were arguing about…

June 13, 2020June 13, 2020

The world stems from the creative power of God in which people act as God’s stewards and collaborators. Humanity maintains a fusional relationship with the earth so if we degrade nature, we attack ourselves. A person cannot perceive their relationship to the earth in terms of domination, but only in terms of diakonia (service)

For the pope, the world is neither the product of humans nor the fruit of chance, but a work stemming from the creative power of God in which people act…

June 12, 2020

Halting future global crisis requires unprecedented but doable action: Vatican office invites church on journey to ‘total sustainability’ in next decade

Action platform toward carbon neutrality May 17, 2020 by Brian Roewe, ncronline.org Action This article appears in the Laudato Si’ at Five feature series. View the full series. Pope Francis walks in a procession at the…

June 12, 2020

What is needed, according to Freire, is for us to “stop making pious, sentimental, and individualistic gestures, and risk an act of love”

If one of the primary markers of a Christian life is solidarity as modeled by Jesus, I am afraid that most of us still have a long way to go.…

June 11, 2020

The assumptions of white privilege and what we can do about it

By Bryan Massingale https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/assumptions-white-privilege-and-what-we-can-do-about-it The assumptions of white privilege and what we can do about it: Amy Cooper knew exactly what she was doing. We all do. And that’s the problem. Jun…

June 11, 2020

On diakonia and ministry: Any Christian holds a claim to ministry

For Paul charism was “a concrete function or service that each Christian exercised on behalf of everyone in the community”. The lexicographers Louw and Nida (1989) recommended we understand that…

June 11, 2020

The pope is inviting everyone to become more consciously a guardian of creation, as well as their brothers and sisters in humanity

This past May 24, on the fifth anniversary of the document, the pope launched the “Laudato Si’ Special Anniversary Year”. He at the same time announced a seven-year program to promote its concrete…