POPE TALK | KAIROS GLOBAL | NOVEMBR 2019

Author: Dr. Kochurani Joseph

Animator, National Professionals Ministry, India

World is increasingly elitist

The world is becoming more elitist to the detriment of the poor and the most vulnerable. Developing countries continue to be drained of their best natural and human resources for the benefit of a few privileged markets.  As Christians, we cannot be indifferent to the tragedy of old and new forms of poverty, to the bleak isolation, contempt and discrimination experienced by those who do not belong to ‘our’ group. Along with the exercise of charity, the Lord also invites us to think about the injustices that cause exclusion in order to preserve our status. 

Climate change linked to ethical decline

The problem of climate change is one of the most serious and worrying phenomena of our time. It is related to issues of ethics, equity and social justice. The current situation of environmental degradation is connected with the human ethical and social degradation that we experience every day. So we must become aware of the urgency and need for a collective response to help build our common home, the earth. 

Media should be a voice of conscience 

Catholic news agencies should stay close to the Magisterium and use their work to distinguish what is good from what is evil. To renew your harmony with the Church, I urge you to be a voice of conscience, of journalism capable of distinguishing good from evil, human choices from inhuman ones. The journalist – who is the chronicler of history – is called to reconstruct the memory of facts, to work for social cohesion, to tell the truth at all costs.

The Church is a home for the lost

No one is lost to Jesus, neither should they be considered lost to the Church and her members. It is an easy temptation to close one’s circle, but the Lord wants his Church to be a hospitable tent where every man, a wayfarer of life, meets Him who has come to dwell among us. 

Canon law is essential for ecumenical dialogue

Canon law is the Church’s legal discipline; it gives expression to concepts like natural and divine law, and orders the Church as an ecclesiastical society. It explains and safeguards the rights and duties of the faithful of all orders of church life: laity, clergy, bishops, and religious.  Many of the theological dialogues pursued by the Catholic Church, especially with the Orthodox Church and the Oriental Churches, are of an ecclesiological nature. They have a canonical dimension too, since ecclesiology finds expression in the institutions and the law of the Churches. 

Life imprisonment forgoes the ‘right to start over’

Sentencing prisoners to life imprisonment diminishes their “right to hope.” It is up to every society to ensure that the penalty does not compromise the right to hope, that prospects for reconciliation and reintegration are guaranteed. Life imprisonment is not the solution to problems because if hope is closed in a cell, there is no future for society.

Pope Francis says…

• Holy Spirit gives us courage, helps us discern well.

• Christianity has stood the test of time, despite scandals and sin.

• Humility is a ‘key’ that opens the heart of God and the hearts of men.

• Love children and the elderly, or expect the sadness of ‘demographic winter’ because of a lack of new life.

• Fidelity to tradition ensures a fruitful future.

• A fair criticism is always well received, at least by me.

• God forgets our sins after confession.

NOVEMBER

Dialogue and Reconciliation in the Near EastThat a spirit of dialogue, encounter, and reconciliation emerge in the Near East, where diverse religious communities share their lives together.