David Brooks. It is a not very well-known fact that in the first years after the Israelites arrived in the “promised land”, their government was in the hands of a few men who were called the “judges”. Moses had named the first one and the line continued from there. Nevertheless, there came a moment when the Israelites complained to God and they asked to be given a king like all of the other surrounding nations. God tried to warn them of the danger of handing over all the power to only one man. But yet the people persisted and Saul was chosen. He had been a chieftain who had had some success as a leader in the wars against their neighbors. The people still maintained a great faith in the presence of God who guided and cared for them, and so as a sign of his being chosen by God as king, Saul was anointed. The anointing made him untouchable. It signed him with the power of God Himself and it raised him above the rest of the people. Whatever he ordered was completed as if it were a command directly from God. (more…)
Xavier Jeyaraj. As a Jesuit and more so as the head of the Social Justice and Ecology Secretariat for the Society of Jesus, I found Fratelli Tutti (FT), to be an amazing synthesis of the social teachings of Pope Francis over the last 7 ½ years. Unlike other encyclicals that refer quite frequently to saints, previous Popes, previous encyclicals and biblical texts, this one draws references from his own various addresses, homilies, international meetings, writings, discourses and more specially from Laudato Si’ (LS). In FT, one can find myriad ideas that could help one to enter into a serious study, prayer and reflection for days and months. (more…)
Josep F. Mària. Josep Miralles (1944-2020) left us unexpectedly on 27 June this year. Born in February 1944 in Barcelona, into a humble family, he became a brilliant student of the Jesuits, and was accepted as a Jesuit in October 1962. Throughout his formation as a Jesuit he studied philosophy, sociology, and theology, while living in Jesuit communities in working-class neighbourhoods in Barcelona, Aranjuez, and in Paris. In this last city, he wrote his doctoral thesis on the sociology of religion.
Until the very end of his life, Josep’s work was underscored by his concern for two fundamental issues: the divide between believers and non-believers, and the divide between the rich and the poor. These issues unsettled him, but also pushed him to find nuanced and inclusive positions. His recognition of a reality that is complex, but ultimately good and unconditionally offered to all made him a Jesuit who was in tune with life. (more…)
Yénifer López Ramos. “There is no more powerful transformative force than education – to promote human rights and dignity, to eradicate poverty and deepen sustainability…” This was a statement made by UNESCO in a document calling for greater effectiveness in the world of education today, entitled: “Rethinking Education: Towards a global common good?”.
Global education has seen itself rocked by the pandemic which has affected the whole world, and the school closures in 168 countries are currently affecting 70.6% of students worldwide -only a few days ago, it affected more than 91% of students. These closures have high social and economic costs, particularly for those students living in highly vulnerable situations and their families, since the pandemic has affected everyone, but not all are affected equally. The educational gap between countries as well as within countries has shown itself clearly, and we have been able to see how this is founded on profound social differences. (more…)
David Brooks. Observing from outside what we are now suffering in the United States -the protests, the destruction of statues and monuments, the violence against the police and above all the chaos of the coronavirus pandemic that continues to grow – it would be too easy to think that everything is crazy, that there are no echoes in other countries, and especially that “in my country”, whatever that might be, no such divisions exist because they have been overcome. And that would be a fantasy. A trap of false illusions. There isn’t a place in the world where cultural, social, economic, educational and political differences based on race don’t exist along with the resulting exercise of power by one racial group over another. (more…)
Bernardo Pérez Andreo. Jesus of Nazareth was killed by the Roman procurator, with an inscription which determined the reason for his condemnation: «Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews». With this inscription, it was evident that the crime of “laesa maiestas” (injured majesty) was committed against the Roman Empire, since it was the Empire alone that could enthrone or dethrone Kings, and Jesus was a pretender to the throne, accused of usurping the Roman power in Judea. The inscription did not say «Jesus of Nazareth, herald of universal love», or «Master of the Law», or «Son of God». These titles would not have merited the supreme punishment of death by the Romans, since the internal grievances of their subjects mattered little to them, as long as their sovereignty was not affected. For this reason, this fact is probably the most certain of the whole of Jesus’ life: that he was crucified, through the application of «mors agravata», which the Romans reserved for seditious citizens. We can use this fact to reconstruct the historically plausible elements of the Gospels. The interpretative criteria is this: everything that would be in keeping with a death by crucifixion is probably historical fact. (more…)
Lluís S. Salinas Roca. The concept of “integral ecology” (which includes the concept of environmental justice) is tremendously useful in linking faith and the Christian praxis of taking care of the common homeland. By the same token, this concept is a very valuable tool in harmonizing the care for one’s neighbor and for creation. So says Daniel P. Castillo in “Integral Ecology as a Liberationist Concept”, published in 2016 in Theological Studies.
In his article, Castillo shows how the concept of integral ecology is intimately linked to the concept of integral liberation which had been expounded by Gustavo Gutierrez and which contains a call to radical conversion (metanoia) of the sociopolitical and cultural dimensions of the global system in which we live. (more…)
Daniel Jover. There has taken over a conformist view which tends to justify the drama that we are living by blaming the victims, creating an insuperable breech between those integrated into the society and those excluded, neutralized by a heterogeneous coating of those bringing instability. This would be the best excuse for maintaining and reproducing the dualization of society, throwing the responsibility on the losers for their own situation. As a palliative, there is a growing reliance on assistance in social and economic policies that distorts the concepts of insertion, community and social responsibility and converts them into a false remedy that selectively segregates and fragments people. (more…)
Víctor Codina. If we were to search for a wore that might sum up all that we are living in these months of pandemic, something unforeseen that has shaken by their roots life, wellness, the economy, work, the institutions and customs of all humankind and has made us feel vulnerable, without our having either a definitive solution or a clear future, perhaps the most adequate word would be “chaos”.
The Dictionary of the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language defines chaos in a way that is somewhat surprising: “The state of confusion in which everything was found at the moment of creation, before God placed them in the order that they had afterwards. Confusion; disorder.”
Clearly, this definition of chaos alludes to the beginning of the book of Genesis: “The earth was chaos and confusion (tohu waboho) and darkness over the abyss and a wind (in Hebrew, feminine, la ruah) from God fluttered over the waters.” (Genesis 1:2). (more…)
