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| • Darfur: conscience awakening |
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| • Where is the Catholic Church going? |
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| • Threats against Chinese high school students |
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| • Palm Sunday |
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| Darfur: conscience awakening |
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| A large meeting was organized at "Mutualité" (A large forum hall in Paris)) to question the candidates to the presidential elections in France and to mobilize the public opinion. It is not a time for indignation but a time for action. I have been very much taken by the disturbing accounts of those returning from Darfur. |
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The Darfur war, west of Sudan, has a death toll of more than 200 000 dead and has thrown more than two million people on the streets. The tyrannous government of Khartoum is using the militia to rape, torture, kill and to poison the wells to prevent the population from returning. Refugees are herded into camps, in Sudan or at border countries like Chad. |
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Interests are at stake: oil production. China, the first supplier of weapons to Sudan, takes up two thirds of the oil export. Thus, its opposition to the sanctions of the Security Council against Sudan. But China attaches a great importance to the 2008 Olympic Games and is very sensitive to the threats of a boycott to the Games because of its support to Sudan. |
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| The solution is political: Khartoum must be forced to negotiate, to stop the massacre and protect the population. It is possible and it is urgent. |
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| Where is the Catholic Church going? |
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This is the name of a Belgian radio program. The program is one hour long. There are two Belgians: the President of the Interdiocesan Council for laity and the spokesman for the Bishops’ Conference. And two French, a journalist, associate editor of the Figaro, and myself. The moderator opened the debate on the future of the Catholic Church starting with the latest interventions of Benedict XVI. Our points of view are of course different!
I am alone, in a Parisian studio, in duplex with Brussels, alone also in my way of looking at the future.
I expressed my regret that no women had been invited to be part of the program.
My eyes are not usually turned on the Church and I believe that the reform of the Church will start from the people who are excluded. |
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| The different interventions from Rome regarding the traditionalists, the liturgy, the celibacy of the priests, and the exclusion of the theologian of freedom: Jon Sobrino…seem to me turned toward the past. « To new wine, new goatskin vessels » said Jesus. By keeping the old goatskin vessels, we work for the survival of the Church, whereas we should be looking to the future and to invent new avenues. |
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There is particularly a refusal of modernity on the part of the official Church. Modernity designates the individual with his autonomy, to be in charge of his own destiny. It is the right to self-development and the rejection of an institution dictating what to do. |
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| But talking about the Church is it not talking about the men and women who live and apply the Gospel among the people and are a grain of hope around them? |
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| Threats against Chinese high school students |
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| Police let only a few people enter the large hall of the court dealing with internal civil matters. Three Chinese high school students, visibly stressed, were sitting on the front row. I was sitting next to them. They had reached legal age and they had no official documents. At any time, they could be deported to their own country. Many years ago, they had come to France with their parents. They were now preparing their exams to obtain their diploma and hoped to be admitted at university. Their French was excellent. But I also know they have a gift for Maths. |
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Their future was in balance in this court room. Everything could collapse. They did not dare look at the the woman magistrate whose face looked kind to me. |
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In front of us, a woman lawyer, assistant to the Mayor of Paris, makes a plee with competence and with heart, in favour of maintaining these young people in the country. I admired this young woman, a mother, that I meet often on all the fronts of injustice.
At the end of her long speech, she referred to all those high school students who are outside the court and she also mentionned my presence in the court room. |
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The lawyer for the Prefect, who had asked for the expulsion of the Chinese students, maliciously snapped back : « Madame Magistrate, even if these students were alone, with no support outside, and with no presence of VIPs, would not Justice follow its course in the same way ? »
Judgement is under deliberation. |
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| Palm Sunday |
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| Just the once won’t hurt; I celebrated the Palm Sunday liturgy in an apartment where I had been invited by the Max Jacob Fraternity. Some twenty people, most of them unknown to me, had gathered in a large room, magnificently decorated. |
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Right away, the greeting had been cordial. Everyone was expected with joy. An elderly person in a wheel chair was being cared for.
I was pleased to begin the celebration in a community where people seemed to be listening with their heart. We held our palm leaves, a sign of our attachment to Christ whom we wish to follow.
The words of the Passion according to St. Luke, fell upon us as seeds on good earth. Everything was silent. I spoke to them as I would to friends. The beauty of the liturgy, in his simplicity and truth, made a large impression on the people present.
As the pilgrims on the road to Emmaus, were not all our hearts full of love? |
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After the celebration, the Eucharist table was used for a shared meal with all the food brought by each and everyone. It could not have been more convivial. We took the time to be together, the time to rejoice.
The liturgy of the Palm Sunday made this meeting possible. A liturgy that transforms our life through mutual love. |
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