Cry of the poor, cry of the earth – and a further nod to Vatican II

First, extreme weather wreaked havoc and destruction across the world from the strong hurricanes in the Caribbean and southern United States to the typhoon that lashed Vietnam, which even spilled over into the northern part of Peninsula Malaysia.

Sep 21, 2017

Three things happened over the last couple of weeks.

First, extreme weather wreaked havoc and destruction across the world from the strong hurricanes in the Caribbean and southern United States to the typhoon that lashed Vietnam, which even spilled over into the northern part of Peninsula Malaysia.

Rain lashed Penang for several hours, inundating many parts of the state. Excessive and haphazard property development, even on sensitive hill-slopes, did not help matters. Muddy water gushed down degraded hill-slopes resulting in raging waterfalls in several places. Drains could not cope with the rapid water run-off, which could not be absorbed into the ground, as much of the surface had already been covered with concrete and tar.

True, the rainfall was much heavier than usual, but then we should no longer be surprised. Instead, we should expect more extreme weather patterns. This is the result of climate change, which we once thought would somehow spare Malaysia. So we continued our building frenzy — degrading our hills, covering our grass and hillsides with concrete — without considering the impact of extreme rainfall of greater intensity brought about by climate change.

In the United States, the Trump administration denies climate change, even going so far as to censor the term climate change in official documents. Staff at the US Department of Agriculture, for instance, were asked to avoid the term climate change and instead use “weather extremes”!

So it was perhaps ironic that the United State was hit by the powerful hurricanes Harvey and Irma — and the hurricane season is not yet over with hurricanes Jose and Maria looming on the horizon.

So that is the cry of the earth. Secondly, came a reminder of the cry of the poor: the Bishop of Rome’s homily in Medellin, the second largest city in Columbia, on September 9 provided a timely reminder of the significance of the place in Catholic Social Teaching.

In his prepared homily, Francis urged the Universal Church to be more inclusive — for it is not our private property. “We cannot be Christians who continually put up ‘do not enter’ signs, nor can we consider that this space is mine or yours alone, or that we can claim ownership of something that is absolutely not ours.”

“The Church is not ours, she is God’s; he is the owner of the temple and the field; everyone has a place, everyone is invited to find here, and among us, his or her nourishment. We are simple servants (cf. Col 1:23) and we cannot prevent this encounter. On the contrary, Jesus tells us, as he told his disciples, ‘You give them something to eat’ (Mt 14:16); this is our service.”

In a reference to the ground-breaking Church document in Medellin 1968, Francis said the Church needs “disciples who know how to see, judge and act.”

Yes, we need to feed the poor and give them justice. It was in the period between the Latin American Bishops’ Conferences in Medellín (1968) and in Puebla, Mexico (1979) that the term “preferential option for the poor” became an integral part of Catholic Social Teaching.

Though this phrase came from the Latin American Church, the concept itself is biblical: we saw how God extended a preferential love for a community of slaves that was being held in captive in Egypt and journeyed with them to freedom either directly or vicariously through prophets he raised up. Their cries and tears did not go unheeded.

In a similar way, we are called to extend our friendship and compassionate love and concern to the poor who are crying out for help in many parts of the world. More recently, we heard the cries of the Rohingya within earshot of our doorsteps. How did we respond?

Finally, in another quiet nod to the decentralisation process of Vatican II, the groundbreaking Church council in 1962-1965, the Bishop of Rome is pushing for the decentralisation of the process of translation of Church liturgical texts.

At issue is whether translated texts into English and the vernacular should remain strictly faithful to the Latin version or whether a more dynamic, accessible and contemporary translation should be used. After the last effort, some felt that words like consubstantial (used in the Creed) sounded like, well, Latin or Greek to most ordinary Catholics.

What Francis is pushing for is to give the regional/national Bishops’ Conferences a larger say in the translation process while the Vatican retains the final say whether to approval their translation.

This is entirely in keeping with the principle of collegiality — decentralised Church governance and the episcopal shared authority--expounded so eloquently in Vatican II.

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