From: Ouko joachim omolo
Voices of Justice for Peace
Regional News
BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012
Although the Synod bishops have not put it as a priority for discussion and how to resolve it once and for all, one of the biggest evangelical challenges facing the Catholic Church almost certainly in 21st century is continuing fallout from the child sexual abuse scandals by clergy.
Just as the bishops are discussing approaches to the new evangelization today, Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Bishop Marco Antonio Ordenes Fernandez of Iquique, Chile, accused of abusing a 15-year-old altar boy.
The Vatican said on Wednesday that the pope has accepted Ordenes’ resignation under the code of canon law that says a bishop must resign if he is sick or because some other “grave” reason makes him unsuitable for his job.
The 47-year-old Ordenes is accused of abusing a 15-year-old altar boy in the northern city of Iquique. He defends himself by saying that he met the boy in 1999 when he was 17 and they had a relationship when he was no longer underage. His accuser, Rodrigo Pino, 30, said the abuse began when he was 15. At first, he said it was forced, but then they became lovers.
A handful of U.S. bishops have resigned after facing sex abuse allegations. More recently, the then-bishop of Bruges, Belgium, Roger Vangheluwe, quit in 2010 after admitting he had molested his nephew for years starting when he was a young boy. This is not to mention early this year when the Vatican laicized a Canadian bishop who was convicted of child porn possession.
Instead of giving the sexual abuse scandals a priority in their discussions, the bishops instead talks of the new evangelization as the need for humility, joy and confidence in spreading the Gospel, emphasizing on the act of evangelization of a child and his family, and also fosters respect for human life.
Although charity and justice is also put as a priority as the heart of evangelization, and that to work for justice, peace and development is especially attractive to young people who are touched by such witness that changes hearts, the discussion does not spell what justice can be given to the victims of the sexually abused children.
The bishops are also referring to new evangelization to mean the need of new saints because are called to be those new saints. This is according to the bishops is because the new poverty of the world is a poverty of saints.
They are also making the point that the greatest obstacle a priest or theologian faces in becoming an effective evangelizer is pride and selfishness, and that the obsession with becoming great, original and important results in pastors feeding themselves and not the flocks they lead.
Among other obstacles to evangelization they argue is the lack of missionary impulse, and the absence of joy and hope among priests. The evangelization therefore, becomes the medicine to give back joy and hope to the world, and priests are important agents of this effort to help the Church come alive again.
The bishops are also stressing the importance of Trinitarian love at the heart of all new evangelization efforts, and the building of community and the promotion of a sense of communion, emphasizing the fact that the primary sacrament of the new evangelization is the Sacrament of Penance.
Also often raised in the discussion was the subject of Islam. Many discussed evangelizing in the Middle East and elsewhere amid the threat of persecution, with some participants stressing the need to take “great care” in proclaiming the Gospel. “This can be a red flag and an invitation to tragedies.
Evangelization for Jesus however, meant adopting a new way of life where we would share kingdom values such as compassion, understanding, forgiveness, peace, acceptance, etc. This is how Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of God, saying that we are already in the kingdom if we live according to these values.
Furthermore, Jesus promised that we will live more completely in the kingdom after our death. According to Matthew 25:14-46 the kingdom of God will be like a man going on a journey calling his servants and entrusted to them his property, to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability.
Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money.
Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.
And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’
He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed?
Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
This is also what will happen during the final judgment. For when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’
Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’
Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
There are some pastors who think that evangelization is to convert and baptize people as well as the destruction of many indigenous cultures, filled with stories of much cruelty and suffering at the hands of many well meaning missionaries.
What distinguishes our Catholic faith today is precisely the understanding that the Church is the enduring presence of Christ, the mediator of God’s redeeming action in our world, and the sacrament of God’s saving acts.
The challenge here is not more on secularization but why many do not sense a value in Mass attendance, fail to receive the sacrament of penance and have often lost a sense of mystery or the transcendent as having any real and verifiable meaning. This is not because of secularism.
The majority of Catholics in Ireland for example, do not attend Mass regularly because the significant numbers do not believe in key tenets of the church’s teaching, according to an Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll.
More than two-thirds attended services far less frequently. Some 39 per cent said they either never or very occasionally went to Mass. A further 20 per cent said they attended every two to three months, while 8 per cent went once a fortnight. Those who attend Mass regularly are twice as likely to live in rural rather than urban areas. They are also more likely to be older and support Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael.
It explains why the new evangelization should not be approached as a program. It is a mode of thinking, seeing and acting. It is a lens through which we see the opportunities to proclaim the Gospel anew. In other words, approach to the new evangelization should not be rigid but open to new challenges.
That is why the new evangelization must provide a clear theological explanation for the necessity of the Church for salvation, speak about God’s universal salvific will and at the same time recognize that Jesus has provided a clear and unique path to redemption and salvation. This is because the Church is not one among many ways to reach God, all of them equally valid.
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
People for Peace in Africa
Tel +254-7350-14559/+254-722-623-578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Peaceful world is the greatest heritage
That this generation can give to the generations
To come- All of us have a role.