The "Occupy" Phenomenon

The phenomenon started a couple of weeks ago in the heart of Capitalism as a protest of the "99%" of Americans who feel they have been betrayed by the government and its supporters of lobby groups which allow 1% of the population represented in Wall Street and the corporate elite to "steal" and control the resources, wages, and survival of the vast majority of people. The phenomenon has now spread to many more cities in the U.S. and in Canada where more protests have been launched by similar protesters. In Europe, and particularly the periphery where people are suffering more government programs cuts, there is an astonishing wave of protests in Greece, Italy, and Spain. Some commentators have already expressed the similarity in many ways with the Arab uprising in the Middle East. America, Canada and Europe indeed have been in what is arguably "a double dip" economic recession that, if not checked, will bring the entire globe to its knees. Many questions can be raised: 1. What is the specified objective of these protests - Are they about lost jobs? Higher fees for tuition in universities? Pensions? Poor conditions? 2. Is there a proposed alternative to respond to the above needs that protesters are proposing? 3. If these protests descend into anarchy and violence, as happened in Italy today, the police will have to respond and this by itself will discredit the good cause of protesters. How can they be justified in a civilized society? 4. We may be able to compare these protests with those in the Middle East except that violence in the Middle East is increasingly taking place along sectarian and religious lines especially the latest violence by the governing armed forces against Christian protesters in Cairo, Egypt last Sunday. It is evident that dictatorship is not only that of the political dictators exploiting the resources of their people, but also the dictatorship of the majority of rich corporate elites enslaving the workers as well as that of denying people of certain religious groups the right to worship according to their own creed. We will have to come to this again as it touches on the concept of fair society which is an urgent moral issue today.

Francis of Assisi - The Friend of Creation!

On October 4, the Catholic Church remembered St. Francis of Assisi. Francis was born to a rich merchant in Assisi in the 12th century. He was given the name Francesco (the French man) by his father in honour of his French business. In Francesco's early youth years he spent his time with rich friends and in worldly pleasure, yet he also showed generosity to beggers. This is the heart that the Crucified opened up. In 1201 Francis joined a military expedition against Perugia and was taken as a prisoner where he spent a year in captivity. When he returned to Assisi he became seriously ill and there had a conversion experience. While praying at the church of St. Damieno, he had a vision of the Crucified Christ speaking to him and asking him to "Rebuild my Church." Francis took this request literally and started rebuilding the church of stone with money from his father's business. While asking God to show him the way, he came to understand Christ's request in a new way - rebuild the Church of souls. This was a turning point in Francis' life. Francis had already spent much time in meditation and came to reject the worldy life that he had experienced in his early youth. The Roman Church was at the peak of its earthly power with Pope Innocent III. Francis requested the pope to allow him to start a beggars order. Innocent III had a vision of the future Church after which he approved Francis' request. All of this is history, but the significant lesson is the way Francis responded to the call of the Crucified. His conversion was probably gradual. However his generosity allowed him to share in the poverty of beggars' life of need and create a huge order with many followers - The Franciscans who grew up to count in thousands only in a few years. Francis was called the Alter Christus (the Other Christ); for he imitated Christ in his tender love of all creatures. Francis taught by example and talked to animals, birds, called the Sun Sister and the moon Brother and seemed at ease with wild animals. He is probably the first humanist in history; for he loved Christ and every other human he encountered. He built the first manger and added real animals to be part of the nativity scene. He insisted on the beauty of creation and was himself a poet. His mission took him to Egypt to preach to the Muslim Khaliph Al-Kamel and then to Acre but without success. Francis received the first known stigmata in history and suffered with Christ in silence "to complete" in his flesh "what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the sake of his body that is the Church" (Col 1:24). On his death bed, Francis was surrounded by his followers singing his hymn "Make me an instrument of your peace." Contrary to us, he was not afraid of death; for he himself considered death "a brother." Since his mission started in the 13th century, he has been beloved by many generations; for like the prostitute whom Christ forgave, he "loved much." (Luke 7: 47)

An Open Letter to Pope Benedict XVI

Your Holiness Benedict XVI: I would like to thank you for the many gifts given to you by God that you have invested in serving in the vineyard of Christ. Your defence of the Church and her Lord in your addresses, books, and theological works are a shining post in theological development in the Catholic Church. Your participation in Vatican II as an expert and your work in ecumenical encounters following the Council shine more your committment to Christian unity. There is a lot more that I can cite from your work that would take me an entire book to write. However, I wish only to focus on the challenges we face today in the Middle East. As a son of the Catholic Church and in the spirit of Vatican II, I implore you to help advance the theological dialogue with the Eastern Orthodox Churches that the Catholic Church recognizes as true sister Churches of the Church of Rome. True, Christian unity is a gift from God but I believe that God uses his servants to realize the day when they share the full communion together. I also recall to your attention that most Eastern Churches whether Orthodox or Catholic are suffering in the Middle East and are mostly poor compared to the riches and assets owned by Roman Catholic Churches of the West. In the same spirit of Vatican II, I recall the insistence of the Council for a preferential treatment of the poor and the gestures made by your predecessor of venerable memory Pope Paul VI. Pope Paul VI gave up the tiara and his ring for the benefit of the poor. Blessed Pope John XXIII, who convoked Vatican II and worked tirelessly for opening the Catholic Church to the world, said that the Church seeks today to apply the remedy of mercy to her children. Blessed Pope John Paul II advanced the cause of the poor in his many addresses and called for a sincere dialogue between the rich North and the poor South. It is with the above consideration that I approach you to seriously consider the poor Christians in the Middle East. I propose that your holiness help them in their struggle for survival and encourage them to do the best not only for the Church but also for their own families that are suffering. I can think only of the remnants of Greek Melkite Catholics in the Middle East, my own community, that our patriarch and bishops are pressing to stay in the Middle East only to preserve the presence of Christians there. If the Catholic Church is serious about keeping the presence of Christians in the Middle East, she can do more than simply exhorting the faithful. Through the Vatican's diplomatic representatives, she can press governments in the Middle East to ensure the continuous safety of all Christians in that region of the world and their freedom to practice their religion. She can also help them financially and support them to remain Christian in this region. Moreover, a public gesture from your holiness would generate positive feelings in the media such as those of your predecessors of venerable memory: Probably visiting the war-torn region of Eastern Africa that is causing great famines among its most vulnerable citizens. And while speaking about Africa I note that it is the continent where Catholic missions are gaining to Christ many new faithful. This continent, together with Asia, deserves the attention of the Holy See. And as a case in point, upon their recent independence, 30 million Christians in Southern Sudan are in need of much help to reconstruct their lives after 50 years of an atrocious war with the North Sudan that claimed many innocent souls. A Jesuit priest from the Melkite Catholic Church, who has been active as vice-president of Caritas International in the Middle East and worked in Sudan himself, has proposed the idea of twinning between a rich town/city in Germany or North America and a poor one in Southern Sudan. According to him, the idea had already been successfully implemented in Europe assisting poor villages. A website is being developed for this purpose. Your personal powerful intercession for those poor Christians in Southern Sudan will definitely bear fruits. Africa is ripe as a vineyard for the Catholic Church. I will continue to recall your words at your inauguration as the Vicar of Christ in 2005: I want to be a humble servant in the vineyard of the Lord. Finally I seek Your Apostolic blessing in the name of Christ. Yours faithfully, George Farahat Chancellor, Jesus the King Council, Knights of Columbus Lecturer, Jesus the King Greek Melkite Catholic parish Toronto, Canada

Recalling The Second Vatican Council

It is hard to write any theological work on the modern history of the Church without an appreciation of the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II). By all accounts, Vatican II (1962-1965) is historically the most ecumenical or universal Council in Church history. It was attended by almost 3000 bishops from all over the world. Although the Orthodox Churches of the East did not participate in the interventions, they sent representatives as observants, and so did the Anglican Communion and many other Protestant Communions. Distinctively the Eastern Catholic Churches participated in full vigor. On the eve of the Council Athenagoras I, the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch, sent a message to Maximus IV, Patriarch of the Melkite Catholics in which he said "You represent Eastern Orthodoxy." So much was there hope and fraternal love between the Churches that Blessed Pope John XXIII sought in invoking the Council the unity of all Christians. But in fact the Council became a much larger factory for the presentation of Catholic dogma always in need of representation to different ages yet always guided by the Holy Spirit in the fullness of truth. In his address in 1959, John XXIII attributed the call to the Council to a sudden inspiration by the Holy Spirit for "a new Pentecost"! It is worth mentioning the names of giants that contributed to the documents and reforms ushered by Vatican II, most of them were experts invited by the Pope or assisting the bishops coming from different countries: Karl Rahner, Yves Congar, Henri de Lubac, Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), and many others...Why do we need to recall Vatican II to mind? It is because we see fundamentalism growing as the evil reaction to such a blessed event. When the Council completed its work, the Catholic Church experienced new lay movements such as the Neo-Catechumenal Way, but also as lay people started getting involved in the New Pentecost, some priests and nuns left their vocations and fidelity to the Catholic Church. Hans Kung, a liberal theologian who participated in the Council challenged the dogma of the infallibility of the Pope and was therefore expelled from teaching in Catholic universities. Liberation Theology was born in Latin America and was immediately espoused by leading theologians there where Marxist ideology was infiltrating Latin America. In addition some Fundamentalist Christian sects started to attract more Catholics away from the bosom of the Mother Church. The Sexual Revolution ushered in Europe brought promiscuity into the minds and actions of many young adults. And individualism crept in all over the Western hemisphere promoted by lax civil laws about divorce and legalized abortion. It seems that Heaven intervened with the election of John Paul II. He was a blessed man. John Paul II took his name in veneration of Pope John Paul I who had taken his name in memory of the two great Popes of the Council: John XXIII and Paul VI. John Paul II dedicated his long pontificate to the vigorous implementation of the directives of Vatican II. He defended the Council's teachings on the dignity of every human person which became the hallmark of his pontificate.

What are some of the highlights of the doctrinal pronouncements of Vatican II?

1. The development of doctrine

2. The governance of the Church by the bishop of Rome and the other bishops in communion with him (Collegiality).

3. The infallibilty of the Church a) in pronouncements of the Ecumenical Councils b) When the bishop of Rome speaks as teacher of the Church Ex-Cathedra c) When all the bishops of the Church together with the Pope pronounce on doctrines or morals d) When the entire Church believes certain doctrines.

4. Evangelization to non-Christians as necessary for the mission of the Church.

5. The possibility of salvation to non-Christians who have not received the gospel.

6. The primacy of conscience of every individual provided he searchs for the truth.

7. The development of understanding in Tradition of the words of God in the Bible through the Magisterium.

8. The recognition that the Orthodox Churches retain valid sacraments, although they are in imperfect unity with the Catholic Church.

9. The recognition that all Christians have in common the fundamental doctrines that Christ preached as recognized in the Nicene Creed.

The Case against Capitalism

Much has happened between 2008 and 2011 that obliges me to reassess the role of Capitalism as a morally acceptable system. The financial crisis of 2008 does not seem to abate as economic recovery in North America is very slow. The GDP growth has been repeatedly revised to lower values in both the U.S. and Canada. The European countries are undergoing a larger crisis. The Euro-zone countries are unable to fulfill their promises to help the less privileged members of Europe such as Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. America alone, who through globalization has exported its own economic system and almost imposed it on the rest of the world, seems to be struggling with the downgrade of its credit rating by Standard and Poor this week. What can we make of an economic system that feeds on the theory of free-market? Investors do not need to grow as much as the average citizen needs to grow. Compare the powerful American education system with those in Africa. Graduates from African or Asian universities require to qualify their degrees to the equivalent degrees in the U.S. The investment in the young people in America costs the average American money which is unaffordable by African graduates. Yet, the resources of Africa have been exploited by the Western powers. It is a long story of slavery that goes back to many centuries. Today the New World must give back to the poor of Africa. In the big picture I propose one moral solution: America, Canada, Australia and Europe need to lower their standard of living of individuals gradually to a level that would match that of Asian and African economies. But is this possible? Unlikely, since greed and selfishness are part of the human weakness especially in a materialist economy. Probably we must learn from those old civilizations that a fair society can be built on the moral integrity of the faithful. The Church has always defended the poor and today too she needs to raise her voice for their sake. The Master taught us this by his example, and the examples of holy people He inspired throughout the ages.