example of integral conversion with joy and Christian enjoyment (Cf. LS 20-120). A prayerful reading of the Word of God will help us to reflect further and discover the groans of the Spirit and will encourage us in the commitment to look after the “common home.” ” (emphasis added)  (Zenit Translation of the Final Document by Virginia M. Forrester, 6 November 2019).
 
Inculturation: Bishop David Martìnez De Aguirre Guinea, Apostolic Vicar of Puerto Maldonado in Peru, said one of the strongest themes to come out of the Synod was inculturation, or how to harmonize local cultures with the Church.
 
Inculturation is the acquisition of the characteristics and norms of a culture by another culture, and, in the context of this article, the adaptation of the way Church teachings are presented to other, non-Christian, cultures and, in turn, the influence of those cultures on the evolution of these teachings. Historical examples would be the influence of Greek pagan philosphers (e.g. Plato & Aristotle) on Catholic doctrine; and the timing of Christmas to coincide with the winter solstice (Yule) or celebration of the pagan Roman Sol Invictus (Unconquered Sun) i.e. Christianity appropriated pagan ideas by adopting new meaning or adapting meaning or events to coincide and harmonise with Christian beliefs.
 
All human experience occurs within a cultural setting. The Gospels’ background was Judaic and Greco-Roman. The Catholic Church is by definition universal, in which case should it not take all cultures into consideration? Does it?
 
Cardinal Cláudio Hummes, OFM spoke at a mass 20 Oct 2019 where a new Pact of the Catacombs [next blog posting] was signed: “welcoming and valuing cultural, ethnic and linguistic diversity in a respectful dialogue with all spiritual traditions." Synod members pledged simplicity, & closeness to the poor (Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service 10.21.2019)
 
‘The Cry of the Poor, Together with that of the Earth, Has Reached Us from the Amazon . . . We Cannot Pretend We Haven’t Heard It’ (Pope Francis, Before the Angelus, Zenit, 27 Oct 2019) Let us ask ourselves today: “What good thing can I do for the Gospel?” We were asked this in the Synod, desiring to open new pathways for the proclamation of the Gospel. … For the journey ahead, we invoke the Virgin Mary, venerated and loved as Queen of Amazonia. She became so not by conquering but by “inculturating herself”: with the humble courage of a mother, she became the protectress of her little ones, the defense of the oppressed.” [emphasis added.]
 
Unfortunately, an issue of controversy concerning inculturation has been reported. As a Laudato Si’ Animator, I am torn between ignoring or even rebutting such criticism and thinking I should at least know what is out there and perhaps alert others. It is in the spirit of the latter belief that I include the criticism. I do not write off the critics; just their criticism which I certainly do not share nor want to propagate.

been displayed in the Rome church "without any idolatrous intention," although the men who took the statues claimed on social media that they did so because the statues were idols. "Pachamama" is a term for "Mother Earth" used by some South American indigenous people.  (Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service, October 25, 2019)
 
The pope also said that the statues, which floated, had been recovered by Italian police. The statues, "which created such a media clamor," he said, "were not damaged." 
​
The Vatican press department dismissed the notion that the pope was endorsing paganism, but in a synod that has raised questions of married priests and infusing indigenous culture into Catholic rites, Pachamama nevertheless immediately became a symbol of the ideological wars surrounding the synod. 

Why the opposition to this statue? Was it Pachamama or has it become Our Lady of the Amazon? I would suggest that like beauty, surely the answer lies in the mind of the beholder! To me, if Pachamama is a reflection of South American, including Amazonian, Indigenous spirituality and pre Christian paganism, let us rejoice because through inculturation does it not closely resemble Franciscan spirituality as exemplified by “Our Sister Mother Earth” in the Canticle of the Creatures: “Praised be You, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth who sustains and governs us, …?”
 
Are we Franciscans accused of syncretism, pantheism, paganism or idolatory? If so, let me borrow the recent words of Greta Thunberg and apply them (albeit in a different context): “How dare you!” And how much more pro-life can the depiction of a pregnant women be? Or is a pregnant woman not pro-life and made in the image of God if she is pagan? Does not God also love pagans?
 
All this opposition comes from Catholics some of whom link the Amazon Synod to liberation theology, Marxism, even to Mikhail Gorbachev; in spite of the fact that one of the “founders” of liberation theology, Fr Gustavo Gutiérrez (who later became a Dominican), said liberation theology was 90% “preferential option for the poor” which you may recognise is a principle of Catholic Social Doctrine. Do the opponents have a narrow view of Catholicism and not understand the realities of the Amazon within the universal nature of the Church or accept the concept or necessity of inculturation? Since when is theft, vandalism and ignorant insularity the answer?

After I wrote this I received the following from a Mexican Bishop I had met in Chiapas: Is ‘Pachamama’ a Goddess? Asks Monsignor Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel. See also: Sometimes a Statue is Just a Statue

Inculturation: An Episcopal Consecration
 
Dom Pedro Casaldáliga, a Catalan Cordimarian religious was consecrated bishop in 1971 in the city of São Felix do Araguaia in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso by Pope Paul VI. A prominent representative of Liberation Theology, Archbishop Tomás Balduino, Bishop Emeritus of Goiás Velho … reported: “Pedro… was surrounded by the poor people of that region. He received the liturgical symbols that were inculturated in the cultures of indigenous and peasant peoples. The mitre was a straw hat, the staff a tapirape oar, and the ring was made of tucum becoming, on his finger and those of many pastoral agents, a sign of his commitment to the journey of liberation.”
 
Bishop Pedro Casaldáliga transferred the diocesan government to his successor, Bishop Leonardo Steiner: “[Pedro], on handing Leonardo the tucum ring, recalled that the causes we defend define who we are and that the causes of this Church are known to all: the option for the poor, defense of indigenous peoples, commitment to farmers and the landless, formation of inculturated and participatory communities, effective living of solidarity.” ”            ....READ MORE

Inculturation: Our Lady of Guadalupe
 
Here is another (and for me personally extremely powerful – but that’s another story) example of inculturation. It is a shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe in a remote Chiapas, Mexican community home that I visited in 2002 where She is draped in the local womens’ tilma (shawl or cloak) of the 45 indigenous Mayan Tzotzil people who were massacred in Acteal in 1999 thus making Our Lady of Guadalupe one of their own and a perfect example of inculturation.

Finally while thinking of Mexico let us remember this:
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“With the carnage of World War I in mind, Pope Benedict XV extended All Souls Day to the whole Catholic Church in 1915. On All Souls people of faith remember those believers who have gone before them and ask God to welcome them as they enter their final journey to be with God forever.
 
While Día de los Muertos also remembers the dead, it celebrates their living memory as well. Gatherings at gravesides become family reunion picnics—with the dead invited. Food, drink, music, flowers, and fireworks are part of the celebration. It is a kind of party during which the dead are remembered and rejoiced over. In the home, altars decorated with flowers, photos of the deceased, and a variety of food offerings for the dead extend hospitality to the deceased and recall their presence. …

Catholicism embraces all these dimensions of remembering the dead. Whether in prayer for all the faithful departed on All Souls or in the customs of Día de los Muertos, the past enters into the present. Families and the larger family of faith gather around altars and places where the deceased rest to affirm life in the midst of death and joy in sorrow. A memory celebrated becomes a living hope for eternal life.” (emphasis added)   .....READ MORE

                                                            - Andrew Conradi, ofs, Laudato Si’ Animator, Global Catholic Climate Movement 

If environmental & human rights defenders are assassinated, 
can they be seen as martyrs?
Did they die for us too?

On the Feast of St Francis 2019, at a powerfully symbolic event held in the Vatican Gardens, Pope Francis planted a tree alongside Amazonian leaders from Brazil and dedicated the upcoming Synod on the Amazon to St. Francis of Assisi. The tree that was planted is a Holm Oak, the tree reputed to have been at the centre of one of St. Francis’ famous conversations with nature. Read more.... 
 
The working document of the Amazon Synod Instrumentum Laboris, (IL) states that the goal is “to listen to the voice of the Amazon and to respond as a prophetic and Samaritan Church.” IL states at §145: “To question power in the defence of territory and human rights is to risk one’s life, to step onto the path of cross and martyrdom. The number of martyrs in the Amazon is alarming … The Church cannot be indifferent; …, it must help to protect the men and women who defend human rights and remember their martyrs … .”
 
The most famous assassinated defender in recent years was the outspoken environmental activist Berta Caceres, a Lenca indigenous leader, who attracted international attention for opposition to a hydroelectric dam in Honduras. Although a court order banned her from the area and she endured death threats, she successfully led protests that thwarted the project.
Berta, awarded the 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize – considered the Nobel for ecological actions - was assassinated at home 2 March 2016, sparking outrage and offering another example of the impunity and violence in the Central American country.
 
As Pope Francis wrote in Laudato Si’: “it is essential to show special care for indigenous communities and their cultural traditions. They are not merely one minority among others, but should be the principal dialogue partners, especially when large projects affecting their land are proposed. For them, land is not a commodity but rather a gift from God” (146).

Berta was hailed as a martyr of Laudato Si'. Read more... 

The Amazon has its share of environmental and human rights assassinated defenders. IL §145 indicates over 1,000 between 2003 and 2017. ​​Brazil's land and environmental activists have long been a target for the mining and logging industry.

Maxciel Pereira dos Santos, worked for Fundação Nacional do Índio (FUNAI), the Brazilian governmental protection agency for Indian interests including their culture and environment. Maxciel, who worked to protect indigenous people from farmers and loggers attempting to seize land, was killed 6 Sept 2019. Santos served more than 12 years at FUNAI including five as chief of environment services at the Vale do Javari reservation, according to INA, a union group representing FUNAI workers.
 
A Season of Creation 2019 Prayer of the Faithful:
In this Season of Creation we thank God for the inspiration of those who heard the cry of the earth and cry of the poor and lost their lives by assassination because of their defence of the Amazon Rainforest and its indigenous peoples.  They included Fr. Ezechiele Ramin in 1985, Sr. Dorothy Stang, in 2005, and to name just two in 2019: Dilma Ferreira Silva, on 22 March and Maxciel Pereira dos Santos on 6 Sept for whom we ask the Creator God’s blessing and we pray that the Holy Spirit will guide the Synod of Bishops soon to discern a course of action for “Amazonia: New Paths for the Church and for an Integral Ecology.”

For Action
International
Please sign on-line the D&P solidarity letter to two groups in the Amazon: the seringueiros in the Machadinho d’Oeste municipality, Rondônia State and the Mura people of Manaus, Amazonas State. The seringueiros are traditional artisanal rubber tappers. By state-recognized right, a group of them practice sustainable hunting, gathering, fishing and rubber tapping on 16 reserves. Here is the solidarity letter:  
Read more:
A future for Amazon, a future for all
A mine of misery
The seringueiros are traditional artisanal rubber tappers
 
Laudato Si': "reducing greenhouse gases requires honesty, courage and responsibility, above all on the part of those countries which are more powerful and pollute the most." (169)   
 
To fulfill the Paris Agreement a recent study has estimated 75%  of the effort required must come from government action
and 25% from individual initiatives. That is why we must keep up the pressure on Governments as Laudato Si’ (179) advised us!  Read More...

National
Canada Election 2019
Canada’s Jesuits suggest issues for reflection and questions to ask candidates. 
They include: 1. Climate Crisis; 2. Canadian Ombudsperson for the Global Extractives Industries; 3. Justice and Right Relationship with Indigenous Peoples; & 4. Refugees & Migrants. Check their valuable tool for reflection

Here is some further background on Justice and Right Relationship with Indigenous Peoples regarding water and compensation for treatment of Indigenous children and youths.

Water
When asked if he was just writing a "blank cheque" for problems faced by Indigenous communities, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh asked if the same question would be raised if Toronto or Vancouver had a clean drinking water problem.

Compensation for children and youths challenged by Liberal Government "It's always about money," Indigenous activist and academic Pam Palmater told CTV Question Period. "But more than that, it's about devaluing the lives of First Nations kids
because I guarantee you that if this was about some students in Quebec in a French school and they were dying because of discriminatory underfunding, we wouldn't even be having this conversation."      Read more/see more about both issues.

The Pope and four refugees from various parts of the world together unveiled this statue entitled Angels Unawares in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome on the World Day for Migrants and Refugees (29 September which the Church has been celebrating since 1914). Canadian Fr. Michael Czerny, SJ (Cardinal designate) Vatican Under-Secretary for Migrants and Refugees, said the special theme for this year’s observance is: “It’s not just about migrants.”  
 
In his homily Pope Francis denounced the world's indifference in the face of the migration and refugee crisis. “When we become 'spiritually lukewarm', we become half-Christian without substance."  He warned against a “globalization of indifference” in which migrants, refugees, displaced persons and victims of trafficking become emblems of exclusion. The Church’s mission is to all those living in the existential peripheries, who need to be welcomed, protected, promoted and integrated. Earlier (26 Sept) he said: “Lukewarm faith, leads so many to find excuses in uncertainty and fuels the tendency to procrastinate.” Timothy Schmalz, of Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, the artist creator of Angels Unawares says it was inspired by Hebrews 13:2.
​
You may be familiar with Timothy Schmalz’s famous Homeless Jesus first exhibited at Regis College, University of Toronto in 2013 then in Rome where it was blessed by the Pope. It is now reproduced and exhibited in over a 100 places including outside the Papal Charities Building, in Vatican City.

Amazon Synod
“The Amazon Synod is a conscious ecclesial effort to implement Laudato Si’ in this fundamental human and natural environment.” (Cardinal Designate Michael Czerny, SJ & Bishop David Martínez de Aguirre, OP)
  Read more...
​
Given the criticisms arising regarding the working document [of the Amazon Synod] (Instrumentum Laboris), Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, stated this morning [3 Oct 2019]: “The Instrumentum Laboris isn’t a papal document, it’s a compilation of the questions and petitions of the Amazonian peoples, who have expressed their anxieties. The expressions have been compiled, not with one assembly, but with a total of 170 assemblies and other forums. So that the Bishops can listen.” [I ask: If the detractors of the Synod miss that essential point of the Synod – listening – are they an example of ecclesial clericalism?]    Read more....  
 
“What really bothers the detractors of Pope Francis is that his theology stems from reality: from the reality of injustice, poverty and the destruction of nature, and from the reality of ecclesial clericalism.” [And I believe we can say Pope Francis’ theology proceeds using Cardinal Cardijn’s method See, Judge, Act long used by the Church and based on reality not theory & seeking to unite not divide.]  Read more...

I leave you with this prayer from the Global Catholic Climate Movement:

   We give thanks for the witness of Pope Francis and the loving presence of our Creator. 
   We ask forgiveness for all the times we have not acted as brothers and sisters with creation. 
   We ask that the Creator unite us now and throughout the year to live our vocation to care for our             common home. Amen.
 
I hope you had lovely celebrations of the Transitus and Feast Day of St Francis of Assisi and were able to eat some of his favourite almond biscotti (thanks to Brother Jacoba)!
I wish all: Peace, joy and all good!