ISA Holds Public Lecture on Spirituality, Peace and Development

In his talk Bro. Paolo interrelated the thoughts of Pope-Emeritus Benedict XVI (Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger) on man, spirituality, religion, peace, and development and used the Biblical verse, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” as his guide.

He explained that just as there was sibling rivalry between Cain and Abel, there are also dynamics between Catholic Social Teaching, on the one hand, and peace and development efforts, on the other.

According to Bro. Paolo, the primary question of his talk was “What are Benedict XVI’s views on religion and spirituality being essential elements of human development?” To respond to this main query, Bro. Paolo discussed firstly in “Who Am I?” the theological anthropology of Pope Benedict XVI.”

The Pope-Emeritus believes that a true and authentic development hinges on the centrality of the human person created by God in his own image and likeness. He holds as an overarching doctrine that man is an image of God (imago Dei) and bears within himself the inalienable dignity reflecting the relational dynamics of the Triune God, one God in three persons.

In the second part of his lecture (“Who is My Brother?”), Bro. Paolo discussed the former pope’s concept of communio so as to answer the question “Within the context of his views on man, religion, and spirituality, how does Benedict XVI conceptualize peace?”

Pope-Emeritus Benedict XVI said that being an imago Dei makes man by nature relational, social and therefore called to communion, both with God and man. And being such, man also holds within himself the image of God, who as creator brought forth an orderly universe and who as redeemer rescued man from the disorder of sin to bring him back to harmony with his Creator and the rest of creation.

Being so, man is also called to a vocation of promoting the ‘Gospel of peace’ by virtue of justice and love – justice because creation needs to be restored to harmony with God, man, and creation; and love because it is the proper response to God freely creating man out of love.

In the third and last part of his talk (“Am I my Brother’s Keeper?”), Bro. Paolo examined Benedict XVI’s interpretation of integral human development against the background of a post-modernized, globalized, and secularized society in order to resolve the question: “How does Benedict XVI see development within the context of a ‘Gospel of peace?”

Specifically, this pope has argued that integral human development cannot come about without heeding the ‘Gospel of peace,’ a concept which he defines as being at peace with God, man and creation, and which can be achieved only if the essentiality of the createdness of the human person is universally accepted and respected.

Referring to globalization, Benedict XVI also focused on the economic model which values profit and consumption driven by individual self-interest as well as consumeristic and utilitarian lifestyles pervading society.

In line with this Benedict XVI described a true peacemaker as one who works for the continuous upliftment of the material and spiritual condition of his fellow human being. Today’s society suffers from a poverty that is both material and spiritual and as a Church called to communion, its members have the responsibility to put into action their inherent giftedness of imago Dei.

In his encyclical Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth), he wrote that by being created, we become bonded into a human family that calls for a solidarity, even a duty, to stand with and for others. Every right implies a duty as a safeguard against laxity and license.

This pontiff has also said that globalization opens the possibility that there is hope for peace if only all are assured of realistic human development. But in many instances, it actually creates divisions and conflicts. Still, he states that globalization can be an opportunity to promote solidarity to fight poverty and to enable resources available to promote justice and peace. This modern phenomenon could very well serve as an agent for the gospel of peace and enable genuine integral human development.

For this public lecture, ISA hosted a team of professors and students from the University of Vienna Department of Theological Ethics who were in the country as part of the 25th year of Sandiwaan, a partnership between the Catholic University of Vienna and the Inter-Congregational Theological Center (ICTC).

Dr. Gunter Prueller started the open forum by noting that Pope Benedict XVI is not much rooted in the marginalized poor whereas the late Pope John Paul II had believed “that sometimes we have to fight for justice because peace and justice is not present in many parts of the world.”

Tracing from Pope Benedict’s biography the stance about making peace, Dr. Prueller also said that creating justice is also very much needed and vital: “My context is how to reach justice even as it is also possible to be peacemakers for the sake of justice.”

Bro. Paolo thanked Dr. Prueller for the question and agreed on the need to understand the perspectives of both popes: “Based on the perspective of Benedict and looking at its context, I did this analysis.”

For her part Dr. Sigrid Muller suggested to Bro. Paolo to contextualize his model of the Pope Emeritus’ thoughts within the economy of the Philippines; to establish intra -world spirituality in such a model; and to connect it to the work for the kind of peace advocated by Benedict XVI.

“You are proposing bringing other faiths to the Gospel but you will still need to translate this to an international approach to globalization,” she told Bro. Paolo.

In his reply the speaker reported of his efforts to connect indigenous forms of spirituality with the Catholic religion and yet maintain the latter as the basis of spirituality in the context and perspective of Benedict VI.

“I stressed that we will suffer with modernization and development because these do not always agree with religion – for example, reproductive health and other benchmarks and signs of development,” Bro. Paolo explained.

He added, “Religion and development is a chicken-and-egg situation, which is why I focused on the spirituality of Pope Benedict and based it on his thoughts about peace and development, and also in a Catholic context. I see your point about presenting the model within a more general, inspirational context and so, in the third part of my talk, I spoke about including all in the idea of development.”

A third comment was on the great need to translate ideas in the context of political science instead of limiting the context to spirituality, even as such a spirituality is admittedly situated within other religions, other spiritualities and other fields.

Here, ISA volunteer staff member Dr. Carmen Alviar took off her hat as forum moderator and pointed out that she had gathered from the model three dimensions which are true of other religions and not just of Christianity: truth, justice and love.

At this juncture, ISA Executive Director Fr. Rico Ponce, O.Carm. stepped in to point out that ISA had asked Bro. Paolo to develop a paper on spirituality and not on religion and to endorse the suggestion to consider the perspective of other faith traditions.

Still another participant stood up to ask how the model of Pope Benedict’s thinking addresses the concerns raised by Rerum Novarum (the first modern encyclical on social justice) about workers and their wages as well as about leaders and truth.

“And how about our justice system for lumads deprived of their ancestral lands because they cannot show legal proof of ownership?”

Bro. Paolo argued for a deeper context of peacemaking at a time when God seems to allow people to experience injustice (“Blessed are the persecuted” or “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” or “when it is women who face emotional difficulties and are kicked and killed when they go good”) despite ongoing work for human rights.

As the questions continued, other participants raised other views. Bro. Joiezl Piñon, O.Carm. added the context of Filipino Catholic theology to the thoughts of Pope Benedict XVI on imago Dei.

“We are to establish that we are in God’s image and we are directed to ourselves, other human beings and all of creation,” he said “We have received our Catholic faith from our parents but for me, spirituality comes after religion. Charged by spirituality, we come to know God and to nurture our sense of Catholic spirituality that motivates us to live for peace.”

Still on spirituality, Alfrein Quirionez, program coordinator based in Quiapo Church of the Silsilah Movement working for interfaith dialogue, asked if a person could be spiritual without being religious.

Bro. Paolo cited a reference in his literature review which describes a person in a relationship with God but without having any religion.

On the modeling on “my brother’s keeper”, ISA staff member Sheba Martinez (Theology lecturer at Miriam College) called for mindfulness to humanity itself (“and not just to men and women”).

And on imago Dei, she is heartened by its definition as humankind made in the image and likeness of God but still prays: “May women be included in this definition.”

A lecturer on Church Social Teaching said that, he appreciates Bro. Paolo’s use of the Biblical story on “my brother’s keeper” and shared a reflection that in the Philippines, religion is the objectification of spirituality and of faith.

And on the Eucharist as the central highlight of the Catholic faith, he asked, “Why are we not ordaining women? We are not adjusting to the need for priests to consecrate the Eucharist.”

Bro. Paolo replied, “That would be the very answer to my presentation that when we spoke of development, sometimes we suffer in going against the context of the Judeo-Christian reality.’

He added, “When we speak of religion and development, it is Cain and Abel. But development is here for transformation. Are we going to go away just because there is no priest to offer the Eucharist? Here is where I want to use the story of Cain and Abel even if it will mean a very long discussion.”p>

This particular public lecture closed with a certificate of appreciation for Bro. Paolo from ISA and with a token bottle of schnapps from the University of Vienna team. #

Perla Choudhury