Building on Hope

Earlier this week in preparation for the holidays, Slate.Com offered an amusing little piece on what to say during those inevitable political arguments which come up during family gatherings. I'm always reminded of James Joyce's story "The Dead" and how little the disputes connect with what is really important, something that becomes clear by the climax of the story. Anyway, the article, "Ammunition for Settling--or Starting--Holiday Political Spats" offered a tongue-in-cheek debunking of cherished ideologies by showing how both sides are simultaneously right and wrong. Whether intentional or not, it was quite the post-election, mid-economic crisis piece to display the absurdity of the usual polarities.

The issue of Traces (Vol. 10 No. 9 2008) which just arrived is the perfect antidote to our necessary disillusionment with ideologies and offers a direction for our irrepressible desire for justice and the common good.

Economist Giorgio Vittadini in "Crisis Underscores the Reduction of the Human" writes about the need to build an economy which is for the whole person and not just profits.

The point is to admit that this is not just an economic crisis. It is an anthropological crisis that calls into question a human idea of reduced rationality, tending as it does to the maximization of short-term profits, but inattentive to the principles essential to create a real and lasting affluence. Hence, it is doomed to be cut off from reality and has built a virtual world that will fatally collapse. To look ahead, we need a rationality that reveals how even now Homo oeconomicus has other much greater motives than just quarterly profits unrelated to society. We need a healthy realism that will anchor finance firmly to the real economy, of which it is and must be only an instrument. From this point of view, after having demonized many aspects of the economic system, it is perhaps necessary to reappraise some, such as its close ties to the territory and its concern for the real economy, which is one of its riches that is not yet extinct.

Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete reflects on how the problem of hope makes more clear our need for God and introduces the next book by Fr. Luigi Giussani which we will be working on for School of Community titled Is It Possible to Live This Way?: Hope.

The “knowledge” sustaining modern hope has come from one or another ideology of progress: a political ideology, a scientific one (including so-called scientifically conceived politics that recognize the true structure of history and society), a philosophical system, etc. Yet, again and again, these ideologies show their inability to fulfill our hopes, and hope is increasingly being replaced by a stoic resignation approaching total hopelessness. This was precisely the situation in the culture encountered by the first Christians when they left Palestine and arrived in the great cities of the Roman Empire. Today, we must respond to it as they did. For this to happen, Pope Benedict says, it is necessary to undertake a “self-critique of modern Christianity” by returning to its “roots.”

Then the editorial of the issue asks the direct question: "Got Hope?"

At such an important time in our history, we cannot shy away from proclaiming the only true hope: the encounter with Jesus Christ. And this proclamation does not entail a flight from the world of politics, economics, culture, or justice–in other words, this proclamation does not entail a flight from the world. On the contrary, the hope afforded by the encounter with Christ is that which has most radically transformed life on this earth. As Pope Benedict recently reminded great figures from the world of culture in France, Christian monasticism gave rise to our civilization, without any pretense of a cultural project. We know that hospitals, orphanages, the concept of human rights, science, and polyphonic music all have their roots in that life built on the hope given by the encounter with Jesus Christ.

It would be easy at the point of disillusionment to retreat from active engagement into pietism. Instead, we are called to a great fraternal work born from a reasonable hope based on the person of Christ Incarnate living among us.

"Life Is a Calvary" in Iraq

Yesterday, the Synod in Rome heard from the church of the martyrs through their pastor, Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans.

The situation in some parts of Iraq is disastrous and tragic. Life is a Calvary: there is no peace or security, just as there is a lack of daily necessities. There are continuing shortages of electricity, water, gasoline, telephone communications are increasingly difficult, entire roads are blocked, schools are closed or always in danger, hospitals are on short staff, the people are afraid for their safety. Everyone is afraid of kidnapping, frightened by the intimidation. And what can be said of the unjustifiable kidnappings that take place on a daily basis, harming entire families and often depriving them of their loved ones, even though they have paid tens of thousands of dollars for a release that never happens? Not to mention the increasing number of deaths caused by car bombs and suicide bombings. (Asia News)

Cardinal Delly offered his contribution to the Synod with the witness of his people:

Living the word of God, for us means bearing witness even at the cost of our own lives, as has taken place and is still happening with the sacrifice of bishops, priests, and faithful. They remain in Iraq, strong in faith and love of Christ, thanks to the fire of the word of God. For this reason, I beg you to pray for us and with us to the Lord Jesus, the Word of God, and to share our concerns, our hopes, and the pain of our wounds, so that the Word of God made flesh may remain in his Church and with us as good news and as support. Sixteen of our priests and two of our bishops have been kidnapped and released after an extremely high ransom. Some of them belong to the ranks of the new martyrs who today pray for us in heaven: the archbishop of Mosul, Faraj Rahho, Fr. Raghid Ganni, two other priests, and six more young men. (Asia News)

Half of the previous Christian population of Iraq of 1.4 million has fled the country, while those who remain are too poor to leave. The acts of terror include:

• A Catholic and a Syrian Orthodox church in Kirkuk, as well as an Anglican church and the Apostolic Nuncio’s residence in Baghdad, were bombed in January 2006, killing three people.
• In September 2006, two other churches were attacked, in Kirkuk and Baghdad, killing two persons, one a child.
• Fr. Boulos Iskandar Behnam was kidnapped and murdered. His head had been sliced from his body and placed upon his lifeless chest.
• In December 2006, a high ranking member of the Presbyterian Church in Mosul was murdered.
• In May 2007, St. George’s Church Baghdad’s Dora neighborhood was bombed for a second time.
• In June 2007, a Catholic priest and three deacons were murdered outside of their church after saying Mass in Mosul. (NCR Cafe)

In recent days, the attacks against Christians have intensified in Mosul. A church was bombed and partially damaged.

Haitham Haazem, a Christian who fled to Baghdad from Mosul with his wife on Sunday, said Iraqi forces had restricted themselves to fixed checkpoints and had
little control over entire neighborhoods on the east side, where killings and intimidations took place. (New York Times)

Meanwhile, there is no agreement for our continuing military involvement in Iraq after the end of the year. (Washington Post)

As our involvement and interest in Iraq wanes, it remains to be seen how we will fulfill our obligations to this fragile population persecuted and displaced by the war we waged.