Religion

Andra Advent – Det sanna är nära

Debatt

Skrivet av Hans-Evert Renérius

dec072014

ljuset som besegrar mörkretDen första söndagen är över. För många var det en överväldigande högtid med ljus, sång, körer och smattrande trumpeter. Allt var stort och lysande. Besökaren drogs med i ett ropande Hosianna, som ekade mellan kyrkoväggarna.

Men så kommer andra tider. Tid för eftertanke och klarsyn. Tid för ensamhet och tvivel, för insikt och analys. Vad är det det handlar om? Var finna jag i allt detta?

Den personliga reflexionen ligger i de efterföljande söndagarna under det nyinrättade kyrkoåret. Festen över. Det nya årets ”raketer” har spridits ut över himlavalvet. Kvar står jag och med vardag, Jag och min inre lust att kunna fånga någon av sanning, mening och själv- förtroende.

De fyra adventsljusen kan få enkla namn, som väntans ljus, trons, hoppets och kärlekens.

Första advent – det första Ljusets glädje!

Debatt

Skrivet av Hans-Evert Renérius

nov302014

Ögat upplever ljuset som en spegling mot det inreDet är en stor glädje att få tända det första ljuset. De fyra ljusen som finns uppradade i den nya eller gamla adventsljusstaken kommer att lysa söndag efter söndag. Kanske också ljusen kommer att brinna i adventsgranen, i fönstret, på bordet, i ditt hjärta.

Vi tänder ljus. Det är mycket viktigt. Ögat upplever ljuset som en spegling mot det inre.

Det som sker där utanför kroppen, sker också i det inre. För samtidigt som vi tänder ljus, betyder det att vi tänker framåt och på det som är viktigt för oss. Det viktiga som är hopp, längtan, framtid, fred och frid. Vi låter den ljusa symbolen leva mitt ibland oss. Det blir ett naturligt inslag i vardagen. Det naturliga inre ljuset, som lever i våra hjärtan, blir en påminnelse om det heligas närvaro.

Vi kan inte vara utan vår längtan efter ljus. Vi kan heller inte vara utan traditionens ljus, eller låt oss säga: det heligas ljus. Vi tänder, därför att hjärtat längtar efter Jesu Kristi närvaro. Han finns både i den traditionella högtiden som i det spontana nuet. Jesus, vår Herre, som skall födas till vår söndrade värld under den stilla natten. Han är vår Frids- furste.

There’s a War of Religion, but the Pope Keeps Quiet or Stammers

Debatt

Skrivet av Sandro Magister

nov252014

The HorrorIn the face of the offensive of radical Islam, Francis’s idea is that “we must soothe the conflict.” And forget Regensburg. With serious harm also to the reformist currents of Islam

In a few days Pope Francis will go to Turkey, right into the thick of the new “piecemeal” global war that he sees overrunning the world.

The Islamic caliphate that has taken hold just beyond the Turkish border, between Syria and Iraq, pulverizing the old geographical boundaries, is global by nature. “The triumphant march of the mujahideen will reach all the way to Rome,” caliph Abu Bakr al Baghdadi proclaimed in the middle of November.

It has received declarations of obedience from patches of Islam in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Algeria, and Libya, opposite the coasts of Italy. In Nigeria and nearby Cameroon, Boko Haram has extended the caliphate to sub-Saharan Africa. New followers are streaming in from Europe and North America.

Where Even Buddha Grips the Sword

Debatt

Skrivet av Sandro Magister

nov112014

Mural painting of war axes and floral motif that depict around reclining buddha hallThis is the case of Myanmar, where members of other faiths are persecuted in the name of Buddhism. Or of Sri Lanka, which will be a destination of the pope’s next voyage. As documented by the 2014 report of Aid to the Church in Need, on violations of religious freedom

Nebuchadnezzar is still among us. And those who do not worship his idol are thrown into the flames, as in chapter three of the prophet Daniel.
On the very same day on which the 2014 report on religious freedom in the world was made public by the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need, in Pakistan a crowd of four hundred enraged Muslims attacked and threw into a burning furnace two young Christian spouses, Shahzad Masih, 28, and his wife Shama, 25, who left four children and were expecting another.
Of the twenty countries classified in the report with the highest level of violations of religious freedom, fourteen are officially Muslim, plus Nigeria which is religiously divided between Christians and Muslims but is under the sway of Boko Haram, one of the bloodiest expressions of radical Islam. Without counting the new self-declared Islamic State that has set itself up between Syria and Iraq, sowing death in the name of Allah.

At the Synod and After, Revolving Door for Homosexuals

Debatt

Skrivet av Sandro Magister

okt282014

cardinalsFirst admitted with full honors, then driven out again. This is the way it seemed from how the discussions unfolded. But here’s what really happened. Martin Rhonheimer takes stock of the question.

Homosexuality was one of the most controversial questions at the recent extraordinary synod on the family, as proven by the vast difference between the paragraph dedicated to it in the final “Relatio” and the three paragraphs of the previous “Relatio” halfway through the discussion.

Final “Relatio”

“55. Some families live the experience of having persons of homosexual orientation within them. In this regard it was asked what pastoral attention should be paid to this situation in reference to the teaching of the Church: ‘There exists no foundation whatsoever for assimilating or establishing analogies, however remote, between homosexual unions and God’s plan for marriage and the family.’ Nonetheless, men and women with homosexual tendencies must be welcomed with respect and delicacy. ‘Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided’ (Congregation for the doctrine of the faith, Considerations on plans for the legal recognition of unions between homosexual persons, 4).”

Nu ska jag börja leva idag som om jag ska dö i morgon

Debatt

Skrivet av Abdel-Qader Yassine

sep222014

Abdel-Qader YassineDen 15:e september, blev 14 månader sedan jag fick min cancerdiagnos.

Var befinner jag mig nu?

Hur hanterar jag det som har hänt?

Hur mår jag?

Man delar aldrig sin sjukdom i grunden med någon annan.

Mitt liv kan bara levas av mig.

Under sommaren har jag suttit vid mitt skrivbord och arbetat med en bok om rasism som kommer ut nu i november. Jag har frågat mig: hur har jag förändrats av den livskatastrof som drabbade mig för 14 månader sen?

Har jag överhuvudtaget förändrats?

Eller är jag samma person nu som då?

Vad sker med en människas identitet när hon drabbas av en svår sjukdom?

Livet är en allvarlig sak. Man kan aldrig ta ett steg tillbaka och börja om igen. Det finns ingen bonus som utdelas i form av dubbla tärningskast. Livet levs framåt, inte stillastående eller bakåt!

Jag vet inte hur länge jag kommer att överleva med den här sjukdomen. Den är obotlig. Jag slipper aldrig ifrån den. Frågan är bara hur länge de cellgifter jag tar kan bjuda cancern motstånd och hålla den nertryckt. Det vet ingen, varken jag eller mina läkare.

Men jag vet samtidigt att den största faran i mitt liv och andra cancersjukas är att hänge sig åt illusioner. Jag kommer aldrig att bli frisk. Men jag kan leva så länge att jag hinner dö av någonting annat än den cancer jag bär på.

The Strange Silences of a Very Talkative Pope

Debatt

Skrivet av Sandro Magister

aug052014

StudiesNot a word for the abducted Nigerian schoolgirls, nor for the Pakistani Asia Bibi, sentenced to death on the charge of having offended Islam. And then the audiences denied to former president of the IOR Gotti Tedeschi, driven out for wanting to clean house

On the feast of Saint Anne, patron of Caserta, Pope Francis made a visit to this city. Everything normal? No. Because just two days later Jorge Mario Bergoglio returned to Caserta on a private visit, to meet with an Italian friend he got to know in Buenos Aires, Giovanni Traettino, pastor of a local Evangelical church.

Initially Francis’s intention was to go only to visit his friend, with the bishop of Caserta left completely in the dark, and it took some doing to convince the pope to expand his schedule in order not to overlook the sheep of his fold.

In Francis the collegiality of governance is more evoked than practiced. The style is that of a superior general of the Jesuits who in the end decides everything on his own. This can be grasped from his actions, his words, his silences.

Celestine V The Myth and the Reality

Debatt

Skrivet av Sandro Magister

jul162014

Celestine VTogether with Saint Francis, Jorge Mario Bergoglio has chosen as his guide Saint Pietro del Morrone, pope for a few months at the age of 85. But according to the historians that pontificate was a disaster

”These two saints have given the example. They knew that as clerics – one was a deacon and the other a bishop, the bishop of Rome – as clerics both of them had to give the example of poverty, of mercy, and of complete emptying of self.”

This is how Jorge Mario Bergoglio has indicated two saints as his models: not only the predictable Francis, from whom he has taken his name, but also the unexpected Pietro del Morrone, pope for a few months in 1294 with the name of Celestine V.

He did so on July 5 in Isernia, a city that claims to be the birthplace of Celestine V, on the anniversary date of this saint’s election as pope.

And this is precisely what is unusual. As pope, Celestine V was never particularly esteemed by his early and later successors. Instead they have remembered and admired him for his “humble” resignation of the pontificate and even more for his previous holy life as a hermit.

The Third Asian Voyage for Francis Will Be to Japan

Debatt

Skrivet av Sandro Magister

jul112014

The Church in Japan is a promiseBergoglio has dreamed of this destination since his youth. And now he will go there as pope, at the invitation of the Japanese government. As revealed and explained by a former ambassador to the Holy See, Kagefumi Ueno

”I will go to Asia twice in six months. To Korea in August to meet with Asian young people. In January to Sri Lanka and the Philippines. The Church in Asia is a promise.”

Pope Francis said this in an interview published on the feast of the apostles Peter and Paul.

But after Korea, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines, another Asian nation is already preparing to receive a visit from the pope: Japan.

This has been revealed by an authoritative Japanese personality: Kagefumi Ueno, ambassador to the Holy See from 2006 to 2010, now a professor of civilization and culture at Kyorin University in Tokyo, and the author in 2011 of a book on the Vatican described through the eyes of an observer culturally far removed – of a Buddhist-Shintoist outlook – and yet highly interested.

The Diplomacy of the Impossible

Debatt

Skrivet av Sandro Magister

jun242014

Francis, Abu Mazen and PeresFrancisreplaces negotiation with prayer. He favors supernatural weapons. But he calculates with consummate skill every word he speaks. And also every silence, as in the case of the young Sudanese mother condemned to death simply because she is Christian

Francis has placed back at the head of the secretariat of state a thoroughbred diplomat, Cardinal Pietro Parolin. But with him as pope, the face of Vatican geopolitics has changed.

The war of the worlds fought and won by a giant like John Paul II is now a distant memory. In an age of personalized conflicts, of despots, of armed factions, of fractured and failed states, even diplomacy is becoming personalized, becoming ”artisanal,” as Pope Francis himself likes to put it. His Argentina is not Poland, where the dictatorship was opposed by a Church of the people, solid and faithful. Under the heel of the military rulers the Argentine Church was confused and divided. The young Jesuit Jorge Mario Bergoglio acted according to his own judgment, in secret and sovereign solitude.

Today he does everything in public. But still with highly personal gestures that seem alien to the old-school diplomats. Like inviting under the dome of St. Peter’s, to pray, the presidents of Israel and Palestine.