[The Vatican Synod and Vatican Radio: a house divided against itself?]
Video on Islam’s growth sparks debate at Synod
CWN – October 15, 2012
A controversy arose at the Synod of Bishops on October 13 when the participating bishops were shown a video that Vatican Radio described as a “fear-mongering presentation of statistics attempting to show how Islam is conquering Europe and the rest of the world.”
The video–which was apparently screened by Cardinal Peter Kodwo Turkson, the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace–emphasized the high birth rates among Muslims in Europe, in contrast with the falling fertility of native Europeans, and concluded that the continent would soon be predominantly Islamic.
“Why one of the Curial cardinal chose to show this piece of anti-Islamic propaganda is quite unclear,” Vatican Radio reported. But the dramatic presentation did give rise to some energetic discussions, with some bishops criticizing the video while others chose to emphasize the need for more effective evangelization among the people of Europe.
Additional sources for this story: See www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=15915
Simply statistics, friends, nothing to get all up-tight about. Oh, you mean this could be seen as offensive to Moslems? I thought it was kinda complimentary, myself.
Seriously, though, it’s about time the Bishops took notice of this phenomenon. In Quebec, they’re worried that fewer people are speaking French at home. If they can worry about that, can’t we be just a little concerned about the loss of our culture due to our being outnumbered by immigrants of another race and religion?
We don’t have to speak to offend moslems, the fact that we exist as Christians keeps their butts in the air and their noses to the ground with seething rage five times a day. islam is evil, if we believe otherwise we are raising the devil and lowering Christ.
Archbishop Charles Chaput knows what the faithfull need to hear:
If we do not believe in the devil, sooner or later we will not believe in God. We cannot cut Lucifer out of the ecology of salvation. Satan is not God’s equal. He is a created being subject to God and already, by the measure of eternity, defeated. Nonetheless, he is the first author of pride and rebellion, and the great seducer of man. Without him the Incarnation and Redemption do not make sense, and the cross is meaningless. Satan is real. There is no way around this simple truth.
We live in an age that imagines itself as post-modern and post-Christian. It is a time defined by noise, urgency, action, utility and a hunger for practical results. But there is nothing really new about any of this. I think St. Paul would find our age rather familiar. For all of the rhetoric about “hope and change” in our politics, our urgencies hide a deep unease about the future; a kind of well-manicured selfishness and despair.
The Emptiness Hurts
The world around us has a hole in its heart, and the emptiness hurts. Only God can fill it. In our baptism, God called each of us here today to be his agents in that work. Like St. Paul, we need to be “doers of the word, and not hearers only” (Jas 1:22). We prove what we really believe by our willingness, or our refusal, to act on what we claim to believe.
You Are Being Called
We have an obligation as Catholics to study and understand the world around us. We have a duty not just to penetrate and engage it, but to convert it to Jesus Christ. That work belongs to all of us equally: clergy, laity and religious. We are missionaries. That is our primary vocation; it is hardwired into our identity as Christians. God calls each of us to different forms of service in his Church. But we are all equal in baptism. And we all share the same mission of bringing the Gospel to the world, and bringing the world to the Gospel.
The Real Issue is a Crisis of Faith
Our real issue is a crisis of faith. Do we believe in God or not? Are we on fire with a love for Jesus Christ, or not? Because if we are not, nothing else matters. If we are, then everything we need in order to do God’s work will follow, because he never abandons his people.
God calls us to leave here today and make disciples of all nations. But he calls us first to love him. If we do that, and do it zealously, with all our hearts – the rest will follow.
Archbishop Charles Chaput
St. Thomas Aquinas pray for us and our Priest.