CFM ARTICLES

THE MISSION OF LOVE AND SERVICE IN AN INTERFAITH COMMUNITY
By Nop and Elma Muangkroot, ICCFM Presidents, with Rev. Fr. Donnon Murray
Thailand

The main areas of the Catholic missionary work throughout the world are well-known: education, care of the sick, managing orphanages, homes for the handicapped, the aged and the dying, and many other forms of fraternal service. However, there are other manifestations of Christian love and service unique to countries where various faiths exist side by side, particularly when Christianity is a minority religion. Possibly no other countries could better exemplify the Christian mission of love and service in an interfaith community than Japan and Thailand, countries which have the world's lowest percentage of Chistians, 1/2 of 1%. The issues that come to mind when considering this topic are the following:

• How do Christians render love and service in an interfaith community?
• Is the function the same for every interfaith community in every culture?
• What should the priority of this mission be: social action or spiritual conversion?

A great majority of people in non-Christian countries of the Third World live in dire poverty. For example, there are street people, the garbage pickers and the debt-ridden farmers in many Asian countries. As non-Christians, these people are also deprived of hearing the Good News that Jesus has proclaimed. A great manifestation of Christian love and service would be to offer them the opportunity to experience God's love and help them develop a deep relationship with the Lord. However, the reality is that they can think of nothing beyond the fact that they are hungry, have no clothing to wear and no roof over their heads. Therefore, common sense requires that, in our mission of Christian love and service, we do what we can to alleviate their suffering before even thinking about meeting their spiritual needs.

In the parched northeastern part of Thailand, a Filipino missionary Rev. Fr. Phil Mahusay lives among a community of impoverished Lao-speaking Thais. When asked about how he is evangelizing the people, he answers that he helps them have a better life. He solicited funding from abroad, and the donations he received were put into agricultural improvement. At an enormous cost, he dug a deep lake for irrigation and fishing. Despite the people's discouraging predictions that nothing would grow on the land, he planted cashew trees, which grew well with irrigation, and then he distributed cashew saplings to the families. Before long the people had their own fruitful cashew orchards. Now Father Mahusay has a thriving community with pigs, ducks, and chickens running around. When asked about how many people he has converted, he just smiles and says, "Not many, but I have many families who are now self-sufficient and living much better than before, and they see God's love manifested in my care for them. The conversions will come later." To Father Mahusay in Thailand, social action is the essence of evangelization.

In an interfaith community where the biggest issue is spiritual emptiness, the greatest form of love and service is to witness that the Gospel is, indeed, "Good News," thus offering non-Christians the means to experience a loving God they will then desire to know. Fr. Donnon writes: In Japan destitution is almost a chosen way of life, and certainly not the general norm. Therefore, what is outstanding here is spiritual poverty. I think that for the Christian here, the "Mission of Love and Service in an Interfaith Community" must lie, first of all, in a discernment of whether my own Faith is viable - something that I make every attempt to live out, and not just a head trip whereby I merely give intellectual assent to what I am supposed to believe. If it is only a head trip, all the altruism in the world is not going to have any real effect on society. In countries where CFM exists, if I am a member of CFM, am I more interested in parties and social activities under the auspices of this so-called Catholic gathering, than in a real sharing of lives in order to help one another deepen in the Faith so as to be better witnesses of the Gospel? Are people disposed to join precisely because they experience in this environment a living and joyful Faith? This, to me, is a real "Mission of Love and Service."

Father Donnon concludes that, because of an intellectual rather than an affective approach towards evangelization among the bearers of the "Good News," conversions in Japan have been slow. Despite the obstacles, Christians throughout the world have not given up on their mission of love and service to non-Christians. The Japanese Bishops many years ago gave permission to non-Christians to celebrate weddings in the Catholic Church, considering the occasion as an opportunity to present the Christian ideals on marriage not only to the couples but also to the 100 or more wedding guests. These are people who, otherwise, would not be reached in any way. The requirement is that the couple attend the parish's marriage preparation course, such as the Engaged Encounter, an experience the couples have found joyful and beneficial. In both Japan and Thailand, the weekend Marriage Encounter or Marriage Seminar is open to all couples, and about half the participants are non-Christians. Many conversions have resulted in both countries, and the Marriage Weekend has become one of the best ways to introduce the Lord to non-believers.

In many countries, the Christian mission of love and service is demonstrated in unique ways. For example, many Sri Lankan Buddhists are greatly devoted to St. Anthony, and the pastors of St. Anthony's Church in Colombo open its doors with a warm welcome to non-Christian believers, who light candles and seek petitions from the great Saint of Padua. In parts of Malaysia where Chinese, South Asians and Malays live in harmony, Christmas is a time of great celebration for Christians and for their non-Christian friends, who feel the same kind of ownership in the celebration of the Savior's birth as the Christians themselves. We are sure that there are many other special ways in which the mission of love and service is conducted in your countries, and we would like you to share them with us.

In conclusion, our Christian mission of love and service in an interfaith community is rendered in diverse ways, according to the needs of the people we serve. Whether our priority is social action or spiritual conversion is determined by the privations, whether material or spiritual, of the non-Christian brothers we love and serve. Like St. Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles, we hope to proclaim as we perform our mission: "So I become all things to all men, that I may save some of them by whatever means possible. All this I do for the Gospel's sake, in order to share in its blessing."

TEN CHALLENGES TO FAMILIES IN THIS DECADE
By Helio and Selma Amorim
Brazil

The behaviors that we emphasized in this small test are already observed in our countries. Some are not yet very perceptable. Others are common and no longer cause social reactions. They are world-wide tendencies, that radiate from the rich countries and influence cultures of the developing countries.

1. The valuing of the family union versus the tendency of family dispersion.
   The cultures of North America and European are transmitted with great intensity through the cinema and of mass media. The men and women of the American films live alone or, at the most, and in the case of women, two live in the same apartment. They are always far from their family of origin, who are absent from the scene. Recent statistics show that 40% of the houses in Sweden, 35% in England, 30% in France and 26% in the United States are occupied by a single person. Couples with children correspond to less of 24% of the houses in the United States, whereas in 1960 he was 45%. Children of middle-class or above tend to leave the house in search of "independence". The job market and the shortage of workers also contribute to the dispersion and family separation, with increasing professional and geographic mobility. The challenge in this decade will be the reversing of that tendency, with the valuing of the coexistence and cohesion of the family and family ties and solidarity.

2. The return to the marriage that at least tends to be stable versus the tendency to informal and unstable unions.
   More of the influence of the North American culture: the informal transitory unions grow. In that country the number of couples without civil or religious married contract grew in ten years of 3.2 million to 5.5 million, indicating an accelerated tendency for that option. In American films it is common to see that the couples form and soon they are living together, without any formal intention to make it permanent and stable.

3. The valuing of interpersonal communication in the family versus the pressure of the mass media and Internet.
   TV created a new type of isolation between the members of the family. Even if there is only one television set in the house, members remain together but distant, as if hypnotized by the plots of novels or films. They no longer talk. The most that they discuss is what program to watch. They are less connected if there is more than one television set: in the bedroom, the kitchen, etc. and the Internet came along to aggrevate the problem. The hours of individual isolation kill family conversation. The lack of time for true dialogue is the root of the disintigration of many families and the breakup of family ties.

4. The valuing of sexuality as an expression of love versus the porno-erotic wave.
   The wave is overwhelming. Almost all the films and soap operas appeal to a base level of sexuality, often crude, nothing like the rich expression of love that sex must be. The Internet gratuitously offers to anyone thousands of photos of the most shameless pornography. Human sexuality is degraded and drained of its rich human content. The challenge will be to restore the beauty of human sexuality, overcoming old taboos and equal rejection of the baseness delivered by the mass media that degrades it.

5. The revaluing of ethics versus the trivialization of fraudulent millionaires.
   Never has been seen such an enormous wave of corruption without impunity, projecting the idea that crime pays. The financial costs are in the thousands of millions of dollars, but only those that rob little and cannot pay lawyers for freedom go to prison. Unpunished and socially successful thieves lead to the increasing practice of frauds of all types. The challenge of families is to get angry and to show their rejection of those practices, enthusiastically espousing ethics in the formation of their children.

6. Austerity versus untenable consumption.
   The pressure on families to consume more and more, with the support of intense publicity, concerns about family economics pressures them to extend the work day to make the rent, and contributes to exhaust our mineral wealth and the devastation of our forests. The waste in our houses is enormous and consumption is anti-ecological. There is an increase in products and disposable packages. Damage to the environment has as its root obsessive consumption, one of the predominate characteristics of the economic model in the world. The challenge of families will be the valuing of austerity against the consumption predator, like a signal of solidarity with the impoverished parcel of our towns.

7. Education for cooperation versus the tendency of hallucinating competition.
   The neoliberal economic model, now globalization, and competition governed by the laws of the market. The search for competitiveness becomes an obsession. One also competes not only in the commerce but in one's profession, at work, and almost all social relations outside of the family. That spirit of competition overpowers the home and degrades family relations of cooperation and gratitude. The challenge is to row against the current, breaking the competitive model with the practice of the gratitude. That practice is contagious: it carries to others to change their behaviors and is able to change the competitive atmosphere in the workplace, the schools, and public offices.

8. Valuing of life versus the expansion of consumption of the alcohol and other drugs.
   This is the most worrisome plague of our time and there is not a short term tendency to reverse it. Alcoholism is spreading into more families. Strong drugs are a cause of early death. To fight the problem of drugs in the family is a challenge that demands learning and an enormous capacity of tolerance, patience, sacrifice and resignation. The challenge of families will be in prevention, closely bound to valuing personal life, to healthful practices, but mainly the best quality of loving family relations.

9. Search of an adult faith versus superficial religious expressions.
   The formation of faith finds the parents of today disturbed. Traditionally religious formation was limited to registering the children in parochial catechesis for first communion and later to make sure that they attend Sunday Mass. Also the predominance of infantilism in faith, often reduced to superficial religious practices. In the noticeably religious society of the past, that practice seemed to work. In the secularized modern world, the faith of the Christians cannot remain at that infantile level. The tendency is to religious indifference or the adherence to a religiousness of a nonconvergent magical type without the demanding and compromising proposal of the gospel. The challenge of the families is the formation in the faith which expresses itself in daily life, in the service to the other, the commitment with justice, understood as the true pursuit of Jesus.

10. The exercise of citizenship versus the tendency to political alienation.
    There conspiracy evident to maintain politically alienated towns. Families are surrounded by the news manipulated by commercial and political interests that prevent the access to the truth. A conscious society would address public policies for personal benefit. Alienated parents do not stimulate their children to assume citizenship and a transforming presence in the society. Individualistic personalities form and the myth is fed on that "the policy is dirty thing", or dangerous. The challenge to parents is to stimulate the children to participate in the political life of their country to promote communal benefits.

GUIDELINES ON INTER-FAITH MARRIAGES
By Rev. Father Joseph Mizzi, CFM Europe Continental Chaplain
Malta

Based on Motu Proprio of Pope Paul VI entitled Matrimonia mixta (1970) which was codified in the 1983 Code of Canon Law.

Owing to the fact, that our societies are becoming more and more multi-cultural, multi-ethnical and multi-religious, people are marrying people who belong to different religions and faiths. It is our responsibility to inform them clearly and precisely about these marriages and to help them and accompany them in this journey.

The Catholic teaching on inter-faith marriages boils down to the fact that the Catholic party has to declare that s/he is going to remove all dangers of defecting from the faith, and s/he also has to promise that s/he is going to do all in her power that all the children will be baptised and educated in the Catholic faith. The Church does not ask anything from the non-catholic party. He is only to be informed about the declaration and the promise of the Catholic partner. However, both of them are to be instructed about the purposes and the essential properties of marriage. In cases of marriages between people of different religions (known as marriages of disparity of cult marriages) the church can dispense the Catholic partner from the canonical form of marriage, but that marraige for validity has to be celebrated in a public form. The canonical form of marriage may not be preceded or followed by another ceremony in which matrimonial consent is given and received. The manifestation of consent is a unique act that cannot be regulated by two different legislations.

CHRISTIANITY IN FRANCE
By Fr. A. Christophe, Chaplain of the Christian Family & Social Movement of Singapore
Singapore

I have the unusual privilege of visiting and seeing France once, every three years or so, over the last couple of decades. Each time I was able to spend a few leisurely months there at, what we call in Singapore as “ — at the grassroots, and in the heartlands.” I spend time with relatives, families, friends from the villages, the towns, and monasteries. Each time I leave with what amounts to a “time –lapse snap-shot” of the place. Strung together I am able to make some general observations and commentaries.

This time round, I observed in particular that over the last 30 years or so there had been a serious erosion in the institution of the family in France. The decline was particularly acute these last 2 decades. Thirty years ago parents in France would be appalled and would despair if their children were to live together before getting married. In 1970 only 20% or so young adults would take this path. Today, thirty five years later, only 10% of young people do not live together until after they are formally married. The older generation has now begrudgingly accepted this as the norm.

Last year in France 47% of babies were born out of wedlock. Ten years ago this figure was 37%. This means that some couples living together do get married, officially, when they have children, and it also means that a large proportion of them could not be bothered to register a marriage even after they have a number of children. One of my relatives said to me, “Oh, I recently attended the wedding of a couple who had been living together for more than 17 years, and soon after their wedding, they also had their 12 year old child baptized. I guess it is never too late.” This, however, is not the trend all over Europe. In Greece, for example, only 3% of children are born out of wedlock. I tried to understand what had gone wrong. One of the young people I spoke to on this matter told me. “I am unemployed. No real life prospects. How to get married?” This despite that the girl he is living with is employed.

Could it be that young people got married, and then together they build their family and home. Whatever they build and made together are theirs, jointly, and this bonds them even closer. That was the basis on which the current laws relating to the separation of material assets when a marriage breaks up. In all cases, rather regardless of the actual cash contribution of the respective spouses, the matrimonial properties are generally speaking, equally distributed between the spouses. As this basis had undergone a sea change, will the laws and our social conventions have to be changed to reflect this? Could this deterioration of family values be a result of the rejection of their Catholic faith, their religion? All over France, churches are empty.

As an indication of the dire state of affairs, consider this – in the 1970s, out of three Major Seminaries in our area, two were closed and amalgamated into the remaining one. Last year I heard that out of eight Major Seminaries in another part of France, seven was closed and (so) all remaining seminarians could be educated, trained and housed in one institution. In the early 1950s, the French Government took on the financial responsibility of maintaining the exterior of all churches. It was the cultural heritage of the Nation. Recently they took on the responsibility for the maintenance of the interior of these churches. Had they not done so, would all the churches in France have gone to ruins by now? It is now not the congregation, not the community, nor the Church of the people of God who pays to build and to maintain their place to worship God. It is the taxpayers.

Today when you visit any French town or village, the church building is decently maintained by the government mainly for its cultural, architectural, historic, and artistic value. They are tourist attractions. Nobody goes to church for services or Mass anymore. Most church bells still ring for the Angelus, to tell the time, or for tourist? There are few baptisms, fewer marriages, and even fewer ordinations. 30 years ago we used to joke that the French enters the church 3 times in their life, -- first time – horizontally – as a baby for baptism, vertically for marriage, and then horizontally again before burial. Today most come in only one in their life, or rather after – dead.

So while we are till able to see a lot of churches in France, there is practically no Church. Funeral services still fill churches. I am not too sure if this is an act of social solidarity, a cultural throwback, or, some residual belief that there is something beyond the grave.

Non-church buildings, and those churches built after the 1950s, are not covered by this financial umbrella the Government provided. These are poorly maintained, closed or locked. Many are sold. In my first parish in Fourmies, the parish house, and ancillary buildings, and even the meadow, were all sold and now put to commercial use. The same thing goes for many seminaries.

In many rural parishes 6, 7, or more parishes are amalgamated under a new name as one parish. Many do not get a priest to visit to say mass more often than once every 6 weeks. There used to be 400 parishes which is now reduced to 51, and amalgamated into one Diocese. There is one saving grace, one small plus to be found amidst all these gloom – the village mentality of many people is now opened up. They have to come into contact, to interact, to worship and attend services with people from other villages, other faiths. I have heard that some emerging new Christian (Catholic) communities are now congregating on their own. They (regrettably still older people) group, meet informally in their own houses, and other community premises. They pray as a community, learn more about their faith and share their own problems. I heard that they get retired priests to come occasionally to say Mass for them and share their Christian lives. I do not have the privilege to meet any of them this time. Perhaps French Christianity is returning to the roots of early Christianity, of small Christian communities.