Theo 141 Final Exam Covered Topics

DEFINE THE FOLLOWING TERMS (not the restricted dictionary definitions)

1. Social justice

2. Integral evangelization

3. Laudato Si, the encyclical

4. “endo”

5. Context

6. social sin as structures

7. social sin as complicity

8. Social sin as situation

9. Human dignity

10. Ateneo as a university

DISCUSSION

What is your moral judgment and systematized theological reflections on Lumad evacuation, Extrajudicial Killing (EJK), and Open pit mining operations in Mindanao?

The Social Character of Sin/Three Types of Social Sin

As social beings, we regulate our lives in society by various structures and institutions. Structures and institutions become sinful when they perpetrate injustice and inhibiting integral human development. When personal sin creeps into the very systems, structures and institutions of society, it brings about what we call social sin.

[Social structure refers to the network of social relationship, and its study, according to Ginsberg, "is concerned with the principal form of social organization that is types of groups, associations and institutions and the complex of these which constitute societies."]

Stop Lumad killings, respect ancestral lands – Mindanao bishops

Several leaders of Catholic and Protestant churches in the Philippines have come out in support of the Lumad

‘Lumad’ in gold-rich Mindanao targeted

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 01:10 AM September 07, 2015

DAVAO CITY—Indigenous peoples in the provinces of Davao del Norte, Surigao del Sur and Bukidnon share the same experiences of being harassed, killed and displaced by paramilitary groups and government soldiers, according to Kalumaran, a confederation of different tribes in Mindanao.

The Philippines: A Culture of Impunity

Corazon Miller

A largely corrupt political system, volatile criminal justice processes, the overpowering presence of the ruling class and an impoverished people. All these combined with a simple word – impunity - create the fabric of the ‘culture,’ which permeates the South-East-Asian nation of the Philippines with far reaching consequences. In a 90-page report presented by Filipino Church leaders in March 2007 at a United Nations office in Geneva, impunity from detection and prosecution was labeled as the catalyst for many of the human rights violations in the Philippines.

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Three Types of Social Sin

1. STRUCTURES which systematically oppress people, their human dignity, and violate human rights, stifle human freedom and impose gross inequality between rich and poor. This type of oppression is usually due to fear of those in authority; or fear brought about by war and demeaning policies.

[Social structure refers to the network of social relationship, and its study, according to Ginsberg, "is concerned with the principal form of social organization that is types of groups, associations and institutions and the complex of these which constitute societies."]

2. SITUATIONS which promote and facilitate greed and human selfishness. This type of oppression may rise from lack of education, whereby one is not able to recognize one's state of oppression (e.g., unjust deception and manipulation). This type of oppression may also arise from grinding poverty, when all one's energies are channeled into the struggle to survive (i.e., powerlessness).

3. The COMPLICITY of persons who do not take responsibility for evil being done or who silently allow oppression and injustice. This type of oppression may arise from sheer despondency in the face of injustice.

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Farmers oppose open-pit copper-gold mine in Davao Sur

By: Kristine L. Alave / @inquirerdotnet

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 06:00 PM May 27, 2012

MANILA, Philippines — A battle between farmers and Sagittarius Mines, the operator of the copper-gold mine set to open in southern Mindanao in 2016, is looming over water resources in the lush, mineral-rich province of Davao del Sur.

Coca-Cola 'comparable to heroin' in how it stimulates the brain's reward and pleasure centers

The worldwide movement toward economic, financial, trade, and communications integration.

Globalization implies the opening of local and nationalistic perspectives to a broader outlook of an interconnected and interdependent world with free transfer of capital, goods, and services across national frontiers. However, it does not include unhindered movement of labor and, as suggested by some economists, may hurt smaller or fragile economies if applied indiscriminately.

Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/globalization.html

Integral Evangelization

Pope Benedict XVI has acknowledged that "the process of secularization has produced a serious crisis of the sense of Christian faith and the role of the Church," and Vatican would "promote a renewed evangelization" in countries where the Church has long existed "but which are living a progressive secularization of society and a sort of 'eclipse of the sense of God'." The Pope announced in at vespers on 28 June 2010, eve of the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul.

This is the way Fr. Jame H. Kroeger (he used to be my professor at the St. Francis Regional Major Seminary in the 1980s) concisely sums it, and I quoted this definition from his book, Becoming a Local Church, thus:

"This is EVANGELIZATION: the proclamation, above all, of SALVATION, from sin; the LIBERATION from everything oppressive to man; the DEVELOPMENT of man in all his dimensions, personal and communitarian; and ultimately, the RENEWAL OF SOCIETY in all its strata through the interplay of the GOSPEL TRUTHS and man's concrete TOTAL LIFE....This is our task, This is our Mission."

Then, to contextualize that in the Philippine Church setting, Archbishop Orlando B. Quevedo, O.M.I. presents the Church's "general plan for the Era of Evangelization" (http://www.kofc.org.ph/files/Year-of-Faith-Primer.pdf). It says, thus:

"We need to intensify our efforts to achieve the vision of renewal that PCP-II and the National Pastoral Consultation on Church Renewal (NPCCR, 2001) drew up. It is a vision of renewed integral evangelization towards a renewed Church. We may call it a vision of New Evangelization in the Philippines. It calls for a multifaceted renewal of faith, renewal of laity, clergy, religious, parishes, and renewal of mission. For this purpose, the NPCCR identified nine major pastoral priorities. These are: (1) Integral Faith Formation; (2) Renewal of the Laity; (3) Active Participation of the Poor; (4) The Family as the Focal Point of Evangelization; (5) The Parish as a Communion of Communities; (6) Renewal of the Clergy and Religious; (7) Youth as Evangelized and Evangelizers; (8) Ecumenism and Inter-Religious Dialogue; (9) Missio ad gentes."

What is being highlighted here is Church renewal as a vision of renewed integral evangeliztion. But it is also noteworthy that the Church authorities recognize as a priority the "active participation of the poor," especially in building social justice for the common good as an integral component of committed faith.

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By definition, secularization (thanks to Wiki!) refers to the historical process in which "religion loses social and cultural significance." Secularization tends to restrict religion in modern societies. Fact is in secularized societies like the United States of America, Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland, and France, where about half of the population is not religious or atheist, religion has lost its social influence. As a principle, secularism upholds the separation of Church and State, though most major religions abide by the rules of secular, democratic society. But in the Philippines the Catholic hierarchy still wields strong political influence within the governmental system.