Hotline Asia -- Social Concern Notes

Question & Answer|| Church Teaching || "Thinking about Justice"

Introduction

SIX POTATOES

A Maryknoll lay missioner in the Peruvian Altiplano told of this incident. Life is very difficult there and farming is meager. One day the missioner’s neighbor was all smiles: “My garden has produced six potatoes.” The missioner said: “These potatoes will give your some security for the coming months.” But the woman said: “Some of our neighbors were unable to harvest any potatoes.” So she invited these neighbors and shared the six potatoes with them.

Contrast the cultural values of this Peruvian family and those of your own culture.

VALUES	PERUVIAN CULTURE	MY CULTURE
Solidarity
Insurance
Profit
Charity

A CIVILIZATION is a group of folks who have common values, attitudes, manner of living, arranging their affairs and passing on these commonalities to the next generation.

Church Teaching

“Thus one would hope that also men and women without an explicit faith would be convinced that the obstacles to integral development are not only economic but rest on more profound attitudes which human beings can make into absolute values. Thus one would hope that all those who, to some degree or other, are responsible for ensuring a ‘more human life’ for their fellow human beings, whether or not they are inspired by a religious faith, will become aware of the urgent need to change the spiritual attitudes which define each individual’s relationship with self, with neighbour, with even the remotest human communities, and with nature itself; and all of this in view of higher values such as the common good. Pope Paul VI speaks of a ‘civilization of love’”. Solicitudo et Res #38 and Centesimus Anno #10.

Thinking About Justice

1. Describe some “spiritual attitudes’ that you feel are unique to your ethnic civilization or culture?

A. _________ B. ________ C. ________ D. _________

2. List some changes in “spiritual attitudes’ that you have witnessed in your lifetime.

A. _________ B. ________ C. ________ D. _________

3. On a practical level, what might your Social Concerns Group do today to help create this “civilization of love”?

_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

CULTURE “5. The Behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic or age group: The youth culture; the drug culture. 6. Anthropol. The sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings and transmitted from one generation to another.

DUELING, PACKED INTO PHONE BOOTH, MEN SMOKE CIGARATTTES,

When I was a lad

-- most men went out to work each day, smoked cigarettes, -- women cooked and did the housework.
--college students got prestige by seeing how many could stuff themselves into a telephone booth.
--children who liked to study were called “bookworms”

A patient went to see a doctor for a medical check-up required by his insurance company. The doctor asked him to describe his daily routine. The gentleman replied: “I get up at 6:30 A.M., I brush my teeth. I dress. Have coffee. Vomit and go to work at 7:15 A.M. And..”.

The doctor interrupted: “You vomit everyday after breakfast?”

THE GENTLEMEN REPLIED: “YES, DOESN’T EVERYBODY?

THE HOLY FATHER IS RECOMMENDING AN ATTITUDINAL CHANGE IN WHICH PRIORITY IS GIVEN TO LOVE. IT INVOLVES:

--a civilization which is group of folks who have common value, who have a common way of thinking and who have a common manner of living their lives and arranging their affairs.

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