BISHOPS INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL ACTION V (BISA V) SEARCH, CHALLENGE AND COLLEGIAL RESPONSE IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT BAGUIO CITY, PHILIPPINES MAY 21 JUNE 1, 1979
I. FINAL STATEMENT C O N T E N T S II. PRESS STATEMENT III. PROCEEDINGS (May 27 June 1, 19798) IV. EXPOSURE REPORTS: Philippines Indonesia Sri Lanka Thailand Bangladesh A Report from Bp Moore Exposure in Bangalore, India V. WORKSHOP REPORTS VI. VII. TALKS: Welcome Talk Northern Ireland - Jaime Cardinal Sin - Bishop Edward Daly Spiritual Values & Social Justice for the Economically Disadvantaged in the Quest for Full Human Development - Bishop Francisco Claver, SJ Village to Global Exploitation of Asia s Poor A Challenge to the Churches Our Search: Seek First His Kingdom and its Justice - Fr. Tissa Balasuriya, OMI - Fr. Samuel Rayan, SJ VIII. LIST OF PARTICIPANTS IX. EXPECTATIONS
BISHOPS INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL ACTION V (BISA V) SEARCH, CHALLENGE AND COLLEGIAL RESPONSE IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT I. FINAL STATEMENT II. PRESS STATEMENT BAGUIO CITY, PHILIPPINES MAY 21 JUNE 1, 1979
BISHOPS INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL ACTION V (BISA V) Baguio City, Philippines May 21 June 1, 1979 SEARCH, CHALLENGE AND COLLEGIAL RESPONSE IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT I. SEARCH FINAL STATEMENT Thirty seven bishops attended the Fifth Bishops Institute for Social Action, held in Baguio City in the Philippines, May 21 to June 1, 1979. We are grateful to the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences for providing us this opportunity and experience through the Office for Human Development. The bishops came from eight Asian countries Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand and Indonesia. Whereas five non-asian countries shared BISA IV in 1978, in BISA V participation included eight South Pacific bishops from Fiji, Tahiti, the New Hebrides, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Tonga. Eight more came from Europe and North America, from England, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Canada and the United States. Thirteen others comprising resource persons, staff and Australian bishops representatives added their own contribution. There was distinct loss of enrichment from the sad absence of a number of Asian bishops unable to be present. The experience was of two weeks duration. In the first, we divided ourselves into eight groups and visited different communities living in poverty in five Asian countries. In the second, we gathered in Baguio City, shared, reflected on and put together our experience. The experience had a certain limitations. Obviously one was the lack of time. Another was the impossibility of speaking with more people laity, priests, bishops and spokespersons of other religions that we actually did. Despite these and other limitations, we aimed at two goals. The first was to express our fraternal collaboration and concern as members of the college of bishops. The second was to observe from first-hand experience the problems of human development in our day, particularly in Asia. Human development is the profound concept that translates sharply for our time the simple and fundamental command of the Gospel that we love one another. This belief is current, indeed commonplace, in the mind and documentation of the contemporary Church. Man in the full truth of his existence is the phrasing of Pope John Paul II in Redemptor Hominis. To work for justice and the transformation of the world as constitutive elements of evangelization is the expression of the Synod of 1971. to work for equality and participation of all in the decision making processes of society in order to make people masters of their own destiny are themes from Evangelii Nuntiandi, Octogesima Adveniens, and Populorum Progressio. We recognize the focus and elaboration of this thrust from the meeting of the Latin American Bishops in Puebla, Mexico earlier this year.
By coincidence, the BISA V deliberations occurred during the Fifth United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD V) held in Manila. We welcomed the stress of that meeting on the subject of human values and endorsed the aspirations evident towards a more human just world economic order. Like the bishops in BISA IV, we too became more deeply and experientially aware of human problems. Nevertheless, our response was hopeful. We appreciate the labors of those who have gone before us, their contributions to human development through evangelization, education and social services. We cherish what we have learned from the local Christian Communities of Asia. II. CHALLENGE The ever widening gap between rich and poor; the great distance in some countries between people and government; the impact of non-democratic and martial law governments; the far-reaching presence of Communism; the plight of refugees, the failure to meet the ecumenical and inter-religious demands relating to human development; the lack of consensus in the Church as the decisions for action; the explosive situation of a youthful population becoming aware of a most uncertain future these are some of the many enormous problems that posed a challenge to us. Those of us from non-asian countries do not fully understand all we have seen and touched and felt in the vast world of material poverty in Asia. But this we know: the Lord of history is at work in that world of poverty among the countless poor with whom we came in brief contract as we moved from village to village, from shanty to shanty. Seeing the Lord in the poor, making sense out of His action among them, discerning the direction of His action with them this we felt deeply within us was the more specific challenge we have to face. It is a challenge we have to respond to in faith, with faith. For the challenge forces us to re-examine our notion of ourselves as Church, as the people of God. These challenges lead us to only one conclusion: We must strive to become truly the Church of the Poor. This was the ringing call of the Asian Bishops Meeting in Manila in 1970, and of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences again in Taipei in 1974. But what does it mean to be the Church of the Poor? Is not the Church for all men and women, for rich and poor, for saints and sinners? We found an answer in the way many churches of Asia are moving in the direction of greater and greater involvement with the life of their people; their simply being with the poor; their attempts at working our programs of human development integral, respectful of the people s dignity, attuned to their cultures; their standing with them in their hard struggle for justice and for self-empowerment; their insistence that the rich become themselves real members of the Church of the Poor by fulfilling their obligations in justice and charity toward the poor. The Church of the Poor must do all this. That is not all that the Church of the Poor means, certainly. But we see it does lead to movement in that direction. For it does indicate a preferential option and respect for the poor, expressing in practical terms Christ s own vision of his mission. Hope The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, therefore He has anointed me. He has sent me to bring good tidings to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind and release to prisoners, to announce a year of favor from the Lord. (Lk 4:18-19)
We come away with great hope. For all of Asia despite the bleak prospects that spring from the great material poverty of most of its people a poverty spawned by exploitation, corruption, totalitarianism is a continent of great hope. Everywhere we saw signs of a massive stirring to life. Asia s greatest resource is its people, especially its young. And the idealism that is characteristic of youth is quite widespread in the general population. It is an urgent idealism, born and nurtured as it is by the common challenges of the day but it is nonetheless tempered by the deep ancestral wisdom of Asia s long history of patient endurance and contemplative realism. We saw this idealism translating itself into all sorts of initiatives of people, by people, for people. The growth of basic communities is the best illustration of this phenomenon: people in many countries of Asia re in the process of building themselves up as communities and nations, becoming more and more aware of the real causes of their problems and acting together to solve their problems even in the face of seemingly impossible constraints. Their witness of faith is indeed tremendous. The Church s task in this stirring is to make the Gospel shine through it with even greater luminosity than ever before bringing the reality of love and communion in Christ into every struggle for full humanity. This, we believe is the line of response we must take. And in keeping with the theme of BISA V Collegiality for Human Development, it has to be a collegial response. III. COLLEGIAL RESPONSE If the Church is to respond to the challenge of the 1980 s, it cannot content itself with being a body which simply re-acts to the initiatives of others. It will need a positive vision and the will to harness the means to achieve it. It will need, too, a firm option for and commitment to justice. Yet we are aware of our human limitations and the limitations our role as Bishops of the Church implies. But like Peter in the Acts, we want to impart what we have the good news of Jesus Christ bringing us to freedom. The specific responses to the challenges we have discerned may be listed under three headings: Evangelization, Human Rights, and Dialogue. Evangelization Christ calls us to become evangelized and evangelizing communities. We Bishops recognize our need to be evangelized ourselves because of our sinfulness. Our conversion is a condition for credibility of witness. We must ask ourselves: Do we consciously or unconsciously share in the reinforcing of patterns of injustice? Our experience of Basic Christian Communities indicates that a major effort will have to be directed towards a creative pastoral theology based on discernment arising out of such communities when they critically reflect upon their own lived reality in the light and power of the Gospel. Since many of the problems we have mentioned above are structural in nature, we will need to coordinate collegiality our insights and initiatives of diocesan, national, and regional levels. Some organized body with the help of theologians of the region would seem to be necessary for our action to be reflective, effective and concerned.
We also see the need to commit ourselves to a more participatory approach to Church witness and action. Women and the youth will have to play a more active role in this approach that they have so far been allowed. Their participation should not be limited to the gathering of information but, as far as possible, they should share in decisions about its use. The principle of subsidiarity should be effective within the Church. This participation in Christ should lead to our growth in unity. Human Rights We agree with the Bishops of Latin America that our preferential option should be for the poor. We assert that our commitment to justice and reform is not politically motivated but comes solely from a desire to follow Christ s radical teaching that all are members of the One Father s Family and must live accordingly. In the light of the evident injustice we have seen inflicted on the poor, we express our active support for such bodies as the Pontifical Commission for Justice and Peace, the agencies of the United Nations Organizations, and Amnesty International, which are already engaged in their defence. We would like to recommend to our respective Conferences that the Synod of Bishops in Rome treat the theme of Human Rights in the Contemporary World as soon as possible. The necessary preparation would involve a continuing and formal dialogue with those persons, especially theologians, most conversant with the situation in their regions. Thus we would cooperate in a transnational Unity in Christ to denounce injustice, to approach oppressive governments in the name of the undefended and to develop a coherent theology of contemporary social realities. Dialogue We wish to facilitate a further dialogue with the greater religions about the meaning of faith and service in daily life. All mankind is rooted in the Christ-event, this anthropology is operative even in those who do not know Christ. Our main point of contact is the search for a new humanity and a new human family. We are aware that many of the initiatives suggested by Christians in the area of social justice lead to conflict. Yet conflict is a sign of growth. Respect for the opinions of the others and openness to appreciation of their hesitations should not prevent, in the interests of the suffering, a Christian resolution of our difficulties. We wish to take what we have learned to our own Conferences and to our local Churches. We wish further to make our modest but genuine response to the task of the Church in the 1980 s.
PRESS STATEMENT The Gospel command that we love one another means today that we have a preferential option and respect for the poor and assist in their full human development. Thus echoing the recent Puebla Meeting of the Latin American bishops, the Fifth Bishops Institute of Social Action (BISA V) ended today in Baguio City. Thirty-seven bishops from Asia, Oceania, Europe and North America attended the five day meeting which was preceded by a week of visits to the poor and exploited in different Asian countries. The meeting was sponsored by the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences through its Office for Human Development. The Church must become Church of the Poor, the bishops said in their final statement. This means greater involvement with the poor and participation in their attempts at human development that are integral, respectful of human dignity and attuned to their culture. This implies standing with them in the hard struggle for justice, and a share in the decision making processes that affect their lives. This involvement has already begun, they continued, pointing to the growth of basic communities in many parts of Asia wherein people build themselves up as communities and nations. They saw these as the best answer to the problems of poverty, exploitation and oppression they had seen in Asia. The Church s task in this movement of the people is to make the gospel shine through with ever greater luminosity that every before, bringing the reality of love and communion in Christ into every struggle for full humanity. The bishops recognized their own limitations and sinfulness and asked themselves, Do we consciously or unconsciously share in the reinforcing of patterns of injustice? Recognizing that many of the people s initiatives involve conflict they assert that our profound commitment to justice and reform is not politically motivated, but comes solely from a desire to follow Christ s radical teaching that all are members of the One Father s Family and must live accordingly. They recommended that as soon as possible the Synod of Bishops treat the theme of Human rights in the Contemporary World. The bishops called for further study and greater dialogue with the great religions of Asia and ended by saying that differences among Christians must be resolved in the interests of the suffering poor. The bishops come from Japan, Bangladesh, Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Tahiti, Tonga, New Hebrides, England, Finland, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Canada, France and the U.S.A.