Text Lacking Integrity
By Phil Little, Ladysmith, BC
Volume 35 Issue 1, 2 & 3 | Posted: April 4, 2021
As with you I received the Joint Statement on revisions to the way Development and Peace will proceed in the future because of the objections of a small but influential group of bishops. Their motives are for them to explain.
I found the text to be lacking so I have read it several times and thought about questions and discussion points which friends of D and P perhaps should consider. I personally believe that D and P was one of the better responses of the CCCB after Vatican II to the cry for justice and solidarity, at home and in other nations.
At that time the bishops even had a Justice and Peace office with bishops such as much loved Remi De Roo, our bishop emeritus on Vancouver Island and still travelling around the world (pre-COVID) speaking about Vatican II. The CCCB has creepingly moved away from the priority of social justice and reconciliation, notably in 2016 when financial support for KAIROS was stopped.
The attacks against justice and reconciliation programs simply falls into that “restorationist” paradigm that not only pulls the church back but falls into disrespect and disloyalty to Pope Francis and his agenda of reform and faithfulness to the gospel.
“The first historical examination of the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace (CCODP), the official international development organization of the Catholic Church in Canada. Founded in 1967 by the Canadian bishops as a response to the Second Vatican Council’s “The Church in the Modern World” (Gaudium et Spes, 1965), Development and Peace was entrusted with a two-fold mandate: to provide financial support for socio-economic development projects in the so-called “Third World” (Latin America, Africa, and Asia) and to educate Canadians about the causes of global injustice.
After fifteen years of experience, dialogue with local partners, and critical reflection, CCODP experienced a substantial maturation in how it understood its mandate. From 1967 to 1982, Development and Peace was transformed from a seasonal fundraising agency with a paternalistic understanding of economic development into a nationwide democratic movement that facilitated year-round educational campaigns and supported a proactive vision of social, political, economic and cultural development.” (Peter Ernest Baltutis 2012)
In this article the author also reminds us of the great bishops such as Alexander Carter, Joseph-Aurèle Plourde, and of course Cardinals Paul-Émile Léger of Montreal and Maurice Roy who were so instrumental in the formating of Gaudium et Spes at the Council. (read page 50 of https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/34983/6/Baltutis_Peter_E_201211_PhD_thesis.pdf
By Phil Little, Ladysmith, BC