DEAR EDITOR: I have read with interest the pre-elections statement of the Catholic Committee for Social Justice (Catholic News October 14). This is indeed an important document which, I take it, is intended to open debate. In para 3 of the article I note that participation is in order to determine “the leader’s policies and values that will guide our nation.”

I have a problem with this. It easily becomes the type of politics associated with the caudillo. In fact democracy, and particularly the model that we use, elects representatives of the community or the constituency.

These in turn select a Prime Minister charged with implementing the policy guidelines of his Party. A Cabinet is meant to further ensure that decisions are taken together and the responsibility for policy is shared. It must be underlined that we are not a Confessional State. The leader’s “values” therefore, do not “guide our nation.”

I note that the Common Good is defined in this statement as “reconciling diverse interests for the wellbeing of the whole human family in accordance with natural law.”

This definition of the Common Good smacks of utilitarianism and of Bentham. It has been used by some American sociologists to define the American State. The Common Good as understood in St Augustine or in Thomas Aquinas predates the modern State and is applicable to any organised society.

I would define it as the totality of what is spiritually, materially and socially necessary if a person, living in X society at Y period in time, is to fulfill her or his potential. The re-emergence of the Common Good greatly qualifies the ferocious individualism of our time as it qualifies its materialism.

There is little in the statement about Solidarity and nothing about option for the poor. Both of these are the flesh and blood on to the skeleton of the Common Good. Solidarity refuses what John Paul II called “crumbs from the rich man’s table” as the answer to poverty.

It refuses the imbalances in the actual provision of health service, whether public or private, where some can “buy” say dialysis while others die of kidney failure, or some “buy” the latest in cancer treatment while others make do with a minimum of treatment and continue on.

It refuses the selection in education where the absence of teachers, the accent on paid private lessons, the impact of the social environment perpetuates and sometimes increases social inequality.

But it also refuses that increasingly some have to work on a Sunday ending the one ritual which kept families together: the Sunday lunch. Sunday work also de-emphasises Sunday as a special day.

In other words Solidarity is the practical loving-your-neighbour-as-yourself and loving in particular the defenceless, the marginalised and the powerless.

Option for the poor gives the criteria for ranking government assistance and spending. Social housing comes before infrastructure for the developers. Schools in poor areas are given the priority in education allocation.

But we also look seriously at pockets of new poverty: retirees who often live on a fixed pension and are faced with the needs of age; those with only occasional work; some rural areas where agriculture has failed and there is no work.

And yes, those with large families and low incomes. Of particular interest are those deprived of their liberty by the State and in our care: those in mental hospitals, those in juvenile homes, those in prison and those under arrest. These are not totally powerless.

Violence the primary problem?

I note that the CCSJ sees violence as the primary problem in our society. I would myself see the primary problems as (a) the worship of the Golden Calf and (b) the worship as “the Pagans do,” to quote Our Lord, ie, the worship of power and of status.

It is these which then usher in violence and usher in what the CCSJ sees as the causes of violence: and I quote “the disintegration of family life, the prevalence of substance abuse, the availability of weapons and the emergence of gangs.”

This list as it stands can easily be taken as coded language for the urban marginalised Afro-Trinidadian community. It is curious that substance abuse is mentioned and not the drug trade and Trinidad and Tobago as important transshipment islands.

Surely it is this major trade in drugs, and not someone smoking a joint of marijuana, which exchanges drugs for weapons with which to protect “turfs” and which fosters the emergence of gangs as part of the commerce in drugs

It is the wealth of this trade which can – and does – corrupt members of the police force, army and sometimes Justice itself. We trivialise the situation where we place the blame on the victims of the trade, ie, “substance abuse.”

I would more widely define violence. We only have to look at the number of road fatalities. Or listen to the aggressivness in many commercials. Or yet listen to much of the Rap particularly Gangsta Rap and the extension of violent sex into ordinary entertainment.

Or some video games and action films to see the extent to which we are a violent society. But this violence is largely elaborated abroad: in the new phenomenon of the entertainment industry; in the development of a capitalism without constraints or regulations; in the development of the “now” society. Can we really expect marriages to be different?

Indeed if until now, like other societies we were integrated into society through work, we are now integrated through consumer spending. It is this which is at the basis of much of the temptation to violence. I note the growing accent on community initiatives to stop crime.

It seems to me that we must be very careful in endorsing this. The first act of Republicans was trial before a State and public court, innocent until proved guilty and the right to be defended. Whatever the crime situation, this principle of law is, in my opinion, non-negotiable.

Lastly, it is important to remind Catholics of one of the basic tenets of our faith: “Neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free …” There is for Catholics, no room for race or ethnic nationalism.

Our identity is carved forever on our foreheads: it is the cross imprinted at baptism with the blood of the Crucified One. We have nothing else to boast about.

We are a People taken from all the Peoples of the World and set apart, that we may witness to the promise of the New Jerusalem of which we are already, citizens.

We do not lose our histories, our cultures, our origins. These are baptised through our baptism, ending the struggle for power and giving us the strength to purify memory. But we are also sinners. And because we are, we can reach out in humility to those who despair.
 
MARION O’CALLAGHAN, Woodbrook

DEAR EDITOR: In response to the letter written by “A Non-Practising Catholic” on “Why we do not go to Mass anymore” (Oct 21) I would like to share my views on why I am a practising Catholic.

When I attend Mass I do not do so to say my prayers but to participate in a celebration which goes beyond that; the celebration of the Eucharist, Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice for us.

I go to be a part of a community which is made up of people who support each other in prayer and are like me, trying against all odds to cope with the problems which life throws our way. Celebrating the Eucharist and remembering how Jesus gave his all for me gives me hope.

For me the Mass was never and will never be presented as a concert because I am part of the performance. You see I do not sit and wait to be entertained I participate fully in what is going on, the singing and the praying, the listening, the reading, the kneeling, the standing and sitting. I even relish the silent moments when I can meditate and reflect on it all.

I attend Mass to listen to God’s word and to discover its meaning for me in today’s world. I attend Mass to receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist because He strengthens and sustains me through the trials of my daily life. Whenever I miss Mass I feel a deep sense of loss, that I have missed out on something very important in my life. This feeling has been with me ever since I was a child.

I love holding hands with my brothers and sisters at Mass: it makes me feel that I belong to a special family. I want to wish my brothers or sisters well when they are travelling abroad or celebrating an anniversary or birthday. It does not matter to me that I do not know them personally; I know that we belong to God’s family and I share their joy.

Where I worship at the Holy Cross RC Church in Princes Town we have had Masses of varying lengths lasting from half an hour to two hours and none seemed to me to be more important than the other. For me each Mass was equally important and just as spiritually filling.

I too, remember when going to Mass was a more solemn occasion (the Mass was no shorter than it is today it may have been longer). I remember vividly participating as a child in the Latin Masses at this very church.

I remember being in awe of all that took place there and I remember playing church at home, dressing like a priest, conducting a service and distributing communion. I always kept going back for more.

To all non-practising Catholics I say come back and this time do not come to get something from the Mass but come to give. Give of yourself freely and completely by participating fully and you will find that you will leave spiritually filled, peaceful and inspired.
Patrice David, Practising Catholic, Holy Cross, Princes Town.

DEAR EDITOR: I attended the funeral Mass for Fr Malcolm de Verteuil at the Church of the Assumption last Monday and it was a wake up call for the Church in Trinidad and Tobago.

We witnessed the crisis that the Church is facing in the lack of vocations to the priesthood and religious life. Of the 50 odd priests who concelebrated the Mass, I estimate that very few were under the age of 50 years. Fifty years ago there were 60 Irish Dominican priests, today the total I am told is five Irish and seven local.

When last did we hear a sermon on vocations? Are we to leave it only to EWTN? What part are we parents and grandparents playing in these situations? “Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa”.

I have three grandchildren, who are altar-servers, have I spoken to them about this? No. “If you should hear His voice today, harden not your hearts.”
Concerned Catholic