Of the CMA population of 2.9 million in 2001, 1.39m (48%) were people of colour, 0.9m blacks (31%), 0.54m whites (19%) and 0.06m Asian (1%) (SA national census figures). Population growth is high, because there is steady immigration, especially from the Eastern Cape, which is very poor.

The side of Cape Town the tourists know. Look behind it for different realities. (Photo: Günther Simmermacher)

Cape Town is experiencing the full effects of urbanization, a universal phenomenon which has gained momentum in Africa and South America, where the bulk of the population still live in the rural areas. Before the Industrial Revolution inEurope, it took 8 out of 10 people to produce enough food for society, now it tales less than 2. Small farmers cannot compete with the large commercial farms and tend to sell up or just leave and go to the cities. Even if a person ends up in a shack in the CMA, if they can get a job for 2 or 3 days a week, they are better off.

The CMA, part of theWestern Cape Province, is far more attractive in terms of a richer economy, better schools, better hospitals, more infrastructure, more jobs, and so on. Hence the huge inflow, especially from blacks from the Eastern Cape, which together with people of colour also coming in from the country areas, and whites from Gauteng, has now put unbearable strains on the Western Province, especially the CMA, in terms of competition for jobs, housing, schooling and general utilities. This is mirrored in many other African cities and South American cities.Lima, inPeru, for example, has people flowing into the city, there are land invasions, mini-bus taxis, serious unemployment, gangs, drug problems…sounds familiar? It is economic forces that have caused huge strains on all cities.

In the once fairestCape, however the situation is aggravated by political factors. In 2001 the Catholic population by the old population definitions was as follows: black 30 000 (2012 40 000), coloured 114 000 (now 150 000), white 50 000 (now 60 000), Asian 1 233 (now 1 635). Thus the 2012 Catholic population, in the Archdiocese, is now about 250 000 (195 200 in2001) and about 45 000 actually attend Mass on Sundays.

It seems that under apartheid, the people of colour were taught to be wary of blacks, and feel that they were in the Cape first, so that they should be in the front of the queue in terms of housing, jobs, schools, general amenities. People who fall into the Western category, tend to favour the DA political  party, and the blacks the ANC, so there is further cause for tensions. In Grabouw, outside of the CMA, where there has also been a large influx from the Eastern Cape, the newer school, attended mainly by blacks, became over-crowded and this led to civil unrest and protests.

It is important to realize that the unemployment, crowded conditions, competition for scarce necessities, is primarily a problem of economics and the current recession. But there are political and historic complications in theCape, as we can see. It is maintained by some that the ANC is encouraging blacks to migrate to the Western Cape, with the promises of houses. This may be the case, but in my opinion the main reason for migration is financial/economic. Many of the blacks set up permanent residence in the CMA (and in outlying areas such as Grabouw), and the evidence is that the children of the migrants prefer to stay in the city. The persistent delivery protests are evidence of cities taking strain, of people struggling in an economic system which must seem to be quite inequitable towards those trying to obtain the basic necessities of life.

There is a need in the Archdiocese for the former groupings to do their best to live in harmony, to share, to cooperate, to use the graces of the Eucharist in terms of which we can live in Christian unity. There is, it seems, to be too little mixing at Archdiocesan functions, too much separation, and too many of the old tensions, to a large extent, a legacy of the past. This is part of our reality, and we need to think of means of fostering genuine unity and a healthy appreciation of our differences as well as our commonality, especially as children of our Father, who cares for all. For example, the Eastern Deanery held a reconciliation service a few years ago, in which parishioners from other parishes came for the first time to a black township, namely Gugulethu.

I am not convinced that the newer generations have lost entirely the biases learned by the older generation, and there is some evidence that parents are handing down negative attitudes to their children. When we think of the very diverse personalities of the first Apostles, it seems clear that the constant presence of Jesus enabled them to live in harmony. We, hopefully, can do the same.

Sin, a Three-fold Effect
I have not specialised in the study of Moral Theology, so I wonder why I hear some moral theologians say that we should not use the word “sin” any more. Jesus’ message included the command to turn away from sin. Presumably the word comes across as judgemental and makes people feel guilty (the latter is not a bad thing!). I would like to propose that sin is something which has a three-fold effect, namely it offends God, it hurts someone (even a solitary sin is love wasted on myself which could have been given to someone in need), and what we are often not aware of, sin hurts us, our personality, our soul, our psyche.

Ignatius of Loyola
Ignatius of Loyola is well known for the story of how he, when in convalescence from a serious leg fracture, would engage in two types of escapism. The one was apparently a distinctly worldly day-dream, which entertained him for a while but left him feeling flat and dejected. The other was a spiritual day-dream, after which he continued to feel joyful and peaceful. I have also heard the story of a man who, after experiencing a conversion, was asked to meditate on his life. There were many instances of sin in his past life. The net result of his meditation was a major sense of restlessness, inner turmoil, that prevented him from sleeping for the night, such was the degree of disturbance he felt.

Sin Hurts Us
I would like to develop the theme that sin is something that hurts us. We do get some advantage, or pleasure, but the end result is a serious loss of inner peace and deep joy, negative feelings that persist well into the future, until we are somehow healed of this effect on our inner self. If we do not worry about offending God, or our neighbour, we should be truly concerned about hurting ourselves. There is the forgiveness of our loving God, who always pardons us when we ask him. But repetitive sin and a serious sin can result in a significant loss of inner peace, which will take more than one confession to restore, it will need reparation in order to open oneself to the Lord’s healing.

God Punishes Sin
For a start, God punishes sins, as we know, when we die, by purgatory or hell. But we can also receive punishment in this life, as did King David, for his sin of adultery and murder (2 Samuel, chapters 11 and 12). Appropriately, the Letter of James 1:15 seems to refer almost directly to David’s sin: “Then the desire conceives and gives birth to sin, and when sin reaches full growth, it gives birth to death”.

“Death” may also mean inner suffering, sadness. In 1 Thess. 4:6b, we read that “the Lord always pays back sins of those sort”, referring to selfish lust. It is not clear how the Lord “pays back” but it is my contention that one result is a loss of peace and abiding joy, and a tendency to be more self-centred. In this way we pay for our short term pleasure by becoming, perhaps surprisingly, more irritable and restless, the contrary of what we would expect from the sinful act. People who abuse gifts such as alcohol, or sexuality, drugs or food, seem to become more anxious, even irritable, and at worst begin to build their social life around their particular pleasure, and wonder why they frequently feel dejected and empty. James 4:5 argues that “Anyone who chooses the world (sin) for a friend is constituted an enemy of God”. So we can see how sin threatens our personal happiness, our relationship with God, and with our neighbour.

Sin Leads to Other Sins
Paul, in Rm 8:7, refers to sin as disordered human nature, as the “flesh” winning against the “spirit” (Rm 8:14-23). In Rm 1:32, Paul writes that God abandons the godless who give in to degrading passions, and the result of this is “all sorts of injustice, rottenness, greed, and malice, full of envy, murder, wrangling, treachery and spite, libellers, slanderers, enemies of God, rude arrogant and boastful, enterprising in evil, rebellious to parents, without brains, honour love or pity”. It seems clear from this that one sin can lead to other sins, reinforcing our compulsion to sin, and thus can lead to a serious moral breakdown and a profound diminution of peace and joy.

Again, in 1 Cor. 3:3, Paul states that living by our “natural inclinations” causes jealously and rivalry. This is echoed by James 3:16, who links jealously and ambition with disharmony and wickedness of every kind. We sow what we reap (Gal 6:7). “If his (sic) sowing is in the field of self-indulgence, then his harvest from it will be corruption; if his sowing is in the Spirit, then his harvest will be eternal life” (Gal 6:8). This verse confirms that sinful indulgence leads to corruption of a person, quite possibly also to a wider range of sins, to a more profound corruption.

If we open the door to sin by indulgence, it seems that a person will be tempted to further sin. Thus if we drink or eat too much, or take drugs, we open the door to sexual sin, or violence, or sloth or some type of reckless behaviour. One sin flows from the other.

The danger of giving into sin then, is that it leads to other sins, increasing our inner turmoil.

Sin Leads to Addiction
Paul also shows that sin can lead to slavery (Rm 6:16-18). In 2 Peter 2:11-16, we learn that self-willed people are like animals, they become debauched, adulterous, seductive, greedy, “people with an insatiable capacity for sinning”. Here too we can see how one sin leads to another, and how a person can become addicted to sin (“an insatiable capacity for sinning”). In Rom 8:21 Paul refers to freedom from slavery to corruption and entering “into the same glorious freedom as children of God”.

Sin Hurts Us
In a general sense, the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32), demonstrates that a sinful life can easily lead to misery and unhappiness. It is surprising that the prodigal son was not addicted, and that he did not relapse into his old habits…but perhaps his confession was deep and his father’s forgiveness was also a healing from the effects of his experiences. I am reminded of the old pop song “The House of the Rising Son”, in which the singer warns listeners not to spend their life in misery, in the “House of the Rising Sun”, which provided gambling, liquor and sex. Even the pop world gets it right now and again!

Paul states that sin leads to feelings of shame (Rm 6:21). In the letter to the Galatians (Gal 5:16-24) we are told that self-indulgence leads to other vices, and the letter lists 15 results of sinful self-indulgence (v18-21, such as sexual vice, impurity, drunkenness, bad temper, quarrels, jealously, and so on). These desires of self-indulgence are in opposition to the Spirit (v17, 18), and the fruits of the Spirit on the other hand are “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control” (v22). This is a clear statement of the negative effects of sin on us, we lose the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit.

We are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 3:16-17, 1 Cor 6:18-20), and when we sin, (for example, against our body, by sexual immorality), we grieve the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit’s gifts are diminished within us. In losing the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we also fail to build up the Body of Christ, the Church, for which our gifts have given to us. In this way, even a solitary sin can affect other people, by rendering us less able to build up the Church. In 1 Pet 1:4 we are told that we are meant to share in the “divine nature” and escape disordered passion. Clearly, by serious sin we cannot participate in God’s divine nature, and suffer the consequences. Constant sin makes us more self-centred and less loving.

Conclusion
If a person is constantly feeling agitated, restless, anxious, perhaps this is the direct of some ongoing sinfulness. We need a form of apologetics which demonstrates how sin hurts us. A person may argue, for example, in our highly promiscuous society, if we can protect ourselves from disease or unwanted pregnancy, why not have sex? Certainly, from the quotations I have cited above, we diminish the fruits and gifts of the Spirit within us, and accumulate restlessness and lack of deep joy, as well as, I contend, we become less loving. We need more input from believing psychologists on the theme that sin damages our personality to our detriment, especially in relation to sexuality and substances, where there is surely a lot of harm done to the soul and the personality, or character. I think we need more than the Theology of the Body, we need some astute psychological analysis.

It is not necessarily an easy task. How do we argue from my point of view, that stealing a lot of money will leave a strong residue of anxiety within us, when money is so highly valued and seen as a source of security? I remain convinced, however, that apart from social controls such as imprisonment, we disturb our inner self significantly.

If we are not scared of offending God, or of hurting our neighbour, we should at least fear serious harm to ourselves. The damage can be healed by the Lord, but we may have to do some serious penance. In the case of addiction we may need therapy. It is interesting to note that a person who underwent therapy for sexual addiction, was given the task of visiting sick people. This is an outward, selfless activity which fights against the inward self-centred desire to gratify oneself. This adds new meaning to the saying, that in giving we receive, we do learn to become less selfish and more caring. It is a path to healing, to opening ourselves to God’s healing, to God who is willing to assist us to become whole again, who does allow us our free will and notes the harm it does to us when used wrongly. But it may well be that we need to make a serious effort to be purified, to be healed of the corruption we have caused to our soul by sin. God will work with us, but we will have to do our bit as well.

An Other-Wordly Theology
Has the need for inculturation diminished? Arbuckle (2010:xix) quotes Paul VI “The split between the Gospel and culture is without doubt a drama of our time, just as it was of all times. Every effort must be made to ensure a full evangelization of culture, or more correctly, of cultures” (Evangelii Nuntiandi 1975:20). The Church has had a long history of propounding other-worldly theology, where the Catholic Church is a ship to board, and avoiding contact with the world, to sail up to heaven, our true home. The Letters of Paul looked forward to an imminent parousia, so the world was a place with which to minimize one’s exposure. Many theologians were monks who had left the world, and so their theology was also other-worldly, as was the influential theologian, Augustine, who wrote about the City of God (to be desired) and the City of the World (to be avoided). This is one reason why our faith is so divorced from real life, from our culture, from history and from pressing social, political and economic circumstances. Many people believe that the message of Christ does not belong in politics, or economics, yet the Good News needs to be brought into all aspects of our lives, even sport and entertainment!
The Catholic Social Teachings, which took off in 1891, have been very poorly disseminated to the laity. These teachings are incarnational, they take root in the specific circumstances of our time. Pope Benedict’s Caritas in Veritate (2009) tackles the problems in the world economy. He often talks about evangelizing the economy and politics. Our Church is trying, but there is a lot of catching up to do to bridge the gap between faith and real life (which includes culture).

Fears for the Mass
Despite many references to inculturation in the past century, the drive from Rome has lessened. One possible reason is the fear of diminishing the Eucharist, where Rome has been keen to ensure that the Eucharistic celebration conforms to the proper Rites, and is not carelessly experimented with. But there has been an over-emphasis on inculturation of the Mass, to the exclusion of evangelization, homiletics, catechetics, missionary practice, theology and philosophy.

The Vatican Documents
There are various Vatican documents which encourage inculturation. Gaudium et Spes (44) advises that the Christian message be adapted to the language, philosophies and concepts of the people. Catechesi Tradendae (51) encourages comprehensive cultural analysis and understanding. The missionary encyclical Redemptoris Missio (=RM)(1990:52, 53), also encourages inculturation and missionaries should “immerse themselves in the cultural milieu of those to whom they are sent”.

Defining Inculturation
Inculturation is a two-way process by which the Church incarnates the Gospel in a different culture and secondly, introduces the receiving culture into the Christian world-view to make the faith more readily understandable (cf RM 52). It is a two-way dialogue between faith and culture. We analyse the culture (SEE), judge it in the light of Scripture and Tradition (JUDGE), and derive a missionary strategy (ACT). In the one direction then we set out to Christianise the culture (challenge wrong values, insert new values, build on existing values and enhance good values). In the other direction we seek inculturate Christianity. We seek to express the faith in terms of the receiving culture’s ways of thinking, so that the message will find a deep and permanent home. We look for stepping stones in the culture as a pathway leading to the previously unknown of the Christian faith (for example, the practice of animal sacrifice is a stepping stone to the understanding of the Eucharistic sacrifice, but not an alternative, obviously).

The new culture always provides new insights into Christianity, expanding our body of theological knowledge. We need to unearth the treasures of the new culture, to discover the treasure, the hidden Gospel from the influence of the Holy Spirit, which blows where it will, and is the source of all goodness wherever it is found.

All Communication is Cultural
There is no such thing as a culturally neutral message. The West believed it preached a “pure” or culturally neutral Gospel, but in fact it was a highly Eurocentric message, underlain by a solid foundation of Western values, philosophies, and generally culture-specific ways of communicating. There is no shortage of African and Latin American scholars who bemoan the way in which their indigenous cultures were mistreated, over-ridden or seen as irrelevant. There is also no doubt that as a whole the West has tried to force a new value system on top of an existing one without understanding the existing worldview and attempting to dialogue with it and treat it seriously. As a result, conversion has not been as profound as was hoped for, and the traditional worldview, largely ignored, still has a decisive influence on many converts. Hence the old adage: “Mass in the morning, witchdoctor at night”. There is no doubt that there is a dual religious system in the minds of many converts. It is easy to look backwards, especially with new knowledge and insights, and to pick out mistakes, but I do not doubt the sincerity of the many missionaries who left homes to do primary evangelization.

The Bible itself is written against a background of many cultures and traditions (such as the Yahwist, Elowist, Priestly to name but a few examples). Jesus himself used local, specific cultural situations to present his message. The American Catholic, currently Professor of Theology and Culture, Gittins (CSSp) (1987:240) uncompromisingly regards good will and missionary zeal as shamefully inadequate when it comes to missionary work! People have a right to culture and to ignore this is to trample on their holy ground, at the cost of confusion and forcing the traditional religion underground, or creating an unhealthy syncretic mix of beliefs. Conversion is a deep inner process, which requires knowledge of culture, myths, symbols and rituals.

The Incarnation as the Theological Basis for Inculturation (Goldie, Unisa thesis, 2006)
“The Word became flesh, he lived among us” (Jn1:14) is the basis by which God translated himself into humanity. This is the Biblical and theological basis for continuing this process across all cultures. As a soul enters a body, so the Gospel takes flesh in a culture. God leaves an atemporal reality to come to a concrete, temporal reality with its own particularities. Jesus commands us to bring the Gospel to all nations, therefore to repeat the incarnation in all the different cultures. Via the command to do mission, Jesus accepts other cultures and becomes inculturated in successive traditions, becoming himself, for example, an African (Shorter 1988:80).

Inculturation and the Paschal Mystery (Goldie, Unisa thesis, 2006)
The Paschal Mystery sees the Risen Christ in his transformed state, overcoming all limits of time and space, as well as human barriers such as cultures, classes, gender. In Christ, all people and therefore all cultures, find their home in him. The Easter Mystery makes it possible for any culture to accept Christ, by virtue of this universal and therefore trans-cultural power. It is his way of offering himself to all creation, promising that when he was lifted up (Cross and Resurrection), he would draw all people to himself.

The post-resurrection Christ belongs to all cultures, he is trans-cultural and all creation comes together in him (Hearne 1990:94). Gaudium et Spes (22) asserts that the Holy Spirit enables all people to participate in the Paschal Mystery in a way known only to God, but this does not in any way detract from the need to do mission. God does not save people in opposition to culture, it is through culture that people are saved. In the Risen Christ there is the new glorified being, and the old, the wounds, the breaking of bread. Culture also retains something of the old, but also takes on something radically new, enabling members to live life to the full. Thus newness and continuity are enabled by the Paschal Mystery (Shorter 1988:84).

Grace and Revelation are of a higher order than human culture, so where there is a conflict between faith and culture, the latter must yield to the teachings of Christ.

The Universal Church and the Particular Church
Evangelii Nuntiandi (=EN) (61) refers to the church as universal, outside of the limits of time and space, and so is far more than the sum of the particular churches. But the universal church puts down its roots into a variety of social terrains, otherwise it would remain an abstraction. The universal church is incarnate in the individual churches (EN 62). As it puts its roots down, its universality is enriched by new insights from the particular churches. The particular church does inherit fixed customs from the universal church, it is certainly not an entirely new body. It needs to remain one with the vine or cease being a vehicle of sacramental graces (cf Jn 15:4-6).

Postmodern Culture
The postmodern culture is, it would seem, part of the very air we breathe, to which traditional cultures are increasingly exposed. Rome has recognised this and has in fact organised meetings in Africa with the churches to assess the effect of the postmodern world on primal religions. Inculturation must therefore take into account the forces of change in a globalized world.

Conclusion
Inculturation remains as important as ever, but is perhaps more complex. Bevans (2002) defines context as history and current circumstances (the consideration of which has led to liberation theology), the culture (inculturation, anthropology, sociology) and the process of change. The recent African Synod was concerned with the current political circumstances in Africa, and the need for conflict resolution. Some missionaries have despaired at the seeming fruitlessness of their missionary work when observing civil strife, hatred and violence perpetrated by converts. However, the political situation is an essential part of the context and cannot be ignored. Also, we need to remember, that the West, despite some 2000 years of Christianity, engaged in two major world wars in the twentieth century, when Christian nations took up arms against each other, with millions of deaths!

References
Caritas in Veritate, 2009. Pope Benedict XVI
Catechesi Tradendae 1979. Pope John Paul II
Evangelii Nuntiandi , 1975. Pope Paul VI
Ecclesia in Africa, 1995. Pope John Paul II
Gaudium et Spes, 1965. Vatican II.
Redemptoris Missio 1990. John Paul II

Bevans, SB. 2002. Models of contextual theology. Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY, USA.
Gittins, AJ. 1987. Gifts and strangers. Meeting the challenge of inculturation. Paulist Press, NJ, USA.
Hearne, B. 1990. Christology is basic to inculturation, in Inculturation of Christianity in Africa (Okure & Tiel, editors).
Shorter, A. 1988. Towards a theology of inculturation. Geofrey, London, UK.
Goldie, P. 2006. Catholic mission to the black people within the archdiocese of Cape Town. UNISA Masters thesis.

SUMMARY (of 2.5 pages)
The Catholic Church confidently sees itself as Mother and Teacher of all nations (MM 1), a pillar and ground of truth. It communicates its social teachings in order to Christianise the conditions of the working classes (MM 7), to alleviate poverty and also to bring the Faith into politics. It continues the prophetic tradition of the Church of seeing and analysing the social situation, judging it in the light of Scripture and Tradition, and making pronouncements, judgements. This is the basis of the social doctrine, embodied in the milestone encyclical Rerum Novarum (1891) and the following documents up to Caritas in Veritate
(2007/9).
The Church’s social analysis in these documents unearths massive inequalities, a dispossessed, landless majority of poor, hunger in a world of plenty, domination of assets and large scale suffering.
The documents affirm the right to private ownership as originating in natural law. The Teachings discard socialism as a solution to poverty. No one can be a sincere Catholic as well as a true Socialist. The state may control certain assets or functions such as water, defence, fire control, but the principle of subsidiarity insists that general economic activities be undertaken by the people, not by any higher statutory body.
The various documents (eg CA 6, RN 7, SRS 39) do not see private ownership as an absolute principle. It is subject to a social mortgage, the principle of the universal destination of goods, namely that God gave the earth and its assets to the whole of the human race, thus the goods of creation are meant for all without favouring anyone. GS (9) states that everyone should consider their legitimate possessions as common property, to profit all. A person who is in extreme need has the right to procure for themselves what is needed, from the surplus of others. The CST documents do not define any overall mechanism to achieve this procurement, so the conclusion is that it must be voluntary.
The ownership of goods is thus distinguished from the correct use of goods. RN (18) argues that God will demand the strictest accounting from the rich for the use of their possessions. RN (19) notes how Aquinas also argues that one’s surplus should be used to relieve the poor. RN also highlights Biblical warnings to the rich (such as Mt 19:23-23, Lk 6:24-25). There is considerable comment in the Bible on property and riches. For example, Leviticus 25:8-17 postulates a Jubilee year in which every person returns freely to their ancestral property. The New Testament also has some dire warnings about the irresponsible use of riches (Eg Lk 16:19-31).
The Church does not argue for a compulsory transfer of assets from the rich to the poor. However, it argues definitively for the correct use of surpluses. There is an essential moral onus to use assets to help the poor, failing which there a damning spiritual consequences.

The Documents (Catholic Social Teaching = “CST”)

Rerum Novarum (“RN”, 1891. Encyclical Letter of Pope Leo XIII: on the condition of the working classes).
Quadragesimo Anno (“QA” 1931. Encyclical Letter of Pope Pius XI: on Social Reconstruction). Fortieth anniversary of RN.
Mater Et Magistra (“MM” 1961. Encyclical Letter of Pope John XXIII: A Re-evaluation Of The Social Question In The Light Of Christian Teaching). Sixtieth anniversary of RN.
Gaudium Et Spes (“GS” 1965. Second Vatican Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World)
Populorum Progressio (“PP” 1967. Encyclical Letter of Pope Paul VI: On The Development of Peoples).
Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (“SRS” 1987. Encyclical Letter of Pope John II: On The Social Concern Of The Church). Twentieth anniversary of PP.
Centissimus Annus (“CA” 1991. Encyclical Letter of Pope John Paul II: On the Hundredth Anniversary Of Rerum Novarum).
Caritas In Veritate (“CV” 2007/9. Encyclical Letter of Pope Benedict XVI: Charity in Truth). Fortieth anniversary of PP.

The Church as Teacher
The Church sees itself as Mother and Teacher of all nations (MM 1), a pillar and ground of truth, and refers to the outstanding example of the Church’s Catholic Teaching embodied in RN, on the Christianizing of the conditions of the working classes (MM 7).
RN (1) speaks out on the radically changed conditions in the world and the need for the Church to point out problems. In the introduction of QA and in RN (13) the Popes insist that it is the right and duty of the Church to deal with social and economic problems. Issues of morality and economics are not separate. Pope Benedict’s CV is a religious evaluation of economic issues. In an address on May 16th 2011(Zenit http://www.zenit.org/article-32584?I=english) he calls for the evangelization of the economy, whilst in another address (Zenit, 8th May 2011 – http://www.zenit.org/article-32517?I=english), he states that Christians need to bring the values of their faith into every sphere of life, including politics.
QA (5) argues that the social order needs to be reconstructed according to the principles of the Gospel and sound philosophy. MM(205) notes the failure to acknowledge the moral order which is transcendent, absolute and universally binding upon all in the world arena. The Church sees itself as an expert in humanity, as Christ was the perfect human being, and as humans are made in the image of God, entitled to an unassailable dignity.
Conditions in the World
RN was inspired by the poor plight of the workers, a result of the powerful wave of industrialization and the extensive changes made to the economic systems in the West. QA, forty years later (1931), observed a far greater division between the small number of wealthy and the large number of poor. QA (pg 3) and RN (35) note that in many industrialized countries, there are huge numbers of dispossessed labouring masses and rural labourers, who have no hope of sharing in the land.
There is also a hand-to-mouth uncertainty in terms of food security for so many. The late John Paul II often commented on Lukan parable of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:19-31), a drama of indifference now being played out on a global scale, suggesting the future generations (and God) will condemn this generation for neglecting the poor.
Free competition has led to long term domination of assets by the few. MM (11) observes how personal gain, considered only for the motive of individual economic prosperity, lacks the essential moral dimension. It points out the enormous riches accumulated by the few and wide-spread and ever increasing hardship (MM 13 as well). It also notes a gross disproportion between land and population, particularly in some countries (MM 153). RN (2) refers to conditions of “pitiable and utterly undeserved misery” of so many workers, of conditions little no better than slavery, reflecting the worst of the plight of workers at the start of the Industrial Revolution in the West.
CV (2009) continues the prophetic role of the Church by observing the human situation (See), judging it in the light of Scripture and Tradition (Judge), and making pronouncements (Act, taking action). It praises RN, and especially PP (1967) and SRS (1987), noting the cry of the poor, suffering, hungry, and the huge inequalities.
The Right to Property
A person has a right to property from natural law (RN 5, 6), but subject also to qualifications by divine revelation. QA (1) notes how RN defends the right to private property as against socialism, where all property is collectively held. Again, MM (109) affirms the right to private ownership as being permanently valid. It argues that the Bible also sanctions private ownership, but exhorts the rich to help the poor (MM 121). The state cannot suppress private ownership of property (MM 19).
A person, using their initiative and by working, can imprint on property an imprint of themselves and so has the right to possess that property (RN 7). Using their talents and freedom and intelligence, workers are able to “subdue the earth” to work, as commanded by the Bible (Gen 1:28), to make the world a fitting home. This forms the basis of the right to private ownership.
The documents express surprise that some still deny the validity of this right to freehold possession (RN 8). To deny this right, is to deny the fruit of the person’s labour from that property “stained with his sweat”. RN (8) also quotes Deuteronomy (5:21) which warns against coveting one’s neighbour’s property. The lack of opportunity to dispose or acquire property (possessions) robs wage-earners of the freedom to better their condition (RN 4).
A wage-earner is also entitled to leave income yielding property to their family and this right is prior to the state’s right. RN (19) also refers to Aquinas, who avers that it is legitimate and necessary to possess things as one’s own.
Role of the State
All the documents discard any form of socialism as a solution to poverty and the uneven distribution of goods. RN (4) argues that transferring privately owned goods to common ownership worsens the condition of the wage earner. The State must not interfere with the family right, but may adjudicate where there is conflict (RN 11). Before the state came in to existence, people had already received from nature the right to make provision for their livelihood (RN 6).
The right to ownership may not be a rigid one, but the state may not take away a person’s right of possession of property by inheritance. The state, which is preceded by the person, not the other way around, may attempt to control certain property for the sake of the common good, without, however, imposing “crushing taxes”. Certain forms of property need to be reserved by the state because they carry the opportunity for domination by individuals to the detriment of the common good. (such as defence, fire control).
MM (52) sees a justifiable role for civil authority in the economy. But this is subject to the principle of subsidiarity, a maxim which must not be usurped. The state needs to ensure the common good of all and thus cannot entirely aloof from economic matters. But the socialist doctrine of common ownership is altogether repudiated (RN 12). QA insists that the term Catholic and Socialist are contradictory terms. While socialism contains an element of truth, it is opposed to true Christianity.” “Religious Socialism, “Christian Socialism” are expressions implying a contradictions in terms. No one can be at the same time a sincere Catholic and a true Socialist” (QA pg 58 – St Paul Publications- Africa).
Universal Destination of Goods
God has given the earth to the whole of the human race, but this does not invalidate private ownership (RN 7). SRS (39) confirms the principle of the Universal Destination of all Goods, in other words, the goods of the world are meant for all. Thus private property is under a social mortgage, which means it has an intrinsically social function, based on and justified by the principle of the universal destination of goods (SRS 42). It is the right of all people to be seated at the common banquet (SRS 33).
CA (30) acknowledges the possession of goods, marked by freedom but also subordinate to their common destination. The use of goods has a vital social function based on the common purpose of goods, to provide for the livelihood of all. God has given the earth to all members of the human race without favouring anyone (CA 31). God wants the earth to provide for all people, thus the universal destination of goods must always be heeded (GS 69).
GS (69) more boldly claims that everyone should consider their legitimate possessions as common property to profit not only themselves but others as well. All have the right to possess earthly goods sufficient for themselves and families. A person who is in extreme need has the right to procure for themselves what is needed, from the riches of others. The document does not elaborate on the method of such “procurement”, but it seems clear, given the aversion to socialism, that this would take place by means of a voluntary donation, not by any state enforced means. Perhaps taxation is seen as a means of redistribution.
Thus all the main documents call for a better distribution of the world’s goods, noting the severe imbalance in the distribution of goods in the world. In 2000, some 86.5% of the world national output was consumed by 20% of the world population, 12% by the next 60%, and 1.5% by the bottom 20%. It is unlikely that this distribution has changed much. There is always a social function inherent in private ownership in the sense that the world’s goods are intended for the whole human race (MM 119). The right to property cannot invalidate the principle that the goods given by God for humanity should flow to all alike (MM 43).
CA (6) also confirms that private ownership is not an absolute value and that the universal destination of goods is an essential complementary principle.
The Use of Property
The ownership of goods must be distinguished by the correct USE of goods. RN (18) argues that “God will demand the strictest accounting for the use they (the rich) make of their possessions”, and refers to Matthew 19:23,24 (on the obstacle riches can be to entering heaven), and Luke’s warning that the rich are having their consolation now, and face reckoning in the end (Luke 6:24, 25). RN (19) also notes how Aquinas writes that there is a duty to use what is surplus to one’s needs (to “necessity and seemliness”) to relieve the poor. QA (1) supports the distinction between ownership and the right use of property.
When a person’s needs are satisfied, the surplus should be used to help the poor. QA sees it as an obligation to use the surplus for charity, as required by the Bible and Tradition of the Church. CA (6) concurs that private ownership is not an absolute value. While the use of goods is marked by freedom, it is subordinate to their common destination.

Already in 1943, a book suggested that France was a mission field, that its people were largely non-believers and superstitious, and that this could also be applied to other Western nations, who traditionally sent missionaries to “mission” territories (France: pays de mission? Daniel and Goldin, 1943, in Saayman 2010:7).

Certainly, in the 1965 Vatican II missionary encyclical (Ad Gentes, = AG), the recipients of mission were people who have not yet been brought the Gospel. Mission areas were, and still are, defined by the Vatican. The document does note that missionary work differs from pastoral care of the faithful (AG:6).
The next major missionary document from Rome was Evangelii Nuntiandi (EN, 1975), affirming that the Gospel is still of major benefit to all of humanity (:1), but also notes that the Church too needs to be continuously evangelized and renewed (EN:15). It observes the major rift between the Gospel and culture, suggesting a more serious concern with the loss of faith in the West.

EN (52) affirmed that proclamation is also needed for those who are baptised but are “entirely divorced from Christianity”, reflecting the growing realization of the substantial dechristianization in the face of secularism and atheistic forces. Christians need support, especially catechetical instruction, in a style adapted to the existing culture. In the still present but receding Enlightenment era and the emerging Postmodern world, there is a “conception of the world according to which it is entirely explanatory without reference to God” (EN 1975:55). The document engages in a limited cultural analysis of the West, in an effort to understand what is happening.

The most convincing sign of the Catholic Church’s serious effort to understand and evangelise the Western culture, was the formation of the Vatican Pontifical Council For Culture (“PCC”) in 1982, to study the wide rift between the Gospel and culture, and features such as unbelief, indifferentism and relativism. It was not formed to study non-Western cultures as such, but the Postmodern world as in Europe. In 1992, the Pontifical Council For Dialogue With Non-Believers (sic), was merged with the PCC. The complex, fragmented Postmodern culture of the West now ranks alongside the cultures of Africa, South America, Asia and Oceania as a mission field. It is also clear that Europe has effectively domesticated the Gospel (Saayman 2010:11), and needs to be re-evangelised in a manner which is relevant to the culture of Postmodernity. Saayman (:11) argues that a completely new approach is needed to bring Gospel-inspired change to the West and the North Atlantic.

The next Vatican missionary encyclical, Redemptoris Missio (“RM”), was issued in 1990, 25 years after Ad Gentes. It notes more clearly the dechristianization of countries with ancient Christian tradition (RM:32). Apart from traditional mission and pastoral care of the faithful, it identifies the intermediate situation, to deal with “entire groups of baptised (who) have lost a living sense of faith” (RM:33). It refers to new evangelization or re-evangelization. It admits that the Church cannot be missionary to members of other religious traditions unless it is seriously concerned with the faith at home. RM (52) argues for inculturation, which must also mean that the Western Culture needs to be well understood and once more penetrated and dialogued with the Gospel.

The PCC is also aware of the effects of the Postmodern world on Africa. In July 2008 it organised a meeting in to ascertain pastoral prospects for new evangelization in the context of globalization and its effects on African culture. In February 2010 the PCC invited atheists and agnostics, who were willing to dialogue, to join a foundation which will focus on religion, society, peace, nature. One intention is also to show that theology has a scientific basis and a founding in nature.

Again, of major significance, the Vatican established a Pontifical Council For New Evangelization in October 2010. This announcement sees Pope Benedict XVI acknowledging the late Pope John Paul II as recognizing the need for new evangelization. The Council will coordinate “plans to renew vigor (sic) of the faith in regions where it was once dominant, but lost ground to the forces of secularization- notably Europe and North America”. (http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headline/indexcfm?story=7897)

With a world population of some 7 billion, and with some 4.8 billion belonging to members of other religious traditions, “traditional” mission is still of major importance. The missionary encyclical Redemptoris Missio (1990), carries the fuller title of “On the Permanent Validity Of The Church’s Missionary Mandate”, which speaks for itself. An article by Hunermann (Schreiter, 2001:57-80), analyzes the extent of loss of faith in Europe, and concludes that 5% to 10% of Catholics are practicing their faith. If we assume that 10% of all Christians (2,2 billion) are serious about their faith, there is a target of almost 2 billion needing to be re-evangelised.

The Protestant churches are also keenly aware of this situation. Saayman (2010:11) quotes Guder (1998:2-3) to the effect that “It is now a truism to speak of North America as a mission field”. I most certainly believe that the same applies to Europe. Thus the Protestant churches and the Catholic Church no longer debate as to whether North America and Europe are mission fields, needing a thoroughly contextual mission theology. The West has focussed on mission to the “ends of the earth” as opposed to the “Jerusalem” Church (the home Church), and is now starting to remedy the imbalance.

It is important to realise that the influence of Postmodernity is pervasive in a globalized world, and needs to be included in the study of traditional cultures, which are increasingly open to powerful forces of change. Many scholars have bemoaned the lack of consideration of indigenous cultures by missionaries, who (largely unknowingly) imparted a Eurocentric brand of Christianity to the mission fields, and suppressed local cultures. Also, goodwill and zeal are seen as inadequate when approaching new cultures. Effort must be made to research the culture. The same must then apply to our Postmodern world. We have to step back and examine our own cultural dynamics, including parts of culture such as sport. After all, more people attend soccer matches than church services. If those 80% of Catholics in the Archdiocese of Cape Town (South Africa) who are not attending the Sunday Mass were to be brought back, we would need the new soccer stadium to accommodate them. Now there’s a thought…!

References

Guder, D. 1998. Missional church: a vision for the sending church. Grand Rapids:Eerdmans.

Saayman, W. 2010. Missionary or missional? A study in terminology. Missionalia, vol. 38 No. 1, April 2010, pages 5-16.

Hunermann, P. 2001. Evangelization of Europe? Observations of a church in peril. (pages 57 to 80); in: Mission in the third millennium, Schreiter, RJ (editor); Orbis Books, New York.

Inflation
It is clear that the Reserve Bank is scared of high inflation. If the Rand weakens, the price of oil in Rand will rise, even if the Dollar price of oil remains the same. The oil price is now highly sensitive to expected growth rates of the main overseas economies, and every sign of recovery from recession is accompanied by a firm rise in the oil price, not to mention the fact that China is growing rapidly from a low base, and needs more oil for its growth. A higher oil price will spread to other sectors of the economy and inflation will accelerate. This too will hurt the weak, and will put pressure on wages and salaries. A local inflation rate consistently higher than the overseas’ inflation rates, will cause a consistent decline in our exchange rate, in accordance with the purchasing power parity theorem. Is this good or bad? Import prices will rise steadily, and competitiveness in terms of productivity will decline as labour costs rise.

Whither the Rand?
If you can answer this confidently you can make yourself a lot on money! A recent study showed that the Rand against the Pound should, on economic fundamentals, be about R8 to the Pound, a long way below the current rate of over R11. The difference reflects the world’s assessment of SA as a third-world country. Will the Rand ever lose this political discount? It seems unlikely. The Rand is strong as pointed out in the Southern Cross article, because foreign money is flowing into SA to take advantage of our much higher interest rates. Also, the USA monetary authorities are using a policy euphemistically called Quantitative Easing, pouring Dollars into the USA economy to assist financial liquidity in the country and to pull it out of recession. The increase supply of Dollars causes the Dollar to decline (and as this happens the gold price rises. If the Rand falls, the Rand gold price could rise).
It seems likely that the Rand is not too far off its lowest level. Every time there is a third-world nation calamity, currencies such as ours fall quickly as investors sell off. The Rand’s strength appears to be more a sign of serious economic problems overseas than a result of the relative health of the SA economy. When these problems cease (when?), it is probable that the Rand will fall. The G20 nations themselves are in disagreement about exchange rates and there are threats of a currency war.

Conclusion
A case for a weaker Rand is not a one-way case. We will have to pay more for our imports, especially oil, which is very likely to rise as world economies resume growth. Inflation will rise. But we will get more for our exports, which will also be cheaper to overseas buyers. It is a trade off, and at the moment the Reserve Bank is very concerned about inflation and its destructive effects.

SUMMARY (of 11 page document below)

Inculturation is a two-way process. In the one direction we attempt to evangelize culture. In the other direction we consciously set out to employ local forms to express Christian truths, so that the receiving culture assimilates the Christian message at the deepest level of culture. Christianising culture (the one direction) involves challenging a culture, purifying it, enlivening it with Christian leaven, and unearthing the spiritual riches of a culture, which are often a preparation for evangelization and provide a clear direction to future mission. In the case of the ancestor system of beliefs, all four processes need to be employed. In regard to enculturating (or Africanising) Christianity, we use language, visual inculturation (eg. vestments), writing African theology and philosophy, and identifying parallels between the religious culture and Christianity, using the one to amplify the other.
Since the African ancestor system of belief has survived two centuries of Christian mission, we look at the theology of the Communion of Saints for possible coherence with this very important system of belief. This theology satisfies us that those who have gone before us, are not “asleep”, but are a constant presence to us, having experienced immediate judgement after death and immediate reward or punishment, and are in a real time communication with us. I contend that it is not only the canonised Saints who are in contact with us, but all those in heaven and purgatory as well, as there is no doubt from the documents of the Church that these are in communion with us. Some prayers for the Dead in Catholic funeral rites refer to raising up the departed on the Last Day, which to me refers to the Last Judgement which takes place on the day of Christ’s second coming, after a personal judgement which those who died before this time will have already experienced.
In the same way that African ancestors need acknowledgement by their progeny, but for different reasons, our departed need prayers to facilitate the process of purification, purgatory. Those who have gone before us no doubt have a very special interest in our wellbeing, and being present to us, will no doubt pray for us. There is no problem, then, in seeing the departed as a benign presence, with our best interests at heart. There are many experiences narrated, subjective, admittedly, of some type of assistance and communication received from our departed family members.
Ancestors are seen as mediators between God and humankind. The intercession of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and of the saints (canonised or not), share in the intercession of Christ, which in no way rivals the Son’s unique intercession, but enhances it. It flows from “the superabundance of the merits of Christ, rests on it, depends entirely on it and draws all its powers from it” (Lumen Gentium 60). All prayer, whether directly to God, or indirectly through the saints, goes through the Son, there is no usurping of this route. The intercession of the saints, then, is a gift from God. All the Black Catholics whom I have questioned, pray to the ancestors. There is no mysterious invoking of spirits. All also pray to Jesus. However, I must express concern when people go to diviners for these agents to call up spirits. This is a questionable practice and dangerous spiritually. If the diviner merely claims to speak to the ancestors as intermediaries, there seems to be no problem, otherwise we are on dangerous ground (cf 1 Samuel 28:5-20). In the paper below I set out various Bible passages which refer to the supremacy of Christ in all matters, and the need to purify the system of ancestor beliefs where there is danger that the central role of Christ is diminished.
In regard to honouring the saints, I refer to the Catholic tradition of dulia, which refers to honouring the saints, hyper-dulia, a higher form of honour or veneration reserved exclusively for Mary, the Mother of Christ, and latria, which is worship, reserved exclusively for God. There is no hesitation in professing the subordinate of Mary (and of course the angels and saints) (Lumen Gentium 62). To honour a creature, or what God has achieved in that person, is to honour the Creator even more, who guided the person on the path of sanctity. God is glorified in his saints. The saints are not an essential route to God, but by virtue of their heroic lives, may claim some special influence with God, and in the case of family, a special concern for their progeny.
Those in heaven are in a higher ontological state of existence and are valid sources of wisdom. I refer to several New Testament passages which provide us with a sense of how the saints can assist us, even beyond intercession. Also, various Prefaces of the Catholic Mass refer to the saints as guiding us still, protecting us, communicating with us, giving us inspiration and strength. However, these saints do God’s will perfectly (I refer to the prayer the Our Father, which asks that we do God’s will ‘AS IT IS IN HEAVEN’, where His will is perfectly fulfilled). In other words, the saints are not independent of God, as the ancestor cult seems to suggest, and it seems highly questionable as to whether the saints can actually hurt or harm us, as many Africans believe.
From research it is clear that the ancestors evoke a large amount of fear among Black Africans, and the neglect of the ancestors or disobedience of what they seem to be telling their progeny can cause severe harm to their family or clan, and in fact, even to a nation. They are seen to be able to act independently of God and act even in a capricious manner. I do not find support of these contentions in our Christian faith and it is clearly an area which needs to be addressed. Events which cause some form of suffering always have a cause, for the African person, and the ancestors, or God, or enemies get the blame.
The ancestors are seen as protection from evil spirits, which feature strongly in African tradition. If the African person is too preoccupied with the world of evil spirits, perhaps the Western mind is too dismissive of this reality (see Ephesians 6:11-12). If a person receives a “communication” from an ancestor, I believe this is definitely within the realm of possibility. But it could also be from an evil spirit, or it could be a psychological phenomenon. If it is from an ancestor (eg a dream), the interpretation of this communication is also critical.
I have covered some issues which are basically a question of inculturation, of facilitating the acceptance of the Christian message by the African person at a deep level. I note below various results of poor inculturation. These include the fact that the African person has a dual religious system, the Christian faith and the Traditional system, operating almost independently of each other, at times conflicting with each other. Inculturation is the process of bringing the two together, without compromising the Christian faith. There is the saying “Mass in the morning, traditional healer or diviner at night”. If we do not deal with these issues, we will fail to achieve a fuller conversion to Christ.
The African theologian, Okure, asks whether we need ancestors when we have all we need in Christ, and worries that the African Christian is serving two masters (1998:16-17). She acknowledges that evangelization needs to take into account the African world-view, but insists that there must be a sound Christological and Pneumatological basis. The supremacy of Christ and the Holy Spirit must be clear. Christ’s free gift of the Holy Spirit is better than anything the ancestors can offer, according to her. This gift is obtainable without resort to “arduous” rituals. For Okure, African Traditional Religion is the equivalent of what the Old Testament was for the Jewish Christian, a preparation for the fullness of revelation. I acknowledge these comments, but note that we still have to dialogue with the substantial body of tradition embedded in the African mind, in order to achieve a profound conversion to Christ, and to derive reciprocal enrichment from the wisdom of this rich tradition.

Introduction
I present an attempt to dialogue Catholicism with certain aspects of ancestor beliefs of the mainly the Xhosa-speaking community within the ACT. Inculturation is a two-way process of evangelization. In the one direction, we attempt to evangelise the culture (I set out the main tasks of this below). In the other direction we set out consciously to employ local cultural forms (the most obvious being language) to express Christian truths.
The assumption is that there are basic truths, or essential parts of the Christian faith, which must remain unaltered, and variable forms, modes of expression, which should be adapted to make the basic matter more understandable. To use a colloquial expression, the essential matter is the “baby”, and the form or external expression, is the “bathwater”.
Many African scholars believe that the dismissal of African Traditional Religious beliefs such as ancestor veneration, is to throw out the baby with the bathwater. Without studied dialogue between faith and culture, evangelization simply drives the powerful existing beliefs underground, and we end up with a dual religious system, at the expense of a more profound conversion to Christianity. The attempt to identify deep values enables the missionary to have a frame of reference, as well as various starting points from which to lead a person from the known in their culture, to the unknown but similar (to varying degrees) in the Christian faith. There need not always be similarities, of course.

Inculturation: from Faith to Culture: Christianizing culture.
I proffer the following main tasks of Christianizing culture.
1. Challenging Culture.
Walls, (1996) observes that there has never been a culture that could completely absorb the Gospel painlessly. The Gospel is often a sign of contradiction, a sign destined to be opposed (Lk 2:24). My conclusion is that there are aspects of ancestor beliefs that need to be challenged.
2. Purifying Culture.
This involves separating what is acceptable in terms of Christian values from what is unacceptable. My thoughts below reflect this attempt.
3. Enlivening the Culture.
This involves enriching neutral or positive customs of the culture with the Christian leaven, such as bringing Christ into the ground of male initiation amongst the Xhosa, or into cultural weddings.
4. Unearthing the Riches of the Culture.
Here we look for Seeds of the Word (cf Shorter 1988:76-79), the divine influence of the Word and the Holy Spirit already present in the culture. These Seeds reflect the mysterious presence of the Eternal Logos, through whom all things came into being ((Jn 1:3). Creation theology proposes an interiority of the Cosmic Christ in all creation, tying in with the mysterious statement in Acts (17:28) “in him we live and move and have our being”. It has been argued that ancestor veneration is a preparation for the fullness of evangelazation.

Inculturation: From Culture to Faith: Enculturating Christianity
This includes identifying key components of the local culture and religion, and comparing them to Gospel values, where there is a clear correspondence between them, and where necessary, making the appropriate change. There may be a change of both (faith and culture), producing a new way of expressing Christianity, one which better resonates with the African experience.
Catholics have tended to focus on inculturating the Mass, since the Eucharist is the heart of the Catholic faith. However, the scope should include preaching, catechetics, theology in general, sacraments, prayer life, spirituality, underlying philosophy.
1. Language is basic to inculturation.
2. Visual inculturation includes African art, liturgical vestments with African patterns, etc.
3. Writing African theology and philosophy. Walls (1996:35) argues that the Hellenistic people could not be converted without the conversion to the whole universe of Greek thought, a universe constructed over centuries,. The School of Rome and Athens have provided the platform for Western theology, and a new platform is needed for Africa. Walls (1996:xvii) argues that in fact our understanding of Christ grows as we do mission, by writing African theology (for example), as African Traditional Religion encounters the Christian faith. He sees a veritable goldmine of new theology and cultural studies by opening up the wisdom of Africa and Asia, comparable to the rich discoveries and new science of a century ago.
4. Identifying Parallels, Bridges, Stepping Stones. In my theologising below, I look for such parallels in order to construct a type of intellectual bridge between faith and culture. Various ancestor beliefs bear similarity to the Christian faith, and can be used as a type of stepping stone, a bridge with which to traverse from the known and familiar in the culture to the new and unfamiliar but similar in the Christian faith. Okure, for example, (1998:18-19) sees ancestor beliefs as a bridge to belief in the Holy Spirit, and also to bringing people to understand incorporation into the Body of Christ and the Communion of Saints.

From my experience with black catholic people in Cape Town, it is very clear that ancestor beliefs have survived some two centuries of evangelisation by missionaries. Tlhagale (2000:52-53) argues that beliefs such as the powers of the ancestors, evil spirits, and witchcraft remain an integral part of the African world-view. To be merely dismissive of this is to pretend these profound values are simply not there. If new truths are to be compared to existing African beliefs, they need to be juxtaposed in a way that there is no elimination of the “culturally determined way of self expression at yet at the same time it should allow for the transformation (purification) of the old truth brought about by the life-giving power of the gospel” (:5). My article is similar to Tlhagale’s article “Saints and Ancestors: A Closer Look” (2000:27-53), but I hope adds some interesting perspectives.

The Theology of the Communion of Saints
The ancestor belief system of the Xhosa directs attention to existing Christian theology on this aspect of faith, to see what it has to say about those who have died. The Christian Church believes of course in life after death. Jesus tells us that God “is God, not of the dead, but of the living” (Mt 22:32). The communion of saints is an item of faith defined in the Apostles’ Creed and is part of a long held tradition of the Church. In an Apostolic Constitution (1967, a statement on the system of indulgences ), Pope Paul VI refers to this tradition, according to which those in heaven (“the sons (sic) of God”), are joined through Christ to all on earth “by a wonderful link in the supernatural oneness of the mystical Body of Christ, in one mystical person as it were” (Neuner & Dupuis:533).
The document Lumen Gentium (= LG 1965), article 49, defines three different but interrelated communions:
1. There is the Church in the present time, the Pilgrim Church (on its way, striving for holiness), or Church Militant, doing battle against sin and evil;
2. The Church Suffering or Expectant, namely those being purified in purgatory;
3. The Church Triumphant, or in Glory, namely all those in heaven.
There is a type of unity between these three states and an exchange of spiritual goods by which these three groups can assist each other.
Those in heaven and purgatory are present to us in this world (LG 51 refers explicitly to communion with those who are being purified). Those in heaven pray for the Pilgrim Church and assist it in its worship, joining in when the Pilgrim Church celebrates its liturgy. Hebrews (12:22) refers to heaven (“Mount Zion and the city of the living God”), with angels and “the whole church of first-born sons (sic), enrolled as citizens of heaven”. Revelation 5:12 refers to “ten thousand times ten thousand of them”, together with an immense number of angels gathered around the throne.
The Church Suffering is a doctrine derived both from Scripture and Tradition. In Mt 12:31-32, Jesus speaks of the sin against the Holy Spirit which will not be forgiven “in this life or the next”, from which we conclude that there is a forgiveness of sins in the next life, according to to the Catholic Catechism (1994:268, paragraph 1031, and 1 Cor 3:15-17, referring to judgement day when “fire” will test each person’s work, and “the one whose work is burnt down will suffer loss of it, though he himself (sic) will be saved”). In the parable of the unforgiving debtor (Mt 18:23-35) Jesus warns of being handed “over to the torturers till he (sic) should pay all his debt” (V 24), a reference to judgement, punishment and a definite end to the punishment. Furthermore, in 2 Macc. 12:38-46, Judas Maccabaeus prays for the dead soldiers, that their sin might be completely forgiven, expecting the fallen to rise again, hence “he had this expiatory sacrifice offered for the dead, so that they might be released from their sin”. For this reason, the Catholic Church recommends prayers, alms-giving and works of penance to be undertaken on behalf of the dead (Catholic Catechism 1994:268, article 1032).

Are those who have departed “asleep” until the last day?
The Catholic belief is that of an immediate judgement after death and immediate reward or punishment. The Second Council of Lyons (1274, in Neuner & Dupuis, 1990:18, paragraph 26) states that souls free from sin will be received immediately into heaven. In Constitution Benedictus Deus (1336, Neuner & Dupuis, 1990:768, paragraph number 2307), we understand that purgatory is also an immediate experience, and the subsequent ascent into heaven occurs even if the general judgement has not taken place. There is a Last Judgement, or general judgement, on the last day, when Christ returns in glory, and this is a more general type of event which will reveal God’s providence in the world and in our own personal lives.
It needs to be noted that various prayers for the dead refer to raising the soul up on the last day, and here I assume this is a reference to the Last Judgement. It seems clear that the “dead” are not asleep, (as some argue), but that they are fully alive, living in a higher state of ontological existence.
The saints in heaven and purgatory are in a mysterious way, present to us in this world, and both pray for us, although the souls in purgatory cannot earn merit from their prayers. It is by their personal suffering and the prayers of others for them that their debt is brought to an end. This is the basic theological framework of the communion of saints against which to compare the ancestor veneration which characterizes African Traditional Religion.

Ancestors
An ancestor is someone who has died, usually a male, often of exemplary virtue (although even those with known faults may be deemed to be an ancestor), who interacts with their progeny of their clan line only. There is no problem in believing that these are present to us in this world, and that our late relatives have a special concern for us, praying for our best interests. Whilst the Black Catholics I I work with refer to ancestors in the plural and general form, they relate only to those in their own clan line. The preference for male ancestors denotes a measure of patriarchy present in this culture.
The ancestor may be initially in a place of unknowing, and this seems to be the closest there is to the notion of purgatory, and a bridge to this concept. The spirit needs to be welcomed home through the rite of “ukubuyisa”, whilst Christians pray for their dead to be welcomed into the heavenly kingdom. Ancestors need acknowledgement, obedience, they need to be remembered, even at the penalty of punishment. This belief in punishment is discussed below. Where an animal is sacrificed for a relative, this can be connected to Christians who offer the sacrifice of the Mass, prayers and works of penance for the souls in purgatory. But care must be taken to emphasize the unique nature of the Eucharistic Sacrifice and the one perfect sacrifice of Christ.
In this sense, the ancestors are incomplete in that they need the attention of their progeny. In the Christian framework, those in purgatory are in the process of being “completed”, of being purified or perfected. They need our attention, our prayers. However, those in heaven are presumed to be completely fulfilled. Yet we can speculate about our late relatives and friends, who are deeply concerned about us, even if only in a compassionate way, since in heaven there are no more tears or sadness. There is a tradition that believes that all those in heaven actually enjoyed a permanent increase in blessedness when Mary the mother of Jesus entered heaven. Is it not possible that when a family member enters heaven, that their friends and relatives also enjoy an increase in happiness? Jesus tells us that there is joy in heaven over one repentant sinner (Lk 15:7), and of course, entry into heaven implies that every last sinned has been repented and atoned for. In this manner, the demands of the ancestors to be acknowledged is a bridge to the very real need to pray for the dead.
We face the argument of how we can know whether our dead relative is in heaven, or in purgatory. They could be in hell (cf 2 The 1:9 “Their punishment is to be lost eternally, excluded from the presence of the Lord”). Are Christians who pray to friends or relatives, or Africans praying to ancestors, wasting their time? Firstly, no prayer can ever be a waste of time. Any breath of holy desire, of petition, will achieve some beneficial effect, even if the actual request is wide off the mark of God’s will. God will always give the gift of the Spirit to those who pray (Lk 11:13).
God is close to those who seek the unknown God, even if indirectly (“in shadows and images”, cf LG 16), even via ancestors or other gods. The good desires of people of goodwill are also legitimate prayers to God who desires all people to be saved (1 Tim 2:4). There is no suggestion here that salvation or grace is bestowed by any other means than via the Christ Event, but that the search for the unknown God participates in this event, through God’s generosity. The Holy Spirit allows all to be partners, “in a way known to God, in the paschal mystery” (Gaudium et Spes, = GS1965:22, a Vatican II document). In people of goodwill, grace is active invisibly in their hearts and this grace is sourced from the Easter Mystery.
Secondly, we can ask how do we know that a relative or ancestor is not in heaven? Even those in purgatory can pray for us and so assist us. Generally, a relative who has died and had an evil reputation, will not be identified as an ancestor, so we are left with the possibility of the person being in either heaven or still being purified. Tlhagale (2000:27-37) overcomes this problem by comparing canonized saints with ancestors. Canonized saints are regarded as definitively in heaven. However, this comparison is comparatively restrictive, excluding the majority, who in their way have attempted to do God’s will. On the basis of Hebrews 12:22 and Revelation 5:12 (referred to above), I argue that the communion of saints refers to all those in heaven, not only the canonized saints. I understand that others will have difficulty in judging a relative to be in heaven. I add that there have been many reported experiences of late relatives, admittedly subjective experiences, where assistance has been provided or where they have asked for prayers for themselves, to assist in their purification.
The ancestor notion of the African people is a relatively restricted one, compared with the broader belief in the communion of saints and those in purgatory, and not limited to clan lines. Saints outside of the clan can be of assistance to us, according to our Christian theology, there is a wider degree of communication and exchange of spiritual goods.

Intercession of the Saints
Again, with the starting point of the ancestor as a mediator between his clan and God, I examine the Christian notion of intercession to see what this involves. A special decree of the Council of Trent (1653, Neuner & Dupuis page 401), avers that the saints reigning together with Christ pray to God for humanity. It is good to “invoke” them and to have recourse to their prayers, to ask for favours from the Father through the Son, reinforced by the intercession of the saints. It is incorrect, the Decree argues, to see this as idolatry, or prejudicial to honouring Christ, the one mediator between God and humanity (1Tim 2:5), because it is a sharing in the intercession of Christ by his good will towards us and the saints.
Christ rewards their meritorious behaviour in their earthly lives by giving ear to them in their heavenly lives. It is argued, in fact, that to object to honouring or praying to a saint, is evidence of a limited sense of ecclesial awareness, and of an excessively individual, personal, private form of religion (cf Apostolic Letter Vicessimus Quintus Annus 1988, Neuner & Dupuis, page 395-398).
The intercession of Mary the mother of Jesus (and of the saints as well, canonized or not, in my opinion), is a share in the intercession of her Son, which in no way rivals the Son’s unique intercession, but enhances it (LG 60). This intercession flows from “the superabundance of the merits of Christ, rests on his mediation, depends entirely on it and draws all its power from it” (LG 60). It does not hinder in any way the immediate union of the faithful with Christ, but on the contrary, fosters it. As Christ’s ministers and followers, we share in the priesthood of Christ, and our intercession does not exclude the unique mediation of Christ but is a sharing in this one source (LG 62).
In LG 49 the saints in heaven are seen to never cease to intercede with the Father for humanity, professing the merits they acquired on earth, through the one mediator between God and humanity. Their concern and prayers help us in our weakness, even “completing in their flesh what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his Body, the Church” (cf Col 1:24). In LG 50, we are advised to humbly invoke our heavenly benefactors to obtain benefits from the Father through the Son. LG 51 refers to the living communion that exists between us and those in the after-life.
It is clear from this that the saints are valid subjects of our prayers, but that this is a gift from God who allows them to share in the Son’s unique intercession. This theological framework justifies praying to ancestors. The majority of Black Catholics I have questioned in the Cape Town area, answer that they do pray to their ancestors. The extent to which they do varies considerably. Some communicate only with ancestors at occasional rituals, others pray to their favourite relative every day. There is no mysterious “invocation” of ancestors, by those that pray to them, they simply address them in verbal or silent prayer. At many ancestor rituals, Christ is also invoked. It is difficult to assess whether the role of Christ is in fact diminished in any particular case. But I believe the centrality and supreme authority of Christ does need to be emphasized. The ancestors should also not be seen as an impenetrable barrier blocking them off from Christ, but that Christ is always present to us (Mt 28:20b “I am with you always; yes, to the end of time”). Also, a certain amount of purification of beliefs is needed here, namely that ancestors cannot act independently of God, they are not autonomous agents. Appropriate Scripture passages to reinforce the supremacy of Christ include the following:

Mt 28:18 – Jesus states “all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me”;

Jn 14:6 – “I am the Way, the Truth and Life. No one can come to the Father except through me”;

Jn 14:9 – “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father”, to emphasize Christ’s oneness and equality with the Father. I believe it needs to be stressed that Christ is equal to the Father, even though in the Xhosa, or Sotho, or Western cultures, the son is seen as below the father in terms of authority and honour. Jesus’ divinity must be emphasized, he is more than a very holy prophet, he is God/Man in one, “begotten” by the Father but not created by the Father. We run into difficulties with the understanding of the Trinity but I do believe we can successfully portray Jesus as one with the Father, equal in majesty and honour.

Phil. 2:10 – “so that all things in heaven, on the earth and in the underworld should bend the knee at the name of Jesus”. To a people who have a high degree of fear of evil spirits, this assertion if Christ’s power over the “underworld” is comforting;

Jn 8:58 – “before Abraham ever was, I am” – another assertion of Christ the Incarnate Word and his equality with the Father, and his existence as the Eternal Logos with the Father from the beginning of time;

Col 1:15 -16 – “He is the image of the unseen God, the first-born of all creation, for in him were created all things in heaven and on earth”;

Col 1:18 – “so that he should be supreme in every way”.

There is a tendency by black Christians to over-emphasize the Old Testament, which points to a certain underestimation of the central role Christ and the Easter Mystery. These powerful quotations emphasize above clearly the complete superiority of Christ over all creatures and in fact of all creation. No creature can be equalled with the Incarnate Word, thus in LG 62, we read ”The Church does not hesitate to profess this subordinate role of Mary”, and by extension, of all the saints and angels.
I have no hesitation in applying the notion of intercession not only to the canonized saints, but to all who have gone before us, acknowledging the difficulties some may have with this assertion. By baptism, we all share in the common priesthood of Christ and qualify therefore as intercessors whether dead or alive. We are referred to in the Bible as a kingdom of priests (1 Pet. 2:9), called to pray for the world. There is no problem therefore, in seeing ancestors as intercessors on our behalf. It is worth repeating that it makes complete sense that those who have gone before us have a special interest in our well-being and ultimate salvation, and are praying for us. Those in heaven have been fully purified, and therefore, it could be argued, that they have additional “sway” in their prayers. We need to keep in mind, however, that all prayer goes through the Son to the Father, and that our ancestors can only hear the prayer by the power of God. When we pray, the Holy Spirit, who plumbs the depths of God, is obviously immediately aware of our prayers and our real needs, even before we ask for something (Mt 6:8). We also need to emphasize that Christ is a surprisingly personal and very close God, who does not insist on mediators to reach him, he is imminently accessible.
There is another practice which is questionable. Many Black Africans visit “diviners” in order to communicate with the “dead”. In the Book of Samuel (1 Sam. 28:5-20) King Saul does what is frowned upon in their faith tradition, he persuades a necromancer (referred to as a witch in the New Jerusalem Bible) to call up the spirit of the departed Samuel. This is a puzzling piece of theology. The souls of the departed are in God’s hands, and have no power in themselves to appear to us unless expressly allowed by God. So in this passage it seems that Yahweh allows Samuel to communicate with Saul in this special case. If diviners are truly in contact with spirits, are these the souls of the departed, or perhaps evil spirits, since our faith asks us not to “call up” the dead via special rituals, even if we could call them up. I have to argue that communication with the departed is a one-way process where the departed are intercessors on our behalf, whom God allows to hear our prayers, and I cannot see that God will allow them to be “called up”. Those, therefore, that claim to contact the dead are on dangerous ground.

Honouring the Saints, the Ancestors
Again, starting with the local practice of honouring ancestors, I attempt to reconcile this with our Christian faith. The reality is that ancestors are honoured, so I move from culture to faith to examine the faith tradition. Catholic teaching defines three levels of respect paid to heavenly personages. The first level is called “dulia”, the honouring of canonized saints, and I maintain, our own relatives who have gone before us, as well as angels. It seems to me as natural to honour those in the after-life as it is to honour anyone in this life. The Archangel Gabriel punishes Zecariah for doubting his message (Lk 1:20), establishing a Biblical precedent for respect of a heavenly personage. The second level is referred to as “hyper-dulia”, or veneration, a higher level of honour reserved exclusively for Mary the mother of Christ. To Mary is attributed the words “all generations will call me blessed” (Lk 1:48) The third level is “latria”, or worship, reserved exclusively for God. There is no question of Catholics worshipping Mary or any other saints or angel. As I have noted above, LG 62 states that there is no hesitation in professing the subordinate role of Mary, and of course of all the angels and saints.
To honour a saint or ancestor is to celebrate the triumph of Christ in their lives. To honour a creature, or what God has achieved in that person, is to honour the Creator even more, who guided the person on the path of sanctity. God is glorified in his saints. Thus the honouring of saints and our communion with them should not diminish the worship of God through Christ, but should enrich this worship. God chooses to manifest his glory in his saints (LG 51). The distinction between honouring and worshipping is essential and needs to be stressed, as black catholics hear from friends in other Christian denominations that ancestor veneration is idolatry. The Catholic Xhosa prayer book (“Bongan’ iNkosi”, Prayerbook of the Pastoral Council of the Xhosa Region, ABC Press) recognizes some ancestor rituals and sets out Christian prayers to accompany them. Otherwise, the Catholic Church in Cape Town has been largely silent on this issue. Individual priests have on occasion involved themselves with such rituals, by way of prayers and providing special blessings for young adults about to go for manhood rites.

Qualities and Roles of Ancestors and the Communion of Saints
Many black catholics continue to ascribe supernatural powers to ancestors, even that these can act independently of God. From a Christian point of view, those in heaven graduate to a new ontological state, becoming like angels (Mt 22:50), and are free from the very substantial limitations of the human condition, including ignorance, also a consequence of original sin. These personages have seen God, they have received a glorified body. They must therefore possess a far greater wisdom and freedom from human ignorance as a new creation, and must be worthy sources of wisdom to their progeny, notably in their prayers.
The ancestor is also seen as having reached a higher level of completion and considerable powers, which derive from their death and transition to a new state. They are a continual presence as are the saints in communion with us. But they are not an essential route to Christ, who tells us he is with us to the end of time (cf Mat 28:20b) and that “in him all things hold together” (Col 1:17b), meaning that we can never be apart from Christ’s cosmic presence. African Traditional Religion sees God as remote, distant, therefore it is necessary to deal with him via ancestors. As I have noted above, all the Catholics I have questioned, pray to Christ as well as ancestors, but there is the danger of the underestimation of Christ.
Ancestors are accorded many powers by Black Catholics. Before enlarging on this, I am prompted to consider the various ways in which the heavenly hosts can be of assistance to us, to expand our awareness of these and of what I believe is the substantial help they do give us. In this way, I hope to give more substance to the African confidence in the role of ancestors. In Luke’s parable of the pounds (Lk 19:11-26), the faithful servant is in the end rewarded with the “government” of many cities, which to me implies a role in the earthly life, in some mysterious way beyond simply praying for their own progeny. Also, in Matthew’s Gospel (Mt 25:14-30, cf verse 22), the faithful servant is rewarded with even greater things, notably, as he joins in his master’s happiness, where this last sentence might refer to the servant’s admission to a glorified state, with important tasks awaiting them. The apostles are promised a part in judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Lk 22:30), whilst certain Eucharistic prayers used in the Mass attribute the following roles to the saints:

Angels: in honouring them we honour their Creator and they can pray for us;
Saints and angels: they join in with us praising God;
Apostles: from their place in heaven they guide us still, and through them God watches us and protect us;
Pastors: God gives us their protection in answer to their prayers;
Holy Men and Women: in their prayer for the Church God gives us strength and protection and helps us by their constant prayers and gives us inspiration and strength.

These points suggest a far wider role for our ancestors than intercession, and even a measure of autonomy, of using their judgement at the grass-roots level. I have argued that God likes to be glorified in his saints, thus that he acts via these saints rather than directly. If Black Catholics over-estimate the role of ancestors to varying degrees, Westerners significantly underestimate the influence and scope of assistance of our departed loved ones. But even if their presence with us suggests a measure of autonomous support, they must by necessity do God’s will, since all who are in heaven, and have been perfected, must do God’s will perfectly, as in the prayer “The Our Father”, verse 22 (Mt 6), which reads “your will be done on earth as in heaven”. Thus they cannot do anything contrary to the Lord’s will.
This leads to the belief, also of many Black Catholics, that ancestors can punish us, even causing physical harm, as well as misfortunes in other areas of life. Does this tie in with Christian theology? One rule of inculturation is that a new idea must cohere with the Christian faith and teachings. Do we believe that the God of love uses our relatives to hurt or kill us?
We need to explore a theology of punishment. In an attempt to address this issue, some Catholics argue that when a person does evil, God and the ancestors cannot force them to do God’s will. God allows them to sin, but they somehow move out of the protective sphere of God and ancestors. The person is left to their own devices, much as the father let the prodigal son get into trouble (Lk 15:11-32). In the Old Testament, there are numerous examples of Israel abandoning God’s ways, “losing” his protection and then crying to the Lord when they were overrun by their enemies.
This type of reasoning coheres with the central idea of a God of love, and a God always waiting, almost anxiously, like the prodigal son’s father, for the person to return to God. The parable of the lost sheep (Lk 15”4-7), shows that the Lord is proactive, in fact, he does not wait for the sinner to repent on their own initiative, but acts to draw them back to him. This too would seem a most appropriate way of describing the attitude of our ancestors, eager to see us back on the path of salvation.
In the Book of Samuel (2 Sam. 24:10-25), we see the God of punishment, when he gives David a choice of three punishments (famine for a certain time, defeat by enemy, or three days of epidemic visited on his people), for taking a census. David chooses the epidemic and an angel of God is sent to strike down people with pestilence. The angel Gabriel punishes Zecariah for doubting God’s message (Lk 1:20). There is also the story of Ananias and his wife being struck dead for their deception of the Christian community (Acts 5:1-11). This is a initial attempt at deriving a theology of God punishing us in this life.
Having noted these points, it nevertheless remains difficult for me to accept that God will use ancestors to hurt or even kill their progeny, or their live-stock, or cause some misfortune. Many Black Catholics and other Black Christians ascribe personal and societal woes to neglect of the ancestors. It would seem that it is more of the neglect of the example of these that brings trouble, such as when Israel was disloyal to the example of their Fathers in faith.
It is interesting to note an untitled and un-named research report, conducted in about 1985, amongst the BaSotho in Lesotho. The author describes fifty interviews with mostly adult people, who claimed communication from their ancestors (39 by dreams, 9 from diviners, 1 from a vision). The author concluded that one of the prevailing attitudes to the ancestors was one of fear. The main reason is that in 28 of the cases, there was a clear threat of punishment or actual punishment for neglecting the ancestors. In another two cases there was an implied threat, even if not explicitly mentioned. Evil included death by lightning, illness, interference with work, collapse of a house, death of children. Eleven of the communications brought good advice, something clearly good, two dissuaded progeny from evil.
A questioning approach can be taken to the communications, of course. Did the person attribute the evil to the ancestor after the event? Was there psychological deception, or the very real possibility of evil spirits posing as ancestors? Also, I do not dispute the occurrence of real communication from an ancestor, but I question the interpretation of this event. I continue to lean to the positive communications, as more likely to be cases of genuine intervention by the ancestors present to us, with the blessing of God, of course. I hope readers have emerged from the Enlightenment paradigm by which only visible and measurable phenomena are accepted, with a new outlook to the mysterious and the real world of saints and angels as well as evil spirits also present to us, trying to influence us for the worst!
Burhmann (1984), a Jungian psychologist, refers to the personal unconsciousness and collective unconsciousness which send messages to the conscious mind via dreams and other ways. She maintains that the techniques used by traditional healers facilitate communication with the unconscious, in this way, providing answers to the ailing person’s problems. There is thus the possibility that a “communication” is actually a psychological phenomenon.
The ancestors are seen as protecting us from evil spirits. Here too I believe that if the African is too pre-occupied with evil spirits, the Western mindset is too unbelieving and too casual about such spirits. The Book of Revelation (12:9, 17) refers to Satan and his angels being “hurled down to the earth”, and to making war with the people on earth. The Apostle Paul (Eph. 6:11-12) warns that our enemies are not human but the “spirits of evil”. When Satan tempts Jesus with control over all the kingdoms of the world (Mt 4:8-9), there is a clear suggestion that Satan has considerable influence in the world, and that sin is also embedded in the structures of politics, business and society in general, not just in the hearts of people. The theology of evil spirits ascribes their origin to a test that God gave all his angels. Those who rebelled, by choosing wrongly, were permanently corrupted, including the Archangel Lucifer, who became known as Satan. There are the “fallen angels”, the evil spirits who are bent on warring against humanity.
Pastoral works such as house blessings, providing holy water, and praying over people are, I believe, very important in the African context. These are some solutions to the fear of evil spirits. If pastors themselves do not perform these functions, parishioners themselves will look elsewhere for solace, or pray over each other. If a person believes they are troubled by evil, they can be reassured of the supremacy of Christ over all creation, and of the invisible support of the whole team of heavenly personages, including the ancestors. To dismiss this as superstition is both pastorally and theologically incorrect.

Poor Inculturation
Failure to inculturate properly in the ACT has in my opinion resulted in the following negative consequences:
1. A diluted Catholicism reflects in poor observance of certain basic minimums of catholic practice, such as (a) relatively infrequent use of the sacrament of reconciliation, (b) relatively poor Mass attendance, (c.) receiving Holy Communion after missing Mass for some time. This to me is a sign of lack of appreciation and understanding of the “foreign” catholic ethos, not a deliberate act of neglect.
2. Dual religious systems, such as interrupting Mass attendance when a family member dies. For example when a husband dies, the wife traditionally remains at home for weeks, missing out on the graces of the Mass, but conforming to the custom to be at home and to receive the visitors, rather than to the catholic requirement to attend the Sunday Mass; Ancestor rituals are of course a form of dual religious practice, but in many cases the catholic Church has attempted to Christianize these rituals to varying extents. There have been some attempts to harmonize animal sacrifice with the Eucharist, but this has raised much opposition.
3. Retention of African Traditional Beliefs, such as wearing traditional items for protection against evil, and the belief that the ancestors can hurt us, a belief I find difficult to accept, amounting to partial acceptance of Catholicism only.
4. Transferring membership to more inculturated churches.
5. Going to both the Catholic Church as well as others, for example, for healing, including healers and diviners.
6. Failure to provide for real needs and fears, such as being too dismissive of the fear of evil spirits.
7. Dismissal of African Traditional Religion results in missing out on important ways of inculturating, of moving from the known in the African culture to the unknown in the Christian faith, as I have attempted to do above.
8. The Catholic Church has tended to blame poor performance of catholic duties on poor instruction instead of lack of knowledge of the receiving culture and attempts to inculturate.
9. The reasoned encounter of faith and culture should yield riches as the new culture’s latent and implicit theology is unearthed, providing new insights and new theologies. Walls (1996:148), refers to a veritable “El Dorado”, a rich gold mine of theological riches waiting to emerge from this encounter. These discoveries are not been made because of lack of effort at serious inculturation.
10. There has been an inevitable fragmentation and deconstruction of African culture, but not only as a result of Christian mission, but also because of the powerful effects of industrialization, colonization, Westernisation, on the polities, economies and social structures of the African social systems.
11. There has been a failure of the local church to emerge, with ongoing reliance on expatriate priests and few black vocations.

Okure (1998:16) asks that if we have been transferred from the ancestral bloodline to that of Christ, do we still need the ancestor cult? I argue that they have valuable roles to play, but that Christ should be the main focus. But God is surely sympathetic to the hopes of the parents in heaven for their offspring. Okure, however, rightly worries that the Christian may end up serving two masters, where the notion of ancestor is more powerfully embedded in the mind of an African (:16,17). There is also the real possibility of evil spirits posing as ancestors to lead people astray.
Whilst Okure (1988:23) agrees that evangelization needs to take into account the African world-view, she insists that there must be a sound Christological and Pneumatological basis which acknowledges the infinitely higher authority of Christ and the Holy Spirit. The “alleged powers to guide the clan, call and commission individuals to carry out special functions in the community needs to be similarly approached”, that is, to be sound from a Christological and Pneumatological basis. Christ’s free gift of the Holy Spirit is better than anything the ancestors can offer. This gift is obtainable without “arduous” rituals (:21). For Okure, African Traditional Religion is the equivalent of what the Old Testament was for the Jewish Christian, a preparation for the fullness of revelation. Christianity goes further than the Old Testament and the ancestors. It calls members to love enemies. It transforms the Jewish faith and the ancestor faith beyond their limits. These faiths are not completely parallel (although there are illuminating parallels), but a preparation, a path to a fuller way. Okure worries that undue devotion to ancestors can condemn Africa to an inferior or “third-world” Christianity. The supremacy of not only Christ, but of the Holy Spirit, must be clear.
We still have a long way to go. If the Greek Church needed to encounter Christianity with its own philosophies for many centuries, to really make the religion its own, we need to continue our efforts, and in the end, to encourage African priests to take inculturation to its deeper levels. Some African scholars, fear that the Western Church, in its attempt to inculturate, will end up creating the African Church once more in its own image and likeness, and unless the Western Church “withdraws”, the African Church cannot find its rightful place and expression of faith. It is as Jesus said that unless he departed, the Spirit would not come, so, in the same way, Western influence needs to “depart”, to make way for the new paradigm. This is an endorsement of a pure anthropological approach to inculturation, which starts with culture by a person steeped in the culture. I hope that my etic approach, however, paves the way at least in part for reconciling aspects of ancestor beliefs with Catholic doctrine.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bongan’ iNkosi 1986. Incwadi yeMithandazo namaCulo yeBandla lamaKatolike aseRoma. Xhosa prayer book. Published by The Prayer Commission of the Pastoral Conference of the Xhosa Region. ABC Press.

Buhrmann, M. V. 1984. Living in two worlds. Communication between a white healer and her black counterparts.
Human & Rosseau. Cape Town and Pretoria

GS = Gaudium et spes 1965, in Flannery 1988:903-1001. (Vatican II).

Goldie, P. 2006. Catholic mission to the black people within the archdiocese of cape town: a historical and missiological review with emphasis on inculturation. UNISA thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of master of theology.

Holland , J. & Henriot, P. 1980. Social analysis. Linking faith and justice. Centre of Concern, Orbis Books,
Washington DC, USA.

LG = Lumen Gentium, 1964 in Flannery 1988:350 – 426.

Neuner J. & Dupuis J. (eds) 1990. The christian faith in the doctrinal documents of the catholic church.
Harpers Collins Religious. London, UK.

Okure, T. 1998. Belief in The Holy Spirit and in Ancestral Spirits, Grace & Truth 15(3):5-25.

Shorter, A. 1988. Towards a theology of inculturation. Geoffrey, London, UK.

Tlhagale, B. 2000. Saints and Ancestors: a Closer Look, in Inculturation in the South African Context
(various authors), Paulines Publications Africa, Nairobi, 27-37.

Vatican, 1994. The catechism of the catholic church. Paulines publications Africa/Mambo press. Nairobi,
Kenya.

Neuner & Dupuis (eds). 1990. The christian faith in the doctrinal documents
of the catholic church. Page 395-397 HarpersCollins Religious. London, UK.

Walls, AF. 1996. The missionary movement in Christian history. Studies in transmission of faith.
Orbis Books, New York, USA.

We have a very high unemployment rate in our country, and we need to look beyond the statistics to the consequences of so many people with so much time on their hands, especially young people. The bulk of prisoners are males between the ages of 18 and 35, which is normally a dangerous period for males, as they seek to assert themselves and their masculinity in ways which are often anti-social, if there is no meaningful work for them to do. A professor of sociology has referred to what he calls the “barbarian invasion” in the USA, meaning by that the assault on society by males between this age group. It appears that marriage and children draw males out of the danger zone, but with marriage a dwindling institution and more single parenting, there are more rootless males around, turning to crime, anti-social behaviour and substance abuse.

There are too many youths in South Africa whose parents cannot afford even to maintain them at school. Living conditions are also conducive to fostering an anti-social bias. These youths may drift into gangs, or may fruitlessly seek employment, and may watch with growing bitterness the river of people going to work every morning and returning every evening. A feeling of powerlessness in engendered, and psychologists believe that such people may seek to compensate by exerting power over weaker people, including women and children. It is not too difficult to imagine that the socialization of many people living in dehumanised conditions produces people with anti-social morals, anger and frustration. These turn naturally to crime, and often to violent crime. I have encountered a good few highly dehumanized individuals in the townships, people who seem to have had all the milk of human kindness eradicated from their personalities. Yes, these people do make choices, moral choices, but I wonder what my choices would be like if I had been brought up in a dehumanised environment.

When business bemoans crime, is not business part of the problem (and part of the solution), contributing to the very conditions that cause crime? We complacently accept what economists call “structural unemployment”, as if it is an unavoidable evil. I am not advocating socialism, Marxism, or communism, but I believe business has to be more creative in our country, with its free market system. I have heard of businessmen sacrificing some profit (imagine that!) by choosing labour rather than machinery. France reduced the working week by about 20% and so created hundreds of thousands of jobs, cannot business do something similar? Business is highly creative, there are surely many more ways of ameliorating the situation. The formal economy can also play its part.

In Cape Town, Mrs Linda Biehl (an American citizen) set up the Amy Biehl Foundation, after her daughter Amy was tragically killed in Gugulethu, Cape Town. The foundation recognises the culture of violence in townships and sets out to provide meaningful activity for youth in these areas.

The image of a “ticking time bomb” is often used to describe the dangers of massive unemployment. But the bomb has detonated, we are paying the consequences of this unhappy feature of our economy. People are struggling for survival, as we can see from the country-wide service delivery protests. There is also a steady process of urbanization, which is also putting huge, in fact unbearable strains on cities. We are not alone in this. Peru, for example, also experiences this problem, has land invasions, informal settlements, mini-busses, crime, unemployment.

We have to stop looking at one side of the equation only, we are both part of the problem as well as part of the solution.

There has been much attention given to the size of executive salaries, and how many times these salaries exceed the lowest staff salary in a particular organization. Why are these top level people paid so much, is there any justification? The Bible tells us that we should see God as our actual employer because in the Book of Genesis God commands us to “subdue the earth”, to be master of all the world’s resources, to participate in the world of work, as if we are co-creators in the act of completing creation in an unfinished world (Genesis 1:28-29). Work was God’s plan for us even before Original Sin, but thereafter it became characterized by tensions and problems. We are warned not to be greedy, and Jesus expresses his anger with the sellers of animals for sacrifice and the iniquitous prices they charged, as well as the money changers, who charged huge commissions (John 2:13-16). I note a few more Biblical guidelines below. Otherwise, what is there to it?

The Market determines Executive Wages. People are paid essentially according to the perceived perception of how much they contribute to the bottom line profit of a company. If I am a tea-maker, I imagine I would have to be content with R 2 500 per month. But if I walk into a company, and by my actions, increase its net profit from R 10 million per annum to R 20 million per annum, I will be paid a lot more. There are a limited number of people who can do this, and the job market will be on the watch for these individuals, as they are relatively rare.

How do they do it?

• Education. People with a degree in chemical engineering for example, can be presumed to be very valuable in a chemical company, even more so if they have a Masters or Doctorate, and perhaps an MBA as well.
• Experience. Someone with more experience should in theory be more in demand, depending on their record.
• Effect on Bottom line. If you have the ability to add millions to the net profit, you will be paid millions. Not everyone can do this, not even people with degrees. Some people are particularly gifted as top level managers, are strategic thinkers, and really know how to make a company move ahead.
• Effect on Share price. A rough measure of a company’s share price can be gauged by multiplying its net profit for the year by the price/earnings ratio within that sector. For example, if a company makes a net profit of R 10 million per annum, many things being equal, given a P/E ration of 8, the company will be valued at 8 X R 10 million = R 80 million. If the Boss then doubles profits, all things being equal again, the value of the group could double to R 160 million. The Boss will be paid millions in salary, and so can make millions, but with share options, they can make tens of millions or even hundreds of millions. This does happen.
• A Solid (perhaps hectic) Work Ethic. This, combined with ambition, motivates people to work sometimes, or many times, 16 hours a day, weekends, public holidays, festive seasons and religious holidays, especially when something special is happening, like a large expansion or important deal.

BOTTOM LINE. If you want to earn millions, be willing to work extremely long hours, at all times, and to educate yourself and to immerse yourself into the company and is activities. You need to be ambitious, but you need to know what you are doing and in the end, you have to make profits grow. There is nothing wrong with being ambitious, but do not let this become your god. But beware of hoarding possessions (Luke 12:16-21), be generous, especially be aware of the poor (Luke 16:19-31), make the right use of money (Luke 16:9-13), make good use of your talents (Matthew 25:14-29), remember how hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God (Luke 18:24-27), and do not lose your soul in the process! Paul (1 Tim 5:9-10) also warns about the dangers facing the rich and about the love of money as the root of all evils. Within these considerable constraints there are 4 words: WORK HARD, BOTTOM LINE. Can you do it?

Developing nations owe between $ 2 000 billion and $ 3 000 billion. This compares with expenditure in arms in 2008 of $ 1 460 billion. The top 20% of population consume 86.5% of the annual “cake” produced by the world. The next 60% consume 12% and the bottom 20% consume 1.5%. In 1960 the ratio of the richest 20% nations to the poorest 20% was 30 to 1. In 1990 this ratio was 64 to 1. Some 1 billion people are obese, another 1 billion experience regular food insecurity. For some there is too much food, for others too little. It is socio-economic situations like these that prompt the Church to speak out about the modern situation of Lazarus and Dives (Luke 16:19-31) that prevails in our world today.

BACKGROUND
Populorum Progressio
Caritas in Veritate (= CV) studies the world of economics, particularly in relation to development and underdevelopment. It takes as its prime point of reference, an earlier encyclical, Populorum Progressio (= PP, 1967), which concerned itself with these issues. In fact, it takes PP as a milestone document of the Church’s Social Teaching, much the same as the document Rerum Novarum (= RN, 1891, “of new things”) is seen as one of the founding documents of the Church’s social doctrine. In RN, the Church spoke boldly about trade unions and workers’ rights in the context of the Industrial Revolution in Europe. PP, however, is broader in scope, hence its choice by Pope Benedict as the key reference basis for CV.

Sollicitudo Rei Socialis
PP (3) noted conditions of underdevelopment and suffering, writing that the “Church shudders at the cry of anguish and call for each one to give a loving response of charity to this brother’s (sic) cry for help”. Twenty years later, in 1987, Pope John Paul II issued an encyclical letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (= SRS, “on the social concern of the Church”). This updated PP, as an ethical essay offering principles for reflection and criteria for judgment (SRS 8), not a detailed blueprint of technical solutions.
SRS (1987:12) observed that the development hoped for twenty years ago, was not realized. In general, the situation had worsened (:13) and the gap between the developing and developed countries had in fact increased (:14). Pope Benedict’s new encyclical (CV), issued in July 2009, was in fact meant to be issued in 2007, on the fortieth anniversary of PP. Because of technical problems, it emerged in 2009. The Pope concluded, as with SRS, that while there had been some increase in the overall standard of living, there were still radical problems of poverty and underdevelopment. The financial crisis, which began in 2008, threatened to aggravate the plight of the developing nations.

A Non-Political, Scriptural Agenda
The key Scripture passage underlying the title of CV, is found in Ephesians 4:15 “If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow completely into Christ, who is head…”. A USA secular newspaper apparently referred to PP as warmed up Marxism. The latest encyclical does not choose either the left (Marxism, Communism) or the right (Liberal Free Market Capitalism), offering principles for reflection, not a politically biased policy document. Some principles such as the common good and solidarity, would be incorrectly interpreted as favouring a centrally planned economy. The principle of subsidiarity, on the other hand, is not an endorsement of liberal capitalism either. All theology has an underlying political stance, even if only implicitly. Be that as it may, there is no intention in the encyclical letter to choose sides.

The Failure of the Ideologies
The late Jon Paul II, in various writings, noted in fact that the reason many had in the past opted for Communism, was because of the failure of Capitalism to overcome widespread poverty. He was prescient in expressing concern that there could be serious economic problems without ethics in the economic system. Certainly, one of the reasons for the financial collapse in 2008 is the absence of self-regulation, of concern for the effects of economic actions. Most, if not all economic actions have human and therefore moral consequences.

THE HEART OF CARITAS IN VERITATE

The Qualities of God
CV is essentially contextual theology. It studies the socio-economic context of the world we live in, judges it in the light of Scripture and Tradition, and formulates principles, guidelines for action. This is what the Prophets of the Bible did. However, before beginning its analysis of the world economy, it focuses on two essential qualities of God, namely love and truth. Love has its origins in God, who is Eternal Love and Absolute Truth.

Love
If the whole Bible were to be summarized in three words, “God is Love” would be the ideal phrase. This is in fact the title of Pope Benedict’s first encyclical letter (Deus Caritas Est, “God is Love”, 2005). This quality reveals God’s fountain-like love, which overflows into creation (the Father), salvation (by the Son), recreation (by the Holy Spirit), and the final consummation (cf Ad Gentes Divinitus, 1965:2). Love is God’s gift to us, and our final goal is to share in the ecstatic communion of love that exists between the Father and the Son, in the Holy Spirit.
All our activities need to be shaped by love, which is the extraordinary force that leads people to generous and courageous engagement in the field of justice and peace. Love is poured into our hearts by through the Holy Spirit (Rm 5:5). We need to mobilise at the level of heart.

Truth
Love needs to be given direction by truth. There is absolute truth in God and therefore the Church maintains that there is objective reality in the world, even if in the postmodern world, truth is seen as purely relative to culture and circumstances. Truth overcomes subjective opinions and cultural and historical limitations (CV 4). Truth defines what true love is, where the concept of love is often distorted.
Truth needs to be searched for and expressed in a loving manner. It is truth that we are one single human family, and that the good of all society is greater than the individual good (CV 7). The common good is a key principle of the Catholic Social Teachings, and to ensure the common good is to love effectively (in truth). It is the duty of the Church to find the truth, to read the “signs of the time” (Gaudium et Spes 1965:4; Luke 12:56).

The Church’s Mission
Only in charity illuminated by truth, the light of reason and faith, is it possible to implement humane and effective goals (CV 9). The Church has mission to truth, not to specific technical solutions. Motivated by love, it searches for the truth, and it sets out fundamental principles for a just ordering of society. Such guidelines include the common good, subsidiarity and solidarity, key principles of Catholic Social Teachings.

A Vocation
Both PP (34) and CV (16) contend that economic and technological progress is in effect a vocation, based on the call from God to develop oneself and the material culture (Gen. 1:28, “fill the earth and subdue it. Be masters of the fish of the sea…”, as well as the parable to use our gifts properly, cf Mt 25:14-30, Lk 19:11-27). This is further ground for the Church’s concern for the question of economic development. Humankind has a pilgrimage through history to make, and the Church has the right to evaluate this vocation, this journey, by shedding the light of the Gospel (to “Judge”) on the social question (to “See”, to perform a social analysis, to read the signs of the times) and to “Act”, to prophesy, to speak out.

THE ESSENTIAL NEED FOR SPIRITUALITY, GOSPEL VALUES

Technology is Not Enough
Technology enables us to exercise dominion over nature in order to improve living conditions. It is in effect a response to God’s command to subdue the earth (Gen. 1:28), to cultivate the land (Gen. 2:15). But the criteria in subduing the material culture must be subject to the Gospel, to moral considerations. Technology and profit are means to an end, not an end in themselves. The world cannot rescue itself with technology alone.
Thus CV (78) maintains that “without God man (sic) neither knows which way to go, nor even understands who he is”. Apart from God, we can do nothing (Jn 15:5). All three encyclicals (PP, SRS, CV) conclude that if wealth has grown for some, there is still “the scandal of glaring inequalities” (CV 22), as well as corruption, inefficiency, illegality and the improper diversion of economic aid.

Need for Gospel Values
The Gospel is essential for building society according to freedom and justice. The conviction that economics should and is free from morality has led to grave abuses. Economics in fact, itself rests on a real platform of underlying values, assumptions, ideologies, even if it claims to be ”scientific”, dealing only with “hard” facts. The market is not a neutral arena. It cannot justify itself, and it must draw its morality from elsewhere.
The Pope acknowledges that there are many non-profit organizations, but he looks with interest at hybrid groups that pursue both profit and social goals. He believes these give rise to a more civilised market. Without God, development becomes dehumanised (CV 10-12). It needs to be backed by “values rooted in the truth of life” (CV 72). It needs ethics, taking into account the dignity of people, of the family, of women, of procreation and of the rights of the unborn. Business needs to work for humanity, not only for shareholders. The cause of under-development is not technological, but spiritual and human, the lack of love in truth.

Unregulated Speculative Activity
CV criticises the unregulated and speculative financial deals of 2008, which not only affected the share markets, but lead to a sharp decline in output in the real economy where goods and services are produced and sold. When the oil price reached a record of $ 147 per barrel in 2008, observers believed that without speculative activity in the futures market for oil, the price would have reached only $80 per barrel. This huge increase lead to higher inflation and there were food riots in various countries as the prices of foodstuffs rose sharply. Do commodity dealers and speculators have the ethical freedom to sway prices to such an extent, in effect causing massive hardships? In 2008 the US Treasury resolved to enact legislation to control trading in the oil market. In the USA and UK, not only did share prices drop sharply, but also, many banks could not guarantee to pay out ordinary depositors.

“Hot” Money
There is a huge volume of money in the world, seeking a home. This money represents the savings of people, insurance funds, pensions funds, unit trusts and share and bond market investments. This volume is over 28 times the annual value of goods and services traded in the world, and over 20 times the annual value of world gross domestic product. This money has no loyalty to any country it finds a home in, and can be rapidly withdrawn, often with serious effects to the country’s currency and interest rates. The annual value of derivative trading on the share markets is around 30 times the total value of the world stock exchanges. The logic of the markets is based on exit, namely mobility, flexibility, liquidity and short-term bias. CV observes that while governments regulate local economies, global companies are able to circumvent local legislation.

All Business Decisions have Ethical Dimensions
It needs to be understood that all business decisions have ethical implications. For example, a global company may decide to move its production to a country with lower costs and more favourable tax regime, irrespective of the harm done to the country where the production facility is closed down. CV (25) repeats the call of RN for the promotion of worker associations to protect their rights. Workers face difficult life situations, being unable to plan their life paths, including marriage, family, education of children, and the provision for retirement. Development should also include cultural and spiritual interests. Given floating exchange rates, instant communication and the mobility of capital, both financial and physical, the globalized world is highly interrelated.

Pharmaceutical Groups
These groups are also challenged. They enforce patent rights on vital medicines, which forbid competitors from making cheaper generic medicines for a certain period. They argue that they have to recoup their research and development costs. Brazil’s government has ignored international patent rights for certain medicines and allowed local companies to produce cheaper generics, in order to address the problem of HIV/AIDS. The principle of solidarity, of looking beyond one’s own immediate interests and borders to those who are suffering, is essential. How many lives must be lost in the name of profit? The free market has proved it cannot enable all people to flourish, many are sentenced to low quality lives reduced to a daily struggle for survival.

Gratuitousness
The Pope (CV 34) proposes a value of gratuitousness, which I read as the notion of freely giving and/or forgoing profit, without any expectation of a monetary reward, in order to serve some social interest. This is a principle that would make many business leaders choke! However, there are companies that do have social programmes for employees and for the community. I draw attention to certain passages in Leviticus (Lev. 19:9-10) and Deuteronomy (Dt. 24:19), that instruct owners of vineyards not to pick the vineyard bare or to pick up the fallen grapes. The surplus is for the poor. Every third year, a tenth of the whole income should be given to the Levite and the poor (including foreigners, widows, orphans, so that “they may eat to their hearts content” (Dt. 26:12).
Every seventh year there should be a rest from sowing and what grows in this year must feed all people. In terms of Jubilee theology (Lev. 25:8-11), every fiftieth year all personal debts should be cancelled and people should be allowed to return to their ancestral property. With due allowance for the fact that the economy in those years was centred on agriculture, and today there is a wide spread of economic activities, there is a clear call for generosity by companies today.

Subsidiarity and Solidarity
Whilst CV (53) sees the human race as a single human family, working together in communion, this community should never absorb the individual and destroy their autonomy, as happens in totalitarianism. The Trinity is the model of absolute unity in diversity, where there is no loss of individual identity (CV 54). The subsidiarity principle asserts that all social (including economic) activity should be carried by those closest to that activity. This is very close to the Free Market principle that everyone should have maximum freedom to pursue their own interests, in this way the whole economy should in theory benefit the most. This is the predominant ideology today. However, Capitalism is today being re-looked at, even if subsidiarity argues against central state control of the economy, as well as an all-encompassing welfare state. Perhaps it can be said that society would rather live with the negative consequences of the Free Market than the negative results of Communism.
However, subsidiarity (truth), without solidarity (charity) results in social privatism and rank individualism. Solidarity (love) without subsidiarity (truth), results in paternalistic assistance and encourages dependence (CV 58). Nevertheless, developed countries should increase their economic aid.

A Christian Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of the human person, in this case, in relation to behaviour, motivation and needs. Christian anthropology adds the spiritual dimension to this study. Since the Church proclaims Christ, the perfect human being, it claims to be an expert in humanity, being able to understand the deepest truth of a person better than most, particularly in relation to needs and to our transcendent finality. Because the person is made in the image of God, they have an inviolable dignity, a dignity that is greater than the law of profit maximization. With our technological and monetary mindset, interior well-being has been reduced to psychology and emotions, without “awareness of the human soul’s ontological depths” (CV 76).

Christian humanism
Humanism needs to be open to the Absolute to be genuine (CV 16, PP 42). To see a person in a purely materialistic and mechanistic fashion, amounts to love without truth and will have negative consequences. Integral development is the answer, which includes the whole person in all their dimensions, including cultural and spiritual. A consistent error is to confuse happiness and salvation with material prosperity. Development is not merely about the acquisition of more goods. If there is not a transcendent view of a person development ends up being a dehumanising factor. The goal is to build up all humankind and the whole person as well, including full provision for all human rights. Human rights are objective and inviolable.

Need Openness to the Transcendent
The human person is open to the transcendent and to the natural law inscribed in their heart, therefore truth and charity are fundamental anthropological realities, as they are transcendent gifts to humanity. But an understanding of a person must include the admission that we are wounded people inclined to evil and serious error, and that we are not the sole authors of ourselves and of our lives (CV 34). We cannot by ourselves, build a truly just community, we need God (Psalm 121:7 – “If Yahweh does not build a home in vain do its builders toil”). By ourselves, we cannot establish an authentic humanism, it will always retain something inhuman. This wounded nature gives rise to serious errors in the economy, politics, in education and other areas of society. Only God is the guarantor of true development (CV 30).
Development must take into account the centrality of the human person (CV 47). All things should be ordered towards the person as its centre and summit (CV 57). Profit should be the means to achieving a more humane society and market, and to improve living conditions.
In the world of modernity humankind is viewing itself according to its own ideas, and searching largely for technical solutions, when the true answer lies in the spiritual aspect of the person. Technology is seen as absolute, instead of human dignity. Unbounded hope in technology characterised the Enlightenment and modern periods. In the postmodern world, the limitations of science, as well as its dangers, are now being recognised. The belief that technology can solve all problems has now being seriously challenged and in fact development has caused serious ecological damage. Science and technology need to embrace charity, faith, theology and metaphysics. Research into cloning, for example, is one of the many symptoms that show that science believes it can master any mystery (CV 75).

Development Programmes
People who are affected by development should have representation in the formulation of a development plan. This involvement needs to be made as equal as possible. This is relevant to developing countries that may lack planning resources (statistics, specialists in economics, etc). There should also be greater access to education ((CV 61). This should be integral education, without a relativistic understanding of the person, as if there are no universal principles, especially in relation to moral education. Wisdom is love in truth, and education should include wisdom, not just “neutral” facts (CV 30).

A Message of Life
The encyclical notes the anti-life culture of population control, abortion, euthanasia, contraception, and to which can be added experimentation on foetuses produced in vitro. This is the culture of death, the term used by John Paul II in his letter, Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life). When society entertains denial and suppression of life, it erodes the motivation to strive for humankind’s true goals, including development. Hunger and food security are also against life, as are high infant mortality rates and disease in poorer countries.
The Pope argues that population growth is not the cause of underdevelopment and criticises the anti-birth mentality, as well as making population control a condition for receiving economic aid. Life includes protecting the world’s ecology. Nature must be respected, but it is subordinate to the human person, and nature should not be divinised, attributed some mysterious spirit of its own (CV 48).

Other Recommendations
There are many other recommendations. Receivers of aid should not become subordinate to donors. They should also not waste aid on expensive bureaucracies. Ecology must be respected. The Pope also criticises those who hoard non-renewable energy sources (oil).
Advanced countries need to lower their use of energy resources by reviewing their life style. The Letter deals with some length on our duty to maintain a healthy ecology, and to pass on to future generations an earth that is in a good condition (CV 48, 50, 51). Both nations and individuals should moderate their life-styles to assist in maintaining a healthy ecological balance.
Buying needs to be seen as not only an economic act, but as an action that has ethical consequences, thus consumers have a social responsibility. It is interesting to note the existence of “fair trade” products. For example, some coffee is sold at perhaps 15% more than the usual market price, but the purchaser has the assurance that the workers involved in production were paid fair wages.
Finance needs ethical principles to safeguard society and to discourage “scandalous speculation” (CV 65). There is the call for quality work, a just wage as opposed to a market wage and labour unions are endorsed. The letter is also critical of international tourism that promotes only consumerism, hedonism, and even sex tourism, sometimes supported by governments, with the complicity of tour operators and the silence of the local people. Micro-financing is seen as having its roots in the thinking of civil humanists (but beware of usury).

Conclusion
God, with his Truth and Love, belong in the arena of business and economics. In a sense, CV is a missionary document, calling us to cross the intellectual boundaries of economics, and to enter the world of business, and to bring the Gospel to all the participants in this vital arena of humankind.