Cultures et foi - Cultures and Faith - Culturas y fe - 2/1993 - Symposia3
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ARCHDIOCESAN PASTORAL CENTRE

Boniface N. ASUZU
Onitsha, Nigeria

This Centre was established in the early 70s, shortly after the Nigerian civil war. All the ex-patriate missionaries were driven out of the Dioceses in what was called the secessionist region of Nigeria. The number of indigenous clergy to cope with the pastoral challenges was too meagre to say the least. Moral collapse resulting from the war needed to be quickly and seriously addressed. There was no hope to expect priests and religious pastoral helpers in that dire need of their assistance. Pastoral revamping became a pastoral priority.

From then until now many Catechists from all over the Archdiocese of Onitsha have benefitted from our annual course. Generally it lasts for at least one month and can take at a time only 150 candidates.

It is our deep conviction in the importance of inculturation in the communic-ation of the Gospel message that our orientation has conscientiously pursued the new catechetical trends in our formation programmes for catechists and other pastoral personnel. Life experience, biblical light, search and personal discovery, action in response to problem posed, these are the basic processes one has to pass through step by step in the learning of the gospel message instead of a predigested formula.

Meaningful commitment to mission and inculturation is a communication imperative and demands continuous and often exacting research to achieve the desired goal. The use of theatre are in the communication of the Gospel message has given me first-hand knowledge of the great role it can play in the spread of christian message effectively. This led to the establishment of the Pastoral Centre Club in 1988 to produce Biblical drama. The club is made of twenty three members, who have now become good actors. They have dramatized Judith, Esther, Ruth and some well known stories in the New Testament. Living in the communication explosion age, we are aware of the important role modern mass media play in the social life of the people. But this cannot substitute the inter-personal relationship offered by the traditional means of communication.


NANZAN INSTITUTE FOR RELIGION AND CULTURE

James W. HEISIG, SVD
Nagoya, Japan

The Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture was begun 17 years ago on the campus of the Catholic University of Nanzan in the city of Nagoya, a metropolis of over 2 million people located in central Japan. The ideal for which it was founded was a simple one: to seek out a common language for the religions of Japan to communicate with each other. To the surprise of many in the university and theological faculty, noted theologians and scholars of religion from around the world soon found their way to our doorstep to talk about Buddhism and Shinto and the "new religions" of Japan, and ask to be introduced to their leaders and thinkers. Meantime, religious leaders and scholars from within Japan responded generously to our invitations and in no time were engaging us in joint projects of their own initiative. The ample facilities of the Institute, including a sizable library with over 400 current periodicals, meeting rooms, and a nearby residence enabled us to respond as best we could.

In 1980 representatives from sixteen centers in eight countries gathered in Manila and there formed Inter-Religio, a network of Christian organizations for interreligious encounter in Eastern Asia. Since that time we have met every two years (the latest meeting was held in Hong Kong last month) and publish a newsletter twice a year entitled Inter-Religio. The Nanzan Institute serves as the coordinating secretariat of the network.

The work of our current researchers includes the editing and publication of a quarterly scholarly journal on religion, two research bulletins, and four series of books being edited at the Institute (some 30 titles published to date, in Japanese and English) at present. Large, formal dialogue sessions are organized bi-annually by one of the staff and carried out with the collaboration of the others. In addition, the Institute serves as a secretariat for the East-West Religious Encounter Academy, a group of established Buddhist and Christian scholars that has been meeting annually for the past decade.

To give an idea of some of the research projects being carried on at present:

  • a study of the "self" East and West
  • a study of the attitude of Japan's "new religions" towards world peace
  • a comparison of Western depth-psychology and Oriental "consciousness-only" Buddhist thought
  • research on the impact of ancient Buddhist terms on the colloquialization of the Chinese language
  • interreligious dimensions of bioethics.

CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE

William E. BIERNATZKI, SJ
St. Louis, Missouri, USA

The Centre for the Study of Communication and Culture was established at the direction of the Jesuit Superior General, Father Pedro Arrupe, in 1977. The chief purposes of the Centre have been to make more accessible the research already done by secular researchers so that it could be used by church communicators and decision makers and, secondly, to encourage and promote more research on topics of direct concern to the Church-topics which might not be of particular interest to secular communication scholars.

Our journal, titled, Communication Research Trends, is published quarterly. Each issue of the journal focuses on a single sub-field of communication research and tries to summarize the latest findings of serious research on that topic.

We have found that the journal is of interest not only to religious communicators but also to secular scholars in the field of communication, who may want a brief, clear introduction to a sub-field which is not in their own immediate area of specialization.

Our book, called the Communication and Human Values series, is by recognized scholars in the field of communication research, and it concentrates on topics which are of special importance from the point of view of human values, human rights, ethics and religion.

The Centre for the Study of Communication and Culture also collaborates with the Gregorian University, Rome, in sponsoring a series of colloquia dealing with problems in communication and theology. These conferences take place about every three years at Villa Cavalletti, a Jesuit house outside Rome. The sixth such conference, on the topic, Theology and Cinema was just held, at the end of September.

It was recently decided to move the Centre for the Study of Communication and Culture from London to Saint Louis, Missouri, in the United States, where it will be located on the campus of Saint Louis University, a large Jesuit university. The 10,000 volume library of the Centre already has been moved, to the new site.

We expect to continue our previous programs in Saint Louis, including the publication of Communication Research Trends and the book series, just as we have done in the past. In addition we hope to begin additional programs. One of these will focus on theological reflection regarding communication.


INSTITUTE OF INDIAN CULTURE

Sebastian MICHAEL, SVD
Bombay, India

For half a century, the Institute of Indian Culture, has especially been making scientific studies on the neglected and underprivileged communities of India. It has contributed a lot of information on the lower castes and the tribals. Understanding the importance of anthropology in mission work, the members of the General Chapter of the SVD in 1947 decided that qualified anthropologists should be placed in all the continents in which the SVD works.

The works of the Institute are very important in helping the missionaries understand the culture and mentality of the people with whom they work. Thus, one of the main aims of our Institute is to provide an authentic background material for the evangelization work in India.

But far more important is that through the medium of the Institute of Indian Culture with an international reputation of scientific work Catholic intellectuals can get into close and lasting contact and at times scientific cooperation with non-Catholic and non-Christian intellectuals. Such contacts on a basis of purely scientific pursuits, while strictly avoiding any direct proselytisation, may yet in future in a subtle manner sow the seed of true faith or at least create a greater tolerance towards the Christian Faith and dispel old deep-set prejudices.

In fact the Institute of Indian Culture is the only one of its kind, that is to say, with its focus on the anthropological disciplines, which is managed and directed by a Christian religious society.


CENTER FOR STUDIES IN RELIGION AND CULTURE

Eugene F. HEMRICK
Catholic University of America
Washington, DC, USA

Beginning in 1977, the Center grew steadily out of responding to practical needs and became finalized in 1993 after it reflected on the valuable service it was providing to the Church, and to the university where it is located.

We see it opening a door between the Church in this country, our culture, and the international community through which we can collaborate on studies pertaining to values, cultural frames of reference and interpretation, religion, science, social studies, psychology, philosophy and other disciplines.

The first priority of its members is to be faithful to the standards of their disciplines in researching religion as an historical fact and component of human existence.

As members of a Catholic academic institution they are dedicated to exploring Catholicism in its institutional and cultural forms.

The Center is committed to a logic of discovery and a logic of demonstration. In the latter it applies scientific principles to surface, demonstrate and verify truths found in our culture. As a community of creative artists it searches for new models and cognitive frameworks with which to understand the culture.

The studies produced so far fall into several categories: those which pertain to evangelization, the church's sacramental life, religions in general, and those aimed at exploring new theories and increasing academic excellence in itself.

To learn how to apply the new evangelization that Pope John Paul II advocates, we asked scholars to summarize the best studies available on Hispanics. The result was Strangers and Aliens No Longer which recapitulates success stories on parishes that are providing personal friendship, welcome and liturgies that respond to the Hispanic culture.

A research project we are especially proud of at this time is the System for Catholic Research, Information and Planning called SCRIPT. It is an example of professors developing a sophisticated methodology that reorganizes large amounts of data so that diocesan bishops and planners can step back and see the number of variables that are influencing the life of the Church.

It is our hope to expand the Center's range of research to include: the impact of Christian art, symbols, architecture and music on culture. We intend to explore current issues like the relation of Christian principles to ecology, the marketplace, the economy and the media. Working with the world of the physical sciences we would like to help it as it grapples with its often chaotic state.

Another hope is to attract scholars from other religious denominations and to network experts on culture in order to create a reliable corps of scholars and practitioners needed for in depth studies.


INSTITUTE ON CHURCH AND SOCIAL ISSUES

John J. CARROLL, S.J.
Ateneo de Manila University Campus
Quezon City, Philippines

The Institute on Church and Social Issues (ICSI) is relatively new, having been established in 1984; but it has a considerable pre-history. American Jesuit missionaries, at the Ateneo de Manila, had begun raising issues of social justice and had initiated discussions and lectures on the social encyclicals before the Pacific War. Very shortly after the War other Jesuits, both Filipino and foreign, had begun organizing labourers and plantation workers, and later urban poor groups, in order to press for social justice. From this organizing work, Jesuits and their lay collaborators moved into training programs for leaders and organizers of various disadvantaged groups.

During the administration of President Aquino, ICSI's staff grew in number as well as in competence and became recognized as a significant voice - a voice "for reason" as one journalist put it - in discussing national issues. Senior staff members have adopted certain specializations: peasant issues and land reform; urban poor, housing and urban land reform; livelihood; the environment; the pontifical scene and non-government organizations; the Church; human rights; population issues; the foreign debt and military bases questions; economic development issues; popular movements and civil society; the peace movement in relation to the various insurgencies; cultural minorities and their land rights.

A major success was achieved in 1991 with the passage of the Urban Development and Housing Act; since then the ICSI staff has been much involved in working with affected urban poor groups and pushing for its proper implementation, and they will soon be involved in a year-long training program to inform urban poor leaders of their rights under the law and the proper procedures for defending them. Soon to be available are a documentary film and instruction manual, intended for use by parish pastoral councils, on the social teaching of the Church in the Philippine context.

There are many Christian elements in the culture or cultures of the Philippines, the result of some 300 years of Spanish colonization and evangelization. How fully these elements have penetrated or replaced the pre-Christian religious culture of the people is open to discussion; likewise debated is the extent to which there is today one Philippine culture - or at least one "lowland Christian culture" as distinct, from those of the cultural minorities in the mountains and the Muslim peoples in the south - or many. The fact of more than 80 ethno-linguistic groups with different histories of evangelization and exposure to modernity, and notable differences in temperament among them forbids us to assume that "they are all the same" culturally.

In this setting the objective of ICSI is to contribute to the creation for the future of a "civilization of love" by inserting the values of the Gospel and of Catholic Social Doctrine into the development process - especially through the reform of social structures.

Thus our faith-driven work for justice meets Philippine culture concretely at the cutting edge of current history and among those groups who are most caught up in the process of change -- the organized urban and rural poor as well as the government and non-governmental organizations and businessmen, academics and journalists, and concerned church-people.

We meet Philippine culture not in the abstract nor in the tranquil setting of ethnographic research but, as our Institute's title suggests, in the arena of issues and often of conflicts.


ARS SACRA GALLERY

Ivan STUHEC
Maribor, Slovenia

During the long period before the collapse of the communist regime, the Catholic Church and the conscious Christians of considerable culture were not allowed to be that part of the public life who had the same rights as other members of the society. There were no institutions supporting Christian artists and their works, and this was the reason to found a gallery, called Ars Sacra Gallery. The foundation itself took place at Maribor in 1990. The main purpose of the Gallery was to promote the religiously inspired plastic arts, including the rich cultural Christian heritage in Slovenia as well as the works for modern artists. Nowadays, the Gallery is open for academics and popular artists.

The Gallery's active contribution also has an influence on forming and designing liturgical space. That is the reason why church architecture and inner equipment are part of its programme.

The Gallery organises symposia and gives interesting lectures concerning different areas of art; in this it has entered into collaboration with its neighbour Austria. Every year, ten exhibitions are prepared and many new books presented. In 1993 a symposium on the role of the plastic arts in the liturgy was organized; and for next year, a symposium on the modern church architecture in Slovenia is being planned. In 1992 a video cassette on the Holy Land was made, and we want to publish a suitable booklet on the first symposium. In this way a cultural centre is developing around the Gallery.


ISTITUTO PASTORAL DEL SURESTE

Mario VIZCAINO, Sch. P.
Miami, USA

There are five main issues confronting the Southeast Pastoral Institute (SEPI):

1. How to integrate, not assimilate, more than 24 million Hispanic Catholics within the Catholic Church of the U.S.A.?

2. How to sensitize the U.S. Catholic Church to warmly welcome their brothers and sisters from a variety of Hispanic countries, without discriminating them or forcing them to assimilate in order to feel welcomed?

3. How to resolve the conflicts that naturally arise as this "mammoth" process of integration takes place within the U.S. Catholic Church.

4. How to minimize the proselytizing efforts of the sects and fundamentalist churches that tenaciously try to entice the devout and simple Hispanics into their churches with all kinds of social and economic services, while the Catholic Church lacks the trained manpower to reach out to more than 15 million unchurched baptized Hispanic Catholics.

This issue is approached by the Institute under the following headings:

  • Multiplying the small Christian communities throughout the U.S. territory.
  • By promoting a strong sense of mission in every small Christian community.
  • By resorting to popular religiosity.
  • By strengthening devotion to the Blessed Virgin.

5. How to train, with meagre resources, this enormous Hispanic population which lacks priests and nuns of their own nationality to be active Catholics and participate with the evangelizing efforts of their own people.

This need is seen as involving these priorities:

  • Choosing to be a poor Church for the poor. Maximizing the economic resources. Implementing a model of church which is poor.
  • looking for professors who want to share in this mission and want to help temporarily, not for money but for apostolic zeal.
  • Avoiding pastoral or theological terrorists as well as dinosaurs, that will confuse and disperse our people; looking for solid professors who will dwell on the richness of Vatican II, still unknown by many of our people.
  • Giving importance to Youth Ministry and using dynamic methodologies in their evangelization process, where they themselves are trained as agents to evangelize their peers.
  • offering formation packages instead of fragmentary knowledge through sporadic teaching.

TAMALE INSTITUTE OF CROSS CULTURAL STUDIES

Jon P. KIRBY, SVD
Ghana, West Africa

Tamale Institute of Cross Cultural Studies (TICCS) is a research and teaching centre of the Catholic Church in Ghana, West Africa.

The Society of the Divine Word has also been instrumental in its foundation and development. Thus, cooperation between the archdiocese of Tamale at the local level and the SVD at local and international levels, has given the centre a rather special character and flexibility from its early beginnings.

The tri-partite focus of TICCS proceeds directly from the stance that unity of faith must proceed from diversity of culture and that the idols of a culture can only be named from the inside, from the lived reality of that culture. The idea behind TICCS, then, is to assist the Church's agents of transformation in the process of first transforming themselves through a thorough appropriation of a new language, culture, and mode of Christian action/life within that new culture. Since this process involves learning how to learn and discover, it can only be really done in the field, in real cross-cultural situations. At the deepest level of culture are found central symbols waiting to be enlivened by the spirit of faith--the new lived faith of the one who has crossed over.

TICCS has come a long way in ten years. Our fist language - culture -, and action-learning course was held in a parish house, our personnel consisted of a few concerned missionaries. Today we have a splendid centre in downtown Tamale with accommodation for our junior staff and senior staff as well as for at least 40 participants. There is a centre block consisting of a conference room, reading room, library, chapel, dining room and kitchen.

TICCS regularly, five times a year, runs a one-month course of which the first week is a cultural orientation to Ghana and the next three weeks provide a method for learning any language and culture in context. Although this course is what we are known for among the priests and Religious in Ghana, we are now beginning to offer summer courses and one-year courses in action-learning, supervised and in the field. In addition to the courses offered we also organize international conferences on aspects of culture and ministry or culture and development, we offer research seminars for our clergy and Religious at the diocesan level and have workshops with the African service personnel on aspects of culture and local development with affect them. We also publish a newsletter and two small journals: Culture and Ministry and Culture and Development, and conduct research related to these themes.


THE ANTHROPOS INSTITUTE

Anton QUACK
Germany

Anthropology as cultural science par excellence is for all those engaged as missionaries in intercultural exchanges a major resource of invaluable significance.

One of its most characteristic features is its holistic concept of culture: culture is understood in an encompassing sense, namely, as the shared mental horizon or background of a group which determines its way of acting. This shared cognitive orientation enables the members of a group to act in a given situation according to group expectations. This common mental denominator of a group is inherited and acquired, not innate.

Whosoever lives together as missionary with people of different cultures cannot but leave his imprint upon the entire life and thinking of the people of his host culture, first of all through his mere presence, but, of course, also through his preaching and his proclamation of the gospel. He cannot but effect a change of their entire living situation.

Here, to succeed, it is necessary to be conscious of the relativity of one's own culture. One should know also that one's own culture has its darker sides, both its advantages and disadvantages. In order to learn how to integrate oneself into a new setting, one must have learned to delimit and define oneself. You have got to see the other culture as different. You have got to learn how to see it as something in its own right, as something to be acknowledged with all its peculiarities. You have got to take it seriously, emotionally as well as rationally. Situations of intercultural encounter presuppose therefore applied and practised anthropology, a permanent fundamental attitude and outlook which would characterize all our behaviour when meeting people of different cultures.

The name Anthropos stands for a sustained effort of the Society of the Divine Word, over so many decades already, to arrive at viable anthropological insights and to let them bear fruit for its various engagements.

Wilhelm Schmidt founded the review Anthropos in 1906. The purpose to be served was to provide a scientific forum in which missionaries could present the results of their anthropological studies to fellow missionaries, but also to the scientifically interested public.

It is remarkable and specific for our missionary spirituality and overall direction that, for the purpose mentioned, confreres were trained to become scientists. This specific task was for the Society of such importance, that, for its proper execution, the SVD eventually founded the Anthropos Institute (1931).

For 31 years now, since November 1962, the editorial offices and the administration of the Institute have been located in Sankt Augustin, Germany. They are in charge: 1) of the publication of the periodical Anthropos; 2) of the editing of two monograph series (Collectanea Instituti Anthropos; Studia Instituti Anthropos); 3) of the publication of the news-bulletin Interlink and of the anthropological-missionary service Anthropology & Mission.

Anthropos is a scientific journal which offers about 30% of its space to contributions in the fields of religious ethnography and science of religion. Its two semi-annual issues amount together to about 700 pages per year. Anthropos is one of the 10 internationally most esteemed journals in the field.

Anthropology & Mission, appearing since 1989, presents short reviews of anthropological books and articles on matters of interest for missionaries. The news-bulletin Interlink, appearing since 1987, informs periodically about the activities of the members of the Institute.


EL INSTITUTO "FE Y SECULARIDAD"

Antonio BLANCH
Madrid, España

El Instituto fue fundado en 1967, poco después del Concilio Vaticano II, cuando el papa Pablo VI pidió al Prepósito General de los Jesuitas que orientara el apostolado de la Compañía muy especialmente hacia el diálogo con los no-creyentes. De acuerdo con esta orientación, el Instituto, desde sus comienzos, se ha centrado el estudio del fenómeno -quizás entonces mucho más importante que ahora- de la «secularización» de la sociedad y cultura modernas, esforzándose por descubrir sus posibles repercusiones en la fe cristiana. De ahí el nombre escogido para el Instituto: «Fe y Secularidad».

Las actividades pueden distinguirse en dos grandes categorías: las que están destinadas a un público más bien reducido y las que están abiertas a un público mayor. Las primeras consisten sobre todo en una serie de cursos, impartidos de modo regular, en plan de seminario, diez o doce por año, sobre asuntos tan variados como: ciencias, filosofía, religiones, teología, sociología y otros temas culturales. El balance de estos seminarios académicos, ofrecidos desde la fundación del Instituto, sobrepasa la cifra de 250, con un número aproximado de 4.000 participantes. Algunos de estos seminarios han tenido resonancia notable a causa de las personas que han participado en ellos. Consideramos como particularmente exitosos los seminarios que se han hecho sobre la biogénesis y la hominización, "las imágenes de Dios y los conceptos científicos", y también aquellos que han abierto una larga discusión sobre la ética y la política, celebrados durante los años de la transición democrática en España (1976-78), seguidos por numerosos intelectuales y políticos representantes de tendencias e ideologías diversas.

Al lado de estos seminarios con cupos limitados, el Instituto organiza cada año dos o tres encuentros para un número más grande de personas. A este propósito son dignos de mención ante todo los coloquios anuales "Sobre el Hecho Religioso" celebrados desde 1978 durante el último fin de semana de septiembre, los que ordinariamente reúnen un centenar de intelectuales, verdaderamente interesados, creyentes o no creyentes.

Habría que mencionar también la serie de cuadernos publicados desde hace seis años (Cuadernos FyS), sobre temas de actualidad, enfocados todos ellos desde una perspectiva cristiana y con el estilo respetuoso y de diálogo al que hemos venido procurando mantenernos fieles desde la fundación del Instituto. Por esta honestidad intelectual y por la gran apertura mental y cordial que caracterizan la mayoría de nuestras actividades, han sido éstas especialmente acogidas en España, tanto por intelectuales no creyentes como por cierto número de cristianos fuertemente problematizados.


CONSEJO CATOLICO PARA LA CULTURA

Augusto DAMMERT LEON
Lima, Perú

Bajo la dirección de Mons. Oscar Alzamora, S.M., Obispo Auxiliar de Lima, Presidente de la Comisión Episcopal de Doctrina de la Fe y Presidente asimismo del Consejo Católico para la Cultura, se realizan encuentros semanales de profesionales -ingenieros, abogados, arquitectos -, de la sociedad económica, de la asociación Desarrollo Integral Solidario, así como de otros grupos de reflexión, que a veces se interrelacionan en razón de la participación de personas pertenecientes a varios de ellos.

Desde muy temprano en el funcionamiento del Consejo Católico para la Cultura en el Perú (abril de 1986), ha sido preocupación de sus miembros el tema de un enjuiciamiento de la cultura moderna desde la fe, que invade cada vez más nuestro país, tanto respecto a la nueva evangelización cuanto una auténtica promoción humana.

A esta evaluación de la cultura moderna, se añade también la evaluación de la forma cómo las culturas indígenas o nativas han marcado el modo tradicional de nuestra vivencia de la fe, señalando los puntos fuertes y debilidades de la misma. Esto ha motivado la formación y funcionamiento permanente de diversos grupos, que se ocupan de esta temática y de temáticas afines.

El Consejo Católico para la Cultura observa que uno de los principales acontecimientos que está teniendo lugar en el Perú es una explosiva migración a las ciudades, especialmente de la costa, cuyas causas y consecuencias más importantes son precisamente las culturales.

Ya ha tenido lugar, entre el anterior censo de 1981 y el reciente de este año, el tránsito de una mayoría rural a una mayoría urbana, lo que presenta graves problemas y al mismo tiempo interesantes posibilidades, en todo caso retos especialmente culturales, principalmente en la evangelización de la cultura, como base que asegure una verdadera promoción humana.

Los canales por los que penetra la cultura moderna y que por lo tanto son los que deben ser objeto de nuestro esfuerzo de evangelización de la cultura son la educación escolar y los medios de comunicación de masas, como bien lo señala Santo Domingo. Pero al lado de estos medios existe la transmisión informal de la fe y de la cultura por las manifestaciones tradicionales de la religiosidad popular.


DELEGACIÓN ARZOBISPAL DE MEDELLÍN PARA LA PASTORAL DE LA CULTURA

Mons. Néstor GIRALDO RAMIREZ
Colombia

El Episcopado colombiano en la Asamblea Plenaria de julio de 1985 instituyó un organismo nacional para atender a la problemática pastoral de la cultura. Algunas diócesis han creado ya organismos destinados a esta labor.

La Asamblea Nacional de este año 1993, ha dedicado especial atención a esta problemática y a partir de las consideraciones que a este respecto ha hecho el Papa Juan Pablo II, indica cuatro acciones concretas para la acción pastoral de la Iglesia en el campo de la cultura:

"Es una Iglesia, nos dice,

1.- Que trabaja en la formación cristiana de las conciencias y en el rescate de los valores perdidos de la moral cristiana.

2.- Que está muy atenta a la unidad y pluralidad de las culturas indígenas, afroamericanas y mestizas para asegurar la salvación y liberación integral de todos los pueblos y grupos humanos y fortalecer su identidad.

3.- Que presenta a Jesucristo como paradigma de toda actitud personal y social, respondiendo así a los retos especiales de la «modernidad» y «postmodernidad». En este contexto prestará atención a los nuevos retos que presenta la acción pastoral de las grandes ciudades.

4.- Que, comprendiendo que 'la educación es la mediación metodológica para la evangelización de la cultura' (S.D.271) y que 'se da una relación muy íntima entre evangelización, promoción humana y cultura, fundada en la comunicación (S.D. 279), esta Iglesia ha de 'impulsar una eficaz acción educativa y un decidido empeño por una moderna comunicación'" (S.D. 300).

Entre los compromisos que señala esta Asamblea, destacamos:

"Evangelización inculturada.

Asumir la evangelización que penetre todos los ambientes, estructuras, ideologías, modelos de vida. Conocer más las culturas para evangelizarlas y valorarlas. Propiciar estudios de la cultura contemporánea y de su presencia en nuestras Iglesias. Preparar a los presbíteros para la inculturación del Evangelio y para evangelizar las nuevas culturas".

Y señala un compromiso muy importante:

"Culturas indígenas y afroamericanas: necesidad de una evangelización de las minorías étnicas del país. Investigar y valorar las culturas de las minorías étnicas. Hacer presencia y lograr un seguimiento de la Iglesia en los planes de desarrollo del Pacífico para que se respeten los derechos fundamentales de las minorías étnicas. Intensificar la catequesis a través de su propio folclore. Promover agentes que conozcan la lengua y la cultura."

Son todas estas metas que el Episcopado se propone y que llevarán a una realización en la forma que se estudia para la ejecución.

La Delegación de la Arquidiocesis de Medellin, para la Pastoral de la Cultura, creada por el Arzobispo en diciembre de 1983, ha llevado a cabo sesiones especiales de estudio sobre problemas concretos. Ha organizado foros sobre temas de interés cultural y ha acudido a reuniones especiales con dirigentes políticos para tratar temas que van luego a discusión en el Parlamento. De manera especial se elaboraron documentos sobre la problemática familiar y el matrimonio católico para ser discutidos en la elaboración de la nueva Constitución Nacional.

Se han realizado seminarios: el primero sobre Fe y Cultura, el segundo sobre Fe e Ideologías y el tercero sobre Fe y Política. En ellos han participado dirigentes políticos, profesores universitarios y distinguidos intelectuales.

Actualmente se hacen reuniones periódicas con profesores universitarios para tratar temas de relación entre la ciencia y la fe y con industriales y economistas, dado que Medellín es una ciudad de tres millones de habitantes, muy industrializada y cuenta con varias universidades. Algunos del grupo que colabora en la Pastoral de la Cultura tienen columnas fijas en la prensa y tratan temas relacionados con la problemática actual desde el punto de vista de la doctrina de la Iglesia.

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