Allentown College of St. Francis de Sales (USA) announces the establishment of the Salesian Center for Faith and Culture. Its interdisciplinary mission is to promote the interaction of faith and culture, in a mutually beneficial engagement, through academic initiatives that focus on the authentic integration of societal concerns and gospel values, an integration which has been embodied in the lives of St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane de Chantal and continues to be expressed in the tradition of Christian Humanism.

More specifically, the Center seeks to disseminate the charism of Salesian spirituality in a way that will

• promote the values essential to a culture of life

• foster the mutual engagement of faith and reason

• contribute to the formation of ethical leaders, and

• create the means for making a positive social impact.

The Center will bring professionals and community leaders in a variety of fields together with members of the college campus (faculty, staff, students, and/or alumni) to collaborate in programs of research, dialogue and partnership.

The programs and activities of the Salesian Center for Faith and Culture will focus on three inter-related areas of concern. In keeping with the mission of a university, the first concern is for research, which will engage faculty and students in interdisciplinary projects that analyze the various ways in which faith and culture intersect in our world. In keeping with the university’s function of teaching, the second concern is for dialogue, which will result in a variety of presentations, publications, and productions. In keeping with the university’s role in forming and transforming culture, the third concern is for partnership, which will take place through student service in and faculty collaboration with various sectors of the local community and broader region.

In this way the Salesian Center for Faith and Culture will infuse the life and work of De Sales University with the on-going inspirations of Christian Humanism. Its outcomes will have a significant impact on society in two ways: as a vibrant model of collaborative ministry among religious and educational entities, and as a dynamic vehicle for the further dissemination of Salesian spirituality in our world.

Source: Executive Summary prepared by Rev. Thomas F. Dailey, O.S.F.S., S.T.D., December 1999.

El diálogo entre ciencia y religión se ha visto enriquecido últimamente con la aparición, en muy poco tiempo, de diversas obras del Prof. Mariano Artigas (Zaragoza, 1938), pionero, no sólo en España, del diálogo ciencia-fe a partir de bases sólidas. El Prof. Artigas, doctor en ciencias físicas y en filosofía, se halla en una posición inmejorable para abordar con competencia las complejas y fascinantes cuestiones de la relación entre la ciencia y la fe.

Tras la aparición en marzo de 1999 de la versión española de La mente del universo (Eunsa /Colección Filosófica, 143/, Pamplona, España, 1999. 465 pp. ISBN: 84-313-1675-6. Rústica), hemos podido recibir, casi un año después, la edición inglesa de The Mind of the Univers. Understanding Science and Religión (Templeton Foundation Press, Philadelphia & London, 2000, 364 pp., ISBN: 1-890151-32-7. Cartoné), que, por extraño que parezca, es la versión original de este libro del Prof. Mariano Artigas. La mente del universo es un título provocativo para un libro que trata de las relaciones entre ciencia y religión. Así lo reconoce honradamente el autor en la introducción al indicar el origen de esta expresión, que procede de Séneca y que ha sido abundantemente empleada por los escritores espirituales medievales para hablar de Dios. Hablar de una "mente del universo", podría parecer aludir a posiciones panteístas, que sostienen la existencia de un único ser complejo, dotado de conciencia, del cual no seríamos sino un fragmento: Deus, sive natura, sive omnia. Para un materialista, un título como el que ha escogido el profesor Artigas, es toda una provocación: no hay más mente en el universo que en cada uno de nosotros, pues todo es reconducible a procesos físico-químicos. Y sin embargo, este título ofrece indudables ventajas, pues como afirma el autor "la cosmovisión científica actual sugiere que el universo está penetrado en su ser más profundo por una cierta racionalidad, cuya explicación remite a una Mente personal". El libro se orienta, entre otras cosas, a demostrar que la inteligencia personal a la que remite la racionalidad de la naturaleza, no es identificable con el universo mismo, sino que se trata de un ser personal quod omnes dicunt Deum, un Dios, que es al mismo tiempo inmanente al mundo y diferente de él.

En estos últimos años asistimos a un vertiginoso desarrollo del diálogo entre la ciencia y la fe, tanto que en algunas universidades americanas comienza a configurarse como una disciplina autónoma. El paradigma actual ofrece condiciones inmejorables para este diálogo, y el Prof. Artigas no esconde su optimismo: "la cosmovisión científica actual proporciona una base muy adecuada para una perspectiva que incluye la finalidad y los valores religiosos". Sin embargo lejos de tratarse de un tratado de apología barata, donde con un barniz superficial de ciencia se intentaría demostrar la veracidad de la fe, o extraer conclusiones apresuradas, el libro del Prof. Artigas constituye una reflexión en profundidad acerca de la naturaleza de la ciencia. Ni siquiera se trata de pasar revista al catálogo de cuestiones disputadas entre la ciencia y la fe (origen del universo, evolución, manipulación genética...), que suele constituir el objeto de las publicaciones acerca de la materia.

Se trata más bien de una reflexión acerca del diálogo entre la ciencia y la fe a partir de la existencia y posibilidad de la ciencia misma. La originalidad de la perspectiva del Prof. Artigas consiste en haber construido una nueva epistemología científica, que va más allá de la simple crítica de los contenidos y presupuestos de la ciencia. Se trata de una gnoseología de la ciencia, una reflexión acerca de la naturaleza del conocimiento científico a partir de sus condiciones de posibilidad. Al mismo tiempo es una teología de la ciencia, es decir, una reflexión creyente acerca de esta forma eminente de saber humano que llamamos ciencia.

El libro se articula en cuatro partes. La primera "La ciencia se trasciende a sí misma", es un análisis crítico de los supuestos e implicaciones de la ciencia. Constituye la parte eminentemente epistemológica, que aborda, en primer lugar la tipología y naturaleza de la articulación entre ciencia y religión, para pasar después a un estudio de los supuestos de la ciencia, lo que el autor llama la "base no científica de la ciencia", porque constituyen paradigmas anteriores a la investigación científica, no demostrados ni demostrables, la mayor parte de las veces. La segunda parte, "auto-organización y acción divina" contiene los elementos más interesantes del estudio del Prof. Artigas. En ella se describen los elementos fundamentales de la nueva cosmovisión científica, que por primera vez nos ofrece una imagen unificada del mundo. El elemento clave lo constituye la inteligibilidad de la naturaleza, que ha suscitado desde siempre la admiración del hombre. El redescubrimiento de la racionalidad de la naturaleza permite rescatar conceptos desterrados de la ciencia por un cientifismo miope tales como finalidad y direccionalidad. La parte tercera "creatividad científica y singularidad humana" presenta también alguno de los temas más estudiados por el Prof. Artigas. Se trata de dar respuesta a una pregunta obvia: ¿cómo es posible la ciencia? En un tiempo de pensamiento débil, el hecho mismo de que exista la ciencia y de que pueda ofrecer conocimiento cierto constituye objeto de admiración y sorpresa. Al valor y límites del conocimiento humano dedica una capítulo importante, incluyendo uno acerca de la fiabilidad de la ciencia. La última parte "ciencia y valores" ofrece un estudio de máxima actualidad y escasamente abordado, acerca de las relaciones entre la ciencia y la ética, no limitadas únicamente al campo de la ciencia médica. Cuando algunos postulan una free-value science como único medio para hacer progresar la ciencia, este capítulo no deja de tener valor. El último capítulo de esta parte, a modo de síntesis (ulteriores perspectivas) trata de la siempre fascinante cuestión de la acción divina en la creación desde una perspectiva científica.

El mérito principal de esta obra consiste en haber abordado con seriedad una reflexión filosófica y teológica sobre los presupuestos de la ciencia que podrían parecer triviales. El intento del Prof. Artigas, al que ha dedicado toda su vida, es el de tender puentes entre la ciencia y la religión, o la autorreflexión de ésta, la teología, a través de la filosofía, evitando los dos escollos en que frecuentemente van a encallar tales empresas: el del panteísmo, donde entre ciencia y religión no existe solución de continuidad; y el del separacionismo a ultranza. Como afirma el Card. Poupard en su prólogo, "[Artigas] consigue construir un puente filosófico que sirve para fundamentar, sobre una base sólida, un diálogo genuino entre ciencia y religión. Considerando la novedad de su perspectiva, su valor intrínseco y la fecundidad de las perspectivas que abre para el lector, La mente del universo puede considerarse no sólo una contribución destacada, sino también un avance importante en el área del diálogo contemporáneo entre fe y ciencia".

La versión inglesa, publicada por la Fundación Templeton, se presenta magníficamente editada en un volumen de 360 páginas. La española, publicada por EUNSA (colección filosófica 143), se trata, curiosamente de una traducción del original inglés (si bien éste apareció en el mercado con casi un año de retraso). La edición inglesa incluye una abundante bibliografía, –inexplicablemente ausente en la española–, y un completo índice de autores citados y de materias.

A tan sólo seis meses de la publicación española de La mente del Universo, el Prof. Artigas nos ofrece una Filosofía de la Ciencia (Eunsa /Iniciación Filosófica 18/, Pamplona, España, 1999, 291 pp., ISBN: 84-313-1729-9). Se trata de un manual donde recoge en forma didáctica algunos de los temas más frecuentemente abordados por esta disciplina, entre los que no faltan la autojustificación de la misma ("Naturaleza de la filosofía de la Ciencia"). Entre los diversos temas se halla un extenso capítulo, sumamente útil, donde el autor condensa la historia de la ciencia desde sus orígenes en Grecia hasta nuestros días. A continuación se nos ofrece un panorama de las distintas corrientes y tendencias en el campo de la filosofía de la ciencia, que será también provechoso para el que quiera adentrarse en este tipo de estudios. Tras estos primeros capítulos introductorios, los siguientes abordan el estudio de cuestiones particulares. En primer lugar, una reflexión acerca de la naturaleza de la ciencia y su especificidad frente a otras formas de saber, y los diversos tipos de ciencia. Un largo capítulo dedicado al método científico, seguido de otro acerca de las construcciones científicas, es decir al valor de los conceptos, enunciados y teorías científicas. El último capítulo, que retoma elementos de La mente del universo, aborda la cuestión del valor de la ciencia y su fiabilidad, uno de los temas predilectos de Artigas. A diferencia de aquel, la Filosofía de la Ciencia de Artigas es un libro con pretensiones didácticas, donde la originalidad cede a la enseñanza. Se trata de un buen manual claro, muy recomendable para estudiantes y profesores de filosofía, y que también será útil a un público más amplio que desee informarse acerca de estas cuestiones.

Señalemos por último la aparición de un estudio sobre el Prof. Mariano Artigas. Se trata de un libro del Prof. Miroslaw Karol (Orden natural y persona humana. La singularidad y jerarquía del universo según Mariano Artigas, Eunsa, Astrolabio, 2000, 297 pp., ISBN: 84-313-1796-5), que estudia fundamentalmente el papel que el concepto de orden desempeña en la obra de Artigas. En efecto, al orden en la naturaleza, como categoría fundamental de la ciencia y de la reflexión filosófica acerca de ésta, Artigas ha dedicado gran parte de sus estudios, como lo demuestran las dos obras anteriormente reseñadas. El estudio del profesor Karol recorre los distintos aspectos de esta categoría, un "cuasi-trascendental": desde el orden en la naturaleza hasta las dimensiones ontológicas del orden natural y la persona como culminación de la organización de la naturaleza. En realidad se trata de un estudio de las implicaciones ontológicas y antropológicas de la cosmovisión científica actual, sirviéndose para ello de los escritos del Prof. Artigas, y ampliando el horizonte de tales estudios. La obra se enmarca dentro de la tendencia actual a recuperar dentro del estudio científico conceptos de impronta claramente metafísica como los de orden, finalidad, direccionalidad, que ponen de manifiesto la auto-trascendencia de la ciencia, su referencia a otras formas de saber, y en último término, a una inteligencia personal exterior a la naturaleza, la mente del universo.

Du 23 au 25 mai 2000 s’est tenu à Rome un Jubilé des scientifiques, organisé par le Conseil Pontifical de la Culture. Comme il ne pouvait accueillir que 300 participants, le Cardinal Poupard a souhaité que soient tenus des relais nationaux. Répondant à son appel l’association des Scientifiques Chrétiens et celle des Philosophes Chrétiens ont organisé le 24 novembre 2000, à l’institut Catholique de Paris, une journée jubilaire du Monde de la Science et de la Recherche. Nous avons adopté avec joie le thème proposé par le Conseil Pontifical pour la Culture " L’homme à la recherche de la Vérité : philosophie, science, foi ", qui nous semble d’une extrême importance dans notre société marquée par un relativisme quasi général.

L’homme moderne, selon Luc Ferry, rejette tout argument d’autorité. Il nie l’existence d’une vérité qui se tiendrait là, devant lui, hors de lui. Pour Luc Ferry, cette extériorité est la source de tous les dogmatismes, de tous les fanatismes, elle est contraire à l’autonomie de la raison humaine. Mais le scientifique sait bien qu’il y a hors de lui, devant lui, un monde physique qui s’impose à lui : Ce n’est pas un savant qui a décidé que dorénavant une pierre tomberait quand on la lâche. Il est clair que Luc Ferry met à part le domaine des sciences. Interrogé sur l’existence de la vérité, André Comte Sponville répondit : " Bien sûr que la vérité existe. Est-ce que la terre ne tourne pas autour du Soleil ? ". Pour ces philosophes et pour beaucoup de nos contemporains, il n’y a de vérité que scientifique.

C’est la position discordiste dénoncée par Francis Jacques : " Hors de la science, il n’y a qu’options philosophiques, morales ou religieuses. Ce sont des opinions, parfois des convictions fortes, mais toujours subjectives, personnelles ". Pour les discordistes il n’y a pas de vérité universelle hors de la science. On voit aisément la gravité de ces affirmations. Notre société pense aujourd’hui, de façon majoritaire, que les hommes sont égaux en dignité, ce qui justifie une déclaration universelle des droits de l’homme et le refus de tout racisme. Peut-on imaginer que c’est seulement une mode de notre culture, qu’elle passera, et qu’un jour on recommencera à trier entre les hommes ceux qui sont dignes et ceux qui ne le sont pas ?

Le problème se complique encore quand on remarque que la vérité, si elle existe, est infinie. Nous ne pouvons l’appréhender dans sa totalité ; nous pouvons seulement l’approcher de plus en plus. Le physicien sait bien que le savoir absolu est impossible : Toute observation se fait avec une précision limitée, les calculs eux aussi s’exécutent avec une certaine approximation. On améliore les résultats en utilisant des instruments de plus en plus perfectionnés, des ordinateurs de plus en plus puissants, mais notre connaissance reste toujours partielle. Qu’est ce que la physique peut nous dire du réel ? Ce fut l’objet de l’exposé de Bernard d’Espagnat. Il est encore plus difficile de reconstituer l’histoire du monde et de l’homme à partir des traces observables aujourd’hui. Xavier Le Pichon nous dit ce que l’on apprend ainsi. Cela pose la question de la façon dont l’historien peut se rapprocher de la vérité : Marc Vénard tenta d’y répondre. Depuis quelques années la neurobiologie et l’informatique essayent d’observer scientifiquement et d’expliquer l’intelligence humaine. Michel Sintzoff nous dit où l’on en est aujourd’hui.

Ayant ainsi posé la question de la vérité dans les sciences, nous ne pouvons pas faire l’économie de celle de la vérité hors de la science. La science a-t-elle le monopole de la factualité, de l’objectivité, de la rationalité, de la vérité ? Si, contre les discordistes, on refuse ce monopole, quelles modalités sont-elles possibles en dehors de la science ? Francis Jacques nous aida à pénétrer dans ces questions et à en prendre la pleine mesure. La finitude de l’homme, qui rend impossible le savoir absolu, lui interdit de posséder la vérité : celle-ci le dépasse, il ne peut que chercher à s’en approcher le plus possible. Des cultures, des religions diverses utiliseront des chemins variés et découvriront peut-être des facettes différentes. Mais ne réintroduisons-nous pas ainsi le relativisme des idées, au moment même où nous affirmons l’existence de la vérité ? Question redoutable posée à Guy Coq.

Pour le chrétien, tous ces problèmes sont évoqués par Jésus : " Quiconque est de la vérité écoute ma parole ". Il a affirmé avec insistance : " Pour ceci je suis né, pour ceci je suis venu au monde : rendre témoignage à la Vérité ". Pourquoi la vérité a-t-elle besoin que Jésus lui rende témoignage ? Pourquoi, au lieu de lui rendre témoignage, ne l’a-t-il pas proclamée ? Nous disons que Jésus est venu sauver les hommes. Il affirme être venu pour témoigner de la Vérité, et de ce témoignage II est mort (" martyr " en grec signifie " témoin "). Notre salut viendrait-il de ce témoignage ? Laurent Sentis nous aida à mieux saisir le sens de toutes ces questions.

Nous ne prétendons pas que toutes les obscurités se sont dissipées le 24 novembre puisque le savoir absolu est impossible. Du moins, une interrogation, une discussion en commun à partir d’exposés solides, une méditation avec le Cardinal Lustiger au cours de la messe de clôture, qu’il célébra dans l’église Saint-Joseph des Carmes, nous ont-elles aidé à mieux pénétrer au cœur des problèmes qui hantent le monde de la science et de la recherche. Peut-être pourrons nous leur donner ce sens qui fait si cruellement défaut aux perspectives de notre société. Que l’Esprit Saint nous guide dans ces réflexions et ces méditations que nous voulons conduire en fils de l’Église dans la ligne fixée par Notre Saint Père dans l’Encyclique Fides et Ratio !

È stato presentato, durante la 57ma Mostra del Cinema di Venezia, un libro contenente tutti i discorsi sul cinema pronunciati finora da Giovanni Paolo II. Papa Giovanni Paolo II ha parlato di cinema venticinque volte durante il suo pontificato, e i discorsi dedicati esclusivamente alla settima arte sono stati otto. Un autentico record per un Pontefice. Tutti questi discorsi sono stati raccolti dall’Ente dello Spettacolo in un libro (in due lingue, italiano e inglese) che è stato distribuito gratuitamente alla Mostra del Cinema di Venezia e che è intitolato "Giovanni Paolo II e il cinema. Tutti i discorsi".

Il libro ha una prefazione dell’arcivescovo John P. Foley, Presidente del Pontificio Consiglio delle Comunicazioni Sociali, e contiene anche un’introduzione di Claudio Siniscalchi, direttore del Festival Tertio Millennio (l’unica manifestazione cinematografica del Giubileo) e un capitolo di Ernesto G. Laura sugli interventi degli altri pontefici sul cinema.

Nel libro sono pubblicati tutti i discorsi pronunciati da Giovanni Paolo II, da quello all’assemblea dell’OCIC il 31 ottobre 1978 a quello recentissimo del 1999; fra gli otto messaggi è compreso anche quello pronunciato a Hollywood, il 15 settembre 1987, davanti ai padroni dell’industria cinematografica americana. "Tutti i media di cultura popolare che voi rappresentate – disse il Papa in quell’occasione – possono costituire o distruggere, elevare o degradare. Voi avete indicibili possibilità di fare del bene, inquietanti possibilità di distruzione. E’ la differenza tra la morte e la vita (la morte o la vita dello spirito). Ed è una questione di scelta".

Il volume (curato anche da Marco Curatolo) è stato realizzato nell’ambito delle iniziative editoriali del Festival Tertio Millennio anche grazie al sostegno e al patrocinio del Dipartimento Spettacolo del Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali.

Nella mattina del quarto giorno della Mostra del Cinema di Venezia, il regista siciliano Giuseppe Tornatore ha ritirato il premio "Robert Bresson", assegnatogli dalla Rivista del Cinematografo in collaborazione con il Pontificio Consiglio della Cultura presieduto dal Cardinale Paul Poupard. Si tratta del primo riconoscimento cinematografico attribuito dalla Santa Sede nella storia del cinema ed è stato assegnato al regista premio Oscar per Nuovo cinema paradiso, nell’ambito delle iniziative del festival Tertio Millennio, per il suo film del 1994, Una pura formalità.

"L’idea di questo premio – ha detto il Presidente dell’Ente dello Spettacolo, Andrea Piersanti – nasce dall’esigenza di individuare nel cinema contemporaneo quegli autori che propongono un percorso di ricerca di un significato spirituale della nostra esistenza. Per cui nel momento in cui abbiamo pensato di assegnare questo premio è venuto spontaneo pensare come primo regista a Giuseppe Tornatore. In questo senso Una pura formalità è una testimonianza importante per intensità e sincerità".

Dal canto suo Tornatore ha detto: "Questo premio così originale intestato ad un regista così importante mi dà una grande fiducia. I film oggi non sono più come quelli di una volta, la cui vita si identifica esclusivamente con quello che accade in una sala cinematografica. I film contemporanei hanno una vita imprevedibile ed il rapporto con il pubblico è molto più diretto. Ed è bello scoprire, come in questo caso, che opere che hai realizzato in momenti particolari della tua vita possano suscitare interesse anche in direzioni diverse rispetto alle premesse originarie. Tutto questo è straordinario, entusiasmante".

È stato proiettato in anteprima a Venezia, dinanzi ad una folta e attenta platea Christus il capolavoro restaurato diretto da Giulio Antamoro nel 1916.

"E’ stata la più faticosa e bella avventura cinematografica della mia vita. Non perché abbia dovuto produrre un film, ma perché, come un poliziotto, l’ho dovuto inseguire, cercare in tutto il mondo: Sud America, Nord America, Germania e Francia. La storia del Christus fa parte della storia del cinema e della mia vita". Così Goffredo Lombardo, con un’emozione visibile, racconta Christus, la pellicola-kolossal sulla vita di Gesù, prodotta dalla Cines e diretta da Giulio Antamoro nel 1914-15, anni difficili, anni di guerra.

I tre "misteri" del film narrano alcuni episodi fondamentali della vita di Gesù: Natività, Missione, e il terzo, suddiviso a sua volta in Passione, Morte e Risurrezione. L’arte pittorica italiana è il filo conduttore primario per rappresentare, con l’ausilio delle stesse didascalie, le scene salienti e più conosciute della vita del Messia: l’Annunciazione di Fra Angelico, la Trasfigurazione di Raffaello, la Cena di Leonardo, la Pietà di Michelangelo. A queste si aggiungono alcune felicissime azioni collaterali che non rientrano nella "lettura" canonica dei Vangeli, ricche di effetti speciali. Immagini che integrano la mancanza del sonoro e sono legate soprattutto alle tradizioni popolari italiane o alla fantasia di Antamoro: l’iniziale sogno di Cesare Augusto; Erode turbato e sconvolto per l’apparire notturno delle anime dei giustiziati, che illustra la sua indole e specifica il suo carattere crudele, prima di sfociare nella strage degli innocenti; il sommo sacerdote Anna, cieco, tormentato dall’iniquità delle sue decisioni, segue l’ombra di Gesù verso il Getsemani. Episodi, poi, come quelli dell’inno dei pastori a Betlemme, delle tentazioni nel deserto, di satana che possiede l’anima di Giuda, fanno riferimento al più schietto e sincero immaginario popolare.

"Cinema e religione – afferma Mons. Enrique Planas, Direttore della Filmoteca Vaticana – è un connubio importante nella storia del cinema. … Circa il 20% della produzione mondiale di cinema tocca la sfera religiosa e spirituale, in positivo o in negativo. Se il cinema è un riflesso della vita e un indicatore dei gusti e delle domande del pubblico, questo significa che il religioso è un genere prodotto perché continuamente richiesto, ricercato".

A special issue of Culturelink, the journal of the Network of Networks for Research and Co-operation in Cultural Development based in Zagreb (Croatia), offers a focus on recent and contemporary cultural developments in South Africa.

It starts from the premise that "any review of cultural discourse, space and activity in South Africa would have to reflect upon the duality of cultural production within the former repressive state". And this, indeed, is the backdrop to most of what is included in this issue. The key is given – by guest-editors Abebe Zegeye and Robert Kriger – as the parallel existence of two cultural streams: one of the privileged few, reserved to them in various ways, the other regarded as inferior or, at best, as a quaint and sometimes lucrative tourist attraction. The editors describe the cultural funding system under apartheid in highly politicised terms. Indeed, they remark that many of the cultural events that were organised in townships or village halls by blacks "had an overtly ‘political’ message of resistance to the system…, especially against the backdrop of the black consciousness movement of the seventies and eighties". Part of the reaction against repression, they say, was a flourishing of new cultural initiatives, "especially in literature, theatre and performance, the plastic arts and the revival and/or renaissance of traditional modes of dance". This in turn provoked reaction from the authorities, ranging from censorship to the refusal to grant passports. The proponents of the new cultural discourse found ways around this. What is curious is that these people are not, as one might have expected, happy with the new situation after the fall of the apartheid system. The main reason given is that their National Arts Coalition came into conflict – over the issue of cultural hegemony – with the African National Congress’ Department of Arts and Culture. Another reason is the slow pace of implementation of what started out as enthusiastic programmes.

Despite these political obstacles, "there has been an exciting resurgence of cultural activity throughout the country". The variety of projects is enormous, and financial sponsorship is growing steadily. The articles in this collection by Culturelink seek to reflect the changes in the cultural atmosphere in South Africa perceived by their respective authors. The article by Alexander and Heugh argues that the fact that only English and Afrikaans are allowed as national languages still impedes a genuine transition from the old days. A genuine multi-lingual structure needs to be adopted. Shepperson and Tomaselli insist on culture as something people do, and hint at the responsibilities enshrined in cultural traditions and institutions. Other articles focus on access to arts funding (Fleishman), public broadcasting (Teer-Tomaselli), a revision of cultural concepts and classification (Smit and van Wyk), the betrayals of women and the family in and after apartheid (Wicomb), the style of iconography perpetuated by rural female architects (Frescura), the idea of "affirming heroes of the struggle against the colonial rule and their symbols and rituals" (Mufamadi) and multiple-author narration and oral tradition (Sitas). There is an assessment by Biserka Cvetičanin of Culturelink on the current state of cultural co-operation and international communication. The guest-editors reckon this is a new and valuable conversation, which "has only just begun".

Source: Culturelink, special issue 1998/1999, Cultural Change and Development in South Africa. Culturelink/IMO, P.O. Box 303, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia.

"La grandeza y la miseria de cualquier cultura depende de la grandeza o miseria de sus valores". Así lo afirmó este fin de semana el Cardenal Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez, Arzobispo de Santo Domingo, al dirigirse a la población dominicana a través del programa televisivo Fe y Acontecer. "Si hoy no somos capaces de mantener vigente ciertos valores –afirmó–, significa que tenemos una cultura paupérrima, una cultura de la muerte". De la misma manera, el Cardenal expresó su preocupación por una sociedad que hoy "ha sofocado progresivamente la dimensión del espíritu y ha concentrado su atención en la dimensión corporal hasta el punto de provocar una crisis de los valores espirituales". Al respecto, el Arzobispo de Santo Domingo manifestó, sin embargo, que la libertad no tiene sus bases en esas "falsedades y mentiras vulgares", sino en la verdad y el valor de la vida fundada en la dignidad de la persona humana.

Cf. Noticias Eclesiales 10-10-2000.

L’organo appartiene, decisamente, alla varietà della cultura europea. Purtroppo, esso è minacciato in molti Paesi europei: sia per trascuratezza, perdita o mancanza di mezzi, sia per materialismo o mentalità progressista superficiale.

Per affrontare la problematica della protezione e della conservazione di lunga durata del patrimonio organistico, si sono riuniti a Varaždin, Croazia, rappresentanti della Chiesa, della politica e dell’arte dell’organo, provenienti da tutta l’Europa – per la prima volta dopo la seconda guerra mondiale.

Questo Congresso europeo, con il tema L’organo: patrimonio culturale europeo, è stato organizzato dal 10 al 16 settembre 2000, con il patrocinio del Pontificio Consiglio della Cultura, del Ministero della Cultura della Croazia e della Diocesi di Varaždin.

Alla fine del congresso, i partecipanti hanno adottato una risoluzione finale. Anzitutto hanno costatato che manca un inventario integrale del grande patrimonio organistico europeo, mancano norme e linee direttrici generali per la salvaguardia di questo patrimonio seriamente minacciato soprattutto in alcuni Paesi, per disinteresse o mancanza di fondi. Quindi, hanno deciso di impegnarsi per la tutela di questo patrimonio, chiedendo di considerare l’organo quale parte del patrimonio culturale europeo, protetto con leggi.

La risoluzione ritiene necessario l’impegno attivo del mondo politico e della Chiesa per gli organi, chiede la redazione di un inventario di tutti gli organi europei, sollecita norme e leggi europei comuni per la protezione e la tutela del patrimonio organistico, desidera promuovere la formazione dei costruttori d’organo, organisti, conservatori, studiosi e competenti in materia, promuovendo lo scambio d’esperienze tra loro, ecc.

I partecipanti al Congresso ritengono necessaria la creazione di una piattaforma europea per poter realizzare questi traguardi, trovando sponsors importanti (come l’UNESCO, l’Unione Europea, il Consiglio d’Europa, la Banca Europea, ecc.) e hanno proposto di organizzare ogni anno un congresso per proseguire il cammino cominciato a Varaždin, con le prossime tappe: 2001 Göteborg, 2002 Lisbona, 2003 Bratislava, 2004 Bologna e 2005 Vilnius.

Cf. Prof. Christoph Bossert, Staatliche Hochschule für Musik, Schultheiß-Koch-Platz 3, D- 78647 Trossingen, Tel.: 0049-742-594.910, Fax: 0049-742-594.9149.

L’archidiocèse de Kinshasa a promu, dans le sillage du Jubilé du monde de la Recherche et de la Science célébré à Rome du 23 au 25 mai 2000, un colloque destiné à marquer le Jubilé des Scientifiques. Les séances académiques se sont tenues à la paroisse Saint-Joseph de Matonge, tandis que l’Eucharistie a conclu le Jubilé, dans le cadre de la paroisse universitaire Notre-Dame de la Sagesse, à l’université de Kinshasa.

Les 26 et 27 mai 2000, la commission des intellectuels et le mouvement des professeurs catholiques de l’archidiocèse de Kinshasa ont organisé dans la capitale congolaise un colloque centré sur le thème : Le rôle du scientifique chrétien en République Démocratique du Congo (RDC). La publication espérée des actes de cette manifestation jubilaire permettra à un large public de recueillir les enseignements de cette rencontre sur le rôle des scientifiques chrétiens dans une société particulièrement troublée par la violence, sur l’attitude des chrétiens envers les nouvelles découvertes scientifiques et leurs applications techniques, sur l’attitude de l’homme de science face à la foi et sur l’apport de la foi à la science dans la recherche de la vérité. L’une des contributions les plus importantes de la recherche, dans le contexte africain, demeure celle du développement.

Source : Documentation et Informations Africaines, n. 44056, 331-332.

The Post-Modernity Project was an experimental think-tank based in the University of Virginia at Charlottesville VA (United States of America). It has now been re-named and re-orientated as the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, with a twice-yearly newsletter called InSight. The first issue appeared in September 1999. The first article explains the change of name. First of all, the term "post-modernity" is "constantly contested and politicized" among scholars, while "among non-scholars its meaning is needlessly esoteric". The focus of study is still the same, however. The same surge of cultural change still creates "sweeping and profound challenges to the ordering of individual and collective life". The annual colloquium series is being maintained, as is the funding of doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships. There is also a steady flow of publications from permanent fellows, and a new journal called The Hedgehog Review: Critical Reflections on Contemporary Culture.

The spring 1999 colloquium considered the concept of diversity, which is used frequently in cultural and political discourse, but often without sufficient clarity. The speakers emphasise the importance of diversity in American self-understanding, but recognise that "certain distinctions in social life and public discourse dominate other distinctions in ways that marginalize the visibility of particular communities and minimize the significance of their voice". The spring 2000 colloquium series will tackle the question of the purpose of the university, with topics such as: "The Culture of the University", "University and Public Intellectuals and the Life of the Mind" and "The Moral Purposes of the University".

In 1998 the Institute for the Study of Economic Culture at Boston University initiated an ambitious research project on the cultural effects of economic globalisation. The Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture is directing the United States component. Globalisation initially referred to "the deregulation of financial markets and the consequent loss of governmental power to regulate the flow of capital", but now it includes developments in information technologies (and the democratisation of information), migrant labour, and much besides, even "the uncoupling of economic and military power". The newsletter recognises that America may be "the main source and primary symbol of our globalizing culture", not only on the superficial level of brand names and popular culture, but also at the level of "political ideology, scholarship, religion, philanthropy, and, of course, technology". The study explores the world-views of the chief ideologues involved, and their moral universe. Is what they do beneficial, humanising or liberating? The newsletter promises much on this subject in forthcoming issues.

Source: InSight, Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, B5 Garrett Hall, University of Virginia, P.O. Box 400816, Charlottesville VA 22904-4816 (U.S.A.). The Institute suggests that the best means of contact is e-mail: iasc@virginia.edu

PONER LOS MEDIOS DE COMUNICACIÓN AL SERVICIO DE LA EVANGELIZACIÓN

El Arzobispo de México, Cardenal Norberto Rivera, llamó esta semana a los medios de comunicación a colaborar en la evangelización. En el marco de un congreso realizado esta semana en Roma en torno a la labor de los Obispos, el Cardenal Rivera afirmó que "la Iglesia debe esforzarse por evangelizar al hombre del tercer milenio proponiendo la fe en un lenguaje adecuado a los tiempos modernos". El mensaje cristiano, añadió, debe ser difundido por los medios de comunicación y para lograr ese objetivo la Iglesia Católica tiene que hacerse presente en los medios laicos con periodistas creyentes que difundan el Evangelio. De manera especial, el Arzobispo mexicano recomendó a los Obispos "instaurar relaciones lo más positivas posibles con los medios laicos". "La presencia de la vida de la Iglesia en los medios de comunicación no es algo opcional; constituye una verdadera necesidad y exigencia, porque los medios son hoy por hoy, creadores de cultura, más aún, de una verdadera revolución cultural", señaló.

Cf. Noticias Eclesiales 13-10-2000.

Depuis déjà longtemps, la Conférence épiscopale de l’Allemagne attribue une grande importance aux thèmes européens. L’Assemblée plénière se met régulièrement au courant du développement de l’intégration européenne dans le cadre de l’Union européenne et d’une Europe plus large. Elle a toujours salué avec insistance tous les pas qui mènent vers la construction d’une Europe unie, garante d’une protection de la paix. Par ailleurs, elle a fixé son attention particulièrement sur le fait que c’est la personne humaine qui constitue le centre de toute action intégrative.

Les relations très particulières entre Église et État en Allemagne sont caractérisées par une coopération mutuelle. Mais à part des intérêts politiques plus généraux et des intérêts d’éthique sociale, l’Église porte une attention plus spécifique à toutes les questions qui, soulevées au niveau européen, peuvent avoir une influence sur la législation de ces relations Église-État en Allemagne. A titre d’exemple, on peut prendre la version européenne du droit d’intérêt général.

Une place dans l’épiscopat. La considération que les évêques allemands portent à l’intégration européenne se manifeste entre autres par les responsabilités que plusieurs évêques prennent dans diverses commissions européennes. Le président de la Conférence épiscopale d’Allemagne, Mgr Karl Lehmann, est simultanément aussi le vice-président du CCEE (Conseil des Conférences Épiscopales d’Europe). Le président de la Commission " Questions sociales " de la Conférence épiscopale d’Allemagne, Mgr Josef Homeyer, est en même temps le président de la Commission des épiscopats de la Communauté européenne (Comece).

Au Secrétariat de la Conférence épiscopale d’Allemagne, une sous-section de la Commission centrale " Questions sociales " a été créée pour observer les développements dans l’Union Européenne et pour en informer les évêques. Un groupe spécial de cette Commission fut constitué pour coordonner les activités européennes de la Conférence épiscopale. Il supervise tout ce secteur et maintient un contact étroit avec la Comece. En outre, un responsable de la Commission centrale " Église mondiale " concentre ses efforts sur les thèmes de l’Europe de l’Est, sur les relations avec l’Orthodoxie et l’Islam.

Divers points d’attention. Au bureau de liaison avec le Gouvernement allemand, une responsable suit en priorité les aspects juridiques de l’intégration européenne. Pour disposer de conseils compétents sur les développements politiques en Europe, d’excellents experts allemands spécialisés dans la politique et l’économie européenne aussi bien que dans l’administration ont été rassemblés dans un groupe-conseil, qui fonctionne au sein de la section " Union " de la Conférence épiscopale de l’Allemagne.

Citons quelques thèmes importants de leurs consultations, qui reflètent en même temps l’intérêt spécial que l’Église d’Allemagne montre pour les relations Église-État : l’adhésion des pays de l’Europe méridionale et orientale à l’Union européenne ; l’élaboration d’une directive sur l’égalité devant le travail et l’emploi ; le suivi de la Charte des droits fondamentaux. On évoquera aussi l’action sociale de l’Église en faveur des plus défavorisés, par exemple, en faveur des familles pour y appliquer les principes de la Charte des droits fondamentaux ; la recherche et l’action pour introduire la liberté religieuse dans son aspect collectif et institutionnel à l’intérieur de la Charte des droits fondamentaux ; l’élaboration des règles spécifiques concernant la directive sur la discrimination en matière d’emploi en fonction de l’affiliation religieuse.

Source : Frank Ronge, Europe Infos. Mensuel de la Comece et de l’Ocipe, n. 20 (octobre 2000) 11.

Pietism is generally given a negative evaluation by outside observers. At its heart is the constant stress laid on the need for personal, often dramatic, conversion of the heart. Little stress is placed on doctrinal precision. Ernst Troeltsch reckoned it was "the reappearance of sectarian Christianity within the Protestant churches". A professor of church history from a Protestant college in Pennsylvania, brought up as a member of a Pietist community in New York, writes in a recent issue of Ecumenical Trends that this had formerly led to the exclusion (often self-imposed) of pietist communities from ecumenical dialogue. But he makes a curious point, that faith in the contemporary world is becoming more and more pietistic. To illustrate it he lists seven trends. 1. faith is becoming more and more an individual affair, with authority counting for very little. "In North America, religious believers (and seekers) make up their own minds about the nature and requirements of faith". 2. "there is a growing dissatisfaction with the use of denominational or theological labels to describe one’s own faith". Negatively, this is a sign of indifference to what is good and true in one or another expression of Christian faith, but positively it is a recognition of the presence of "true Christians" in every denomination. 3. "this dislike of labels reflects a larger contemporary rejection of the need for theological clarity and precision in matters of faith". It is worse: it is really a rejection of the cognitive dimension of faith. Far more emphasis is placed now on experiences of faith. 4. "Forty percent of all U.S. residents belong to a social group of some kind, and two-thirds of those groups are explicitly religious in nature". There is a marked trend away from ecclesiastical institutions to small groups, which focus on "the God of love, comfort, order and security", as opposed to "the God of judgement, wrath, justice, mystery and punishment". 5. at the same time, there is a very strong – but often informal – affiliation with larger institutions, and even the practice of multiple affiliation, usually for quite pragmatic motives. 6. basic Christian compassion seems to have taken centre stage, "understood as a public, largely non-political, responsibility of faith". It is social concern, but not quite the social justice of some decades ago. "This new form of activism parallels older Pietistic emphases on the need for apolitical forms of social action". 7. There is far greater insistence now on the spiritual quality of those being trained as Christian ministers, to try to ensure that those who teach the faith are themselves people of faith. The author stresses that, despite the many differences, "there is a homological similarity – a similarity of structure and feel – between many aspects of older Pietism and newer postmodern forms of faith".

Source: "Pietism and the Postmodern Context of Ecumenical Dialogue", in Ecumenical Trends, Volume 29, No. 2, February 2000, pages 1 to 10.

Nel 1994 fu fondato il Centrum Spiritualitatis et Educationis "Iñigo" a Novosibirsk, città di un milione e mezzo di abitanti, terza per grandezza nelle Federazione Russa, che ospita molti istituti d’istruzione universitaria, con circa 117.000 studenti. Il Centro è gestito dai padri gesuiti; sette dei nove gesuiti di Novosibirsk sono addetti al Centro.

Iñigo ha ospitato incontri dell’episcopato cattolico russo, del clero cattolico della Siberia e del decanato di Novosibirsk. Qui si sono tenuti seminari per i collaboratori della Caritas; si sono riuniti i movimenti ecclesiali Comunione e liberazione, Emanuele e Cammino neocatecumenale; qui sono stati organizzati incontri delle comunità di lingua e cultura tedesca, polacca e lituana.

Negli anni 1993-1998, membri del centro Iñigo hanno insegnato e condotto seminari all’Università Statale di Novosibirsk (Akademgorodok) e all’Istituto pedagogico. Oggi continua solo l’insegnamento al Seminario minore cattolico.

Al Centro sono stati organizzati diverse sedute, forum, conferenze, seminari, ecc. Nel 1995 ha avuto luogo il colloquio in occasione del centenario di Michail Bachtin, nel 1996 un seminario bisemestrale su "Cattolicesimo e ortodossia", aperto a tutti. Nel 1997 c’è stata una retrospettiva del cinema di Krzysztof Zanussi, culminata nell’incontro col regista. L’anno 1998 ha avuto tre eventi importanti: la presentazione dell’edizione russa del Catechismo della Chiesa Cattolica, preparazione dello stand cattolico per l’Esposizione "Vita spirituale della Siberia" e una settimana di seminario su problemi della bioetica e la difesa della vita umana.

Oggi il centro cura traduzioni in russo di testi spirituali e umanistici. Su richiesta, offre esercizi spirituali guidati. Dal 1995 funziona il "Corso biblico". Si tratta della preparazione di quaderni per lo studio personale della Sacra Scrittura. Al corso di corrispondenza partecipano più di cento persone. I quaderni vengono usati pure da gruppi di studio in parrocchia. Sono usciti finora sette quaderni, più una decina di testi ausiliari.

Il centro Iñigo organizza e guida il telestudio "Kana" dell’Amministrazione Apostolica di Novosibirsk. Si preparano videogiornali (finora 22 edizioni) sulla vita cattolica nei paesi della Comunità di Paesi Indipendenti e nel mondo.

Dopo un anno di insegnamento di materie fondamentali di religione cattolica (1998-1999), è stato inaugurato, nell’autunno 1999, la Filiale del "Collegio Cattolico di Filosofia Teologia e Storia di S. Tommaso" di Mosca. Il collegio di Mosca opera da otto anni, e dal 1997 sotto la direzione degli stessi padri gesuiti. Si tratta di una scuola serale con un programma quadriennale di diciotto ore settimanali d’insegnamento. Manuali vengono preparati con il progredire dell’insegnamento.

Ora, il Centro sta creando una biblioteca di profilo generale teologico-filosofico e di scienze umanistiche. La biblioteca è aperta al pubblico. La frequentano 125 lettori, 50 di loro diplomati universitari, 45 sono studenti di vari istituti universitari.

La biblioteca vuole non solo servire allo scopo delle menzionate attività del centro, ma intende dare accesso alle fonti e alla storia del cristianesimo occidentale. Già adesso, con i suoi più di diecimila volumi, è una biblioteca unica in questa parte del mondo. I fondi di libri di Novosibirsk venivano costituiti durante il periodo sovietico. Pertanto, vi mancano non solo opere di argomento religioso occidentali, ma anche del primo millennio cristiano, una lacuna che si cerca di colmare.

Dalla fondazione del centro Iñigo si prevede la costruzione di un ampio magazzino di libri. Lo scantinato è pronto dal 1995; la licenza di costruire viene regolarmente rinnovata. Con la mediazione del Nunzio Apostolico presso la Federazione Russa e del Pontificio Consiglio della Cultura, finalmente sembra che questo grande progetto si comincerà a realizzare, con il valido sostegno di un generoso sponsor italiano.

Cf.: P. Josef Macha SJ, Direttore del Centrum Spiritualitatis et Educationis "Iñigo", ul. Levitana 38, Post Box "Iñigo", 630051 Novosibirsk, Tel./Fax: 007-3832-772.013, e-mail: inigo@mail.nsk.ru

Father Hermann Schalück, the former Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor, wonders which forms of animation might be most appropriate to religious communities in post-modern times, convinced that the best way to look on the favourable time of salvation given to us by the Lord is "with serenity, with hope and justifiable optimism".

He begins by offering a definition of the terms "modern" and post-modern". The recognisable cohesive forces in modern life are less and less distinct, so there is a veritable confusion of institutions and institutional values. "The great unifying systems dissolve and numerous fragmentary sub-systems come into being and, with great rapidity, mingle together in their turn". Three factors need to be kept in mind:

• the expansion and intensification of the market (production, work, consumption) leads to an unlimited differentiation of life environments. Traditional centres, including religion, church and family, as well as sectorial cultures, collapse.

• this is its turn leads to an unlimited pluralisation in terms of cultures, and above all of experimental patterns of living.

• there is a process of radical individualisation. While there is constraint in the labour market and other social processes, there is far less, if any, in the traditional structures of society. The "modern experience of freedom and the history of freedom" guarantees that the individual "can write his own biography and live his own lifestyle, free from outside influences". This is not a total rejection of established values, but a relativisation of them.

Father Schalück gladly applies the description of contemporary German culture as the ‘adventurous society’ to the rest of Europe. One could probably extend it to North America and to the many elements in other societies which, for one reason or another, mimic European and American fashions. It is a culture where "everything is wrapped with the quality of adventure, so as to provoke pleasant sensations", where "primacy is given to the aesthetic beauty of everyday life". This establishes new social standards and environments derived from age and life-style. Individualistic young people seeking the security of relationships, but without ties or obligations, have been described as self-centred people who need support. "In simpler words: young people today are not interested in whether they, or those who come after them, will have enough bread to eat or clothes to wear; what they are interested in discussing is what sort of bread they will eat and what sort of pattern their clothes will have, software and the cars they own or would like to own". The influences which mould people most thoroughly today are not necessarily traditional ones, but shared experience, sport or voluntary work; there is not a single, overarching model, but a free choice and mixture of elements from various traditions (Buddhism, New Age, the New Testament and oriental meditation are mentioned). "The problem of the post-modern era is not the absence of religion, but the mixing together of different elements of various religions and the rapid consumption of these, almost as we do with fast-food. It is immediately clear here that our Church, with her choices of how to manage one’s life, no longer has the monopoly in this context".

While people no longer define their identities on the basis of the great models, examples or myths, young people today are not the utopians of the late 1960s. They are "sceptical, restless, without illusions and… very realistic". Almost everything is invested with a fleeting or even illusory character, starting with the insecurity of employment and the unreliability of so many promises made. There are no omniscient authorities or noble aspirations, no dreams and no fixed horizon. It is safer "to barricade oneself in the immediate present"; this makes it easy to compromise and settle for satisfaction with the least effort, and closure to broad perspectives makes it simple to ditch traditional ethics and create a very pragmatic set of standards for oneself. But Father Schalück is at pains to recognise young people’s "capacity for commitment, solidarity and fidelity" and "for dedication, altruism and solidarity", far from the narcissism and exasperated individualism of which they are often accused. He notes the curious mix of a will to dedicate oneself with a determination to decide for oneself.

The question for religious is: "how can religious institutes, whose rules of life contemplate the ideal of the gift of self, gratuitousness and solidarity, inculturate themselves in a context of radical individualism, computerization and globalization in commerce?" The suggestion is that it is just as difficult, but just as possible, as at any other time in history. It is essential to pinpoint the values that give life to a community and work from those, as a sort of leaven, which can transform from within. One example given is thoroughgoing authenticity in religious life; this requires a formation which can foster self-esteem, respect for others and generosity. The surest way to living as models of freedom is to overcome competitive rivalry, in order to build unity in the form of genuine co-responsibility. The spiritual foundation which will be accepted in the world if it is seen and heard in the lives of religious is the choice of a living God, or being "in love with God". Too often people are distracted from this by "marginal choices". But, with a conscious growth in awareness of the God who gives life, "new courageous choices will spring forth, like the evangelisation of culture in dialogue with the younger generations". This challenges us to cultivate mystical contemplation of God and creation. The fragmented post-modern world, which is so often a prisoner of ambiguity, "is in need of a spirituality of incarnation which the religious community can offer". The final talent suggested is effective communication, based in this view on silence and the "paradoxical power of listening". The whole process is seen as one of "delicacy and respect". Perhaps these words are spoken to religious, but apply to the way the Church as a whole presents herself to the world. "In a society that is conditioned by the efficiency of its sophisticated mass media, the religious community may and must offer a way of communicating which is simple and true, comprehensible and not banal; so that it manifests its origin in the Triune God, who through continual divine relating with the Three, expresses himself in the Word made flesh, in the fullness of time".

Source: UISG Bulletin No. 112/2000, pp. 25-41.

Le 11 juillet 2000, les Chefs d’État et de Gouvernement au Sommet de l’OUA à Lomé, au Togo, ont approuvé un texte qui sera l’Acte constitutif de l’union Africaine. Cet Acte entrera en vigueur trente jours après avoir été signé et ratifié par les deux-tiers des États membres de l’OUA.

Le document fait explicitement référence aux idéaux des Pères fondateurs de l’OUA : " promouvoir l’unité, la solidarité, la cohésion et la coopération entre les peuples d’Afrique et entre les États africains ". Ces idéaux constituent le terrain fertile sur lequel l’Afrique pourra affirmer l’identité commune de cultures si contrastées et en même temps si profondément liées les uns aux autres. L’avenir revêt en Afrique, peut-être plus qu’ailleurs, l’allure d’un immense défi pour le continent, ses pays et ses peuples : les changements sociaux, économiques et politiques survenant dans le monde exercent une puissante influence sur des États souvent fragilisés par des conditions économiques précaires ou par les conséquences des trop nombreux conflits qui ensanglantent le continent noir.

L’Union Africaine entend promouvoir le développement socio-économique, indispensable aux Africains non seulement sur le plan du commerce et de l’organisation sociale, mais aussi et surtout sur le plan du développement intégral des personnes et des communautés humaines, notamment dans le contexte actuel de mondialisation. Pour cette raison, les signataires de l’Acte constitutif appellent de leurs vœux l’instauration d’un " partenariat entre les gouvernements et toutes les composantes de la société civile, en particulier les femmes, les jeunes et le secteur privé, afin de renforcer la solidarité et la cohésion entre nos peuples ".

Parmi les objectifs de l’Union (Article 3), soulignons quelques aspects importants pour la création d’une véritable culture de la paix et de la solidarité, gage d’un développement intégral.

• Réaliser une plus grande unité et solidarité entre les pays africains et entre les peuples d’Afrique.

• Promouvoir et défendre les positions africaines communes sur les questions d’intérêt pour le continent et ses peuples.

• Promouvoir la paix, la sécurité et la stabilité sur le continent.

• Promouvoir et protéger les droits de l’homme et des peuples conformément à la Charte africaine des droits de l’homme et des peuples, et aux autres instruments pertinents relatifs aux droits de l’homme.

• Promouvoir le développement durable aux plans économique, social et culturel, ainsi que l’intégration des économies africaines.

• Promouvoir la coopération et le développement dans tous les domaines de l’activité humaine en vue de relever le niveau de vie des peuples africains.

• Assurer le développement du continent par la promotion de la recherche dans tous les domaines, en particulier en science et en technologie.

Afin de faciliter l’exécution des travaux nécessaires à la réalisation des objectifs de l’Union, les Chefs d’État et de Gouvernement ont créé un certain nombre d’organismes spécialisés et notamment des Comités chargés respectivement de la science et de la technologie, de l’environnement, des communications sociales et du tourisme, de l’éducation, de la culture et des ressources humaines.

Source : Congo-Afrique, n. 348 (octobre 2000) 498-507.

In Cultures and Faith IV-3 (1996), on pages 222ff., there was a summary of an article from the Keston Institute on the religious situation in the Volga Republics. A recent edition of Keston’s Religion, State and Society contains an article on the religious choice facing post-Soviet Yakutia, also known as Sakha. Throughout that region there is a battle for souls between national paganism (spurred on by the hatred of the memory of anything connected with Moscow) and Orthodox Christianity. The author of the article, Sergei Filatov, is convinced that paganism in the region is principally a matter of folklore and that its leaders "are mostly involved in reconstructing an ideology that has disappeared, and they are doing so on the basis of European (essentially Christian) concepts that they are familiar with, as a response to the popular desire for national revival; they are not preserving and reviving something that already exists" (113).

Yakutia is different. For various historical reasons, mass baptisms began only at the end of the eighteenth century; even when a more thorough Christianisation occurred, Bishop (Saint) Innokenti incorporated elements of pagan rites into the Yakut liturgy, and used the names of their pagan gods in Yakut translations of scripture. Despite strenuous missionary efforts, "the majority of Yakuts remained pagans or dual-believers with a very shallow Christian overlay. Shamanism was the basic form of religiosity among Yakuts before 1917. The belief in good and evil spirits, the possibility of reincarnation and magical healing had not only survived, but had even gained a certain following among the local Russian population" (113f.). Religion is very much linked with the presence of spirits dwelling in animals, trees, rivers, streams, hills, valleys, fire and water, and the spirits of the dead are held to be very influential. The nation was also said to have been founded by gods descended from the heavens. Christianity in Yakutia was concentrated chiefly in Cossack and Polish exiles, but Christianisation came to an abrupt halt with the 1917 revolution. The only organised legal Christian activity in this massive republic was an Orthodox parish based in a wooden hut in the centre of the city of Yakutsk. It was easy for the authorities to stamp out Christianity, with its clear organised system, but paganism was a more elusive target for KGB activity. Furthermore, scattered communities in the taiga and the tundra were difficult to police. "By the time of the fall of the Soviet regime the religious identity of the majority of Yakuts was a reduced pagan world-view" (115).

The heart of post-Soviet ideology in Yakutia is ‘kul’tivatsiya’ or the promotion of culture, a project which gives high priority to ‘spirituality’ and religion. This means there is a historically-rooted national ‘spirituality’ and a progression towards Orthodox religion. The pagan new year and festivals are an obligatory part of educational programmes, but they are billed as purely ‘cultural’. At the same time, Orthodox religion has been given phenomenal financial and psychological support. A symbol of the efforts involved is the foundation of the Akademia dukhovnosti (Academy of Spirituality), but the scheme to unite spirituality-as-culture with the mainstream Orthodox faith seems doomed to failure. Most members of the Academy are "strongly attracted to their national traditions and customs and even if they are not themselves pagans their sympathies lie in that direction" (117).

But the main opposition to the national plan to fuse paganism and Orthodoxy is not from academicians. Lazar’ Afanas’yev, Ivan Okhkhan and Aanatoli Pavlov have reflected on the chasm between person and nature in the Yakut people. They are promoting a complex religion based on the doctrine of Aiyy, "a modernised version of the pan-Turkic pagan religion of Tengrianism" (115). Despite efforts to break free of shamanist ideas and practices, such ideas have a strong hold on the general populace, who believe firmly in the extensive powers of a (black) shaman linked to the forces of death and destruction. The shaman is even said to be able to steal the belit or spiritual force surrounding a person. So neopaganism and shamanism are in direct conflict in Yakutia, particularly since the neopagan religious organisation Kut-Syur was registered in 1993. This organisation controls the syllabus for cultural education in secondary schools, and those responsible are sure they are reviving not folklore, but religion. A pagan political party, Sakha Kasele, "aims to turn Yakutia into the national republic of the Yakut nation, maintain confederate links with Russia, confirm the Yakut pagan identity in all spheres of life…" and so on (119).

Neopagans are opposed to western civilisation, which they see as decadent, and opposed to Christ and, ultimately, to God. It is also making progress at a dangerous moment, in the sense that Catholicism and Protestantism are also meeting more success than Orthodoxy because "Orthodoxy has more to do with the authorities than with God" and "Orthodoxy is too national, it is the faith of the Russians, while Protestantism and Catholicism are faiths for everyone". This has led to a diminution in official plans to curtail the activities of religious minorities, whose rights were recognised by 1999. "Developments in religious life in Yakutia over the past ten years may be a reflection in miniature of the direction religious life in Russia as a whole might follow: from the restoration of the pre-Revolutionary situation to a wide pluralism; from attempts by the authorities to control and manipulate the religious situation to the recognition that the religious sphere is autonomous and not accountable to the authorities" (122).

Source: Religion, State and Society, Vol. 28, No. 1/2000, pp. 113-122.

182 États et 150 groupements ou ONG représentant la société civile se sont réunis à Dakar, du 26 au 28 avril 2000, en vue de l’évaluation de l’Éducation pour tous (EPT), vaste programme inauguré voici 10 ans. Les participants au Forum de Dakar ont étudié la bonne réalisation des objectifs et des engagements pris lors de la Conférence Mondiale de Jomtien et sont parvenus à la conclusion que de grands progrès avaient été réalisés, mais que beaucoup restait à faire. En outre, il s’agissait pour les participants de définir les nouvelles politiques et stratégies, afin de tirer au mieux profit du travail réalisé en faveur de l’éducation pour tous.

Pour ce qui est des engagements pris à Dakar pour les 15 prochaines années, soulignons :

• qu’à Dakar a prévalu une vision plus vaste de l’éducation pour tous, qui va au-delà de l’enseignement primaire et inclut l’éducation, l’enseignement, l’alphabétisation ;

• que fut exprimée la ferme volonté de faciliter l’accès complet et équitable des adultes à une éducation de base de qualité et à l’éducation permanente.

• que l’idéologie éducative conventionnelle qui dissocie quantité et qualité, et qui associe développement éducatif et expansion, a été dépassée.

En termes de stratégie, l’on a fait remarquer qu’il y aura peu de résultats tangibles s’il n’existe pas une véritable volonté politique de la part des gouvernements de mobiliser les ressources nécessaires et de renforcer la participation de la société civile.

L’Office International de l’Enseignement Catholique (OIEC) a eu la chance de participer au Forum de Dakar et l’honneur de collaborer à la consultation collective UNESCO/ONG, faisant ainsi partie des quelques organisations non gouvernementales autorisées à y participer. C’est pour ces raisons et également par conviction que l’OIEC fait sien le plan d’action de Dakar relatif à l’Éducation pour tous et en assume les défis et les engagements.

Par ailleurs, le changement de millénaire et la préparation du Jubilé avaient incité l’OIEC à lancer l’élaboration de la Radiographie de l’École Catholique, à l’occasion du XV^e Congrès Mondial de l’OIEC, qui s’est tenu à Jaïpur, en Inde, en avril 1998.

Dakar nous invite à presser le pas et à informer la communauté éducative catholique mondiale sur l’engagement pris par les Présidents ou Secrétaires Nationaux de l’Enseignement Catholique (SNEC) des pays membres de l’OIEC, afin que se fasse la radiographie de l’École Catholique.

Dans le cadre de la célébration du Cinquantième anniversaire de l’OIEC et à l’aube du troisième millénaire, l’OIEC s’est proposé un double examen de conscience : le premier concerne son service à la communauté plurielle mondiale, en collaboration avec l’UNESCO et l’UNICEF. Le second, quant à lui, concerne le plus-value apportée par son service en tant qu’École Catholique.

Pour aborder le deuxième examen de conscience, nous devrions avoir à l’esprit cinq questions-clés : l’École catholique, en développant son action, s’est-elle placée sous le signe des véritables priorités, à savoir, celle de l’éthique sur la connaissance, de la personne sur les choses, de l’être sur l’avoir ? A-t-elle contribué au développement d’un sens de la valeur de la vie et de l’activité humaine ? A-t-elle forgé des hommes et des femmes de l’espérance ?

Source : Andrés delgado hernandez, sdb, Secrétaire Général de l’OIEC, OIEC. L’Office International de l’Enseignement Catholique, n. 30 (Juillet-Août-Septembre 2000) " Éditorial ".

The success of Soviet inculcation of the idea that the pre-Revolutionary past was meaningless has meant that attempts since 1991 to revive Russian patriotism have failed miserably. It is also inevitable that people question the current tendency of the Moscow patriarchate to stress the distance there was between itself and the authorities of the former atheist regime. So there is a double psychological problem for people who had any influence in the days of the Soviet Empire; they need to connect not only with post-Soviet reality, but also with the long-buried and distant memories of pre-Soviet times.

One movement is reckoned to have "been able to restore this time link in an organic and natural way": they are "the admirers of the Rerikh family and the followers of the teachings of Yelena Rerikh, the Rerikh societies and groups throughout the Russian Federation, which could be called the Rerikh movement" (136). It all began with the figure of Nikolai Konstantinovich Rerikh (1874-1947), who is associated with the idea that culture, in its secular, artistic and especially ecclesiastical forms, has a sacral role. The variety of mystical interests in Russia at the turn of the century is almost unparalleled until the explosion of esoteric themes in Britain and the West Coast of the United States of America in the 1970s. Solov’yev was fascinated by a mystical unity, Skriabin with the ‘black mass’, Andrei Bely with Steiner’s anthroposophy and so on. The pre-Revolutionary intelligentsia was far from orthodox in Christian terms. These were people "searching for the sources of Russian culture and the true spiritual nature of the Russian people" (136). They were ready to fall at the feet of the expected revolutionary leaders who would reveal the truth of Russia to its people. "In this setting, with all its mystical turmoil and syncretism, one married couple succeeded in creating from this collection of unconnected ideas, aspirations, expectations and artistic images a unique philosophy of life, which in our own days has captivated the minds of millions" (136).

Nikolai Rerikh’s greatest achievement was to have President Roosevelt and others of the Pan-American Union sign a Peace Pact based on respect for cultural creativity, which acquired, in Rerikh’s mind, a soteriological significance. Even today the movement sees in works of art a special vital energy or mystical force. Those most strongly charged with this energy are Orthodox icons. The symbol of the Peace Pact based on this conviction of power in culture is three red dots, each symbolising humanity’s past, present and future achievements, within a red circle, symbolising eternity. Rerikh’s alternative explanation was religion, art and science representing manifestations of culture. Rerikh and his wife Yelena studied the thought of Yelena Blavatskaya and Annie Besant, occultism and eastern spirituality. They reckoned that they themselves later established contact with the ‘mahatmas’ and ‘masters of peace’ who had inspired Blavatskaya’s The Secret Doctrine. Their whole goal was to give ordinary people a way into esoteric thought and Living Ethics (Zhivaya Etika). The KGB thought Rerikh was a Freemason connected with the Grand Lodge of France, and a spiritualist, but it is certain that occultism seemed to him in later life a relic of childish generations. He and Yelena were on their way to esoteric, secret knowledge.

They were eventually convinced that the source of all human wisdom was in Tibet, the Himalayas and India, so they went to live permanently in the Kulu valley. They accepted "reincarnation, karma, cycles of birth and death of the universe, individual worlds, our own planet and historical epochs (manavantar); the spiritual relationship between the teacher (mahatma) and the disciple" (138). But, far from simply joining those religions, the Rerikhs united eastern values with Russian culture and included certain elements of Orthodox Christianity. This is what has given them such an appeal for Russians then and now. "Russians are attracted to something which seems native and familiar and are encouraged to postpone any consideration of the profound eastern influence on these teachings"(139). Their appeal to Christians has meant that Metropolitan Kirill hesitates now to speak of ‘energy’ because of the Church’s suspicious attitude towards the teachings of the Rerikh movement.

Karma is the chief eschatological principle, where Orthodox saints figure in a list of enlightened ones including Buddha, Confucius, Plato, Krishna, Christ, St. Sergi of Radonezh and many more. Yelena was chosen as a magnetic transformer of sacred energy, as was her husband, and a third was "a stone fragment, preserved in Shambhala, which accumulates energy from the Cosmic Magnet in the constellation of Orion" (140). One day the messiah will return to earth: for the Rerikhs, the Messiah is sometimes Maytreya, sometimes Buddha. According to Yelena, "Armageddon ended on 17 October 1949 and ‘the enemy’ was expelled from the solar system" (140). Despite this, the shape of eschatological teaching is Christian (Orthodox). At the same time, Christianity needs to be rooted out by the various mahatmas. "The Rerikh world-view can accommodate not only those who consider themselves Orthodox believers, but also those who recognise the authority of Lucifer and even atheist materialists" (140). Another element in reaching salvation is the construction of a hierarchical, authoritarian structure; this is described in a book called Obshchina (The Community), which refers to Marx and Lenin as teachers, bans entertainment, imposes total censorship and educates children away from their families; it also obliges everyone to become vegetarians! The Rerikhs openly expressed full support for the Bolshevik revolutionary government: "the mahatmas… blessed them for founding a unified state with a unified culture" (141). Even the Stalinist repressions were part of the inevitable karma of Russia.

In Russia’s difficult times, though, the Rerikhs were in India, and their followers were confined chiefly to small groups in Latvia, in the United States of America, and among Russian exiles in Harbin. But with the welcome given to spiritual activities in perestroika, their ideas became more and more widespread. The Rerikhs were seen as champions and proponents of Russian culture, and concepts of spiritual self-improvement, the astral world, the individual’s astral plane or aura and karma as universal law "became part of the personal philosophy of millions of people" (143). The cultural vacuum in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s has provided a perfect point of entry for the theories of the Rerikhs, and the Soviet Rerikh Foundation became attractive precisely because of "its broad-minded approach to culture and the role of culture as a force for salvation" (143). Living Ethics was also taking people beyond rational science and becoming very influential in the highest academic circles.

Rerikh groups differ enormously throughout the world, but they successfully fulfil the longing in atheist Soviet society "for something that would be simultaneously highly intellectual, scientific and mystical" (147). They generally have a very low opinion of the spiritual status of Orthodox Christianity, and "are quite capable of believing in all faiths while at the same time giving their own interpretation to the truths they contain. Any concept or school of thought can be shaped to the Rerikh paradigm: ecology, astrology, vegetarianism, occultism, magic, Zen Buddhism, nationalism, communism and Messianic expectations" (147f.). Perhaps the strongest support for Rerikhism is that those involved feel they are doing a great service to the preservation of culture. "Totalitarian sects pass away like illnesses, but the Rerikh movement is alive and well all over Russia, even after accusations in the press that the Rerikhs collaborated with the NKVD, and even after the Russian Orthodox Church has anathematised it. In any large Russian city there is a Rerikh society or a group of educated people taking an active interest in Rerikh culture. An enthusiasm for all kinds of new religious movements, for Buddhism, Krishnaism and the East in general, for the ‘New Age’ and theosophy, is not of course confined to Russia alone. In Europe and America religious eclecticism and syncretism are sweeping triumphantly through the lands of Christian civilisation. There is one movement, however, which has an ideology shaped uniquely in and for Russia: the Rerikh movement" (148).

Fortunately for readers of English, an extensive survey of an important element in this movement was done in a doctoral thesis defended at the Pontifical Gregorian University in December 1997 by Anita Stašulāne, a Latvian student who wrote The Notion of Culture in the Thought of Nicholas Roerich, under the direction of Dr. Michael Fuss. The bibliography in the published extract is extremely useful, gathering works mainly in Russian, English, Latvian and French.

Source: Religion, State and Society, Vol. 28, No. 1/2000, pp. 134-148.

HALLOWEEN ES UNA MANIFESTACIÓN CONTRACULTURAL

Partiendo de la constatación de que "la catolicidad de México no es un añadido extranjero, sino una riqueza propia de la idiosincrasia nacional que comparte el 90 por ciento de los habitantes", el editorial del último número del boletín de la Arquidiócesis de México señala que "resulta extraño que en estos momentos se importen modelos culturales que nada tienen que ver con nuestras tradiciones y valores". Un ejemplo bien claro es la celebración de Halloween, algo que ni tiene que ver con el Día de Muertos ni con la festividad católica de Todos los Fieles Difuntos, por lo que bien podríamos definir Halloween como una manifestación contracultural.

La riqueza cultural que posee México, y que está signada por su catolicidad, tiene manifestaciones públicas que "los poderes ejecutivo, legislativo y judicial deben más que tolerarla, deben reconocerla, defenderla y apoyarla". Por ello "igualmente extraño y contracultural es rechazar públicamente o no reconocer la identidad católica de los mexicanos desde instancias políticas, intelectuales e, incluso, diplomáticas".

Cf. Noticias Eclesiales 2-11-2000.