Categoria: English

Those who were defeated at the ballot box want to take power by illegal means

Leonardo Boff3 Comentários

Amidst the present discussions about corruption we must unveil what is hidden from and overlooked by the less than critical eye. What is hidden? The persistent will of the dominant groups that do not accept the rising ability of the popular masses to attain the minimum benefits of citizenship, and want to keep them where the masses of the people were always kept: at the margins, as a cheap reserve army at their service.
The investigation by juridical police of the Petrobras crimes implicates large enterprises, the PT (Labor Party), and many other parties as well, the PPS, PMDB and the PSDB, who benefited with subsides and contributions to their campaigns. Why is the investigation being conducted in such a way that it only centers on PT members? The principal objective appears not to be condemnation of the crimes, which obviously must be investigated, judged and punished. But the PT is not alone in this entanglement. The majority of the large political parties are deeply involved. Which of them did not receive millions from Petrobras and businesses for their political campaigns? Why are the Public Ministry, the federal Police and Judge Sergio Moro not investigating them, since they purport to be cleaning up the country? Did any of those candidates sell their country homes, or any of their properties to finance their million-dollar political campaigns? They were financed by cashbox B, which is illegal, but considered a common practice in our low level democracy.

It is disingenuous and misleading to think that those organisms, including the various branches of the justice system, up to the highest levels, are not full of bias and ideology. Let the classics of ideology tell us. Among them, Jürgen Habermas and Michel Foucault demonstrated that no social space is immune to special interests, and therefore, to ideological discourse, and does not move without a purpose. The narrative of the golpistas emphasizes the supposed independence of these instances and their allegedly impartial character. Past and present reality reveal something very different.

A firm ideological purpose of the organs of power linked to the police, the judiciary and the Supreme Courts, carried out by private means of mass communication of national scope, of a well known conservative, if not reactionary and anti-popular, character, would serve as a link, uniting them, all of them, in order to guarantee a certain type of order that has always benefited them, and that now the PT and its allies has limited.

Why the systemic attempt to destroy the figure of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who was taken by force to give a declaration at the Federal Police, after he had already done so three times? It is the perverse desire to destroy him as a reference point for all those who see in him the politician who came from the very depths of our country, a survivor of hunger, who finally, with his charisma, arrived at the center of power. Lula achieved the most important thing for a person: his dignity. The people had always been considered by the owners of power as good for nothing, ignorant and redundant plebes. Long suffering, Lula got tired of seeing his hope of minimum improvements frustrated. The conciliation among the classes, the tonic of our political classes, was always done to ease the path of the powerful groups and deny benefits to the people. With the PT, this excluding logic was eliminated.

Now we see the purpose of the classes that do not accept having been one day removed from power. They want power back at any cost. They have realized that they will not be able to do so through elections, given the mediocrity of their leaders and the lack of a project that gives hope to the people, the lackeys of globalized imperial power. They want to accomplish it by manipulating the law, creating hatreds and intolerance as never before in our history has existed to this degree. It is class struggle, yes. This theme has not passed. It is not an invention. It is a fact of reality. It is enough see what is being said in the social media. It seems that the gates of hell have opened for loud, dirty talk, for lack of respect, and the will to demonize the other.

Politics in Brazil now does not consist of ideological confrontations, of different political projects and different readings of our critical situation, that is not just ours, but of the whole world. It is something more perverse: it is the will to destroy Lula, to destroy the PT, and pit it against the people. They are afraid that Lula will return to complete the policies that benefited the great majorities, and gave them awareness and dignity. What the holders of power fear most is a people who think. They want ignorant Brazilians, in order to be able to dominate them ideologically and politically, and in this way, ensure their privileges.

But they will not accomplish that. They are so obtuse and lacking of creativity in their hunger for power that they use the same tactics used in 1954 against Getulio Vargas, or the 1964 tactics against João “Jango” Goulart. It was always about crushing the demands of the people for more rights, that implied reducing their privileges and making some democratic improvements. But times have changed. They will not prosper because there is already a rise in awareness and popular pressure that will cause them to be ridiculed, in spite of their mouthpieces in the mass media, true “creepy runts”, who gather the worst they can find to continue lying, distorting, and inventing dramatic scenarios, to destroy the popular hope and thus to return to power, by force, rather than by democratic rights.

But, no… “No pasarán”

Free translation from the Spanish by
Servicios Koinonia, http://www.servicioskoinonia.org.
Done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.

Theologian-Philosopher Earthcharter Commission

Threats to Mother Earth and how to confront them

Leonardo Boff2 Comentários

There are four threats that our Common Home faces, and which demand from us our special attention.

The first is how in modern times the Earth is viewed as an object of ruthless exploitation, seeking only the greatest profits, without regard to life or purpose. This vision, that has brought undeniable benefits, has also created a dis-equilibrium in all the ecosystems, which has caused the present generalized ecological crisis. With that vision entire nations were destroyed, as in Latin America, where the Atlantic jungles, and, in part, the Amazon rain forests, have been devastated.

In January 2015, 18 scientists published in the well known magazine Science, a study on “The planetary limits: a guide for a human development on a planet in mutation”. They enumerated 9 fundamental aspects for the continuity of life. Among them were climate equilibrium, maintenance of bio-diversity, preservation of the ozone layer, and control of acidity of the oceans. All of these aspects are in a state of decline. But two, that they call the “fundamental limits”, are the most degraded: through climate change and the extinction of species. The breakdown of these two fundamental frontiers can cause the collapse of our civilization.

In this context, to care for the Earth means that to the conquest paradigm, that devastates nature, we must oppose the paradigm of caring, that protects nature. The paradigm of caring cures old wounds and prevents future wounds. Caring leads us to live in harmony with all the other beings and to respect the rhythms of nature. We must produce what we need to live, but carefully, within the tolerable limits of each region and the riches of each ecosystem.

The second threat is the death machine of weapons of mass destruction: chemical, biological and nuclear. These weapons already exist. They can destroy all life on the planet in 25 different ways. Since security is never absolute, we have to be careful that these weapons are not used in war, and that their security mechanisms are ever more secure.

To this threat we must oppose a culture of peace, of respect for the rights of life, nature and of Mother Earth, openness and dialogue between the peoples. Instead of win-lose, to live a win-win paradigm, seeking convergence of diversities. This means creating equilibrium and generating caring.

The third threat is the lack of drinking water. Of all the water on Earth only 3% is potable water, the rest is salt water. Of that 3%, 70% goes to agriculture, 20% to industry and only 10% is for human use. It is a ridiculous share, which explains the fact that more than a billion people live without sufficient potable water.

We must care for the Earth’s water, and for the forrests and the jungles, because they are the natural protectors of all the waters. To care for the water demands ensuring that the sources are surrounded by trees and that all rivers have vegetation on their banks, because this vegetation nourishes the sources. More than half of the rain forrests have been destroyed, altering the weather, drying up rivers or diminishing the waters in the aquifers.

The best we can do is reforestation.

The fourth great threat is the increasing warming of the Earth. It is a property of the geophysics of the planet that it experiences alternating cold and warm phases. But this natural rhythm has been altered by excessive human intervention in all aspects of nature and the Earth. Carbon dioxide, methane and other gases of the industrial process have created a cloud that surrounds the Earth and retains the warmth here below. We are nearing an increase of 2 degrees centigrade. Life cycles could barely function at this level.

The Paris COP21 at the end of 2015 created a consensus among 192 countries to do everything possible not to reach 2 degrees centigrade, and to try for 1.5 degrees centigrade, the level of pre-industrial society. If we exceed this level, the human species will be dangerously threatened.

Not without reason scientist have created a new name for our times: the anthropocene. This represents a new geologic era, in which the greatest threat to life, the true Satan of the Earth, is the human being itself, with its irresponsibility and lack of caring.

Others posit the hypothesis under which Mother Earth would not want us to live in her home anymore and would search for a way to eliminate us, either through an ecological disaster of apocalyptic proportions or through a very powerful and invincible super bacteria, thus allowing that the other species no longer feel threatened by us and may continue with the process of evolution.

Against global warming we must seek alternative sources of energy, such as solar energy and wind power, because fossil fuel, oil, the motor of our industrial civilization, produces large quantities of carbon dioxide. We must put into practice the various “Rs” of the Earthcharter: reduce, reuse and recycle, reforest, respect and reject the consumerist call.

Everything that may contaminate the air must be avoided, so as to slow global warming.

Leonardo Boff, Theologian-Philosopher,Earthcharter Commission

Free translation from the Spanish sent by
Melina Alfaro, alfaro_melina@yahoo.com.ar.
Done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.

Ten rights of the heart

Leonardo Boff1 comentário

A rich philosophical discussion is occurring now about the need to rescue cordial reason, as a limitation on the excessive rationalization of society and as a way to enrich the instrumental analytical reason, that left to its own devices, may undermine the proper relationship with nature, that is of belonging, and respect for its cycles and rhythms. Let us enumerate some of the rights of the dimension of the heart.
1. Protect the heart, the biological center of the human body. Its beating circulates blood throughout the entire organism, giving it life. Do not overburden it with too much greasy food and alcoholic beverages.

2. Take good care of the heart. It is our psychic center. As Jesus warned, from the heart come all things good and bad. Act in such a way that your heart is not over stimulated by risky and dangerous behavior. Keep it calm, with a serene and healthy lifestyle.

3. Keep watch over your heart. It represents our profound dimension. In the heart is found the consciousness that always is with us, that counsels, warns and also punishes us. In the heart the sacred spark shines that enthuses us. Philologically, enthusiasm means having an “inner God” that warms and illuminates us. The profound feeling of the heart convinces us that absurdity will never prevail over good sense.

4. Cultivate sensibility, a property of the heart. Do not allow that sensibility to be dominated by functional reason. Bring them into harmony. Because of sensibility, we feel the heart of the other. Through sensibility we intuit that the mountains, the woods and jungles, the animals, the starry sky and God Himself, also have a pounding heart. Finally, we understand that there is one immense heart that beats throughout the whole universe.

5. Love your heart. The heart is the home of love. The love that causes the joy of the encounter between persons who love each other and that allows the union of bodies and minds into a single and mysterious reality. Love that causes the miracle of life by the loving union of the sexes and the selfless surrender, the caring for the most helpless, the inclusive social relationships, the arts, the music and the mystical ecstasy that enables the loving person to fuse into the Beloved.

6. Have a compassionate heart. One that knows how to exit the self and join the other, to suffer with him, to carry together the cross of life and also to celebrate joy together.

7. Open the heart to the essential caress. The essential caress is as soft as a feather that comes from the infinite and, with its touch, makes us see that we are brothers and sisters and that we belong to the same human family that inhabits the same Common Home.

8. Prepare your heart for caring, to make the other important to you. The heart heals old wounds and prevents future ones. Who loves, cares, and who cares, loves.

9. Mould the heart with tenderness. If you want to perpetuate love, surround it with tenderness and gentleness.

10. Purify the heart day by day, so that the shadows, resentment and spirit of revenge, that also live in the heart, never overpower well-wishing, courtesy and love. Then, your heart will beat to the rhythm of the universe and will find repose in the heart of the Mystery, the Original Source whence comes all, that we simply call God.

The following five recommendations that enhance love also make good sense.

1. Put your heart into everything you think about and everything you do. To speak without heart sounds cold and institutional. Words spoken from the heart reach the depths of the people. That way harmony is established with the questioners or listeners. That facilitates understanding and adhesion.

2. When reasoning is articulated, the heart adds emotion. Do not force it, because it will spontaneously reveal the profound conviction in what you believe and say. Only that way will it reach the heart of the other and be convincing.

3. The cold intellectual intelligence, that purports to understand and solve everything, creates a rationalist and reductionist perception of reality. But the excess of cordial and sensitive reason also can fall into a syrupy sentimentalism and populist tirades that turn off people. The proper balance between mind and heart always must be sought, but always by articulating the two poles, starting with the heart.

4. When you have to talk to an auditorium or a group, try to find harmony with the atmosphere that exists in the site at that moment. When you talk, do not speak only from your head, give primacy to your heart. The heart feels, vibrates and also makes the other vibrate. The reasoning of intellectual intelligence is efficacious only when it is joined with the sensibility of the heart.

5. To believe is not to think about God. To believe is to feel God with the heart. Then we understand that we are always in the palm of the hand of God and that a loving and powerful Energy illuminates and warms us, and presides over the paths of life, the Earth and the whole universe.

Leonardo Boff ,Theologian-Philosopher, Earthcharter Commission

Free translation from the Spanish by
Servicios Koinonia, http://www.servicioskoinonia.org.
Done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.

Pope Francis restores the good sense of Jesus

Leonardo BoffDeixe um comentário

Pope Francis’ speeches are not framed either by the doctrines or dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church. It is not that he does not appreciate them, but that he understands that they are theological works created during different historical times. Those doctrines and dogmas provoked religious wars, schisms, excommunications, the burning of theologians and women (such as Joan of Arc and the women considered witches) at the stake of the Holy Inquisition. That lasted for several centuries and the author of these lines had a bitter experience in the cubicle where the accused were interrogated in the forbidding building of the former Inquisition, located to the left of the Basilica of Saint Peter.

Pope Francis has engendered a revolution in the thinking of the Church, returning to the praxis of the historical Jesus. He is restoring what is now called “The Tradition of Jesus”, that precedes the present Gospels, written 30-40 years after His execution on the cross. The Tradition of Jesus, or as it is also called in The Acts of the Apostles, “the path of Jesus”, is grounded more on values and ideals than on doctrine. The essentials are unconditional love, mercy, forgiveness, justice and preference for the poor and the outcast, and a total openness to God the Father.

Jesus, to put it bluntly, did not intend to found a new religion. He wanted to teach us how to live. To live with fraternity, solidarity and caring for each other. What stands out most in Jesus is His good sense. We say that someone has good sense when that person has the right word for each situation, appropriate behavior, and the ability to quickly identify the gist of a question. Good sense is linked to the concrete wisdom of life. It distinguishes the essential from the secondary. It is the capacity to see and put things in their rightful places.

Good sense opposes exaggeration. This is where the madman and the genius, who are so close in many aspects, are fundamentally distinguished. The genius radicalizes good sense. The madman radicalizes exaggeration. Jesus, as the Gospels witness, manifested Himself as a genius of good sense. A matchless freshness runs through everything He says and does. God in His goodness, a human in his frailty, society with its contradictions and nature with its splendor, appear with crystal clear immediacy.

Jesus neither preaches theology nor appeals to superior moral principles. Jesus does not get lost in tedious and heartless questions of right and wrong. His words and attitudes go directly to the point where reality bleeds and the human must make a decision for himself and before God. His warnings are incisive and direct: “first be reconcíled to thy brother” (Mt 5,24). “Swear not at all” (Mt 5,34). “Do not fight back against evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right check, turn to him the other also” (Mt 5,39). “Love thy enemies, and pray for those who spitefully use thee and persecute thee” (Mt 5,44). “When thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth” (Mt 6,3). This good sense has been missing from the institutional Church (popes, bishops and priests), but not from the Church of the bases, especially on moral questions.

The institutional Church is hard and implacable. Humans with their pain are sacrificed to abstract principles. The institutional Church is ruled by power, rather than mercy. As the saints and wise men and women warn us: where power prevails, love vanishes and mercy disappears. How different is Pope Francis. The principal quality of God, he tells us, is mercy. He often repeats: “Be merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful ” (Lk 6,36).

Pope Francis explains the etymological meaning of mercy: miseris cor dare: «give the heart to the miser», to those who suffer. In his Angelus talk of April 6, 2014, he said in hushed tones: «Listen well: there are no limits at all to the divine mercy offered to all». And asked the multitude to repeat with him: «There are no limits to the divine mercy offered to all». He reminds us as a theologian that Saint Thomas Aquinas affirms that, where practice is concerned, mercy is the most important virtue «because it overflows to the others and also succors them in their weaknesses».

Filled with mercy in the face of the dangers of the zika virus epidemic Pope Francis opens a space for the use of contraceptives. It is about saving lives: «to avoid a pregnancy is not an absolute evil», the Pope said in his visit to Mexico on February of the current year. To the new cardinals, he admonishes them with the words: «The Church does not condemn forever. The punishment of hell used to torment the faithful is not eternal». God is a mystery of inclusion and communion, never of exclusion. Mercy always triumphs.

This means that we must interpret the Bible references to hell not in a fundamentalist way, but pedagogically, as a way to lead us to do good. Logically, we do not enter in any form into the Kingdom of the Trinity. We must first pass through the purifying clinic of God, until we emerge, purified, into the blessed eternity. This message is truly liberating. And Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation confirms “The Joy of the Gospel”. This joy is offered to everyone, including non-Christians, because it is the path of humanization and of liberation.

Leonardo Boff (blog: leonardoboff.wordpress.com) 03-04-2016 Free translation from the Spanish sent by Melina Alfaro, _alfaro_melina@yahoo.com.ar_ (mailto:alfaro_melina@yahoo.com.ar) . Done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.