Categoria: Religião

The Dream of a Truly Worldwide Civilization

Leonardo Boff3 Comentários

The present helplessness that has overtaken a great sector of humanity derives in part from our inability to dream and imagine utopias. Not just any utopia, but those that are necessary and can be converted to topias, this is, to something that can be realized, if imperfectly, given the conditions of our history. Otherwise, our common future, the future of life and civilization, are in grave danger.

We must, then, try everything, so that we do not arrive too late to the true path that can save us. That path goes through caring, sustainability, collective responsibility and the spiritual meaning of life.

I take to heart the inspiring words of Oscar Wilde, the well known Irish writer, who said about utopia: «A world map that does not include utopia is not worth being seen, because it ignores the only territory where humanity always stops, and moves at once towards a land that is better still… Progress is the realization of utopias».

To project hope-filled scenarios pertains to the field of utopia. We will offer one, by Robert Müller, who for 40 years was a top official of the UN, and was also called «citizen of the world» and «father of global education». He was a man of dreams, one of them realized when in 1980 the UN created the University of Peace in Costa Rica, the only country in the world without an army, and he was its first president.

Robert Müller imagined a new retelling of the Biblical Genesis: the birth of a truly worldwide civilization, where, as a species, together with others, the human species assumes the mission of guaranteeing the sustainability of the Earth and of caring well for her and also for the Earth’s other beings. This is what he called, «The New Genesis»:

«And God saw that all the nations of the Earth, Black and White, rich and poor, from the North and from the South, from East and West, of every creed, sent their emissaries to a big glass building on the banks of the river of the Rising Sun, on Manhattan Island, to study together, to think together, and together to care for the world and for all its nations.

And God Said: “It is good” . And that was the first day of the New Era of the Earth.

And God saw that the soldiers of peace separated the combatants of the nations at war, that their differences were resolved through negotiation and reason and not with weapons, and that the leaders of nations got together, exchanged ideas and joined their hearts, their minds, their souls and their strength for the benefit of all of humanity.

And God said: “It is good” . And that was the second day of the Planet of Peace.

And God saw that the humans loved all of Creation, the stars and the sun, the day and the night, the air and the oceans, the land and the waters, the fish and the birds, the flowers and the trees, and all their human brothers and sisters.

And God said: “It is good” . And that was the third day of the Planet of Happiness.

And God saw that humans had eradicated hunger, disease, ignorance and suffering from all over the Earth, offering to each person a decent life, conscious and happy, controlling greed, force, and the wealth of the few.

And God said: “It is good” . And that was the fourth day of the Planet of Justice.

And God saw that humans lived in harmony with their planet and at peace with everyone else: using their resources wisely, avoiding waste, limiting excess, substituting love for hate, satisfaction for greed, humility for arrogance, cooperation for division, and understanding for suspicion.

And God said: “It is good” . And that was the fifth day of the Planet of Gold.

And God saw that the nations had destroyed their weapons, their bombs, their missiles, their warships and planes, deactivating their bases and demobilizing their armies, maintaining only a peace-keeping police force, to protect the good from the bad and the sane from the mentally ill.

And God said: “It is good” . And that was the sixth day of the Planet of Reason.

And God saw that humans retook God and the human person as their Alpha and Omega, reducing institutions, beliefs, politics, governments and other human entities to their roles as simple servants of God and of the people. And God saw them adopting as the supreme law that which says: «Love the God of the Universe with all your hearth, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. You will love your beautiful and marvelous planet and will treat it with infinite care. You will love your human brothers and sisters as you love yourself. There are no commandments bigger than these».

And God said: “It is good”. And that was the seventh day of the Planet of God».

If at the gates of Dante Alighieri’s hell was written: «Leave behind all hope, you who enter here», at the door of the new civilization in the era of the Earth and of the planetary world will be written in all the tongues that exist on the face of the Earth: «Never ever abandon hope, you who enter here».

The future passes through this utopia. Its dawn is already announced.

Free translation from the Spanish sent by
Melina Alfaro, volar@fibertel.com.ar,
done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.

Papst Franziskus, Anwalt des ökologischen Gewissens?

Leonardo Boff3 Comentários


Es gibt ein wachsendes Bewusstsein dafür, dass wir in eine Phase eingetreten sind, die für das Leben auf der Erde eine Gefahr darstellt. Düstere Wolken verfinstern die Leitsterne und warnen vor möglichen sozio-ökologische Tsunamis großen Ausmaßes. Was wir brauchen, sind machtvolle Regierungen mit überzeugenden Worten und Taten, die die Menschheit, und vor allem die herrschenden Eliten, aufrütteln, damit sie sich einsetzen für das Wohl der Zukunft der Erde und der Menschheit und für eine kollektive und differenzierte Verantwortlichkeit, damit diese Zukunft für alle garantiert ist.

In diesem Kontext könnte die Person des Bischofs von Rom, Franziskus, eine sehr wichtige Rolle spielen. Er hat sich ausdrücklich auf den Hl. Franz von Assisi berufen. Da ist zunächst die klare Option für die Armen, gegen die Armut und für Gerechtigkeit, die ihren Ursprung in der Befreiungskirche Lateinamerikas von Medellin (1968) und Puebla (1979) hat und dann unter Johannes Paul II zum Gemeinerbe der Kirche gemacht wurde. Diese Option beinhaltet, wie die Befreiungstheologen schon gut erkannt haben, die Große Arme, nämlich unseren überstrapazierten Planeten, da der ökologische Fußabdruck bereits um 30 % überschritten ist. Dies führt uns zu einem zweiten Punkt, nämlich der Ökologie-Frage: Wie sollten wir mit der Natur und Mutter Erde umgehen? In dieser speziellen Frage könnte Franz von Assisi den Franziskus von Rom inspirieren. In seinem Leben und seiner Praxis gibt es Elemente, die eine entsprechende Einstellung hervorrufen könnten. Hier einige Beispiele:

Alle Biographen seiner Zeit (Celano, der Hl. Bonaventura, Legenda Perugina u. a.) bescheinigen „die zärtlichste Zuneigung, die er allen Geschöpfen entgegen brachte“, „die er liebevoll Bruder und Schwester nannte und deren Geheimnisse er erriet, wie diejenigen, die sich bereits der Freiheit und des Ruhms der Kinder Gottes erfreuen.“ Er sammelte die Schnecken vom Weg auf, damit niemand auf sie trete; im Winter gab er den Bienen Honig, damit sie nicht vor Hunger und Kälte sterben; die Gärtner bat er, in ihren Gärten eine Ecke unbebaut zu lassen, sodass dort alles wachsen könne, einschließlich der Unkräuter, denn „auch sie bezeugen den perfekten Vater aller Geschöpfe.“



Wir haben es hier mit einer anderen Seinsweise in der Welt zu tun, als wir es in der Moderne kennen. Dieser Mann stellt sich nicht über die Dinge, wie jemand, der sie besitzt und beherrscht. Die Seinsweise des Franziskus ist mit den Dingen, um mit ihnen wie Brüder und Schwestern unter einem Dach zu leben. Auf mystische Weise hatte er bereits die Ahnung dessen, was wir heute durch die Wissenschaft mit Sicherheit behaupten können: dass wir alle Träger eines gemeinsamen genetischen Codes sind und dass wir durch eine Verwandtschaft miteinander verbunden sind, was uns veranlasst, einander zu respektieren und zu lieben und niemals gewalttätig untereinander zu werden. Franz von Assisi ist den indigenen Völkern, wie den Yanomami und den Andenvölkern, näher, die spüren, dass sie Teil der Natur sind, als den Kindern der wissenschaftlichen und technischen Moderne, für die die Natur, die sie als „wild“ betrachten, nur zur Verfügung steht, um sie zu beherrschen und auszubeuten.

Die Moderne wurde fast ausschließlich durch die intellektuelle Intelligenz konstruiert. Selbstverständlich gestaltet sie uns das Leben viel komfortabler. Doch sie macht uns nicht glücklicher und ganzheitlicher, denn sie hat die emotionale Intelligenz und die Intelligenz des Herzens verdrängt, wenn nicht abgeschafft, und der spirituellen Intelligenz die Daseinsberechtigung versagt. Es ist an der Zeit, diese drei Ausdrucksweisen der Intelligenz miteinander zu vereinen, wenn uns an den Werten und Gefühlen, die sich in ihnen befinden, gelegen ist: den Respekt, die Verehrung und die friedliche Koexistenz mit der Natur und der Erde. Eine solche Vorgehensweise bringt uns auf eine Linie mit der Logik der Natur, die alles miteinander und rückverbindet und das feine Lebensnetz bestärkt.

Franz von Assisi hat diese Synthese von innerlicher Ökologie und äußerlicher Ökologie in solchem Ausmaß gelebt, dass Bonaventura ihn als „Homo alterius saeculi“ (Mensch aus einer anderen Welt) bezeichnet. Heute würden wir sagen, ein Mensch von einem anderen Paradigma.

Diese Haltung wird ausschlaggebend für die Zukunft unserer Zivilisation, der Natur und des Lebens auf der Erde sein. Franziskus von Rom muss sich zum Träger dieses heiligen Erbes machen, das uns Franz von Assisi hinterlassen hat. Er kann der Menschheit helfen, von dieser Welt, die uns zerstören kann, zu jener zu gelangen, die Franz von Assisi uns vorgelebt hat und die aus kosmischer Geschwisterlichkeit besteht, aus Zärtlichkeit und aus bedingungsloser Liebe.

siehe auch: Leonardo Boff, Tugenden für eine bessere Welt Verlag Butzon & Bercker, Kevelaer 2009

übersetzt von Bettina Gold-Hartnack

Francisco de Roma e a Ecologia de Francisco de Assis

Leonardo Boff27 Comentários

Não pode ser em vão que um Papa assuma o nome de Francisco. Além de ser referência de um outro modo de ser Igreja, mais próxima à gruta de Belém do que aos palácios de Jerusalém, Francisco de Assis suscita uma temática de extrema urgência nos dias atuais: a questão da salvaguarda da vitalidade do planeta Terra e a garantia do futuro de nossa civilização. Para esse propósito é insuficiente apenas a ecologia exterior. Precisamos amalgamá-la coma ecologia interior. Foi o que fez de forma paradigmática São Francisco de Assis.

Ecologia exterior é aquela sintonia fina que elaboramos em consonância com os ritmos da natureza e com o processo cósmico que se realiza na dialética de ordem-desordem-interação-nova-ordem. Esta ecologia garante a perpetuidade do processo evolucionário que inclui a Terra e a biodiversidade. Mas, no nível humano, ela somente ocorre, se houver uma contrapartida nossa que se deriva da ecologia interior. Por ela, o universo e seus seres estão dentro de nós na forma de símbolos que falam, de arquétipos de nos orientam e ide imagens que habitam nossa interioridade: materiais com os quais devemos continuamente dialogar e  integrar. Se há violência  na ecologia exterior é sinal que há turbulência em nossa ecologia interior e vice-versa. Não sabemos harmonizar as ecologias enunciadas por F. Guatarri e por mm: a ambiental, a social, a mental e a integral.

Em seu Cântico do Irmão Sol São Francisco revela a convivência destas duas ecologias. Seu extraordinário feito espiritual foi o de reconciliar o universo com Deus, o céu com a Terra e a vida com a morte. Para entender esta experiência de totalidade precisa-se ler o texto para além de sua letra e descer ao nível simbólico onde os elementos cantados vem impregnados de emoção e de significação simbólica. O contexto existencial é significativo: Francisco está muito doente e quase cego, cuidado por Santa Clara na capelinha de São Damião onde ela vivia com suas irmãs. De repente, em plena noite, teve uma espécie de exaltação do espírito, como se estivesse já no Reino dos céus. Irradiante de alegria, levanta-se, compõe um hino a todas as criaturas, cantando-o com seus confrades. Celebra o grande esponsal entre o “senhor irmão Sol” e a “irmã senhora Terra”. Deste esponsal nascem todos os seres, ordenados em pares, masculino e feminino, que, segundo C.G.Jung constituem o arquétipo mais universal da totalidade psíquica: sol-lua, vento-água, fogo-terra, totalidade esta alcançada em sua caminha espiritual.

O hino contem ainda duas estrofes, acrescentadas pelo Poverello. Nelas não é mais o cosmos material que é cantado mas o cosmos humano que também busca reconciliação: a do bispo de Assis com o prefeito. Por fim se reconcilia com a irmã morte, o complexo mais difícil de ser integrado pelo aparato psíquico humano. O ser humano se reconcilia com outro ser humano. A vida abraça a morte como irmã, portadora da eternidade.

A ecologia interior integrada com a ecologia exterior encontra em Francisco um intérprete privilegiado. Ele é como uma finíssima corda do universo na qual a nota musical mais sutil ressoa e se faz ouvir.

A nossa cultura é devedora do pai de São Francisco, Pedro Bernardone, rico comerciante de tecidos, buscando riqueza e fausto. Confessa Arnold Toynbee, o grande historiador inglês: “Francisco, o maior dos homens que viveram no Ocidente, deve ser imitado por todos nós, pois sua atitude é a única que pode salvar a Terra”(Jornal ABC, Madrid, 19/12/1972,10).

Qual o nosso desiderato? Que Francisco de Roma se coloque sob a inspiração de Francisco de Assis, transforme-se, por sua humildade, pobreza e jovialidade, num amante da Mãe Terra e num defensor de todo tipo de vida, especialmente, daquela mais ameaçada que é a dos pobres. E que suscite essa consciência na humanidade. Nele estão presentes todos os carismas que o podem fazer um farol de referencia ecológica e humanitária  para todo o mundo.

Leonardo Boff é autor de Ecologia: grito da Terra, grito dos pobres, Sextante, Rio 2004.

Ohne den Fuß gibt es weder Fußball noch eine Weltmeisterschaft

Leonardo Boff Zu Ehren der Millionen Fußballfans bei dieser Weltmeisterschaft habe ich diese Hommage an den Fuß verfasst, ohne den es weder Fußball noch eine Weltmeisterschaft gäbe. Hier ist der Text, in dem sich alles um den Fuß dreht. Wenn ein Außerirdischer auf die Erde käme und beobachten würde, wie die Menschen mit ihren Füßen…

Avatar de Leonardo Boff por Leonardo Boff

Francis disrobes to cover the nakedness of the Pope

Leonardo Boff1 comentário

Historians know that Innocence III, (1198-1216), the Pope of the time of Saint Francis, took the papacy to an apogee and splendor such as never had been before nor would ever be again. A skillful politician, he turned all the kings, emperors and feudal lords, with few exceptions, into his vassals. Under his regency there were two supreme powers: the Empire and the Priesthood. Being the successor of Peter, the fisherman, meant little to him. He declared himself «representative of Christ», but not of the poor Christ, who walked the dusty paths of Palestine, a peregrine prophet, announcer of a radical utopia, the utopia of the kingdom of unconditional love towards his fellow human beings and God, a kingdom of universal justice, of boundless fraternity and of compassion without limit. His Christ was the Pantocrator, Lord of the Universe, head of the Church and of the Cosmos.

This vision favored the building of a monarchistic, powerful and rich Church, but one that was absolutely secularized, contrary to everything in the Gospel. That reality only served to provoke a contrary reaction from the people. Pauperism movements appeared, of rich lay people who acted like the poor. They preached the Gospel on their own in the popular tongue: the Gospel of poverty against the pomp of the courts, the Gospel of radical simplicity against the sophistication of the palaces, the worship of the Christ of Bethlehem and the Crucifixion against the exaltation of the all powerful Christ the King. They were the Valdense, the poor of Lyon, the followers of Francis, of Dominic and of the Seven Serfs of Mary, of Florence, noble people turned mendicants.

In spite of all the pomp, Innocence III was sensitive to Francis and his twelve ragged companions who visited him, in his palace of Rome, to ask for permission to live according to the Gospel. Moved and remorseful, the Pope granted them oral permission. It was the year 1209. Francis would never forget this generous gesture.

But history has its turns. What is true and imperative, when it reaches maturity, reveals itself with volcanic force. And it revealed itself in 1216 in Perugia, Italy, when Pope Innocence III went to one of his palaces.

Suddenly the Pope died, after 18 years of a triumphant pontificate. Soon the mournful sounds of the Gregorian chants were heard coming from the pontifical cathedral. The grave planctum super Innocentium («the cry for Innocence») was intoned.

Nothing stops death, lady of all vanities, of all pomp, of all glory and of all triumph. The casket of the Pope lay in front of the main altar covered with tinsel, jewels, gold, silver and the signs of the twin powers, the sacred and the secular. Cardinals, emperors, princes, monks and lines of the faithful followed one another in vigil. Bishop Jacques de Vitry, from Namur and later named Cardinal of Frascati, related the following.

It is midnight. All retire aggrieved. Only the flickering light of the candles project phantoms on the walls. The Pope, in another time always surrounded by the nobility, is now alone in the darkness. And unexpectedly thieves enter secretly into the cathedral. They quickly strip the corpse of all the precious clothing, all the gold, silver and pontifical symbols.

There lies a naked body, already almost in decomposition. It becomes true what Innocence III once wrote in a famous text on «the misery of the human condition». Now it reveals itself with all its crudity. in its true condition.

A poor man, dirty and miserable, had hidden himself in a dark corner of the cathedral to maintain the vigil, to pray and to spend the night close to the Pope. He took off his ragged and dirty tunic, the tunic of penance, and with that tunic he covered the shame of the reviled corpse.

Sinister is the destiny of the wealthy, grandiose the gesture of poverty. The first did not save him from looting, but the second saved him from shame.

And so concludes Cardinal Jacques de Vitry: «I entered the Church and understood, with full faith, how brief is the deceitful glory of this world».

The one whom everyone called Poverello and Fratello said nothing and thought nothing. He only acted. He disrobed to cover the nakedness of the Pope who had once sanctioned his way of living. He was Francis of Assisi, the inspiration of Pope Francis of Rome.

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