'I know what is the meaning of Cross' - Shahbaz Bhatti, a Catholic politician of our time who shared fully in the Cross of Jesus

I have posted a number of times about Clement Shahbaz Bhatti, the Catholic politician who was assassinated on 2 March 2011 in Islamabad, just after leaving the home of his mother and grandmother. At the time he was Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs, the first Christian to hold such a position.

The video above is the Pulong ng Editor (Word of the Editor) uploaded earlier on the March-april 2013 issue of Misyon, the online magazine I edit for the Columbans in the Philippines. I give a brief introduction, where the video shows footage of Mr Bhatti meeting Pope Benedict XVI a few months before his death.

But most of this short video is the last part of an interview that Shahbaz Bhatti gave, as far as I know, about a month before his death.

Those who are suited or can become suited should prepare themselves for the difficult, but at the same time, the very noble art of politics, and should seek to practice this art without regard for their own interests or for material advantages. With integrity and wisdom, they must take action against any form of injustice and tyranny, against arbitrary domination by an individual or a political party and any intolerance. They should dedicate themselves to the service of all with sincerity and fairness, indeed, with the charity and fortitude demanded by political life (Gaudium et Spes, The Church in the Modern World, No 75).

Shahbaz Bhatti took this to heart and paid the price with his own life. His life and death need to be more widely known.

Clement Shahbaz Bhatti (9 September 1968 - 2 March 2011)

Here are his own words from the video:

Minister Bhatti, you forgot one question in the interview. Your life is threatened by whom and what sort of threats are you receiving?

The forces of violence, militant banned organizations, the Taliban, and Al Qaeda, they want to impose their radical philosophy on Pakistan. And whoever stands against their radical philosophy that threatens them, when I’m leading this campaign against the Sharia Law, for the abolishment (abolition) of (the) Blasphemy Law, and speaking for the oppressed and marginalized, persecuted Christian and other minorities, these Taliban threaten me.

But I want to share that I believe in Jesus Christ who has given his own life for us. I know what is the meaning of (the) Cross and I’m following of the Cross and I am ready to die for a cause. I’m living for my community and suffering people and I will die to defend their rights. So these threats and these warnings cannot change my opinion and principles. I will prefer to die for my principle and for the justice of my community rather (than) to compromise on these threats.

The death of a good man: Declan Costello

Declan Costello, 1 August 1926 - 6 June 2011

My first clear recollection of a political campaign in Ireland is that leading up to the general election of 30 May 1951. I had just turned eight and lived in the constituency of Dublin North West, which elected three deputies to the Dáil (parliament). I remember a young candidate speaking from the back of a lorry. He spoke approvingly of President Eisenhower of the USA, as I recall. That young man was Declan Costello, son of the outgoing Taoiseach (Prime Minister), John A. Costello. He headed the poll and was the youngest member of the 14th Dáil. He died yesterday in Dublin after a long illness.

I never met Declan Costello personally but had an encounter with him at a forum for young people about nine years later when I was still in secondary school. He was one of the invited speakers and I disgreed with something he said about the Irish language, then as now an emotive topic. Speaking from the floor with all the brashness of a 17-year-old I told him 'you are talking through your hat'.

Like his father, Declan Costello was a distinguished barrister. Like his father he became attorney-general, in the government of 1973-1977 led by Liam Cosgrave. An extraordinary thing about that government was that three members held the same positions as their fathers had done in the 1920s when W. T Cosgrave, father of Liam, was the leader of the government, John A. Costello the attorney-general and Desmond FitzGerald foreign minister, the position his son Garret held in the younger Cosgrave's cabinet. There was no nepotism here. The sons were as distinguished in their own right as their fathers had been.

Declan Costello had a deep sense of social justice and the document Towards a Just Society, used by his Fine Gael party in the 1965 election campaign, was inspired by his thinking, though it didn't go as far as he would have liked.

After retiring from politics Declan Costello became a member of the High Court in 1977 where he served for twenty years, the last three years as President of the Court. In 1992 in what became known as the 'X Case' Mr Justice Costello granted an injunction to the attorney-general to prevent a 14-year-old girl, the victim of a rape by a neighbour, from going to Britain to have an abortion. The injunction was overturned by the Supreme Court. (As it happened, the girl had a miscarriage and the rapist had a 14-year sentence reduced to four).

Reviewing a TV programme on this event in March last year Brendan O'Regan wrote in The Irish Catholic: Originally the High Court upheld his injunction, and one thing that struck me was the logic and common sense in Justice Declan Costello's judgement - that the abortion couldn't be approved because, given that mother and baby had equal rights, the threat of death from abortion was more certain for the baby than the possibility of suicide by the girl in question. And yet the Supreme Court overturned this, with what seemed to me then and still does, bizarre and illogical ''reasoning'' by four of the five judges.

An editorial in today's The Irish Times describes Declan Costello as Radical on economic and social matters, he was deeply conservative on moral issues. On appointment to the High Court, his judgments tended to reflect traditional Catholic values. I have always found this descripton of individuals as 'radical on social issues but conservative on moral issues' as curious. Surely all issues involving the good of society and individuals are moral issues. The description seems to suggest that such individuals, including Blessed John Paul II, were schizophrenic to some degree rather than persons whose faith or philosophy of life permeated everything they did.

The editorial concludes: Through it all, he worked for socially important reforms, founding and supporting St Michael’s House for people with intellectual disabilities. A man of intelligence, integrity and fairness, his contribution to public life has deeply influenced Irish politics and established a link between economic development and a more caring and egalitarian society.

I hadn't been aware until now of Declan Costello's involvement with St Michael's House. Indeed I wasn't even aware of St Michael's House. Its website today has this: The Board of Directors, service users, families and staff of St. Michael’s House wish to express their deepest sympathies to his wife Joan and family on the sad passing of one of our founding members and President Declan Costello.

Declan will be remembered for his pioneering work in developing educational services for children with an intellectual disability and for his lifelong commitment to ensuring that people with a disability are equal members of society.

The website of St Michael's House gives this brief history of its beginnings: Unable to secure schooling for her son, Patricia Farrell, the mother of a young boy with Down Syndrome placed an ad in the Irish Times in 1955: "Association for Parents of Mentally Backward Children. Lady wishing to form above would like to contact anyone interested. Box Z 5061 Children."

From this grew St. Michael's House, an organisation which set out to develop new community services and bring about a change in how people with an intellectual disability were viewed. Today, we provide services for 1,585 people with an intellectual disability and their families in the Greater Dublin Area.

Declan Costello chaired the public meeting that resulted from that newspaper ad and that led to the founding of St Michael's House.
 
It seems that Declan Costello had a  vision for persons with intellectual disabilities similar to that of his Canadian contemporary Jean Vanier, another distinghuished son of a distinguished father.
 



Declan Costello was a good man. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam uasal. May his noble soul be at the right hand of God. 

Will President Aquino of the Philippines receive 'the grace of office'?

President-elect Benigno C. Aquino III of the Philippines

Ma. Ceres P. Doyo, one of the top journalists in the Philippines, raised this question in a front-page story in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the most widely read broadsheet in the country, on Sunday 23 May. Her article also appears on her blog, Human Face by Ceres. Human Face is the name of her weekly column in the same paper:

IN SPIRITUAL LANGUAGE it is called “the grace of office.”

Could presumptive president-elect Sen. Benigno Aquino III and the nation that has apparently elected him by a landslide count on that?

It is said that when God invites or calls an individual to undertake a task, He also provides him the grace to carry out that task or calling.

“The grace of office” has often been used in the context of a religious vocation, especially for those in leadership positions, their imperfections, weaknesses and reluctance notwithstanding.

Biblical times and even contemporary history have seen ordinary persons rise to the task, strengthened only by their belief in God’s calling and their faith in the accompanying grace that would help them carry out their destiny.

There were those who rose and fell, as there were those who fulfilled their mission with humility and obedience.

You can read the full article, with the comments of various theologians in the Philippines, here.

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I don't recall anyone raising the question of 'grace of office' when David Cameron was chosen as prime minsiter of the UK after the elections there on 6 May, four days before the elections here in the Philippines. Mr Aquion, known as 'Noynoy', has not been officially declared the winner but there is no doubt whatever that he is the choice of the people. Though he didn't reach 50 percent he got more votes than the second and third candidates together.

St Thomas More (1478-1535)

Politicians are often held in disdain and in many cases there is good reason for that. But the Christian politician, like everyone else, is called to become a saint. the patron saint of politicians and lawyers is St Thomas More. Here in the Philippines most elected officials at higher level are lawyers while teachers sataff the polling booths. In Ireland a huge percentage of members of the parliament and senate are teachers by profession.

Above left, Alcide De Gasperi (1881-1954), right, Robert Schuman (1886-1963)

Below, Julius Nyerere (1922-1999)

I'm aware of at least three 20th century politicians whose causes of beatification have been initiated, President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Alcide De Gasperi, post-war prime minister of Italy, and Robert Schuman, post-war prime minister of France, the latter two considere the founders, with Konrad Adenauer of Germany, of the European Economic Community that grew into the European Union.

Robert Schuman once said of St Columban, from whose life journey this blog takes its name, that he was 'the patron saint of all who seek a United Europe'.

Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, one of Vatican II's most important documents, speaks at length on the place of politics in the life of the Christian and the Christain community. Here is one brief extract from No 73: It is clear, therefore, that the political community and public authority are founded on human nature and hence belong to the order designed by God, even though the choice of a political regime and the appointment of rulers are left to the free will of citizens.

God has certainly called Noynoy Aquino to serve the people of the Philippines as president for the next six years. This does not mean that he cannot make any mistakes. It simply means that the Holy Spirit will guide him if he asks for that guidance - and if we ask for that grace for the new president.

Thomas More Kim Dae-jung RIP

6 January 1924 - 18 August 2009

Yesterday Korea lost a great Catholic leader, the second this year. Stephen Cardinal Kim Sou-Hwan died on 16 February and former president Kim Dae-jung died in hospital in Seoul. The Korea Times carries a report here and The Korea Herald here.

The Catholic news agency, Zenit, notes that L’Osservatore Romano highlights the fact that it was his Catholic faith that was ‘the secret of his spirit’. Kim became a Catholic in 1957 and took the name ‘Thomas More’ at his baptism. The great English politician martyr is the patron saint of statesmen, politicians and lawyers.

Earlier this year documents from the National Archives of Korea showed how Pope John Paul II had saved the life of the great Korean statesman.

The recent death of Cory Aquino here in the Philippines and now that of Thomas More Kim Dae-jung, show how people respond to integrity in political leaders, even as they have questions about their political legacy. Both of these presidents lived their political lives out of their faith. We desperately need leaders of integrity and vision like them.

President Kim, in office from 1998 to 2003, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000.

His life paralleled in many ways those of the late Ninoy and Cory Aquino and he faced death many times, and endured imprisonment and exile.

Former President Kim Dae-jung and his wife Lee Hee-ho with their grandchildren at a palace in Seoul in 1992. [The Korea Herald]

The Korea Herald editorial concludes with these words:

In many ways, Kim was a man ahead of his time. He was well read - he spent most of his time in jail immersed in reading - had had an acuity that saw ahead into the future. Although he was already 74 years old when he assumed the presidency, he was well versed in the current thoughts of the times and had the foresight to invest in the information and telecommunications sector, making the country an IT powerhouse.

He was also an internationalist, whose concerns about human rights led him to speak out against the dictatorship in Burma and repression in East Timor.

In his lifetime, Kim had his share of followers and critics. However, his legacy as a democracy fighter and a champion of human rights should always be remembered.

Here is the editorial in The Korea Times:

Loss of Our Leader

Former President Kim Dae-jung Leaves Great Legacy BehindThe whole nation is gripped by sorrow and grief over the death of former President Kim Dae-jung. Kim died of pneumonia and related complications at a Seoul hospital on Tuesday at the age of 85. His death is the loss of South Korea's greatest politicians who dedicated his life to democracy and human rights. It is all the more heartrending to think that the country is unlikely to have such a wonderful man in its modern history again.

Kim lived a turbulent life due to his opposition to dictatorial rule from the 1970s-80s. He started his career as a politician in the early 1960s after he determined to fight against the incompetent and corrupt government of Syngman Rhee. His ordeal began with his challenges against former President Park Chung-hee who seized power through a military coup in 1961. Kim was subject to persecution by the Park regime, which imposed iron-fisted rule in the 1970s because he was one of most outspoken critics of the dictator.

Kim's greatness lies in his perseverance and uncompromising struggle against the authoritarian regime. He was even kidnapped by agents of the nation's intelligence service from a Tokyo hotel in August 1973. The abduction was an aborted plot by the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) to get rid of the most influential opposition leader to defy the dictatorship. He might have been killed if there had not been intervention by the United States and Japan. He also came to bask in the international spotlight because of the incident and his struggle for democracy.

His most tumultuous moment came in 1980 when he was sentenced to death on treason charges in relation to his alleged involvement in the popular uprising in Gwangju, near his hometown Mokpo in South Jeolla Province. Of course, the death penalty was based on trumped-up charges in a ploy by Gen. Chun Doo-hwan to take power after the assassination of Park by his spy chief in October 1979.

It is a pain to imagine Kim's suffering persecution and frustration, brought on by past brutal and totalitarian regimes. But Kim never gave up his hope for democracy, human rights and other universal values. His life-long struggle paid off in 1997 when he was elected president. His predecessor Kim Young-sam became the nation's first civilian president in three decades, but Kim achieved the first power transfer from a governing party to an opposition party.

During his five-year presidency starting in 1998, Kim brought a lot of changes to the nation. He helped South Korea overcome the Asian financial crisis quickly. One of his most striking achievements was his visit to Pyongyang to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in June 2000. The meeting was the first inter-Korean summit and greatly contributed to reconciliation and peace on the Korean Peninsula. It was carried under his trademark Sunshine Policy of active engagement with the North.

President Kim became the first South Korean to win the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his unwavering efforts for national reconciliation and peace as well as his life-long dedication to democracy. He has left an indelible legacy not only on Korea but also the world. We owe him too much and he will live in our hearts forever. It is our obligation to promote his legacy and make his dream for national unification and true democracy come true. We pray that he may rest in peace.

May the noble soul of Thomas More Kim Dae-jung indeed rest in peace.

'We do not believe in the separation of faith from our politics'

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput OFM Cap of Denver is media-savvy. The archdiocese has an excellent website.

You can listen to the archbishop’s homilies and also to some other recordings, including TV interviews, or read his columns in the Denver Catholic Register.

Last Sunday, when the gospel was ‘Render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what Belongs to God’, Archbishop Chaput came out with a number of striking expressions, sound bites with substance. For example, while making it clear that the Church is in favour of the separation of Church and State, he said even more clearly, ‘We do not believe in the separation of faith from our politics’.

He also asked if wives would be happy if ‘A married man can’t act like he’s a married man in public’.

The Lord was being providentially kind to the archbishop who pointed out that last Sunday’s readings weren’t chosen because the US elections are coming up but are part of the three-year Sunday cycle. Archbishop Chaput, whose parents were French-speaking Canadians and who is one-quarter North American Indian, has a best-seller at the moment, Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life.

In my most recent post I gave a link to the talk the Archbishop gave last Friday ‘as a citizen’ on the issue of abortion in the elections. (Americans will be voting for the whole House of Representatives and for one-third of the Senate as well as for President and Vice President). In his homily he mentioned that he had received many emails, from all over the world, some critical. One emailer expressed ‘embarrassment’ at what he had said.

It was in this context that Archbishop Chaput said that while he believes, as do the vast majority of Americans, in the separation of Church and State’, ‘We do not believe in the separation of faith from our politics’. He wasn’t giving his personal opinion here but teaching clearly.
He then went on to draw the comparison between a married man and a voter. Would any wife want her husband to act as a married man only at home? When we go into the polling booth we are to act out of faith. He challenged Catholics in any party to bring their faith to bear on their party’s policies. And he pointed out that no matter what is legislated, eg, the requirement to wear crash-helmets on motorcycles, or no smoking areas, some group is ‘imposing’ its views on others.

More and more American bishops are speaking plainly about the gravity of the abortion issue in the context of the elections, even ‘sailing close to the wind’ in terms of the separation of Church and State, that some see a division among the American bishops, which may be no harm. I find it rather ironic that while Pope Pius XII is being condemned for allegedly not saying anything about the slaughter of Jews under Hitler, John Paul II and many bishops are being condemned for speaking out on behalf of the unborn.

Up to the 1950s most men in the Western world wore hats. Many houses had hat-racks in the hallway. Perhaps the US Senate and House had hat-racks outside their chambers where Democrats and Republicans, Protestants, Jews and Catholics left their hats. It seems to me that if there were such a thing as a ‘conscience-rack’ outside those exalted chambers only ‘Catholic’ legislators would feel the need to use it.