Fr. Joe Dizons life and work*... Early Christian communities were profoundly democratic, and they spread the gospel in the same way. The Gospels message of radical redemption resonated with peoples experiences of poverty and oppression, so there was no need to impose its doctrines bureaucratically from above. This differed greatly from their successors (enter the Inquisition, and five hundred years of Church history up to the present), who accommodated themselves to the status quo, and ultimately drifted farther and farther away from the very people they claimed to be saving in Gods name. The Papacy and the monarchies of Europe became virtually indistinguishable. The Church spoke of a single, united congregation of the faithful, but reality spoke of an institution divided along class lines and petty power struggles. Seeing itself as God, as the embodiment of Salvation; it stifled all critical thought and imploded on itself. Truth gave way to an ideology light years away from that preached by a rebel who railed against the Pharisees in 1st century Palestine. The Churchs turn to violence, corruption, dogma and sectarianism, past and present, cannot be seen outside this historical context, beyond the real-world contradictions of class and politics which continue to shape it. Its an experience social movements today can learn from. (yes, much of the gospel message, shorn of the influence of corrupting power, was and continues to be revolutionary, whether one believes in the theology or not) Which reminds us of this: Realism and vision here go hand in hand: to see the present as it truly is, is to see it in the light of its possible transformation. It belongs to the tragic vision to stare the worst steadily in the face, but to rise above it in the very act of doing so.” – Terry Eagleton youtube/watch?v=LxQUuBK8Nyc&feature=share&list=PL27CC4E76AE754298 ---------------------------------------------------- *Activist priest Jose “Joe” P. Dizon died on Monday at 11:15 p.m. due to complications in the internal organs, according to Cecilia Tuico of the Workers’ Assistance Center Inc., a group that Dizon founded in November 1995. He was 65... Dizon, who then headed the Basic Christian Community-Community Organizing, a Catholic Church program in the ’60s, was a staunch critic of Marcos’ martial law. He was also one of the convenors of the Solidarity Philippines and Clergy Discernment Group, an organization of priests and nuns for the advancement of the Church’s social justice agenda, as well as of the poll watchdog Kontra Daya. Recently he helped organize protests against the pork barrel. newsinfo.inquirer.net/520495/activist-priest-joe-dizon-dies
Posted on: Tue, 05 Nov 2013 06:54:39 +0000
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