Gross Internal Flab Tablets
Well, the G.I.F.T. Day at Santiago Community Church was really interesting….
After a party last night to celebrate Rachel’s Birthday (this wednesday coming), we only made it to two of the four sessions due to excessive… errrr…. talking and eating of deserts with coffee cream.
I went to the seminar on Changing Catholic Identity. It considered the growing ecumenical stance of the Catholic church and the challenges of finding a credible, influencial role in politics and social action in a nominally Catholic, proud-to-be Catholic country like Chile.
The trend towards ecumenicalism appears to be due to necessity rather than choice. While 65% of the population in Chile claim to be Catholic, only 10-12% actually attend the Church regularly; the same proportion that attend Protestant churches regularly!
At the same time, state and church have separated further and seemingly irreversibly. It is unclear what influence the Churches will have upon policy development or defence of minorities or the poor in Chile through a newly established “Chilean Office of Religious Affairs” under La Presidenta Michelle Bachelet.
While providing a thorough and academic overview of the major paradigm shifts within the Catholic Church worldwide and in Chile, the speaker seemed loathe to admit that the next major paradigm shift may be initiated by or even originate from outside of the traditionally closed Vatican policy machine.
Or, that the working of the Church may be forced to adapt to new political structures in modernising countries like Chile, where they do not hold either men or instruments of power anymore.
And did you know that the worldwide Catholic Organisation “Opus Dei”, while a champion of social action, is actually formed only of invited, influencial or rich professionals? I didn’t… but we all came away wondering why such an organisation had to be so secretive? It’s like the Group of Free Masons. We’ll be watching for those secret handshakes, signs, or mafia-type cars at Catholic Churches from now on!
May 17th, 2006 at 10:31 pm
I sit corrected… Thank you Dave for the information about the religious or non-religious make-up of the Chilean Cabinet. It went as follows:
“Bachelet is a self-declared atheist - not a catholic as you suggest - but through her father has some connections with the Masons.
In her cabinet there are 8 self-declared catholics, 3 self-declared jews, 8 self-declared atheist/agnostic, and one who is ’sin religion’. Don’t ask me how that’s different to being atheist/agnostic. There was an interested article a couple of months ago in el mercuiro on a sunday about the govt.
relationship with various religious groups. For my mind, the religious affairs office is away of limiting in particular the catholic church’s perceived role as a player in Chilean politics, and also to neatly provide the govt with an excuse when people claim it doesn’t work with churches.”
July 17th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
Doug! I like your website a lot! I wish I could manage to be as creative and less technophone to make my own. Interested to hear your views on the Church in Chile. It is one of the most divisive regions, especially with liberation theology and all that. But don’t be fooled by da vinci code hype etc about Opus Dei. I think it must be the most misrepresented organisation ever. Its true that many members come from professional backgrounds, but this is not always true. For example, a Phillipino cleaner I met in Brussels was a member. Also, I cannot see why it is secretive; in Brussels they organised many open events. They certainly should not be compared to masonic traditions, and is in fact the antithesis regarding family values and communitarian philiosophies. I’m not a member of Opus but it annoys me when they are used to beat the Church in general, especially by the press.