International collaboration on global issues has become a faint memory, hardly a possibility under current conditions.The Liberal World Order that was put in place after the Second World War and came to maturity in the quarter-century following the revolutions of 1989 has suffered severe shocks from the rise of populist nationalism and revanchist authoritarianism.
In an apostolic letter issued motu proprio on October 28, Francis declared that “from now on, the current Vatican Secret Archive, nothing changing in its identity, its structure, and its mission, be called the Vatican Apostolic Archive.”
It’s hard to be humble, not because we don’t have more than enough deficiencies to merit humility, but rather because there’s crafty mechanism inside of us that normally doesn’t let us go to the place of humility.
After the end of the Soviet Union, both the pro-Western Russian elite and the vast majority of the population had the hope of becoming part of the Western community, or rather, of becoming once again part of Europe after having travelled a different path since the October Revolution. It was thought that Russia would naturally follow this route.
It is helpful to understand this agreement as a true harmony of notes. That is to say, the beginning of a composition that has yet to be developed. This is not, then, the conclusion of a process, but it is a real starting point that needs to be implemented through instruments of control and improvements to the text.
The internet allows us to access a wealth of information that was unthinkable a few decades ago. On the web and on social networks this information is created and exchanged in real time. A user may be disoriented when faced with such a quantity of news and data that corresponds to multiple points of view, each of which attempts to establish itself as truth.
Bishops of a Vietnamese diocese that is home to many migrants found dead in England have called on people to express their solidarity with the victims and their relatives. The illegal migrants — 31 men and eight women — were found dead in the back of a container truck in Essex on Oct. 23. Reportedly most of them are from the two dioceses of Vinh and Ha Tinh in Vietnam.
A friend of mine shares this story. She grew up with five siblings and an alcoholic father. The effect of her father’s alcoholism was devastating on her family.
In The Gambler, Dostoevsky describes Alexey’s human drama after playing: “The player is a victim regardless of his social class, a victim who becomes an executioner for others and for himself.” In the history of gambling, the “what,” the “how” and the “where” reveal the relationship between politics and the gaming industry, between culture and the values of a society.
The Synod the Amazon is called to be an occasion for “conversion.” Ecclesial events need to be reflected upon and a historical reading made to perceive how God breaks into history even in contradictory conditions and to experience this action powerfully in the present ecclesial moment (cf. Evangelii Gaudium no. 25). A wise reading of the signs of the time confirms that the call to conversion often comes from the “peripheries,” including geographical ones.