CND Forum – day 4 – Tuesday August 27

Maria Province invited the Spirit of Peace to be with us in a moment of silence, through scripture and song as we gathered this morning to begin this day.

We welcomed Fr Ismael Moreno, a Jesuit priest from Honduras for a session entitled: The Church, the issue of race and the decolonization of power. He spoke about major “lies” or false truths that permeate our world today, shadows that hide within an appearance of light: First, that peace can come about through conflict if we destroy our enemies; Second, that the sparkling attraction of capital brings light;  Third,  that the logic of power will lead us to change; Fourth, that patriarchy is the only gender conversation we need to have; Fifth, the pull of the three temptations – wanting abrupt change, general passivity, and thinking things can’t change; Six, the legacies of our times – fear, isolationism, escape from reality.

So, how do we face these lies?

Fr. Moreno’s answer – We do this by living and feeling from the peripheries, by listening to the testimonies of the oppressed and disenfranchised; by becoming a Church that refuses to work from the “centre” of power and privilege that has been built on a colonial model, a Church that dismantles hierarchical structures and opens safe spaces in which a diversity of voices can be heard. In short we must decolonize ourselves, our structures and our institutions, liberate religious faith and practice, and protect our common home.

After our break, the panel of Leila Celis and Sandra Margarita Sierra cnd spoke about decolonization and theology examining the relationship between faith, culture, politics and economics. They reminded us that colonialization has left a deep mark on each of us as colonizers and as those colonized, and it continues to influence how we think, act and organize ourselves. Decolonization challenges us to find ways for Church and theology to support hopefulness in impoverished people. This will require us among other things to rethink north/south relationships and to refuse models of development based on exploitation of people and the environment.

After lunch, various workshop facilitators created opportunities to reflect on the morning, to think about what we will bring back, about how we are being challenged and where we will look for encouragement. Speaking from the heart, and listening with new ears, we shared our hopes and fears, naming our confusion and suggesting the tools that would help us to sew seeds of hope.

In closing Jeanne- Marie thanked the CND older generation of sisters for doing the work of their time. It is what has allowed the next generation to take up the work for tomorrow. She reminded us that opening doors is a slow process and quoted Annick de Souzenelle who wrote  “everyone hears the noise that comes from the trees that fall but no one hears the sound of the trees still growing”    ….Let us listen in silence for what is growing for we have gathered in love, for life, so that life might continue …. And in four languages we sang Magnificat!