‘The nation’s soul is getting sick’

Speaking to Crux Now about the situation in Argentina, Jesuit provincial Fr Rafael Velasco said: “Our crisis is not only political, social and economic; it is also spiritual. The soul of the nation is getting sick. To get out of this crisis, we must take into account the soul-spiritual factor: the hatred we are inoculating ourselves with.”

 

Evils of Christian nationalism

In a commentary in La Croix International, John Alonso Dick described the US Christian nationalism movement “as a virus more dangerous than COVID and Omicron. It is perverted religion. You think it is fading or under control, then it reappears in new configurations. There are no vaccinations or face masks to protect us.”

 

Sharing in Christ’s sufferings

In a video message marking World Day of the Sick (on February 11) Pope Francis said “the experience of sickness makes us feel fragile, in need of others”. Sickness, he said, “raises the question of life’s meaning, which we bring before God in faith.” He added: “One must never ‘forget the uniqueness of each patient, his or her dignity and frailties’. It is the person in his or her entirety who is in need of care: body, mind, affections, freedom and will, spiritual life... Care cannot be divided; because the human being cannot be divided.”

 

Beatitudes and happiness

In his Angelus address last Sunday, Pope Francis said the Beatitudes “declare that those who are poor, who lack many goods and recognise this, are blessed, that is, happy. The Lord, by freeing us from the slavery of self-centredness, breaks our locks, dissolves our hardness, and opens up to us true happiness, which is often found where we do not expect it.”

 

(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)

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