John Quincy A Caballo SDB 20 September 2018

RESPONSE TO APARECIDA QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSIONS

Address by Pope Benedict XVI

1. Who is Christ for you? He is a friend who teaches me the way to the Father: the fullness of life.
2. What does your relationship with Christ have to do with how you view reality? My relationship with Him is my
fundamental option. All my other choices merely reflect my perspective and response to reality.
3. How do you allow Christ to shape your responses to people and situations? Christ has become a model to me—a
most perfect one, at that.

Message from the Fifth General Conference

1. After reading the Message what does your heart say to you? There is a growing yearning to be more involved in
becoming missionary-disciples today.
2. What kind of action does it spur you to? A more practical approach to evangelization—reaching out to people.

Concluding Document

1. What is your impression? Does it speak to your situation? It sounds like a document heavily influenced by the
person we now call Pope Francis. Yes, it speaks of a group of bishops who wish to offer a guide for
discernment, not another set of rules.

Part ONE

2. How is the Word of God a formative factor in your life? It is a living Word which is read in the Liturgy and prayed and
studied upon in school. It has been in these past years, the way by which I see the face of Christ more fully—hoping to
become more and more like him.

4. Paul VI called for integral evangelization in Evangelii Nuntiandi (1975). The bishops of CELAM call for evangelization that is
joined to promotion of the human person and authentic Christian liberation. What might this mean in the light of Catholic Social
Teaching? The word that rings around CST is the talk of ‘integrity’, of principles and measures that actually work
towards long-term and process-oriented solutions to current concerns. It excludes violence and an overemphasis on
one aspect.

6. What are some visible effects of the media impacting the lives of people, especially youth or young adults? There is a strong
tendency for young people to remain disconnected with their immediate relationships and environment in favor of
more long-distance relationships.

8. How do faith and culture come together in your life? In faith and culture, the Good News is able to more organically and
better integrate itself in the way I think, say, and do.

10. Which ones are in conflict with the reality presented in the mass media? Integrated understanding of reality.

12. What are some of the consequences named in paragraph 46 and how do you see them present in society in your country?
How they affect parish life? Yes. They tend to alienate the people from the locality and its culture to the eventual
degradation of the latter as a result.

14. How is your faith life affected by these changes in cultural perspectives? The challenge to be radical in Christ has the
accompanying challenge of being firmly rooted in the local Church and faith community.

16. Who do you know suffers because of social exclusion as described in paragraph 65? Migrants and the marginalized
youth.

18. What are you doing to demonstrate your respect for creation? Be practical. Throwing my trash in their respective
dustbins. If possible, I avoid taking motor transportation in favor of walking especially if the distance is not too far.

20. Attention and appreciation for indigenous people grow out of the conviction expressed in paragraph 96. Write a short
reflection on this one sentence. Regardless of what makes one different from the other, all forms of intellectual
colonization must be stopped.

22. Read paragraph 100 a-h and then list similarities with the situations you face in your country. Lessening of vocation
numbers; an unhealthy desire for pre-Vatican II ecclesiology and spirituality; and, straying from what the Gospel
teaches.