Existential Peripheries News Today

Families seeking refuge in the United States, despite their marginalization, embrace hope.

Stan Chu Ilo’s profile on The Conversation

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A Vatican office sent dozens of theologians and pastoral workers to refugee camps, prisons, shelters, street corners and markets in 40 cities and towns on every continent to listen to the faith experiences and, especially, the faith questions of people often tossed aside or ignored by society and even the Catholic Church. This type of listening has been a long-neglected, yet fundamental basis for rigorous critical thinking on theology, especially in the face of contempora

Catholic theology is "faith seeking understanding" and grapples with questions that arise about God, human beings and the church. The Vatican-sponsored project, "Doing theology from the existential peripheries" is listening to how people on the margins of the society and the church are asking those questions.

Prisoners and prostitutes and just about everyone else interviewed recognized that they are sinners, longed for support

<p>A Vatican office sent dozens of theologians and pastoral workers to refugee camps, prisons, shelters, street corners and markets in 40 cities and towns on every continent to listen to the faith experiences and, especially, the faith questions of people often tossed aside or ignored by society and even the Catholic Church.</p>

<p class="MsoNormal">More important than next week's midterms was last weekend's presidential election in Brazil. The fate of the planet, quite literally, was at issue because incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro was determined to allow developers to do what they want with the planet's lungs, the Amazon River rain forest. Before the vote, Bolsonaro also issued some Trumpian signals he might not accept the results.