Fr. Andrew G. Recepcion S.Th.D

IT WAS A GIFT FROM GOD that we concluded our International Missiological Conference with a mass at the chapel of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Poland. I was particularly grateful for the possibility to celebrate mass for those who asked for prayers and for those whom I have promised to pray for. God has blessed me with the joy of seeing the icon of Mary—Queen of Poland—known all over the world for her miraculous intercessions as well as for her role in the unity of the Polish people.

WHILE WAITING TO BOARD the plane for my Lufthansa flight to Poland to attend the 3rd International Assembly of Catholic Missiologists in the world [August 27-September 6, 2007], I have started to read a book highly recommended by a friend.  The book’s title is “Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil” [Random House, New York, 2007) authored by Philip Zimbardo known for his Stanford Prison Experiment and for his expertise as a social psychologist in the trial of American soldiers involved in the tortures of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

The path to healing brings one to the path to freedom.  The way to freedom is a matter of choice.  Compulsions that come in the forms of needs and fears are at the root of un-freedom.  However, behind compulsive needs, one discovers anguish.  The road that leads to freedom is never easy for it involves a real struggle.  Embarking on the road to freedom is possible when one is no longer governed by compulsions or passions.  Authentic freedom has its signs, viz., truthful acceptance of self and others, capacity to love and to be compassionate, liberation from ..

ONE OF MY STUDENTS in ethics commented that being gay is the feeling of being different from others.  It was a surprise to get that kind of answer because others simply hate gays for being freaks or deviants.  What should be an ethically correct attitude or response toward homosexuality?

There is a need to make an important distinction between homosexual orientation and homosexual activity.  Homosexual orientation is an attraction that a person experiences towards members of the same sex.  Homosexual activity is the actual physical engagement in sexual acts with members of the same sex.  With this distinction in mind, let us take a close look at the four schools of thought or perspectives on homosexuality.

I DID NOT WANT to write about Auschwitz after visiting it because the suffering inflicted on humanity by the Nazis cannot be captured in few sentences.  However, the personal experience of seeing the extermination camp has kept me thinking about the power of evil to eliminate difference and at the same time the power of love to triumph over suffering and death.

Millions of persons from the entire world have visited the grounds of the former concentration camp since the creation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau National Museum in 1947.