21st November 2024 with Cardinal Lavigerie
Link ot download the PDF 20241121 A Year With CML200
Day FIVE: Passion for the people and their cultures
+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Text from the Cardinal: “Be all things to all people to redeem some of them.” [A Missionary] ought to approach the local people through all external habits, by language first, clothing and food, in accordance with the example of the Apostle: “I made myself everything to all to save them all”(I.52) (translated from the Latin Bible). Reflection: To draw them to Christ, we must not make others like ourselves, but make ourselves similar to them. This deep conviction underpinned the early stages of Africa’s evangelisation: in relation to Arabs and Muslims, to the peoples of Central Africa, of the Middle East in the Holy Land. Lavigerie opposed the the excessive Italianisation of the Curia, which he said undermined the Catholicity of the Church. He also opposed the systematic Latinisation of Orthodox converts to…