English
SAFCAM Communique #54 - English
29-0502021
SAFCAM Communique #54 29/05/2021 En français ci-dessous
Dear Subscribers
Following my comments last week about the SAFCAM website… we might ask the question:
If Christ entered the contemporary world, would He have His own website or communicate through the various social media platforms? And what about Don Bosco? What use would he make of the internet?
As a help in reflecting on our answers, read the article on www.safcam.org – ‘Cyberspace cannot replace sacred space!’
In fact, there are several articles posted this week to recommend: (these feature on the ‘slider’ at present)
- ‘Schools are intentionally confusing children about gender’ (even though this is mainly happening in other parts of the world, the LGBTQIA+ agenda and 'Gender theory' tsunami will soon hit Africa!)
- ‘The re-definition of marriage’;
- ‘The real agenda of the AIDS summit’ due to take place next week;
- ‘A Day of Prayer and Reparation for the Murder and Abuse of Unborn Children’: this special day is inaugurated for the first time by Human Life International (HLI.org), and it is intended to be held annually on the Feast of the Visitation of Our Lady, May 31st as we remember not only the encounter of Mary and Elizabeth, but also of their unborn babies, John and Jesus!
Let us also continue to unite our prayers to the worldwide ‘marathon of intercession’ initiated by Pope Francis for the end of the pandemic. In case you still do not have the schedule here it is for the last 3 days:
Date Shrine Country Intention
29 Our Lady of Lebanon-Harissa Lebanon For all consecrated men and women
30 Blessed Virgin of the Rosary-Pompeii Italy For the Church
31 Vatican Gardens The Vatican For an end to the pandemic and the resumption of normal socio-economic life
The Contemporary Music scene !?
Anyone active in youth ministry, education and evangelization needs to be in touch with the contemporary music scene. As Don Bosco insisted, “be interested in what young people are interested in!” And it means listening, watching, and examining the lyrics of the continually changing chart toppers. Internet (Google and YouTube especially) make that quite easy. No need to spend hours listening to music stations or watching TV channels any longer. Just as any group of teenagers what are their favourite music idols or top current songs and then look these up on internet. It is very rare that our local youth will respond with any gospel artists and songs. Invariably it is the latest songs on the international charts. Seldom is it local; mostly it is from the USA or UK and of late from Korea too!
Ten months ago, the answer I got from a teen was ‘Cardi B’, and having watched her depraved video on YouTube, I deplored her song WAP as the height of vulgarity. The various clips of that hit on YouTube now add up to more than 750 million views. Lil Nas X, another popular USA icon, has to keep up with Cardi B’s depravity, and his hit released 2 months ago, ‘Montero (call me what you want)’ – has already garnered 226 million views. Another song of his, ‘Sun goes down’, which basically is a gay-pride track, released a week ago, has clocked up 15 million views on YouTube alone! How do we compete with that globalized promotion of self-indulgent immorality? First of all, we need to be aware of the way it is influencing the mindset of the young people we are working with, and then we need to find creative ways of counter-acting the sleaze with youthful kerygmatic and striking gospel messages.
The annual Eurovision song contest was held in Amsterdam last Saturday. It is watched by hundreds of millions around the world available nowadays LIVE ONLINE! I saw about half of the 26 songs performed with spectacular staged special effects, but unless you look up the lyrics available on internet, they are incomprehensible. And even when you do carefully analyze them, you really wonder what they are trying to say! The winner from Italy, Damiano David and his group, won easily with a tune titled Zitti e Buoni (Quiet and Good) in which the line “I'm out of my mind, but different from them” is repeated many times over… Maybe it is not supposed to make any sense anyway, but if it does, I would like an interpretation.
One of the groups attracting the most fans worldwide presently is the ‘Boy Band’ BTS from Korea. They sing in English. The names of the seven ‘boys’ are Jin, SUGA, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook. How about that! And BTS stands for Bang-Tan Sonyeondan (in Korean: 방탄소년단; in Hanja: 防彈少年團)
Literally that means "Bulletproof Boy Scouts"! Impress a few teenagers with that information!
Recommended viewing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6dEQVF4E1k&t=523s = A brilliant virtual tour of Basilica of Mary Help of Christians-Valdocco-presented by Fr Mike Pace sdb – 60 minutes
https://youtu.be/KE1EuM20_RQ - A 6-minute illustration by Brenda, of the manipulation of children’s minds through ‘trans’ education… (and visit www.brenda4kids.com )
https://youtu.be/ANwnLMw8giA - Manny Gonzalez joins Jason Evert sharing how he discovered—as a man who experiences same-sex attractions—why living out the Church’s teachings on chastity is the sure way to happiness. (60-minutes)
Happy feast of the Trinity and of the Visitation, and all the best for the start of June.
In union of prayer especially for the confreres and people of Goma and of Tigray!
- Camiel and François
