Log-book: March 2003

  In front of City Hall  Solitude 
  Catechism with a taste of liberty
  French Bibliography  Archives of Partenia 
 

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In front of City Hall

continuer der lutter The illegal refugees did not appreciate being expelled by forceful intervention of the police while occupying the Japy sport club. They have a grudge against the mayor of Paris who says he wants "to assume his responsibilities".  

So they gathered in front of City Hall to demonstrate their anger. I was asked by a reporter to say what I thought of the mayor's decision. My answer made him smile: "The mayor of Paris acts just like the archbishop of Paris: he calls in the police".

A flyer against the mayor reminds: If assuming one's responsibilities consists in signing authorisations for the Minister of the Interior, you should right away make a good provision of pens!!!". In the crowd, I met Ahmed, a young militant. I admire his courage for the defence of human rights. His face is disfigured by a slash. I ask him: "What have they done to you?" " At the demonstration this morning, a policeman hit me with his club." "You went to prison in Strasbourg and you still go on fighting."

"If I abandon, I would give the police reason to silence me. I continue fighting." As long as there are youths like Ahmed, there is hope for a more just and fraternal world.  vérité et justice

     

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Solitude
 
le cri - E. Munch The conference came to an end and with it; the time seemed momentarily to stop. People were coming out of the main hall and then I witnessed a strange spectacle: many hurried to their laptop trying to isolate themselves to communicate quickly. It came to my mind: we are able to communicate with people who are not there but we do not jump on the occasion to speak with the people who are there. Everyone stays inside his network. 
 
I went to visit a man named Laurent, an African who has been spending the last two months in a psychiatric pavilion. In this wing everything is closed. It is impossible to open the windows. This place seems sinister to me. Yet Laurent never complains. He has the courage to smile. Nevertheless he is far from his country and his family. Visits are rare. In the hall, I see patients that come and go, each with a distant look in his eyes. Each one is in his own universe and they never meet. The solitude of beings that are near to one another without ever communicating.
 
Solitude described by a woman on the Internet: "Wounded people hide inside the desert of their homes; this has been my case for close to eight years soon... I lost the energy I had inside of me as well as the joy of life. I am not living. I exist. I am in the desert. You are my bishop."
   

 

     
   

Catechism with a taste of liberty 

exprimer la foi 

During more than three years, at a rate of one monthly meeting or so, we have found great interest and much pleasure in trying to rethink and express in words of today the faith that we have received. There were three of us: one woman and two men. The adventure seemed a noble one. Yet, it was not so easy to express one's faith in today's words and culture.

Comment croire? But we were urged to do this by the questions of the Internet surfers: "It is impossible for me to believe like I did yesterday. I cannot repeat ready-made phrases that mean nothing to me anymore. How can I continue on believing?". 

Maurice Zundel, a theologian and mystic, once said: "Speaking of God today in the words of the early days after Christ is to be condemned to be misunderstood and to take the risk that God appears to be a myth to be relegated to the antiques museum."

We thought it useful to publish in a book what we have written each month on the site. We had to rewrite the texts, to make introductions and restructure them.

We are now in the final stages of the work. It is an imperfect work, incomplete but can encourage Christians to develop a taste and a desire to do the same. They will not be deceived.  parler de Dieu