Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Fides Service) - What do a missionary and a bio-ethicist have in common? Apparently nothing. One dedicates his whole life to spreading the Gospel in brotherly charity and the other - especially if he is the personalist type close to the thought of the Church - may appear more of a "bookworm", so absorbed in his studies as to lose contact with reality. Nevertheless these two very different figures pursue a common goal, they work separately and independently, but parallel along the same track. This - perhaps in extreme synthesis - is the gist of a handbook by Fr. Giuseppe Buono and Patrizia Pelosi published by Editrice Missionaria Italiana (EMI), entitled “Bioetica - Religioni - Missioni. La bioetica al servizio delle missioni”. [“Bio-ethics - Religions - Missions. Bio-ethics at the service of the Missions ”.
“The bio-ethicist and the missionary- we read on page 367 - meet without seeking one another along the path of man, they meet because both want to reach the fullness of humanity, one to defend it, the other to save it”. To defend and to save the fullness, therefore the truth of the human person: this is what these two figures have in common. However a mission territory, by definition, is often a land of borders and encounters with other world religions. The latter also, since each bears a vision of humanity, have precise positions with regard to questions of human life and its ethics. Positions at time distant if not contrasting, as for example between the Jewish and Catholic position on abortion; or the totally divergent visions existing between the world of Islam and the Catholic Church with regard to contraception. These divergences often arise from different if not opposing lines, which could be brought to converge only with difficulty.
However for Fr Giuseppe Buono the co-author with Dr Patrizia Pelosi, the point of encounter is the common intent of every religion to safeguard human nature. “The point of departure is the common principle to safeguard life. The great religions - says Fr. Buono, PIME and docent of Missiology - meet in the concept of God the Creator and therefore of man not as the master of life but called to be its good administrator. Precisely from here a promising initiative of inter-religious dialogue can be launched”.
Having identified the common point of encounter we must now justify what bio-ethics has to say in the mission land, where daily attention is often focussed on daily needs, such as eating, providing for one's life or simply surviving. Precisely in this context however the dignity of human nature is more at risk because it is weaker, more defenceless, and anyway easily blackmailed. Fr Buono condemns “industrialised countries for shameful exploitation of the least protected zones of the planet. This exploitation is a direct attack on the dignity of human persons, and as such must be stopped”. This is also why the answers of bio-ethics can be useful for the work of the missionary for whom the book by Fr. Buono, and Dr Pelosi, doctor bio ethicist who wrote the scientific part, is intended.
However we must avoid the great error of thinking that the advanced but not so consistent West has little to learn from cultures in mission lands. Indeed "Africa and Africans have much to teach us with regard to the sacredness and safeguarding human life. Often - says Fr Buono - as missionaries we are shunned by those who know what goes on in industrialised countries with regard to abortion”.
Bio-Ethics then as an answer to problems concerning human bodily life, can even become one with the work of the missionary because, as we said earlier, both walk in the same direction and have the same goal, to safeguard the dignity of the human person.
How can this be achieved? Pre-packed ready solutions exist. The problems, especially those encountered daily on the field, are often too complex for us to give an immediate clear answer. Perhaps only one thing essential and determinant: “The fundamental thing which comes before all is witness” says Fr Buono. (F.B.G.) (Agenzia Fides 18/5/2007 - Righe 50, Parole 686)
