Regenerating the Moral and Spiritual Values of Our Society

By Vernon Khelawan

When church leaders and others gathered for a three-day symposium on trying to find solutions to the crime wave now the scourge of our country, no one thought it was going to be an easy task. This is manifested, perhaps, by the time it took to come up with a final communique, which now needs to be taken seriously.

There is no one simple solution to the present problem. Leaders – church, political, the higher-ups in civil society, and citizens in general – keep looking around to find somebody to blame. If one looks deep enough, one would realise that the rot began with the introduction of the shift system in our schools. Today we are reaping the whirlwind that was sown then.

What the shift system did was to have one set of children roaming all over the place unsupervised in the morning, and another set let loose in the afternoon. That situation created the environment for drug use and abuse, promiscuity and the introduction of the gang culture.

At about that same time there arose a loss of respect in the home, then in the neighbourhood and finally for law and order, resulting today in a generation or two of lawless people interacting by force, while the law-abiding try to maintain an acceptable level of societal mores.

Today, the shift system is no more, but we have more parents with cars and private school transport who see nothing wrong with running a red light, creating a “bad drive” or going the wrong way on a one-way street. The seven-year-old in the back seat observes the wrongs but is told, “We’re late” – implying that it is alright to break the law because of the tardiness of the parent. Exactly what has this child learnt from such an example?

The breakdown in our society has to be attacked on several fronts at the same time if we are to even begin to scratch the surface of “Regenerating the Moral and Spiritual Values of Our Society.” The task may seem daunting but is not impossible if there is the will to tackle the job, with urgency.

Monday 19 May 2014 REGENERATING THE MORAL AND SPIRITUAL VALUES OF OUR SOCIETY

REGENERATING THE MORAL AND SPIRITUAL VALUES OF OUR SOCIETY

By Vernon Khelawan

The constant stream of news reports that tell of murder and mayhem, child abuse, spousal abuse, rape, robberies, gang clashes and home invasions reflect the seriousness of the challenge we face as a nation. Add to these stories the social issues of squatting, exploitation of workers and an assortment of scams, and we have a picture of a society adrift of its moral and spiritual moorings and in danger due to the almost total breakdown of family life.

While the Church is determined to do what it can to reverse the situation, it will take a national offensive to save our country.

All of the social ills which today dominate our society stem, in large part, from the absence or breakdown of family life. As we pursue the goal ofRegenerating the Moral and Spiritual Values of our Society, the full importance of exemplary family life has to be appreciated.

The Priority’s guidebook states, “The ideal which the Church presents is the home with the married couple, the father and mother, along with the children. Then there are other forms like the extended family, (severely diminished at this time), the single parent family home led by the father or the mother.” Regardless of the form that the family takes, it has an “essential role” to play concerning this Third Priority.

It has always been said that “the family is the very cornerstone of society”. So to the extent that family life breaks down, a society stands on shaky ground (the cornerstone would ultimately give way – a situation which is so obvious in our society today). Therefore the guidebook advises, “It is crucial that the family, which has been referred to as the domestic Church, does its part, not only in the pro-creation of life, but also in the education of its children.”

The task of reviving the moral and spiritual values in the society cannot be the work of the Church alone. It is the responsibility of all right-thinking people living in our beloved land to embark on personal and group programmes/efforts to arrest the downward slide on the slippery slope of “anything goes”.

Regenerating the Moral and Spiritual Values of our Society! Where are the parents?

Regenerating the Moral and Spiritual Values of our Society

By Vernon Khelawan

Like a plague, the violence in our schools is spreading. From north to south, east to west, the reports come in daily. It is happening in the primary schools and the secondary institutions, private, denominational and government schools; none seems to be able to escape the scourge of violence.

It used to be that ‘boys will be boys’ and it was not uncommon for the occasional “heaves” with a rapid exchange of fisticuffs in the boys’ schools. It was par for the course. Today, however, the appeal of violence has attracted the fairer sex, as has been seen recently in several free-for-all episodes.

Then there is the teacher slapping, the stealing, the availability of porn and, worst of all, sex in the classroom. There is far too much silence amid all this chaos.

What seems to have gone wrong? Are there any solutions? Oh, some in leadership positions have come up with some “doozies”. Lock them up, send them to special institutions, expel them, bring back corporal punishment, and greater security at the school gates are some of the solutions proffered.

But nobody is asking the real question. Where are the parents? All the children involved in these fracas have parents, or at least guardians, but where are they? Will the real leaders stand up and face the facts! Family life is in shambles in Trinidad and Tobago and that’s where any attempt to rectify this situation has to start.

The highly touted Children’s Authority or the teachers or the PTAs or even the police will not cut it. Yes, they all have a role to play, but the real start must be made in the home. The Third Pastoral Priority calls for Regenerating the Moral and Spiritual Values of our Society. This, too, must begin in the home.

Society, according to Webster, is “the social order or community life considered as a system within which the individual lives”, and it is defined by the kind of homes which prevail and the mores of the individuals who live in those homes – parents and children. But if there are absent parents, sooner or later there will be ‘absent’ children and subsequently an ‘absent’ society.

Regenerating the Moral and Spiritual Values of our Society

REGENERATING THE MORAL AND SPIRITUAL VALUES OF OUR SOCIETY

By Vernon Khelawan

In his homily a few Sundays ago – the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord, Fr Ferdinand Warner OP placed the responsibility of defining the Third Pastoral Priority, “Regenerating the Moral and Spiritual Values of our Society”, squarely in the domain of the family.

He said, “The home is the first Church,” and added, “The home should be a school of faith.” His statements should resonate loudly, not only throughout the Roman Catholic community, but the entire nation, as the struggle continues to come to grips with our declining values and lack of respect.

In a direct message to the nation’s fathers – and I suspect especially to the thousands of ‘deadbeat’ fathers now roaming the land, he repeated the baptismal blessing prayer over the father:

“May God bless the fathers of these children

With their wives they will be the first teachers

of their children in the ways of faith.

May they also be the best of teachers

bearing witness to the faith by what they say and do.”

To underscore the importance of a good home life, where both mother and father carry out their parental responsibilities in a manner pleasing to Jesus Christ, Fr Warner referred to the Catechism which states in 2225:

“Parents should initiate their children at an early age into the mysteries of the faith of which they are called to be the first heralds for their children. They should associate them from their tenderest years with the life of the Church. A wholesome family life can foster interior dispositions that are a genuine preparation for a living faith and remain a support for it throughout one’s life.”

What percentage of this nation’s fathers adheres to the principles in the two quotations above? We read the newspapers daily and listen to the nightly news and realise that this society of ours resides so far away from these tenets that the job of regenerating the moral and spiritual values in our society, to make it a healthier and better one, is a humongous task, which requires a lot more than the lip service it is now given at all levels of the society.

May we vigorously pursue and support all efforts to build a better Trinidad and Tobago, a nation which we can proudly acclaim as a true paradise.

REGENERATING THE MORAL AND SPIRITUAL VALUES OF OUR SOCIETY

We can make all sorts of grandiose pledges in support of the Third Pastoral Priority – Regenerating the Moral and Spiritual Values of our Society – but at the end of the day, such a task has to begin in the home, with the family.

Family life cannot improve if the nation’s families stick to the old maxim “Do as I say, but not as I do.” To a large extent this is exactly what happens in many families. How many parents ensure that the children attend Holy Mass on the weekend, while they themselves remain at home to look at sports on the television, go to the beach or just simply laze around the house?

There are two major obstacles in getting the values of this Priority to be properly understood, at least by our Roman Catholic families. One is the single parent syndrome (in the majority of instances it really means single mothers). There are so many relationships where the father is missing in action for lengthy periods, if not forever. Then there is that phenomenon of modern living where the technology encourages “doing their own ting” from an early age so no one has time for the other. Everybody is just too busy.

Of course, there is the other challenge of the inordinate length of time it takes to get to and from work, which has reached the point where primary school pupils are being awakened at a ridiculous hour in the morning, skipping breakfast and sleeping in the car all the way to school. This has a telling, if not traumatic effect on our young people. But that is life in our Trinidad and Tobago today.

So this uphill task of regenerating our society’s moral and spiritual values will not be easy, especially since the degeneration began at least two generations ago. One only has to listen to today’s sad stories where child abuse (sexual and otherwise) is being uncovered daily. Respect for people, property and the law has been effectively thrown out the window, starting at home. Manners and values are no longer taught in the home; that is now left to the television, the radio and society itself.

I was driving out of Camsel’s parking lot recently and three schoolgirls, the eldest being no more than 10, were walking through the area, blocking almost the entire driveway. I was forced to slow down and as I passed, the eldest shouted, “You buy your licence or what?”

By Vernon Khelawan

REVITALIZING CATHOLIC CULTURE AND IDENTITY

Revitalizing our Catholic Culture and Identity is a reintroduction of our cultural response where Jesus  Christ is the center of our lives, and the Church is our mother and teacher.  Everything we do should flow from that, in fact, it is a Journey to the Heart of the Faith and Jesus meets us where we are as a people. It is acelebration, in words, imagery and action, of the God who takes infinitedelight in bringing human beings to fullness of life through their very Culture and making it their Catholic Identity. Our Catholic Culture is meant to accept or adopt what is pure and life giving, challenge what is inconsistent or at variance with our values and reject or transform what is against the dignity ofhumanity or the truth of God.  Like the faith itself it is an invitation to encounter and live life united to the Incarnation. It is a re-call to the disciplining of the desires that goes far beyond the requirements of justice so as to serve the infinite demand of life. We have moved to a culture that strives only to avoid suffering and provide self gratification, therefore we have to provide an alternative vision to the world where we live.  It is not about reintroducing the artifacts of Catholicism as though they were dusty objets d'art in a museum of culture. It is rather to conduct usever deeper into the mystery of the Incarnation with the hope that we might be transformed by its power. St Paul consistently proclaimed that the church of Jesus Christ is not so much an organization as an organism, a mystical body. The church accordingly isa living thing, whose purpose is to gather the whole world into the praise of God.

REVITALIZING CATHOLIC CULTURE AND IDENTITY

Revitalizing our CatholicCulture and Identity is a reintroduction of our cultural response where JesusChrist is the center of our lives, and the Church is our mother and teacher.Everything we do should flow from that, in fact, it is A Journey to theHeart of the Faith and Jesus meets us where we are as a people. It is acelebration, in words, imagery and action, of the God who takes infinitedelight in bringing human beings to fullness of life through their very Cultureand making it their Catholic Identity. Our Catholic Culture is meant to acceptor adopt what is pure and life giving, challenge what is inconsistent or atvariance with our values and reject or transform what is against the dignity ofhumanity or the truth of God.  Like thefaith itself it is an invitation to encounter and live life united to theIncarnation. It is a re-call to the disciplining of the desires that goes farbeyond the requirements of justice so as to serve the infinite demand of life.We have moved to a culture that strives only to avoid suffering and provideself gratification, therefore we have to provide an alternative vision to theworld where we live.  It is not aboutreintroducing the artifacts of Catholicism as though they weredusty objets d'art in a museum of culture. It is rather to conduct usever deeper into the mystery of the Incarnation with the hope that we might betransformed by its power. St Paul consistentlyproclaimed that the church of Jesus Christ is not somuch an organization as an organism, a mystical body. The church accordingly isa living thing, whose purpose is to gather the whole world into the praise of God.