Indonesia's Supreme Court has ordered that 176 workers sacked by PT Micro Garment company should be re-instated after rejecting an appeal by the company against an earlier decision in favour of the workers.

The company had claimed that a strike by workers had violated order made ​​by the company as well as labor law. In July 2011, it filed a lawsuit in the District Court (Industrial court) in Bandung, West Java.

In December 2011, a judge found in favour of the workers but the company appealed to the Supreme Court in 2012.

The latest decision of the Supreme Court is final.

"The Supreme Court verdict is good news for the 176 workers at Micro Garment," said YCW fulltime worker, Ikim Rakhmat, "because the entire struggle and sacrifice and the wait times has been answered finally.

"The Supreme Court's decision confirms that the employer has violated the labor law. The workers are hoping that what the Supreme Court decided is not overlooked by entrepreneurs but immediately implemented," he added.

Well known Sri Lankan theologian and former IMCS Asia chaplain, Fr Tissa Balasuriya, has died at the age of 89.

In 1971 Fr Tissa  founded the Center for Society and Religion. In 1976, he helped found the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians (EATWOT).

In 1997, following a long process with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he was excommunicated over the content of one of his books, Mary and Human Liberation.

He was reconciled to the Church the following year.

Later he said he regarded his experience not as an "ex-communication" but rather as an "in-communication".

Fr Tissa was also a supporter of Cardijn, whom he met as a young priest.

“Cardijn is still relevant in contemporary reality. CCI must bring Cardijn closer to the youth through his approach and See-Judge-Act method. The primordial role of the youth in the world should not be undermined,” Fr Tissa told CCI leaders in 2011.

"We remember Fr Tissa with affection and mourns his passing," said CCI convenor, Stefan Gigacz.

Funeral details will follow.

LINKS

Tissa Balasuriya website

Cardijn still relevant: Father Tissa (Cardijn.info)

The excommunication of Fr Tissa Balasuriya lifted (Asia Human Rights Commission)

Father Tissa reconciled (EWTN)

Cardijn Community Australia has now posted video from its successful August seminar, Economics for the 99%: Co-operatives in Victoria, including history of co-operatives developed by the Australian YCW movement and Cardijn's understanding of co-operatives.



Bob Maybury on working in the YCW cooperative movement from Uniting Church VIC/TAS on Vimeo.



Stefan Gigacz on Cardijn from Uniting Church VIC/TAS on Vimeo.



The Earthworker cooperative from Uniting Church VIC/TAS on Vimeo.



Cameron Neil on alternative trade from Uniting Church VIC/TAS on Vimeo.

Bishop Pat Power with Devett O'Brien

Bishop Pat Power, recently retired auxiliary of Canberra-Goulburn archdiocese, has recalled "the influence on Vatican II of Joseph Cardijn".

Writing in CathNews, Bishop Power was recounting his experience in Rome for the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the opening the Second Vatican Council.

"A week earlier, I had prayed at the tomb of Pope John XXIII in St Peter’s Basilica and was moved to tears as I contemplated the great contribution he and the Second Vatican Council had made to the life of the Church and its impact on the contemporary world," Bishop Power wrote.

"Prior to the Mass, I had a chance meeting with Australian, Devett O’Brien, Secretary General of the International Young Christian Students movement.

"That meeting reminded me of the influence on Vatican II of Joseph Cardijn, founder of the Young Christian Workers. The YCW method of See, Judge and Act is very much in harmony with John XXIII’s call for us all to “read the signs of the times”.

"As I left Rome, I felt privileged to have experienced an historic moment of grace on 11 October 2012 and I had hope in my heart for a new flowering of Vatican II which would more clearly enable the Church to show its best self in witnessing to the love of God and showing the face of Jesus to a world hungering for meaning," Bishop Power concluded.

SOURCE

Bishop Pat Power's historic moment of grace (CathBlog)

The Cardijn Community International is launching a campaign for the canonisation of YCW founder Cardinal Joseph Cardijn following its Vatican 2+50: A Cardijn Perspective conference in Manila from 11-14 October.

A committee will begin work towards the canonisation immediately, CCI convenor Stefan Gigacz said in a statement.

“Cardijn played a key role at the Second Vatican Council as a member of the Pontifical Commission on Lay Apostolate and later at the Council itself,” Mr Gigacz said.

“As recalled by former IYCW President Ms Betty Villa in her video presentation, Cardijn insisted that the Council should recognise the specific role of lay people in the world acting consciously and responsibly to transform the world in the ordinary circumstances of life.

“His See Judge Act method was endorsed by the Vatican II Decree on the Lay Apostolate, Apostolicam Actuositatem, and was adopted in the drafting of the Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes.

After the Council, Cardijn's method formed the basis of the “new evangelisation” process launched by the Latin American bishops at Medellin in 1968.

¨"It is extremely heartening to hear that, in his address to the Synod of Bishops, Chilean Bishop Pedro Ossandon Buljevic again emphasised the See Judge Act method as integral the process of 'new evangelisation'," Mr Gigacz added.

Conference speakers included former Caritas Asia director, Fr Bonnie Mendes, Indian professor Fr X. Selvaraj SJ, Attorney Aurora Santiago, President of the National Council of the Laity of the Philippines, and Fr Marlon Lacal of the Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines.

In other major decisions, the conference also adopted resolutions to prepare an international survey into the social impact of Vatican II among grassroots Catholics around the world, the results of which will be shared at a global conference to be held in India in 2015.

Full details of the conference will be available shortly on the conference website: www.vatican2plus50.com

LINK

www.josephcardijn.com

Bishop Pedro Ossandon Buljevic

Auxiliary Bishop Pedro Ossandon Buljevic of Santiago de Chile endorsed the See Judge Act method as a tool for the new evangelisation in an address to the Synod of Bishops in Rome last week.

"How can we propose the Biblical animation of life in the Spirit?" Bishop Buljevic asked.

People must learn "to permanently discern the signs of the times, according to the Holy Spirit in the service of the Kingdom of God," explained.

"This involves incorporating a discipline that teaches us to dialogue in truth and charity with the culture of Holy Scripture and in accordance with the teaching of the Church."

The Church must promote "the encounter with Christ, from the Trinitarian spirituality of communion, in the discernment in the Spirit," Bishop Buljevic said, referring to the see-judge-act method as outlined in the Aparecida Document adopted by the Latin American bishops in 2007.

In another address to the Synod, former YCS member and President of the Pontifical Council for Justice & Peace, Cardinal Peter Turkson took up Blessed John Paul II’s description of the Catholic Social Teaching as “an instrument of evangelisation”.

Quoting Blessed John XXIII's Cardijn-inspired ncyclical Mater et Magister, Cardinal Turkson said that “it is not enough merely to formulate a social doctrine. It must be translated into reality”.

“Evangelization would not be complete if it did not take account of the unceasing interplay of the Gospel and of man's concrete life, both personal and social," Cardinal Turkson continued.

"Testimony to Christ's charity, through works of justice, peace and development, is part and parcel of evangelization, because Jesus Christ, who loves us, is concerned with the whole person.”

Cardinal Turkson's presentation followed a wave of interventions by the Latin American bishops who brought with them a strong focus on the reality of poverty in their continent and the outcome document from the last meeting of Latin American Bishop in Aparecida (available at www.celam.org/aparecida.php )," noted IYCS Secretary General Devett O'Brien.

SOURCE

Synod Bulletin 14 - 13.10.2012

Synod Bulletin

See Judge Act an instrument of the new evangelization (Media Blog, ACBC)