Browsing by Author "Consonni, Paolo"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Mission at the Cross-Roads Of Urbanization.
    (Tangaza University College, 1997-02) Consonni, Paolo
    After many centuries during which the Church has remained anchored close to the rural world, the cities are increasingly becoming its concern. The 1990 Encyclical letter by John raul 11 Roden:gads A4issio (IRM} 37b) indicates among the "New worlds and new social phenomena", which are the parameters of the Church's mission ad sentes, urbanization and the nmssive growth of cities. RM suggests that these phenomena change the image of the mission which should now concentrate on the big cities, not only for quantitative factors (demographic explosion and accumulation), but because of the impact that the city has on the wider population. In fact RM speaks of new customs and styles of living which arise together with new forms of culture and communication. The stress is on culture, or rather, on the cultural change which is taking place in the cities, which are "centres where a new humanity, so lo speak, is emerging, and where new models of development are taking shape". The emphasis on the cultural change is also mentioned in KM 37c speaking about the new areopagus of the modern world of communications which is unifying humanity and turning it into what is known as a 'global village'. The mission of the Church today has to be more "ml culturas" than "to the nations" as politically understood, namely it has to be aware that the message of the Gospel falls on a soil rich with different and interconnected cultures which the mission:11y has to discern and welcome ease by case, in every situation. If the world of cities is considered a "new culture", and this affirmation will need sonic specification, then the mission ad animas of the Church has to be involved in it. The purpose of this essay is therefore lo discern the novelly of the cultural situation of the urban world -with particular reference to Nairobi as paradigm of the African context- and to develop a new understanding of mission and of its methodology flowing from that discernment.