Sadly, 90% of disaster victims live in poor countries, where there is inadequate infrastructure or the resources to recover. Victims don’t have insurance or welfare. Pakistan is desperately poor and is already unable to service current debt to the IMF and World Bank. Yet they will need to borrow more.

At a personal level, we ask ““How can we powerless people possibly make a difference?  Aid agencies send our donations; but is that enough?

At the international level, the response has been slow but the western world is now responding to the UN urgings. That is in spite of much disquiet about the government of Pakistan and the fact that there is little generosity from the Islam world or Asian countries.

And good people ask, “But why are such severe catastrophes increasing?  Are our petitions being ignored by our God?

Perhaps these tragedies are calling us to open our mind to wider concepts of God and our world. Just maybe, the God Creator of the Universe is saying “I have entrusted to you a planet and the means to sustain it.  Act urgently. Change your ways or continue at your peril”.

Of course this would require a new world order – a new paradigm that reverses our pursuits of waring, military might, national self interest, resource exploitation, national borders, global warming  and denials of social justice.  The answer of “impossible” will come quickly. However, the hard questions will surely endure!

So again, how can we powerless people make a difference? As a start, could we too discover a new paradigm?  Might we open our minds from our ancient theism to a new concept of a Universal God in relation to and our planet? Might we spiritually transcend our divisive religions that are so bound by fundamental interpretations of the old-testament Bible or the Koran? Might we truly respect our planet in total?

Instead, might we dare to live our common “golden rule” and truly treat all others as we wish to be treated?  In short, might we act to witness credibly to a model of the world we aspire to? Then Governments might listen.

Worldwide web-sites are raising issues well beyond the “sinfulness and forgiveness” theme.  The US Supreme Court has cleared the way for Class A actions by victims of abuse to sue the Vatican.  They are accusing the Vatican and their Bishops of conspiring to cover up criminal activity. That raises matters of crime beyond sin. A question is “will the Vatican ever submit to judicial examination with the risk of being found guilty?”

Then, taking a global view of the Vatican and Bishops, a growing number of voices from disaffected laity, religious and priests are raising quite different questions. Questions about clinging to power rather than service, prestige rather than simplicity, religious morals rather than Christian values and of asserting their own will before God’s will,  to make God in their own image.

Many Christians are mindful also of an Easter teaching. That Jesus surrendered to the Will of God to die rather than to pursue self preservation. That Jesus trusted in a God who would not desert him. That through the death and resurrection, God would raise him up him anew.  Surely such faith is relevant today!

Particular questions of the Vatican and Bishops being asked are “How could they have denied the working of the Holy Spirit (and the People of God) by turned their backs on Vatican 11?” Why can’t they read the current “Sign of the Times” that they are in a hole, and that  no amount of digging deeper will  shore up a traditional church that has failed? “How could they ever accept the exploitation of innocent people when it contradicts a core value of Jesus and Christianity? How can they hold onto self-interest and avoid a key meaning of Easter?  How can they uphold Seminary training and a quagmire of religious theology crafted to justify the avoidance of Christian living. (It is interesting to see that the media protagonists of the Vatican remain in praise of the “other church” that is Catholics in the frontline of the mission of Jesus to heal the afflicted and to bring justice.)

So, whatever the judicial courts may decide, the courts of the People of God may well find the Vatican and the Bishops guilty of a much wider range of offences. Offences that could lead to most people of good-will deciding to ignore, condemn or assail the old structures.  Of course, the judgment and will of God will be what finally decides.  We can only pray and trust in the knowledge that no matter how harsh, that judgment will emerge and that we will have the grace and wisdom to read it and to heed it.

Social justice gaining precedent of legalism would be a revolution in itself.

It is in the words of one of the defendant’s lawyers  is is “a meeting of the law, morality and humanity, with the accused defending those unable to defend themselves”

Like all true prophets, they have acted with selfless love for humanity in a pursuit of justice for others. They denounce the brutal, cruel and oppressive wars of our times.  They denounce wars that kill innocent and poor people. Wars that will inevitably breed greater terrorism – both abroad and here in New Zealand.  Such life-saving prophets deserve VCs – not punishment.

Let us pray that they will be acquitted if for no other reason they are on the side of the prophets, who once despised have become international heroes.  We need look no further than the Christian and un-religious: Jesus, Einstein, Martin Luther King, Ivan Illich, John Keynes, Oscar Romero, Smedley D Butler, Paulo Friere, Mahatma Gandhi, Dom Helder Camara – and Mandela.

Also may the mere trio take comfort from the words of the Dalai Lama “If you think you are too small to make a difference try sleeping with a mosquito.” Or the words of Anthropologist Margaret Mead “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has”.

This week’s reflections

• NZ Protestors saving overseas lives (News item)
• Solidarity with my brothers whom I’ve never met
• Infantile protest, serious consequences
• Give them “VC’s” not punishment