URC Daily Devotion Friday 28th April 2023 Helder Camara

In 1952 he was ordained as an auxiliary bishop of Rio de Janairo, in that role, helped found a bank which would give low interest loans to the poor.  He attended all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council where he helped draft one of the major documents, Gaudium et Spes (Joy and Hope) which clarified and reoriented the role of the church’s mission to people outside of the Catholic Church.  It was the first time that the church took explicit responsibility for its role in the larger world.   In March 1964, Pope Paul VI appointed him Archbishop of Olinda e Recife.  Towards the end of Vatican II Câmara organised 40 bishops to meet at night in the Catacombs of Domitilla outside Rome. They celebrated mass and signed a document under the title of the Pact of the Catacombs. In 13 points, they challenged their brother bishops to live lives of evangelical poverty: without honorific titles, privileges, and worldly ostentation. They taught that “the collegiality of the bishops finds its supreme evangelical realisation in jointly serving the two-thirds of humanity who live in physical, cultural, and moral misery”. They called for openness “to all, no matter what their beliefs”.  Eventually 500 bishops signed this document but Paul VI, in the middle of the cold war, ignored it not wishing to give cause to Maxist countries by criticising Capitalism.  The Pact is now best seen in the ministry of Pope Francis.  

Câmara spoke out against the military dictatorship in Brazil, championed the rights of the poor and upset the ruling classes by advocating land reform.  He is reputed to have said: “When I give food to the poor they call me a saint, when I ask why the poor have no food they call me a Communist.”  Câmara associated himself with Liberation Theology – a movement seeking to analyse the Gospel and Society using the insights of Karl Marx whilst not supporting all his conclusions. On social issues Câmara supported the right of abandoned spouses to remarry – the position of the Orthodox Churches – and he supported the right of married couples to use birth control.  In 1971 Câmara published “The Spiral of Violence” which is distinctive for linking structural injustice with escalating rebellion and repressive reaction – all, for Câmara, forms of violence. Câmara called on the youth of the world to take steps to break the spiral, saying their elders became addicted to those escalating steps.  
 

The idea of a senior leader in the Church eschewing titles and status in order to work and identify with the “two thirds of humanity” who are poor is both so radical and Gospel-focused that it surprises us.  We know all too well how easy it is to compromise – and I write this all too aware of my own privilege. 

In the URC we can get quite smug about not having political or social power; unlike the Brazilian government in Câmara’s time, our rulers give not a hoot about what we may say on the issues of the day.  Our senior leaders aren’t expected to grace the grand occasions of state nor give spiritual cover to the government (we have Established churches for that) and so we like to think we’re on the edge.  

Do we, I wonder, use our edginess to any good effect? Does our being on the edge of the social and religious life of these islands give us a perspective to see things as they really are or do we moan about our decline and lack of status?  Do we seek out those who are poor, excluded, and oppressed and open our churches to them or just leave that work to Church Related Community Workers?  Do we want to be a church which is open to all, child-like in its approach and welcome, or do we, deep down, hanker after the trappings of power and status?

Born in a poor region of Brazil Câmara knew his faith, and his ministry, had to make a difference.  What difference does our, and your, ministry make to those around us?