Antidote to ‘Global ethics’, a new radical option to follow Christ

The challenge of the NILA spiritual youth rally.
The event’s Theme “You will receive power from the Holy Spirit and you will be my witnesses”
361 young people (16-25) from the Gizo diocese parishes from  Gizo, Noro, Ringi, Nusabaruku, Titiana, Canaan, Sirovanga (as far as Tambarato), Moli, Fauro, and Shortlands have come together for a renewal program, as a follow up of the World youth day in Sydney last August.

For one whole week the youth have reflected on input about the topics first in their “days in the parish” and then together at Nila.

They shared their views on the strengths and weaknesses of the church thus contributing to its renewal. They then identified a course of action to make the church young and committed to the radical witnessing of the gospel message. The presence of the priests and bishop throughout the affair was very much appreciated and seen as a good sign of love, care for the youth’s welfare. The exorbitant transportation cost was highly compensated by the great renewed enthusiasm of the youth in their personal life’s journey of growth as a person committed to be good Christians and honest citizens.

Confusion of values

Someone did a great damage to a jewelry store, nothing was stolen, but the prize tags were all interchanged and so something very valuable happened to sold for a very low prize and something very cheap happened to be sold a very high cost. This seems to be the issue of our youth today, they can be truly confused by the ‘exchange of tags’ we, their adult leaders, put on people, events, experiences. More often than not these experiences of ‘soft consensuses’ seem to ‘entertain’ our youth rather than liberate them from inside, leaving them empty and

unsatisfied. Could this explain the high suicide rate among the youth ion rich countries?

New global ethics based on relativism and lack of credible models can rightly be blamed for the confusion of values in our youth.
The new ethics brought by the globalization era in the west has come to our islands. The moral standards of the ‘global ethics’ masterminded by the ‘globalization specialists’ in the west  has brought a great confusion to our value system so deeply rooted in our Melanesian culture enlightened by the Gospel values… According to the ‘norms’ of global ethics, the ‘soft consensus’ among ‘partners’ is the final criterion of moral judgment on the morality of an action or decision. In any relationship or dealing something therefore is true or false depending on whether the parties involved agree or not (soft consensus). The truth is in the mutual agreement of the true partners. Even national laws passed by parliaments seem to be based on this criterion: ex, abortion, marriage among ‘consenting partners’ (of whatever gender) instead of ‘husband and wife’, extreme exploitation of unsustainable harvesting (depleting) of natural resources, chemical and artificial means of birth control (in the name of HIV prevention) and the like.

The option to accept and follow Christ radically as “the” meaningful alternative offered in the rally
The pastoral plan of the Gizo diocese has dared to face these issues together with the youth, by recently bringing 561 of them together to Nila in the Shortlands, the cradle of the Catholic faith in the Solomon Islands… They were challenged to ‘rejuvenate the church’, to evaluate, analyze and read the present situation of their  church in the light of the Gospel Values: do we truly live the gospel values?  are we settled in the ‘new global ethics kind of compromises?’ What is the church we young people dream of? How can we contribute to make it grow and renew. What values are now being challenged by globalization and influences from the western cultures? What Gospel Values do we have to defend and propose?
The final challenge was that of the World youth Day in Sydney where the youth were challenged to receive the spirit and be His witnesses. The youth have then been challenged to undergo a process of formations from the point they are to the point where God wants them to be. They have been challenged to join ongoing youth training programs aiming at making them grow and become apostles of their fellow young. They were challenged to Sanctity and to bring one of their erring friends back to Christ.

A Final challenge has been to become a true witness of Christ by choosing Christ as the Value number one in their lives. Is Christ the real value orienting all our decisions in life?

They were enlightened on the fact that a Value is not a value if it is not:

Personally and freely chosen among different alternatives,
After being fully conscious and well aware of the consequences of that choice
Bravely defended and proclaimed with courage without any fear, standing against a crown if needed and swimming against the current of global ethics and relativism…
Put into practice in the life style and shown externally in one’s behavior avoiding the counterproductive split between life and faith

These questions therefore were asked:
Did I choose Christ among all other possible choices offered to me by propaganda pressures…
Have I been aware of the consequences of choosing Him? I will have definitely to say NO to other opposite sinful experiences.
Have I defended my faith with courage or am I ashamed of it? Am I ready to die for what I believe? If not I will not certainly be ready to life for it
Does it show in my life that I am a person who made the option for Christ and to life a life of proclamation of his message?

I liked what a young man said: Thank you bishop for challenging us, do not expect us to be able to do all this, but please keep reminding us, we need to hear this kind of challenge… stay with us…

May the enthusiasm shown by our youth inspire us ‘olo’ to renew our enthusiasm in our mission to be for them true guides, brothers and leaders




Bishop Luciano Capelli, sdb
Gizo diocese
Who loves his youth with all the passion of the heart the good shepherd as Don Bosco did.