The Flames of Namugongo: Issues Around Theological Narrativity, Heteronormativity, Globalization, and AIDS in Africa

Hamilton’s paper, delivered during the 2008 Annual Meeting in Chicago, uses the hagiography of Charles Lwanga and the Martyrs of Uganda to reveal an unrelenting problem of the Church – the ways in which the assumptions of heternormativity and sodomitical discourse drown out the voices of those who do not fall into heteronormative sexual and/or gendered identities, and lead to the open persecution, imprisonment, and torture of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered persons in Uganda, and in fact all over Africa. Casting those with ‘othered’ sexual identities as evil, or even simply turning a deaf ear to the persecution faced by those persons, has both explicitly and implicitly added to their suffering, including ignoring the plight of AIDS victims. The solution may lie in our efforts to understand the deities of Africa

The Decline of Black Catholicism: What’s Racial Slavery To Do With It?

This essay links the current decline of black Catholicism to the racial slavery practiced in Roman Catholicism at its settlement in the USA. Employing missiological anthropological analysis, Assenyoh, S.V.D., argues that the racism that characterized the beginning of New World slavery remains in the Church and accounts for the decline of black Catholicism. Assenyoh calls for persistent critiques of racial slavery in the Church’s history if there must be transformation rather than reformation

Homily for the 150th Anniversary of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul

This homily celebrates the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul in the United States. In it, Terry Steib explores the paradox of God as it applies to Vincentians. God is both “beyond limits and beyond knowing” and “more intimate to us than we are to ourselves.” Christians are always left “mystified but hopeful.” Vincentians in particular are mystified by injustice shown to the poor and by the love of God, which led him to create us with free will even though we might then commit injustice. Other mysteries are that God shows himself in persons who are poor and chooses humans, with all their weaknesses, to do his work. Hope lies in the fact that the work is accomplished. Suffering matters to God, and our service to the poor is part of his plan

The Vincentian Homiletic Tradition

By Vincent de Paul’s time, sermons had become complicated by stylistic devices that were intended to impress rather than instruct. Pierre de Berulle, Francis de Sales, and Vincent were responsible for reforming sermon delivery in France. Vincent’s principles for preparing and preaching sermons were encapsulated in his Little Method. The Little Method mandated structure and language that were simple to understand and delivered with sincerity. A letter from Francis de Salle shows his influence on the Little Method, and a specific conference of Vincent’s demonstrates the Little Method’s components, how it was to be used, and the results it would achieve. Members of the Congregation received extensive training in the Little Method. Because it became such an integral part of the Congregation, it also spread through the retreats, conferences, and seminaries that the Congregation directed, both in France and abroad

Diet of the ant-eating chat Myrmecocichla formicivora in relation to terrestrial arthropod abundance

During a survey of terrestrial arthropods in the central Orange Free State we collected a sample of ant-eating chats Myrmecocichla formicivora over a 12-month period to analyse the stomach contents. Throughout the year Hymenoptera (ants) were the most abundant arthropods in the pitfall traps with Isoptera common in winter. Although a wide variety of arthropod prey items was taken, there seemed to be some selection from the available prey. During winter a significantly higher number of prey items was taken than during summer. It is postulated that the different foraging methods employed during summer and winter, as well as the variation in the numbers and diversity of the prey, are responsible for the observed differences between the summer and winter diets of the ant-eating chat