Showing results by author "Ovide Bastien" in All Categories

A scathing criticism of the complicity of the Chilean Catholic Church in the coup that overthrew Salvador Allende in September 1973. A criticism which, in the present strong backlash against globalization and in the context of a Catholic Church whose leader, Pope Francis takes a very strong stand against a system that excludes and marginalizes, remains very relevant in our present world. Ovide Bastien argues that while it is true that the Chilean Catholic Church, under the leadership of Cardinal Silva Henríquez, played an impressive and very important role in helping the persecuted and ...

When I was preparing to become a priest and missionary 52 years ago, I was then 23 years old and living in Ottawa. I wrote two memoirs for my master’s degree in philosophy. The first memoir was on the American psychotherapist Carl Rogers and the second one on the French philosopher Aimé Forest.

When I was preparing to become a priest and missionary fifty-two years ago – I was then 23 years old and living in Ottawa – I wrote two memoirs for my master’s degree in philosophy. The first memoir was on the American psychotherapist Carl Rogers and the second one on the French philosopher Aimé Forest. Today, with the hindsight that half a century allows me to have, I am very impressed by the fact that the worldviews underlying Aimé Forest’s philosophical approach and Carl Rogers’ person-centered therapy remain not only very relevant in 2018, but also, in my opinion, urgently ...

Il m'est très pénible de voir, jour après jour, les événements dramatiques qui se produisent au Nicaragua depuis la mi-avril 2018: environ 340 morts et plus de 2 000 blessés. Une partie de la tristesse que je ressens présentement vient du fait que le Nicaragua est devenu pour moi un deuxième foyer, un peuple avec lequel j’ai tissé des liens très profonds lors de mes séjours annuels depuis 23 ans. Je ressens de la compassion pour les Nicaraguayens qui ont perdu leurs proches, pour les blessés, pour les torturés et emprisonnés, pour les disparus, pour ceux et celles qui vivent...

Telling the story of a Nicaraguan family, especially one as impressive as the Zelaya Blandón family, represents a daunting yet rewarding task. When writing their autobiographies and recalling the trials and hardships, as well as the profound joys of the Nicaraguan Sandinista revolution, all were emotional. During our interview with Nellys, a beautiful and amazingly powerful exchange, she broke into tears from time to time; and some of us were also in tears. When Thelma wrote her testimony, she could not, at times, hold back her tears, so deep and moving were her memories. "Our parents ...

The only textbook I have ever produced that many of my students found difficult to stop reading. Includes a significant portion of the diaries and letters I wrote when I experienced the 1973 coup d'état that ousted Salvador Allende. Provides an overview of Chilean history from 1964 to 2014, with a special emphasis on the first year of the coup.

The surprise attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7, 2023 shook the world, with many observers calling it Israel's 9/11, in memory of the tragedy that occurred in the USA on September 11, 2001. For me, the Hamas attack, and above all Israel's incredibly destructive and murderous invasion of Gaza in the weeks and months that followed - an invasion supported, politically and militarily, by the United States - brought back memories of another 9/11. The one I lived through in Chile over 50 years ago, when in 1973 a military junta, with the full support of the United States, overthrew the ...

L'Église catholique chilienne, sous la direction courageuse du Cardinal Raul Silva Henriquez, a joué un rôle remarquable dans la défense des milliers de victimes durant la longue dictature d'Augusto Pinochet. Le Vicariat de solidarité, fondé par le Cardinal Henriquez, a représenté un refuge pour les persécutés, leur offrant aide matérielle, services juridiques, et un espace précieux pour la réarticulation des organisations syndicales, communautaires et politiques. Cependant, cette même Église avait-elle appuyé le général Pinochet dans les premiers mois du coup d'État, et ...

“Major report, as solid as dismaying”, asserts Louis Cornellier in his review of François De Labarre’s Vatican Offshore : l’argent noir de l’Église (2023). The fundamental thesis of this book is that Pope Francis is successfully waging a courageous and remarkable struggle against the financial corruption in which the Vatican City has been immersed for decades. And that Australian Cardinal George Pell has played a decisive role in this struggle. That is why those profiteering at the Vatican are said to have sent a few million dollars to those in Australia who have been ...

Cuando me preparaba para ser sacerdote y misionero hace cincuenta y siete años realicé dos investigaciones para mi máster en filosofía. La primera era sobre el psicoterapeuta estadounidense Carl Rogers y la segunda sobre el filósofo francés Aimé Forest. Hoy, con la retrospectiva que me permite medio siglo, estoy muy impresionado por el hecho de que las visiones del mundo que subyacen a la terapia centrada en la persona de Carl Rogers y al enfoque filosófico de Aimé Forest, que son sorprendentemente similares en aspectos fundamentales, siguen siendo no sólo muy relevantes.

“Un importantísimo informe tan sólido como espantoso” : así describe Louis Cornellier Vatican Offshore : l’argent noir de l’Église (2023) de François De Labarre. La tesis fundamental de este libro es que el Papa Francisco está liderando con éxito una valiente y notable lucha contra la corrupción financiera en la que está inmersa la Ciudad del Vaticano desde hace décadas. Y en esta lucha, el cardenal australiano George Pell ha desempeñado un papel decisivo. Por eso los aprovechados del Vaticano han enviado varios millones de dólares a los grupos de Australia que llevan ...

"Ovide, read the report Control and Abuse Investigation on Thomas Philippe, Jean Vanier and L’Arche (1950-2019). It is an excellent report. It is even more impressive than the McCarrick Report, told me François Gloutnay of Présence magazine in a telephone conversation. I had just sent an e-mail to François congratulating him, not only for the article he had just published on this report, but also for all the others he had had the courage to write in the past on the Catholic Church’s clergy abuse crisis. Articles which are obviously not making him popular in many Catholic circles (...

Quand je me préparais à devenir prêtre et missionnaire il y a 52 ans - j'avais alors 23 ans et vivais à Ottawa - j’ai rédigé deux mémoires en vue de ma maîtrise en philosophie. Le premier mémoire portait sur le psychothérapeute américain Carl Rogers et le second sur le philosophe français Aimé Forest.

The diary and letters I wrote when I experienced the coup d'état that ousted Salvador Allende in Chile on Tuesday morning, 11 September 1973. This coup was carefully planned by the Chilean elite with the help of the CIA, and included propaganda, economic sabotage, torture, total press censorship, assassination, and a radical free market revolution leading to a gross gap between rich and poor.

I was plunged into such a deep shock and sadness, that I was forced to ask myself what had gone wrong. Why would my lifelong friend Tom, raised on the farm by a wonderful mom and dad exactly like I had been, end up doing such a horrible thing as abusing minors? Why in the world would such a thing ever happen in such an extraordinary, loving and close-knit family as that of Tom! Why?

This book first presents conflicting views on globalization and then focuses on its present spectacular crisis. Considerable attention is given to the backlash against globalization represented by Donald Trump's surprise election in the U.S. The proposals for the U.S. economy of the internationally acclaimed economist, Joseph Stiglitz, which he exposed in his 2015 book "Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy", are compared and contrasted with Donald Trump's agenda. Also examined: the present crisis of Latin America's anti-globalization governments and the outstanding performance of the...

Me resulta muy doloroso ver, día a día, los dramáticos acontecimientos que se han desarrollado en Nicaragua desde mediados de abril de 2018. Dolor debido a todas las muertes, los heridos, los encarcelados, los torturados, los desaparecidos y los miles que ahora huyen a otros países. Dolor debido a la destrucción masiva, no solo a edificios e infraestructura, sino también a una economía que ahora se está derrumbando. Y dolor debido a los profundos lazos emocionales que he desarrollado a lo largo de los años con los nicaragüenses, y esto en ambos lados de la división política ...

Este libro pinta el retrato de uno de mis mejores amigos nicaragüenses, Francisco Escalante Mondragón, conocido como Don Paco. Describe su juventud y sus logros como coordinador de la Cruzada Nacional de Alfabetización en Cinco Pinos en 1980 y en los esfuerzos subsequentes de pos alfabetización. Relata también sus logros en organizar estadías estudiantiles y proyectos de desarrollo de Estudios Norte-Sur (del Colegio Dawson, Montreal, Canadá) en su región, así como las experiencias - numerosas muy bellas y algunas difíciles - que hemos compartido desde casi 20 años.Un día el ...

Students sometimes ask questions whose depth is such that teachers have trouble coming up with answers. That is what happened to me on January 31, 1984, as I was teaching my Introduction to Economics course at Maisonneuve College in Montreal, Canada. Suddenly, a student raised her hand and asked me with great sincerity: “Sir, what makes the world go round, love or money?” Taken aback by the simplicity and depth of her question, I remained silent for a few seconds, made a few comments, and, remembering the lessons I had learned, asked them what they thought the answer was.

Depuis le début de sa papauté en 2013, le pape François se fait remarquer et admirer par ses prises de position étonnamment progressistes par rapport à la justice sociale et l’environnement. Et il dénonce haut et fort le cléricalisme qui existe dans l’Église catholique et a posé de nombreux gestes pour montrer qu’il cherche, comme pape, à s’en éloigner: il a choisi de vivre dans la résidence modeste Santa Marta au lieu des appartements pontificaux traditionnels; il a choisi une voiture usagée pour ses déplacements au lieu d’une limousine.