Self-centeredness root cause of injustice, South African priest says

Published: 2007-07-20

MARYKNOLL, N.Y. (CNS) -- Egotistical self-centeredness is the deepest problem of our day and Jesus' own spirituality is the remedy. In fact, Jesus' spirituality is more relevant today than it was in his time. This was the message of Dominican Father Albert Nolan, a South African theologian and author, who addressed 225 people at Maryknoll July 18 on the topic of "Jesus Yesterday and Today." Father Nolan said, "If we do not do something about self-centeredness, new forms of social injustice will keep cropping up as fast as we try to eliminate older forms of social injustice because we have not eliminated their root causes. In South Africa today, our hard-won freedoms are often undermined by greed, corruption, crime, hypocrisy and power-mongering," he said. "In the struggle for justice and liberation during the second half of the 20th century, we neglected the needs of the individual to love, to forgive, to affirm and to overcome personal selfishness."

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