Stan Chu Ilo

5 Spiritual lessons from the Healing of the Man who was Born Blind youtu.be/WFlO57SRC6o?si… via @YouTube @LeadershipRound @Pontifex @aciafricanews @GodfreyIOnah @OrbisBooks @CardRavasi @CudaEmilce @CSI_humanrights @ritapurity @rogerfederer @PeterObi

War represents the collapse of the human vocation to communion. It is the violation of the shalom of God's covenantal love for all peoples and creation. It is the tragic misuse of freedom. It is the negation of authentic human power. It is freedom severed from responsibility, power detached from justice, ambition and vain glory unmoored from the common good. War represents, particularly in today's world, a deep spiritual and moral crisis and a collapse of human compassion and connection. It is the raw and unsaved human lust for power and domination. It reflects an unredeemed human capacity for evil that becomes most visible when structures of violence, greed, and injustice are normalized and perpetuated. Peace never emerges from war; peace is the fruit of justice and love in the world. @LibTheoPodcast @Pontifex @realDonaldTrump @KamalaHarris @POTUS44 @StClement @CWCIT_DePaul @NVIntl @PaxChristiUSA

The West, sadly, has constructed a global architecture of violence. Europeans left their homeland and made destructive forays into other people’s lands. These invasions, cultural erasures, racist and colonial domination, and imposition of a false world order through what Edward Said calls ‘occidentalism’ are at the root of the crisis of history facing the world today. It is worsened by what Noam Chomsky, the American public intellectual, characterized in his book that bears the title of the saber-rattling of George H. Bush in the First Gulf War: “What We Say Goes”: America exercises its supremacy by imposing its will on other countries because, as Robert Lifton proposed, America suffers from a superpower syndrome. It is not surprising that, apart from the current situation in Ukraine, most of the wars in the world are fought in the non-Western world. The negotiations for the terms of peace in those territories are conducted by Western powers, sometimes without the voices of the people for whom these negotiations are being held. The West organizes other people’s lives to suit Western priorities and political and economic interests. The West sows divisions in countries and among countries, arms insurgents to fight its proxy wars, supports democracy in one country, and supports authoritarian hegemons in another to promote its geopolitical and economic interests. This is what America is doing in the Middle East. Now, some of these societies are imploding from internal contradiction of an externally imposed frame, the people are dismissed as undemocratic, and the government is dismissed as repressive. Who is fooling whom? It's time Americans stood up to politicians who are acting like drunken sailors and playing poker with people's lives. It is so despicable seeing these destructive strikes and to display them as sign of power makes me think these lunatics think that war is a PlayStation: lives of beloved ones are being wasted needlessly; families are destroyed; permanent injuries are left in the memories of people, and their world is collapsing, leaving intergenerational wounds on people. The killing of people should no longer be played as spectacles of triumph and power. There is no reason why America and Israel started this senseless and aimless war, and there is still time to listen to sane voices and moral guides like Pope Leo calling the world to return to love, respect, and compassion; stop this carnage and begin the process of healing among peoples through building bridges of friendship and fellow feeling. @Pontifex @realDonaldTrump @NCRonline @NCRegister @CardinalBCupich @VaticanIHD @VaticanNews @aciafricanews @USCCB @Surgeon_General @ariannahuff @nytimes @archchicago @DeptofWar

Israel killed a beloved Priest in Lebanon in their vicious bombing campaign in Christian villages. Christians are gathered to mourn the death of Father Pierre El-Rahi. America must stop funding, providing weapons, and aiding Israel’s attacks on innocent people and children.

A Pilgrim of Hope on African Soil: Episode 2 youtu.be/XMmaFgbWTOw?si… via @YouTube

A Pilgrim of Hope on African Soil: Episode 2 youtu.be/XMmaFgbWTOw?si… via @YouTube @aciafricanews @USCCB @VaticanNews @BBCBreaking @TheEconomist @cnnbrk @OrbisBooks @CCCB_CECC @lebo_diseko @Pontifex @EWTN @NCRonline @BlkCathlicMsngr @cnalive @saltandlighttv @fijnigeria @PeterObi @oganiruIgbo @ProfDNgong @ugwuntadavid

Pope Leo XIV’s Vatican newspaper is the only publication in the Western world to run the photograph of 150 Iranian girls' graves — killed in President Trump's military strikes — on its front page.

International Women’s Day Special: “Give to Gain” youtu.be/FusSusydSq8?si… via @YouTube

Why are African youth fighting—and dying—in the Russia-Ukraine war? @stanchuilo exposes the deception, desperation, and trafficking networks behind this disturbing trend. 👉 voiceafrique.org/lured-to-die/

We’re not just facing a political crisis — we’re facing a spiritual one! When greed is normalized, truth is disposable, and cruelty is marketed as strength, the soul of the nation is at stake! This isn’t about one man. It’s about a moral decay that rewards corruption and punishes integrity. We must call our young people back to courage, truth, justice, and love! #TruthJusticeLove @CNN_NewsNight

A Pilgrim of Hope on African Soil: Episode 1 youtu.be/RIzUsKJaKW8?si… via @YouTube @aciafricanews @Pontifex @USCCB @CCCB_CECC @OrbisBooks @VaticanNews @BBCAfrica @RFI_En @Crux @LaCroix @CNNbelief @ConciliumINT @PactPan @BishopBarron @saltandlighttv

There has been no harsher critic to U.S. military action in Iran than Pope Leo XIV: “War is back in vogue and a zeal for war is spreading.  The principle established after the Second World War, which prohibited nations from using force to violate the borders of others, has been completely undermined. “Peace is no longer sought as a gift and a desirable good in itself, or in the pursuit of the establishment of the ordered universe willed by God, with a more perfect form of justice among men and women.” “Instead, peace is sought through weapons as a condition for asserting one’s own dominion. “This gravely threatens the rule of law, which is the foundation of all peaceful civil coexistence.”

President Trump is dragging the U.S into an unnecessary war without any national conversation or the approval of Congress. This military operation is both ill-advised and wrong-headed. President Trump is going it alone without the consent of any of America's allies in the Middle East, G-20, NATO or elsewhere except Israel. Iran was already negotiating in good faith and the Omanis and other third parties were all invested in good faith to allow diplomacy and negotiation to work. But with the arms build up by the U.S in the region, it seems that President Trump never really wanted to give diplomacy and peace a chance because he believes in gunboat diplomacy and leveraging military might over the long, patient path of jaw-jaw rather than war-war. War is the solution which lunatics prefer to peace-making and non-violence. War is anachronistic. The world has no more appetite for wars because we have found better ways of resolving our conflicts as a human family. War destroys everything. No American, Iranian, Israeli, Palestinian or any other human being deserves to die needlessly in this senseless war of choice that President Trump has just started. Americans did not vote in Trump to the presidency because they want the continuation of these endless wars that America chooses now and again in the Middle East or elsewhere. A greater majority of Americans have learned from the calamities in Vietnam, Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan and many other places where America went in driven by a superpower syndrome, that an imperialistic pursuit of American national interests, or regime change in other people's land motivated solely by America's security, geo-political, and economic interests always ends in failure and more chaos. Just look at Iraq!!! But the logic for the U.S as Noam Chomsky wrote about on how America flexes its muscle in the world is simple: "What we say goes!" However, I say that any attempt to dictate to other nations or impose on them America's version of governance through military means always ends in failure and more misery for the people, the region and the world. Present Trump is attacking Iran not because of the interest of Iranian people but because of Trump's narrow version of America's interest as of today. It might change tomorrow. President Trump is dragging America to another irreversible mistake in the Middle East and Americans must stand up to this President and indeed all men and women of good will throughout the world must say 'no' to this violation of Iran's sovereignty by the U.S and Israel. War against Iran is not the solution to the needed surgical change in Iran whose government has brought so much misery and pain to its own people and made this proud nation a pariah in the world. No nation can survive by repressing its own people or undermining its neighbors security and pushing for death to America, Israel or any other nations through terrorism, sabotage, and subversive acts. Iran needs a new political dispensation, but it cannot be brought about through the current American and Israeli operation. President Bush, like President Trump today, had predicated that after the toppling of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, the Iraqis will be greeting Americans with flowers as liberators. We know how many lives were wasted and still today Iraq is still bleeding from that terrible war experiment that America waged alone with the so-called coalition of the willing. More than 20years later we are hearing the same irrational sabre rattling and rhetoric from another American President. I wonder: What makes President Trump think that America has the solution to other people's problems when America is dealing unsuccessfully with myriads of problems and challenges in its crisis of democracy going back to the storming of the Congress on January 6, 2021? What makes anyone believe that America can bring about in Iran or any other country what it is struggling to uphold in its own country with what we are experiencing as Americans today with the dismantling of the rule of law, separation of power, the crisis of the Epstein files, government by retribution, and the executive overreach and the autocracy under the Trump regime in the U.S? I long for a world where God's people can live in peace and prosperity. I long for a world where the lives of God's children are no longer sacrificed so cheaply by our political leaders just to advance their limited perception of reality? Power today whether locally or internationally should be exercised in concert to address human and global problems especially to reduce human suffering and the pain of the poor who are often the non-grievable victims of these forever wars. War should no longer be an option on the table because the just war theory was not developed with these massive weapons of destruction in mind. Who is the unjust aggressor in this surprise development in Iran today? Where is the proportionality in the destruction already inflicted on Iran and on other Gulf states? An urgent meeting of the U.N security Council and the U.S Congress respectively is needed to stop this calamitous experiment from expanding into a regional conflict and a river of blood of our fellow human being. With Pope Leo I say: “Every war is truly a wound inflicted upon the entire human family; it leaves in its wake death, devastation and a trail of pain that marks generations. Peace cannot be postponed. It is an urgent necessity that must find a home in our hearts and be translated into responsible decisions.” @realDonaldTrump @DonaldJTrumpJr @aciafricanews @cnnbrk @CBSNews @FoxNews @BBCBreaking @SkyNews @aciafricanews @OrbisBooks @VaticanIHD @VaticanNews @tparsi @IlhanMN @FmrRepMTG @thehill @BarackObama @ConciliumINT @MassimoFaggioli @JoeBiden @elonmusk @TuckerCarlson @NCRonline @NCRegister @USCCB @CCCB_CECC @CBCNews @ABC @NPR

I am dismayed. Active and serious negotiations have yet again been undermined. Neither the interests of the United States nor the cause of global peace are well served by this. And I pray for the innocents who will suffer. I urge the United States not to get sucked in further. This is not your war.

youtu.be/JfF-2UE7UN4?si… On this Second Sunday of Lent, Fr. Stan Chu Ilo invites us to ascend the mountain of the Transfiguration with Jesus. In this sacred season, God calls us each day to leave behind our past, to step out of our comfort zones, and to open our hearts to a newness and transfiguration beyond our imagination. Like Abraham in the First Reading, and like Peter, James, and John on the holy mountain, we are summoned to trust, to journey, and to be changed. May this Holy Season become for you a time of renewal and new beginnings. May the words of this message bless you and strengthen you as you respond to the Lord’s invitation.

It was wonderful to catch up with Dr. @stanchuilo over Korean food. He has a new, wonderful book, "Where is God?". Get it from @OrbisBooks.

Pope Leo’s Pilgrimage to Africa: Grace and a Test of Conscience voiceafrique.org/pope-leos-pilg… @Pontifex @aciafricanews @antoniospadaro @CWCIT_DePaul @CNNbelief @BBCBreaking @OrbisBooks @USCCB @CCCB_CECC @VaticanIHD @CudaEmilce @VaticanNews @HuffPostRelig @jesuitczerny @CardinalBCupich @saltandlighttv @cnalive @ConciliumINT

With deep joy I welcome Pope Leo’s proposed historic Apostolic visit to Africa (April 13–23). It will be one of the longest trips of his pontificate and one of the longest in modern papal history. From Algeria—walking in the footsteps of Saint Augustine in Algiers and Annaba—to Cameroon (Yaoundé, Bamenda, Douala), Angola (Luanda, Muxima, Saurimo), and Equatorial Guinea (Malabo, Mongomo, Bata), this is a pilgrimage of memory, mission, bridge-building, and peace. Africa is a continent of ancient Christian roots and rich traditions, immense cultural diversity, youthful energy, and the fastest-growing Christian population in the world. Yet it is also a continent marked by wounds: poverty, fragile institutions, displacement, ecological stress, and in places like the Anglophone region of Cameroon, a decade-long conflict that has scarred families and futures. That the Successor of Peter goes to the peripheries, to the poor, to those who care for the least, speaks volumes. This visit matters—for reconciliation, for hope, for affirming Africa not as a problem to be solved but as a gift to the universal Church. Africa’s faith, resilience, and witness are central to the future of global Christianity. May this journey strengthen peace, heal memories, and renew the Church’s solidarity with a continent where the Gospel continues to take flesh in powerful and transformative ways.@OrbisBooks @VaticanNews @aciafricanews @CNNbelief @HuffPostRelig @USCCB @Pontifex @CudaEmilce @CardinalBCupich @jesuitczerny @NCRonline @cnalive @ProfDNgong @ProfDanRober @CCCB_CECC @CAFOD @BBCAfrica @saltandlighttv @OSSERVA @ritapurity @BlkCathlicMsngr @tonyannett @ConciliumINT @AJEnglish @Franklin_Graham @fijnigeria