Contemplative in the Mud

Those who Remain Silent are Responsible

1–2 minutes

Benjamin Embley

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4 comments on Those who Remain Silent are Responsible

Those who remain silent are responsible.
Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

What does this quote mean? In English, there’s a twofold possibility:

  • Those who remain silent about their own goodness act responsibly.
  • Those who remain silent about evil in the world share in culpability.

It is, in the original, which was written about the Third Reich by a Catholic Jewish woman who became a Carmelite nun, the latter which is meant: Those who remain silent about evil in the world share in culpability.

Contemplation only means certain kinds of silence. Contemplation is totally incompatible with silence in the face of injustice, oppression, racial prejudice, economic injustice, or any form of social evil.

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Benjamin Embley

With backgrounds in engineering (BSc PhD) and philosophy (MA), Ben has lived and worked in England, France, and Thailand and is now back home as a settler in the unceded traditional territory of the Wabanaki peoples in Canada. He is a Laudato Si’ Animator and currently studying an MTS Peace & Justice in Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples.

4 responses to “Those who Remain Silent are Responsible”

  1. Jonathan Caswell Avatar
    Jonathan Caswell

    Reblogged this on By the Mighty Mumford and commented:
    SILENCE IS NOT ALWAYS GOLDEN—EXCEPT FOR THE PERPETRATOR!!!!

    Reply
  2. Mama Avatar
    Mama

    I see it this way: Because they didn’t stood up for themselves, they felt responsible for what happenend next in their thoughts and feelings. If they were strong, maybe the same happenend, but they weren’t responsible for not fighting. It’s about the second world war, but also about individuals and their thoughts and feelings. That they are responsible of what they are. We can say: we are not responsible for what the other is. But yes, we are responsible for what we say, and better; for what we didn’t say and how we feel now about it.

    Reply
  3. Mama Avatar
    Mama

    I mean they were responsible for not fighting, because they want to think: what happens to me, is not my fault.

    Reply
  4. Pastoor Geudens Avatar
    Pastoor Geudens

    Reblogged this on De waarheid achter.

    Reply

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