LATIN AMERICA:
Catholic Church Renews
'Option for the Poor'
By
Patricia Grogg
HAVANA, (IPS) -
The Roman Catholic
Church plans to
undertake concrete
projects in the next
four years to help
overcome poverty in
Latin America, the
region with the most
glaring income
inequalities in the
world.
"The option for the poor
is one of the challenges
we have in the region,"
Monsignor Raymundo
Damasceno Assis,
archbishop of the
Brazilian city of
Aparecida and the new
president of the Latin
American Episcopal
Council (CELAM), told
IPS.
"It is above all up to
Christian lay people to
unite to overcome the
structures of injustice
in our countries, so
that we may all have
better living
conditions," he added at
the close of the first
CELAM General Assembly
to be held in Cuba.
The latest statistics
from the Economic
Commission for Latin
America and the
Caribbean (ECLAC)
indicate that 205
million people live
below the poverty line
in this region, of whom
79 million are indigent
(extremely poor).
Coinciding with this
Assembly, which brought
together 50 bishops from
all over the region,
Pope Benedict XVI
authorised the release
of the Aparecida
document, approved by
the bishops' conference
held in May in the
Brazilian city of the
same name.
In the Aparecida
document, the bishops
urge every local church
to strengthen the Social
Pastorates, so that
their presence might be
felt in the midst of
"the new realities of
exclusion and
marginalisation
experienced by the most
vulnerable groups."
Globalisation, the
bishops say, has led to
the emergence of "new
faces of the poor" and
excluded, among whom
they mention immigrants,
victims of violence,
human trafficking and
kidnappings, displaced
persons and refugees,
the "disappeared,"
people with HIV/AIDS,
those who live on city
streets, miners and
landless peasants.
"The Church's Social
Pastorate must welcome
and support these
excluded people wherever
they are," the Latin
American ecclesiastical
hierarchy said in
Aparecida. In the face
of today's globalisation
that favours wealth
accumulation and
promotes inequity and
injustice, the Church
proposes another,
characterised by
justice, solidarity and
respect for human
rights, they said.
The 136-page document,
divided in three
sections and 10
chapters, gives an
overview of the regional
situation and expresses
particular concern about
problems such as drug
addiction and drug
trafficking, violence
which mainly targets the
poorest sectors and
raises crime indices,
and the dual
marginalisation
experienced by
low-income women,
indigenous people and
Afro-descendants.
The "preferential option
for the poor" is the
basis of Liberation
Theology, whose
proponents' involvement
in the struggles of the
poor and marginalised
sectors of the Latin
American population
often brought them into
conflict with a more
conservative Catholic
Church hierarchy in the
past.
Damasceno Assis said
that at the Havana
meeting recommendations
were made and tasks were
distributed among CELAM
officials, who will meet
again in Bogotá in
August to draw up
concrete projects to
flesh out the strategy
approved in Aparecida
for the next four years.
He also announced that
the 32nd Ordinary
Assembly of CELAM will
take place in Managua in
2009.
The Jul. 10-13 meeting
in Havana was hailed as
historic, because it was
held for the first time
in Cuba. The bishops met
with Cuban authorities,
including
vice-presidents Carlos
Lage and Esteban Lazo,
and asked them for
facilities for thousands
of young Latin Americans
studying in Cuba to
practice their religion
and access spiritual
help.
"They told us that this
dialogue will continue,
and that they are open
to support these
requests," the
archbishop of Aparecida
said.
The Latin American
School of Medicine
(ELAM), created in 1999,
alone receives 1,500
students annually, on
Cuban government
scholarships, from 24
countries -- 19 within
the region. Total
student numbers are
between 10,000 and
12,000 students,
studying different years
of the course.
Official sources said
that at the meeting
there was agreement
about "the need for the
training given to Latin
American professionals
in Cuba to continue
potentiating human
values and the
conservation of their
beliefs, traditions and
customs, so that they
can return to their
communities of origin
and serve those who are
most in need."
One of ELAM's principles
is to train
professionals "to a high
level of scientific,
humanist and ethical
preparation and capacity
for solidarity, so that
they will be able to act
within their environment
to satisfy the needs of
the region and
contribute to
sustainable human
development."
The Latin American
bishops made no direct
comment on at least
three letters received
from internal dissident
sectors in Cuba,
requesting that they
mediate on behalf of
prisoners and other
humanitarian cases.
Instead they decided to
hand these matters over
to the local Catholic
Church.
"CELAM's presidency has
put these matters into
the hands of the Cuban
Conference of Catholic
Bishops, which is the
right body to dialogue
with the national
authorities on the
matters raised in these
letters," said a note
distributed to
journalists at the end
of a press conference.
Relations between the
Catholic Church and the
Cuban government, which
had been through tense
times in the past, began
to improve ever since
the preparations for the
visit in January 1998 of
Pope John Paul II, who
died in 2005.
Cuban curia sources have
told IPS that the
dialogue that was opened
at that time has been
maintained to date,
although the situation
is not idyllic, nor are
all problems solved.
"There are steps still
to be taken, but it
cannot be said that
(relations) are bad. Our
communication with the
present head of the
Office of Religious
Affairs, Caridad Diego,
is fluent, and problems
are solved in a friendly
manner," said Monsignor
Carlos Manuel de
Céspedes, vicar general
of Havana, in an
interview with Enfoques,
a publication of the IPS
news agency in Havana.
At the Havana meeting,
CELAM also elected new
officers: the first vice
president is Baltazar
Porras Cardozo,
archibishop of Mérida,
Venezuela; the second
vice president is Andrés
Stanovnik, bishop of
Reconquista, Argentina.
Emilio Aranguren
Echeverría, bishop of
Holguín, Cuba, is to
head the Financial
Committee.
Víctor Sánchez Espinosa,
auxiliary bishop of
Mexico, was elected
general secretary of
CELAM.
Founded in 1955, CELAM's
administrative centre is
in Bogotá. It represents
the 22 episcopal
conferences of Latin
America and the
Caribbean, and it
re-elects its officers
every four years. |
