The family is a place where human relations are not based on waste-producing competition but on gratitude, solidarity and subsidiarity. This is the path which Pope Francis pointed to at his meeting with civil society in Ecuador — political authorities, artisans, trade unionists, representatives of ethnic groups and social movements — on Tuesday evening, 7…
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The family is a place where human relations are not based on waste-producing competition but on gratitude, solidarity and subsidiarity. This is the path which Pope Francis pointed to at his meeting with civil society in Ecuador — political authorities, artisans, trade unionists, representatives of ethnic groups and social movements — on Tuesday evening, 7…
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The independence
movement of Latin America was a “cry” for freedom from the peoples of the
continent who were exploited and deprived of liberties. Pope Francis’ third day in Ecuador began in
Quito’s Bicentennial Park, where he celebrated the 200 years of Latin America’s
emancipation from the yoke of “the powers that be”. On Tuesday morning, 7 July, the Pope
had previously met with the 50 bishops of the country in the Convention Centre
for approximately an hour. In an informal and familiar setting, he responded to
their questions privately and received a statue of St Francis with wings. Immediately after the Pontiff celebrated the
Mass “for the evangelization of peoples” in the presence of many faithful and
of the President of the Republic. The park, known as “the lung of Quito”, was
opened just two years ago in 2013, on that land that was once the city’s
international airport. The same airport which welcomed John Paul II in
1985. Constructed according to the
principles of environmental sustainability, the park is a green space popular
with Quiteños ….
(Vatican Radio) Cardinal Peter Turkson, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, is participating in the Second World Meeting of Social Movements in Bolivia and spoke to the delegates on Tuesday.
Listen to our report:
Pope Francis is set to take part in the event on July 9 during his Apostolic Visit to Bolivia. More than 1,500 delegates from Latin America and other continents, as well as many bishops and pastoral workers, are due to participate in the event organized to promote collaboration between popular organizations and local Churches in the Latin American region.
In his July 7th address to delegates, Cardinal Turkson offered several points on which participants could ponder in their deliberations.
In the first place, he urged the world to ‘move forward in a process of change in defence of the Earth and of human dignity’, a task to be advanced by religious leaders, businesspeople, and politicians in favour of the poor.
Those same poor and marginalized have organized themselves into social movements to resist social exclusion and ‘scandalous inequality’ by ‘resolving these access problems with their own hands’, he said. ‘The Church’, he continues, ‘desires to join her hands with theirs in these processes’ and to promote ‘better conditions for integral development of the excluded as people, families, and towns’.
‘The poor, peasants, and indigenous peoples’, he continued, ‘have their own way of doing politics’, which are ‘different from dominant forms and often not understood by the parameters of Western rational processes’. The Church, however, he said, ‘recognizes, valorises, and promotes these popular forms of expression’.
Cardinal Turkson went on to address the way in which social movements contrast with the global mentality of consumerism and colonialism. Instead of promoting waste and technocratic ideology, popular movements seek ‘community forms of work organization, land, and housing’, he said. These are new forms of life which the Church seeks to promote for the ‘dignity of the person over and above unbridled consumerism’. Above all, ‘social movements desire peace’, he said.
Concluding his remarks, Cardinal Turkson expressed his wish that the Second World Meeting of Social Movements be a hallmark in the dialogue between grassroots movements and the universal Church by recalling the words of Pope Francis’ recent Encyclical, Laudato si’: On the Care of our Common Home. ‘We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental. Strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature.’ (LS 139)
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Cardinal Peter Turkson, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, is participating in the Second World Meeting of Social Movements in Bolivia and spoke to the delegates on Tuesday. Listen to our report: Pope Francis is set to take part in the event on July 9 during his Apostolic Visit to…
Read more