About us

New training tool on the Universal Periodic Review

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 08:32:30 +0100

Dear all,  [ french version here ]  We are pleased to present you our new training tool on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR): http://www.upr-info.org/tutorials
We have developed three tutorials explaining different aspects of the UPR: its modalities for the second and subsequent cycles, the role of each State under Review and the role of non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
These tutorials are aimed at all stakeholders: States, national human rights institutions, NGOs, academics, media, parliamentarians, United Nations agencies, etcetera.
They consist of slides and videos and last for about half an hour. A small test concludes each tutorial.
We also have these three tutorials at your disposal as an off-line version free of charge; should your internet access be slow or should you need the videos in higher-quality (for a training, ie) please do not hesitate to send an email to tutorial [at] upr-info.org to receive a copy.
 We encourage you to share those tutorials around you and hope that you will find them useful for your work. Do not hesitate to send us your feedback.   Best regards,

-- Roland Chauville Executive Director
UPR Info Avenue du Mail 14 1205 Genève CH Tel : + 41 22 321 77 70
Fax : + 41 22 321 77 71
Mobile : + 41 76 779 78 99
Email : info@upr-info.org
www.upr-info.org

Detention of migrants in an irregular situation

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:19:01 +0100

Civil Society Section
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

Consultation - Detention of migrants in an irregular situation

Special Rapporteur on human rights of migrants

Deadline - 30 January 2012
 
What is the Human Rights Council? - http://goo.gl/ZPN5d
 Who's Who in Special Procedures: http://goo.gl/ZxYjn
 
Dear All,

The Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Mr. Francois Crépeau, will dedicate his first thematic report to the Human Rights Council to the issue of detention of migrants in an irregular situation. This report will be presented at the 20th session of the Council, scheduled for June 2012.

You are invited to provide inputs to the report.

His report will outline relevant legal provisions and jurisprudence by international and regional human rights mechanisms.

The Special Rapporteur intends to examine the following issues and concerns relating to detention:

-Justification and reason for detention;

-Detention regimes;

-Detention conditions and application of legal safeguards;

-Special needs and protection concerns of vulnerable groups of migrants (including children, women, families, and migrants with mental health issues).

Particular emphasis will be given to good practices of alternatives to detention.

Against this outline, your inputs are welcome, including materials and reports already publicly available that you deem of relevance.

Please send your inputs no later than 30 January to migrant@ohchr.org

Visit the website: http://goo.gl/jCjKI

***

Recent statements

First oral report to the General Assembly on 21 October 2011 - http://goo.gl/nZ5H3

End of mission statement on the country visit to Albania (5-13 December 2011) - http://goo.gl/P7iTG

"Dignity has no nationality" - International Migrants Day on 18 December 2011 - http://goo.gl/J9lNW

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/unitednationshumanrights

Twitter - http://twitter.com/UNrightswire

YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/UNOHCHR
中文 *** Español *** Français *** العربية *** Pусский

******

For an unofficial translation of this message into another language you may try:

http://translate.google.com/
Best regards,

Civil Society Section
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Tel. +41 (0) 22 - 917 - 9656
Visit our website: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/AboutUs/Pages/CivilSociety.aspx

NEWSBRIEF - NOTICIAS BREVES

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 08:37:47 +0100

JANUARY, 2012
NEWSBRIEF - JPIC COMMISSION OFFICE Vol.5 No 1

ROME UPDATE

JPIC ‘Formation’ Seminar, February 4 (all day): It takes place on February 4th, 2012 at the Fratelli Cristiani. The theme is JPIC in formation processes. Two well known speakers (José Antonio Pagola and Rosemary Mangan, RJM) will present themes in the morning and evening, followed by testimonies and group work. It is open to Leadership Teams, Formation Secretaries, JPIC Promoters and other interested religious. The offering will be €12 Euro. There will be simultaneous translations into English, Spanish, French and Italian. For preparation questions and to register contact jpic@cgfma.org. For more information contact the jpic office and for a copy of the programme go to,
English: http://jpicformation.wikispaces.com/EN_Seminars+and+Conferences
Spanish: http://jpicformation.wikispaces.com/ES_Promotores+Espanol+Portugues
Note: Registration is now closed.

JPIC Ecology Seminar, March 3 (half day): The theme of this Seminar is Ecology. Fr. Rayappa A. Kasi, a priest from India who is a well known writer and speaker on environmental issues has agreed to come to Rome. He will make two presentations - (1) The Kingdom of God is under attack – The War on Creation (2) Climate Justice based on Eco-Spirituality (3) Role of Religions on the War on Creation. There will be simultaneous translations into Italian and Spanish. The offering at the door will be €7.00 Euro. To find out more about our speaker, check his web site at - www.planetschaser.com To register contact jpicusguisg@lasalle.org

JPIC Formation – PDF files: The book ‘Guide us in your justice: A formation itinerary for a prophetic Religious Life’ is now available in PDF files in English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and German at - http://jpicformation.wikispaces.com/En_JPICinFormation / There are also available pamphlets in the several languages in the UISG. To contact Teresa Martin: tmarsanz@gmail.com
Teléfono: 06 68 400 20

A JPIC Orientation Manual for Promoters: As part of the JPIC Commission Plan, congregations are encouraged to develop an Orientation Manual for their JPIC Promoters. The process one uses to develop education materials can often be as important as the final results. Try involving as many of your members as possible. The OFM Franciscans have made their Manual available to help encourage and support you in such an endeavour. An introductory letter to the project and some support resources are available in English and Spanish at: http://jpicformation.wikispaces.com/EN_JPICCongGuidelines If there is need for clarification contact the JPIC office.

JPIC Workshop: Take note that the JPIC Workshop for new International JPIC promoters will take place from November 22-25, 2012 at the Casa di Esercizi Spirituali dei SS Giovanni e Paolo – Passionisti – Roma Piazza San Giovanni e Paolo, 13. Roma (Celio). For information and application forms go to http://jpicformation.wikispaces.com/EN_JPIC_institute

International Day of the Family (May 15th): To commemorate the United Nations International Day of the Family a Prayer Service has been developed for the JPIC Commission by the Sisters of the Holy Family of Bordeaux. It is one in a series of Prayer Services to celebrate a variety of UN International Days. If anyone is willing to translate the prayer into another language, please inform the JPIC office at jpicusguisg@lasalle.org or jpic.cosec@lasalle.org. The prayer in English is available at http://jpicformation.wikispaces.com/EN_May15_prayer For more information on the International Day, go to the following web sites - http://upf.org/united-nations/international-day-of-families;
http://social.un.org/index/Family/InternationalObservances/InternationalDayofFamilies.aspx;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_observance

JPIC Formation at Antonianum, Rome: Each year the OFM-JPIC office, in conjunction with the Antonianum University, organize a two week formation programme for new OFM provincial JPIC promoters. This year’s theme is on Peace and Reconciliation. It takes place from April 17-27. The afternoon sessions are open to religious from other congregations. For further details contact the OFM JPIC office at Pax@ofm.org or jrozanskyofm@yahoo.com

CIPAX Seminar on ‘Just Peace’: Prof Guido Viale, will give a talk in Italian on the theme ‘Goods in common, the way to a Just Peace’. It takes place on January 12 at 18.30 in Via Ostiense 152/B, Roma

Job seeking: Uta Sievers is looking for employment in Rome. She is available to help with full-time or part time projects. She has vast experience in JPIC. For a copy of her CV she can be contacted at utasievers@gmail.com and +39 06 6456 9211 (home) / +39 388 365 0622 (mobile)

Prayers:
The mother of P. Alfredo Becerra, CM, died in December. We extend our condolences to him. His email is alfredobev@yahoo.com.mx
Ralph Hurrish, father of Gabe died of a heart attack on December 26th. May he rest in peace. He was 82 years. We extend our condolences. Gabe’s email is grrh2008@gmail.com

Reminders:
World Day of Social Justice (February 20): Prayer Services in several languages are available at http://jpicformation.wikispaces.com/EN_20February
JPIC Distance Learning Program: The Spiritan-owned Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, USA, has launched a JPIC Distance Learning Program (in English) in mid-August 2011. You can find detailed information on the program and contact details at http://www.duq.edu/jpic.

2. Outside Rome
2.1 A course on Catholic Social Teaching (in Spanish): A comprehensive written course on Catholic Social Teaching, prepared for University students, was written and published in Latin America. It can be downloaded at,
http://www.kas.de/sopla/es/publications/29414/

2.2 JPIC Promoter’s Formation Course in the USA: An intensive week-long seminar for JPIC Congregation promoters takes place at Saint Mary's Notre Dame, Indiana from June 3-10. The brochure is due out in February.  For more information, go to http://www.holycrossjustice.org/JusticeCraft/JusticeCraft.asp

2.3 Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves: On December 7th the US Special Representative for Global Partnerships, Kris Balderston, gave a briefing at the US Embassy to the Vatican on The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves Initiative. This project encourages the development and use of clean cookstoves. The alliance ‘100 by 20’ calls for 100 million homes to adopt clean efficient stoves and fuels by 2020. 2 million people die each year from exposure to cookstove smoke. For more information go to the following web sites – www.cleancookstoves.org;
www.PCIAonline.org; http://cleancookstoves.org/blog/ignitingchange/;
http://groups.google.com/group/indoor-air-pollution-updates?hl=en

2.4 2014 The International Year of Family Farming (IYFF): On December 23rd, the General Assembly of the United Nations declared 2014 to be the International Year of Family Farming (IYFF). For more information go to:
In English: http://www.familyfarmingcampaign.net/noticias/ver.asp?id=en&pag=&Nnoticia=381072685
In Spanish: http://www.familyfarmingcampaign.net/default.asp?id=es
In French: http://www.familyfarmingcampaign.net/default.asp?id=fr

2.5 World InterFaith Harmony Week (Feb 1-7): The United Nations (UN) on October 20, 2010 recognizing the need for dialogue among different faiths and religions and their contribution for peace in the world, proclaimed the first week of February of every year the “World InterFaith Harmony Week” between all religions, faiths and beliefs. For more information go to, http://worldinterfaithharmonyweek.com/

USEFUL RESOURCES
World Peace Day Message (2012): ‘Educating Young People in Justice and Peace’ for copies go to,
EDUCATING YOUNG PEOPLE IN JUSTICE AND PEACE
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/peace/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20111208_xlv-world-day-peace_en.html
EDUCAR A LOS JÓVENES EN LA JUSTICIA Y LA PAZ
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/peace/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20111208_xlv-world-day-peace_sp.html
EDUCARE I GIOVANI ALLA GIUSTIZIA E ALLA PACE
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/peace/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20111208_xlv-world-day-peace_it.html
ÉDUQUER LES JEUNES À LA JUSTICE ET À LA PAIX
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/peace/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20111208_xlv-world-day-peace_fr.html
Papal message for World Day of Migrants and Refugees (January 15, 2012): Copies of the message,
entitled ‘Migration and New Evangelization’, can be accessed at:
In English –
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/migration/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20110921_world-migrants-day_en.html
In Spanish –
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/migration/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20110921_world-migrants-day_sp.html
In Italian - http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/migration/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20110921_world-migrants-day_it.html
In French - http://www.africamission-mafr.org/migrants12.htm

Holy Cross JPIC: Check out the Holy Cross International Justice office web site at - http://www.holycrossjustice.org/

Environmental Justice: For an article that makes the link between the Virgin of Guadalupe and
Environmental Justice, go to - http://franciscanaction.wordpress.com/2011/12/11/the-virgin-of- guadalupe-and-the-call-to-environmental-justice-part-ii/

Earth Charter: For News and updates on the Earth Charter in English, Spanish and French at
http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/content/

3.6 Mining Watch: MiningWatch Canada is a pan-Canadian initiative. Go to, http://www.miningwatch.ca/home

3.7 Justice Jottings: A Marianist Social Justice Web page. Go to, http://www.msjc.net/Justice%20Jottings/Justice%20Jottings%20-%20December%20%2710.aspx

3.8 Defenders of Indigenous Peoples: For reflections (in Spanish) on two Dominican (Antonio de Montisinos and Bartolomé de las Casas) defenders of Indigenous peoples in Latin America at the time of the conquest, go to http://www.redescristianas.net/2011/10/30/el-grito-de-montesinos-ayer-y-hoyvictor-codina-sj-sacerdote-jesuita-teologo/ and http://blogs.periodistadigital.com/xpikaza.php/2011/12/09/dom-11-xi-11-todos-estais-en-pecado-mort

3.9 Ethically Responsible investment: To read an article (in English) entitled ‘Investing with a clear conscience’ go to http://www.osv.com/tabid/7621/itemid/8853/Investing-with-a-clear-conscience.aspx

3.10 Human Trafficking Awareness Day (January 11): For information and resources go to http://omiusajpic.org/2012/01/05/january-11-2012-human-trafficking-awareness-day/

3.11 Renewing the Face of the Earth: Lenten Reflections on Air: For copies of an 8 page booklet by the SHCJs go to, http://www.shcj.org/amer/documents/2012LentReflectionBookAir_001.pdf

3.12 Anti-Christian Violence in Kandhamal: Read a report by the

4. Upcoming JPIC Meetings: January 2012
English JPIC Core Group: January 9 , @ 15.00 at Fratelli Cristiani
JPIC Spanish/Portuguese Promoters’ group: January 12 @ UISG at 9.00 (note: is a Thursday)
Economic Justice Working group (EJWG): January 11 @ 15.00 at Caritas Internationalis
JPIC English Promoters’ Meeting: January 18 @ 9.00 in UISG offices
FAO Working group: January 24 @ 15.00 at Passionist Curia
Peace Prayer for South Sudan: January 27 @ San Marcello at 19.00
Integrity of Creation Working group: January 30 @ 9.00 at the UISG

Note: Please send a brief outline of information you think JPIC Promoters might find useful for future publications to the JPIC Commission Office at the emails below. Please confirm if you do not wish your email to be published.
Gearóid Francisco Ó Conaire ofm and Teresa Dagdag MM Via Aurelia 476, CP 9099 Aurelio, 00165 Roma, Italy.
Tel: (39).06.6622929 (direct); Tel: (39).06.665231 (reception); Mobile: (39)3293781392/(39)3475570806 Email: jpicusguisg@lasalle.org and jpic.cosec@lasalle.org
 

ENERO, 2012
NOTICIAS BREVES – OFICINA COMISION JPIC Vol.5 No 1

ROMA AL DIA
Seminario de “Formación“ JPIC, Febrero 4 (todo el día): Se lleva a cabo el 4 de Febrero, 2012 en Fratelli Cristiani. El tema es “Ve y anuncia el Reino de Dios. La JPIC en los procesos de formación”. Dos conferencistas muy conocidos (José Antonio Pagola y Rosemary Mangan, RJM) presentarán los temas de la mañana y de la tarde, respectivamente. También se compartirán dos experiencias y habrá un espacio para trabajo en grupo. Está abierto a Equipos de Leadership, Encargad@s de Formación, Promotores de JPIC y otros religios@s interesad@s. La cooperación será de €12 Euro. Habrá traducciones simultáneas en inglés, español, francés e italiano. Para hacer los preparativos y registrarse contactar jpic@cgfma.org a mediados de Diciembre. Para más información contactar a la oficina JPIC y para obtener una copia del programa ir a,
Inglés: http://jpicformation.wikispaces.com/EN_Seminars+and+Conferences
Español: http://jpicformation.wikispaces.com/ES_Promotores+Espanol+Portugues
NOTA: Ya no hay cupo.

Seminario JPIC sobre Ecología, Marzo 3 (medio día): El tema del Seminario es Ecología. Fr. Rayappa A. Kasi, sacerdote de la India, escritor y conferencista muy conocido en asuntos ambientales, ha aceptado venir a Roma. El dará 3 presentaciones - (1) El Reino de Dios está siendo atacado – La Guerra en la Creación (2) Justicia en el Clima basada en la Eco-Espiritualidad (3) Rol de las Religiones en la Guerra en la Creación. Habrá traducciones simultáneas en italiano y español. La cooperación de €7.00 Euro se recogerá a la entrada. Para conocer más sobre el conferencista, checar su página web en www.planetschaser.com

Formación JPIC – Files PDF: El libro ‘Guíanos en tu justicia: Un itinerario de formación para una Vida Religiosa Profética” están disponibles en files PDF en Inglés, Español, Francés, Italiano, Portugués y Alemán en - http://jpicformation.wikispaces.com/En_JPICinFormation/ También hay folletos disponibles en los varios idiomas en la sede de la UISG. Contactar a Teresa Martín: tmarsanz@gmail.com Teléfono: 06 68 400 20

Manual de Orientación JPIC para Promotores: Como parte del Plan de la Comisión JPIC, se anima a las congregaciones a desarrollar un Manual de Orientación para sus Promotores de JPIC. El proceso que se usa para desarrollar el material educativo puede ser tan importante como el resultado final. Se busca tratar de involucrar a la mayoría de sus miembros, en cuanto sea posible. Los Franciscanos OFM ponen a su disposición su Manual para ayudar a animar y sostenerles en esta tarea. Una carta de introducción al proyecto y algunos recursos de apoyo existen en inglés y español en:
http://jpicformation.wikispaces.com/EN_JPICCongGuidelines. Para cualquier aclaración contactar a la oficina de JPIC.

Taller de JPIC: Anotar que el Taller de JPIC para nuev@s promoter@s internacionales tendrá lugar del 22-25 de November, 2012 en la Casa di Esercizi Spirituali dei SS Giovanni e Paolo – Passionisti – Roma Piazza San Giovanni e Paolo, 13. Roma (Celio). Para información y solicitudes ir a http://jpicformation.wikispaces.com/EN_JPIC_institute

Día Internacional de la Familia (Mayo 15): Para conmemorar el Día Internacional de la Familia, declarado por la ONU, las Hermanas de la Sagrada Familia de Bordeaux han preparado una Oración para la Comisión de JPIC. Es sólo una Oración, dentro de una serie de Oraciones, para celebrar una variedad de Días Internacionales de la ONU. Si alguien tiene la posibilidad de traducir la oración a otro idioma, por favor contacte a la Oficina de JPIC en jpicusguisg@lasalle.org o jpic.cosec@lasalle.org. La oración en inglés está disponible en http://jpicformation.wikispaces.com/EN_May15_prayer. Para mayor información sobre el Día Internación, ir a las siguientes páginas web - http://upf.org/united-nations/international-day-of-families; http://social.un.org/index/Family/InternationalObservances/InternationalDayofFamilies.aspx;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_observance

Formación JPIC en Antonianum, Roma: Cada año la oficina de los OFM-JPIC, en unión con la Universidad Antonianum, organizan un programa de formación -de dos semanas- para nuevos promotores JPIC de los OFM de provincia. Este año el tema será sobre la Paz y la Reconciliación. Se llevará a cabo del 17-27 de Abril. Las sesiones por las tardes están abiertas a religios@s de otras congregaciones. Para mayores detalles contactar a la Oficina OFM JPIC en Pax@ofm.org o jrozanskyofm@yahoo.com

Seminario CIPAX sobre “Paz Justa”: El Prof Guido Viale dará una charla en italiano sobre el tema “Bienes en común, camino hacia una Paz Justa”. Se llevará a cabo el 12 de Enero a las 18.30 en Vía Ostiense 152/B, Roma

En búsqueda de trabajo: Uta Sievers busca trabajo en Roma. Ella puede apoyar proyectos sean de tiempo completo o tiempo parcial. Tiene mucha experiencia en JPIC. Para una copia de su CV se le puede contactar a utasievers@gmail.com y +39 06 6456 9211 (casa) / +39 388 365 0622 (móvil)

Oraciones:
La madre del P. Alfredo Becerra, CM, falleció en Diciembre. Le presentamos nuestras condolencias. Su mail es alfredobev@yahoo.com.mx
Ralph Hurrish, padre de Gabe, murió de un ataque al corazón el 26 de diciembre. Que descanse en paz. Tenía 82 años. Expresamos nuestros más sentidos pésames. Se puede comunicar con Gabe al grrh2008@gmail.com
La Hermana Claire O’Mara provincial de las Ursulinas en USA-Este murió el 8 de enero de 2012. Una oración por ella, por su familia y hermanas Ursulinas.

Recordamos:
Día Mundial de la Justicia Social (20 de febrero): un Servicio de oración en varios idiomas está disponible a http://jpicformation.wikispaces.com/EN_20February
Programa JPIC Aprendiendo a Distancia: La Universidad Duquesne propiedad de los Espiritanos, Pittsburgh, USA, ha lanzado un Programa JPIC Aprendiendo a Distancia (en Inglés) a mediados de Agosto 2011. Puede encontrar información detallada del programa y datos para contactar en http://www.duq.edu/jpic.

2. Fuera de Roma
2.1 Un importante curso sobre la Doctrina Social de la Iglesia (en español): Acaba de ser publicado un Curso exhaustivo para la enseñanza de la Doctrina Social de la Iglesia en la Universidad. Esta guía fue preparada por el Pontificio Consejo Justicia y Paz, el CELAM, el Instituto Paulo VI de Salamanca y la Fundación “Konrad Adenauer”. Se puede descargar en:
http://www.kas.de/sopla/es/publications/29414/

2.2 Curso de Formación JPIC para Promotores en Estados Unidos: Seminario intensivo de una semana para Congregación JPIC o para promotor@s JPIC se llevará a cabo en Saint Mary's Notre Dame, Indiana del 3-10 de junio. El folleto saldrá en Febrero. Mayor información en http://www.holycrossjustice.org/JusticeCraft/JusticeCraft.asp

2.2 Alianza Global de estufas de cocina no contaminantes: El 7 de Diciembre el Representante Especial de Estados Unidos para las Asociaciones Globales, Kris Balderston, dio un resumen en la Embajada de Estados Unidos en el Vaticano sobre la iniciativa de una Alianza Global de estufas de cocina no contaminantes. Este proyecto impulsa el desarrollo y uso de estufas de cocina no contaminantes. La Alianza “100 por 20” llama a 100 millones de hogares a adoptar estufas eficientes no contaminantes y combustibles por 2020. 2 millones de personas mueren cada año por la exposición al gas que producen las estufas de cocina. Para más información ver las siguientes páginas web www.cleancookstoves.org;
www.PCIAonline.org; http://cleancookstoves.org/blog/ignitingchange/;
http://groups.google.com/group/indoor-air-pollution-updates?hl=en

2.3 2014 Año Internacional de la Familia Agricultora (IYFF): El 23 de Diciembre, la Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas declaró 2014 como el Año Internacional de la Familia Agricultora (IYFF). Más información en:
En Inglés: http://www.familyfarmingcampaign.net/noticias/ver.asp?id=en&pag=&Nnoticia=381072685
En Español: http://www.familyfarmingcampaign.net/default.asp?id=es
En Francés: http://www.familyfarmingcampaign.net/default.asp?id=fr

2.4 Semana Mundial de la Armonía InterFe (Feb 1-7): El 20 de octubre, 2010, las Naciones Unidas (ONU), reconociendo la necesidad de diálogo entre las diferentes creencias y religiones y su contribución a la paz en el mundo, han proclamado la primera semana de Febrero de cada año la “Semana Mundial de la Armonía Interfe” entre todas las religiones, fe y creencias. Más información en: http://worldinterfaithharmonyweek.com/

3. RECURSOS ÚTILES:
3.1 Mensaje del Día Mundial por la Paz (2012): “Educar a los jóvenes en la Justicia y la Paz” para
obtener copias ir a
EDUCATING YOUNG PEOPLE IN JUSTICE AND PEACE
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/peace/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20111208_xlv-world-day-peace_en.html
EDUCAR A LOS JÓVENES EN LA JUSTICIA Y LA PAZ
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/peace/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20111208_xlv-world-day-peace_sp.html
EDUCARE I GIOVANI ALLA GIUSTIZIA E ALLA PACE
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/peace/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20111208_xlv-world-day-peace_it.html
ÉDUQUER LES JEUNES À LA JUSTICE ET À LA PAIX
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/peace/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20111208_xlv-world-day-peace_fr.html

3.2 Mensaje del Papa para la Jornada Mundial del Emigrante y del Refugiado (15 de enero, 2012): Se
puede acceder copias del mensaje, titulado "Migración y la Nueva Evangelización", en:
Español - http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/migration/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20110921_world-migrants-day_sp.html
Inglés - http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/migration/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20110921_world-migrants-day_en.html
Italiano - http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/migration/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20110921_world-migrants-day_it.html
Francés - http://www.africamission-mafr.org/migrants12.htm

3.2 Cruz Roja JPIC: Para conocer la Página Web de la Oficina de Justicia de la Cruz Roja Internacional ir a -
http://www.holycrossjustice.org/

3.3 Justicia Ambiental: Para obtener un artículo que enlaza a la Virgen de Guadalupe y la Justicia
Ambiental ir a - http://franciscanaction.wordpress.com/2011/12/11/the-virgin-of- guadalupe-and-the-
callto-environmental-justice-part-ii/

Carta de la Tierra: Para obtener Noticias y actualizaciones de la Carta de la Tierra (Earth Charter) en Inglés, Español y Francés ir a - http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/content/

3.5 Alerta a la Minería (Mining Watch): MiningWatch Canada es una iniciativa Canadiense. Para más información ir a - http://www.miningwatch.ca/home

3.6 Notas sobre Justicia (Justice Jottings): Página Web Marianista sobre Justicia Social ir a, http://www.msjc.net/Justice%20Jottings/Justice%20Jottings%20-%20December%20%2710.aspx

3.7 Defensores de los Pueblos Indígenas: Reflexión en Español en torno a dos frailes dominicanos (Antonio de Montesinos y Bartolomé de las Casas) defensores de los pueblos indígenas en América Latina durante la conquista ir a - http://www.redescristianas.net/2011/10/30/el-grito-de-montesinos-ayer-y-hoyvictor-codina-sj-sacerdote-jesuita-teologo/ y http://blogs.periodistadigital.com/xpikaza.php/2011/12/09/dom-11-xi-11-todos-estais-en-pecado-mort

3.8 Inversión Éticamente Responsable: Artículo en Inglés titulado “Invertir con una clara conciencia” ir a - http://www.osv.com/tabid/7621/itemid/8853/Investing-with-a-clear-conscience.aspx

3.9 Día para Hacer Conciencia del Tráfico Humano. (Enero, 11): Información y recursos en http://omiusajpic.org/2012/01/05/january-11-2012-human-trafficking-awareness-day/
3.10 Renovando el Rostro de la Tierra: Reflexiones Cuaresmales en el Aire: Para obtener copias de folletos de 8 páginas elaborados por SHCJS ir a -http://www.shcj.org/amer/documents/2012LentReflectionBookAir_001.pdf

4. Próximos Encuentros de JPIC: Enero 2012
Grupo Inglés JPIC Core: Enero 9 @ 15.00 en Fratelli Cristiani
Grupo de Promotores JPIC Español/Portugués: Enero12 @ UISG a las 9.00 (notar que es Jueves)
Grupo de Trabajo Justicia Económica (EJWG): Enero 11 @ 15.00 en Caritas Internationalis
Grupo Inglés de Promotores JPIC: Enero 18 @ 9.00 en las oficinas de la UISG
Grupo de Trabajo FAO: Enero 24 @ 15.00 en la Curia de los Pasionistas
Grupo de Trabajo Integridad de la Creación: Enero 30 @ 9.00 en la UISG

Nota: Por favor enviar información (breve reseña) si tú piensas que a la Comisión de Promotores de JPIC le podría ser útil para futuras publicaciones, a la Oficina de la Comisión de JPIC a la dirección abajo indicada. Por favor confirma si deseas que tu email sea publicado.
Gearóid Francisco Ó Conaire ofm and Teresa Dagdag MM
Via Aurelia 476, CP 9099 Aurelio, 00165 Roma, Italy.
Tel: (39).06.6622929 (direct); Tel: (39).06.665231 (reception); Mobile: (39)3293781392/(39)3475570806 Email: jpicusguisg@lasalle.org and jpic.cosec@lasalle.org

¿El día del juicio a nuestra cultura?

Mon, 2 Jan 2012 18:19:31 +0100

¿El día del juicio a nuestra cultura?
Leonardo Boff
2011-12-30

El fin del año ofrece la ocasión para hacer un balance sobre nuestra situación humana en este planeta. ¿Qué podemos esperar y qué rumbo tomará la historia? Son preguntas preocupantes pues los escenarios globales se presentan sombríos. Una crisis de magnitud estructural se ha instalado en el corazón del sistema económico-social dominante (Europa y Estados Unidos), con reflejos en el resto del mundo. La Biblia tiene una categoría recurrente en la tradición profética: el día del juicio se avecina. Es el día de la revelación: la verdad sale a la superficie y nuestros errores y pecados son denunciados como enemigos de la vida. Grandes historiadores como Toynbee y von Ranke también hablan del juicio a culturas enteras. Estimo que estamos realmente ante un juicio global sobre nuestra forma de vivir en la Tierra y sobre el tipo de relación que mantenemos con ella.
Considerando la situación a un nivel más profundo, que va más allá de los análisis económicos que predominan en los gobiernos, en las empresas, en los foros mundiales y en los medios de comunicación, notamos cada vez con más claridad la contradicción existente entre la lógica de nuestra cultura moderna, con su economía política, su individualismo y su consumismo, y la lógica de los procesos naturales de nuestro planeta vivo, la Tierra. Son incompatibles. La primera es competitiva, la segunda, cooperativa. La primera es excluyente, la segunda, inclusiva. La primera pone su valor principal en el individuo, la segunda en el bien de todos. La primera da centralidad a la mercancía, la segunda a la vida en todas sus formas. Si no hacemos algo, esta incompatibilidad puede llevarnos a un severísimo impasse.
Lo que agrava esta incompatibilidad son las premisas subyacentes a nuestro proceso social: que podemos crecer ilimitadamente, que los recursos son inagotables y que la prosperidad material e individual nos trae la tan ansiada felicidad. Tales premisas son ilusorias: los recursos son limitados y una Tierra finita no resiste un proyecto infinito. La prosperidad y el individualismo no están trayendo felicidad sino altos niveles de soledad, depresión, violencia y suicidio.
Hay dos problemas que se entrelazan y que pueden convulsionar nuestro futuro: el calentamiento global y la superpoblación humana. El calentamiento global es un código que engloba los impactos que nuestra civilización produce en la naturaleza, amenazando la sostenibilidad de la vida y de la Tierra. La consecuencia es la emisión anual de miles de millones de toneladas de dióxido de carbono y de metano, 23 veces más agresivo que el primero. La aceleración del deshielo del suelo congelado de la tundra siberiana (permafrost), hace que exista en los próximos decenios el peligro de un calentamiento abrupto de 4 a 5 grados centígrados que devastaría gran parte de la vida sobre la Tierra. El crecimiento de la población humana hace que se exploten más bienes y servicios naturales, se gaste más energía y se lancen a la atmosfera más gases productores de calentamiento global.
Las estrategias para controlar esta situación amenazante prácticamente son ignoradas por los gobiernos y por quienes toman las decisiones. Nuestro arraigado individualismo ha impedido que en las reuniones de la ONU se haya llegado a un consenso. Cada país ve solamente su interés y es ciego al interés colectivo y al planeta como un todo. Y así nos vamos acercando despreocupadamente a un abismo.
Pero la madre de todas las distorsiones referidas es nuestro antropocentrismo, la convicción de que nosotros, los seres humanos, somos el centro de todo y que las cosas han sido hechas sólo para nosotros, olvidándonos de nuestra completa dependencia de todo lo que nos rodea. Aquí radica nuestra destructividad que nos lleva a devastar la naturaleza para satisfacer nuestros deseos.
Se hace urgente un poco de humildad y vernos en perspectiva. El universo tiene 13,7 miles de millones de años; la Tierra, 4,45 miles de millones; la vida, 3,8 miles de millones; la vida humana, 5-7 millones; y el homo sapiens unos 130-140 mil años. Por lo tanto, hemos nacido hace solo “unos minutos”, fruto de toda la historia anterior. Y de sapiens estamos pasando a ser demens, amenazadores de nuestros compañeros en la comunidad de vida.
Hemos llegado al ápice del proceso evolutivo no para destruir sino para guardar y cuidar este legado sagrado. Sólo entonces el día del juicio será la revelación de nuestra verdadera identidad y de nuestra misión aquí en la Tierra.

Questionnaire on the right of peoples to peace

Mon, 2 Jan 2012 18:18:02 +0100

Questionnaire on the right of peoples to peace:

QuestionnaireRtoPeace_fr.pdf

ÉDUQUER LES JEUNES À LA JUSTICE ET À LA PAIX

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 08:10:20 +0100

EDUCATING YOUNG PEOPLE IN JUSTICE AND PEACE

EDUCAR A LOS JÓVENES EN LA JUSTICIA Y LA PAZ

MESSAGE DE SA SAINTETÉ BENOÎT XVI POUR LA CÉLÉBRATION DE LA JOURNÉE MONDIALE DE LA PAIX
1er JANVIER 2012

ÉDUQUER LES JEUNES À LA JUSTICE ET À LA PAIX

1. Le début d'une nouvelle année, don de Dieu à l’humanité, m’incite à adresser à tous, avec grande confiance et affection, un message spécial de vœux pour ce temps qui est devant nous, afin qu’il soit marqué concrètement par la justice et par la paix.
Avec quelle attitude allons-nous envisager la nouvelle année? Dans le Psaume 130, nous trouvons une très belle image. Le psalmiste dit que l’homme de foi attend le Seigneur « plus que les veilleurs l’aurore » (v. 6), il l’attend avec une ferme espérance, parce qu’il sait qu’elle apportera lumière, miséricorde, salut. Cette attente naît de l’expérience du peuple élu, qui reconnaît que Dieu l’éduque à regarder le monde tel qu’il est en vérité et à ne pas se laisser abattre par les tribulations. Je vous invite à considérer l’année 2012 avec cette attitude confiante. Il est vrai qu’au cours de l’année qui s’achève, le sentiment de frustration suscité par la crise qui frappe la société, le monde du travail et l’économie a augmenté; une crise dont les racines sont avant tout culturelles et anthropologiques. Il semble presque qu’une chape d’obscurité soit venue recouvrir notre temps et ne permette pas de voir avec clarté la lumière du jour.
Dans cette obscurité, le cœur de l’homme ne cesse toutefois d’attendre l’aurore dont parle le psalmiste. Cette attente est particulièrement vive et visible chez les jeunes, et c’est pourquoi ma pensée va vers eux en considérant la contribution qu’ils peuvent et doivent offrir à la société. Je voudrais donc présenter le Message pour la XLVe Journée Mondiale de la Paix dans une perspective éducative: « Éduquer les jeunes à la justice et à la paix », convaincu qu’ils peuvent par leur enthousiasme et leur ardeur en vue d’un idéal, offrir une nouvelle espérance au monde.
Mon Message s’adresse également aux parents, aux familles, à toutes les composantes éducatives, formatives, comme aussi aux responsables dans les différents milieux de la vie religieuse, sociale, politique, économique, culturelle et de la communication. Être attentifs au monde des jeunes, savoir l'accueillir et le valoriser, n’est pas seulement une opportunité, mais un devoir fondamental de toute la société, pour la construction d’un avenir de justice et de paix.
Il s’agit de communiquer aux jeunes une appréciation de la valeur positive de la vie, en suscitant en eux le désir de la dédier au service du Bien. C’est là une tâche qui nous engage tous personnellement.
Les préoccupations exprimées par de nombreux jeunes ces derniers temps, dans différentes régions du monde, manifestent le désir de pouvoir regarder l’avenir avec une espérance fondée. Actuellement, les aspects qu’ils vivent avec appréhension sont nombreux : le désir de recevoir une formation qui les prépare de manière plus profonde à affronter la réalité, la difficulté de former une famille et de trouver un emploi stable, la capacité effective de participer au monde de la politique, de la culture et de l’économie pour construire une société ayant un visage plus humain et solidaire.
Il est important que ces ferments, et l’élan vers un idéal qu’ils contiennent, trouvent l’attention qui leur est due de la part de tous les membres de la société. L’Église regarde les jeunes avec espérance ; elle a confiance en eux et elle les encourage à rechercher la vérité, à défendre le bien commun, à avoir des perspectives ouvertes sur le monde et des yeux capables de voir des « choses nouvelles » (Is 42, 9; 48, 6)!
Les responsables de l’éducation
2. L’éducation est l’aventure la plus fascinante et difficile de la vie. Éduquer – du latin educere – signifie conduire hors de soi pour introduire à la réalité, vers une plénitude qui fait grandir la personne. Ce processus se nourrit de la rencontre de deux libertés, celle de l’adulte, et celle du jeune. Ceci demande la responsabilité du disciple qui doit être ouvert pour se laisser guider vers la connaissance de la réalité, et celle de l’éducateur qui doit être disposé à se donner lui-même. Plus que jamais sont nécessaires pour cela d’authentiques témoins et non pas de simples dispensateurs de règles et d’informations ; des témoins qui sachent voir plus loin que les autres, parce que leur vie embrasse des espaces plus vastes. Le témoin est celui qui vit en premier le chemin qu’il propose.
Quels sont les lieux où mûrit la vraie éducation à la paix et à la justice? Il y a d’abord la famille, puisque les parents sont les premiers éducateurs. La famille est la cellule originaire de la société. « C’est dans la famille que les enfants apprennent les valeurs humaines et chrétiennes qui permettent une coexistence constructive et pacifique. C’est dans la famille qu’on apprend la solidarité entre les générations, le respect des règles, le pardon et l’accueil de l’autre » [1]. Elle est la première école où on est éduqué à la justice et à la paix.
Nous vivons dans un monde où la famille, et aussi la vie elle-même, sont constamment menacées et assez fréquemment brisées. Des conditions de travail souvent peu compatibles avec les responsabilités familiales, des préoccupations pour l’avenir, des rythmes de vie frénétiques, des migrations en recherche de moyens de subsistance adaptés – voire même de simple survivance –, finissent par rendre difficile la possibilité d’assurer aux enfants un des biens les plus précieux: la présence des parents; une présence qui permette un partage toujours plus approfondi du chemin afin de pouvoir transmettre l’expérience et les certitudes acquises avec les années, qui ne peuvent se communiquer que grâce au temps passé ensemble. Aux parents, je désire dire de ne pas perdre courage! Par l’exemple de leur vie, qu’ils exhortent leurs enfants à placer leur espérance avant tout en Dieu, de là seulement surgissent justice et paix authentiques.
Je voudrais m’adresser aussi aux responsables des institutions qui ont un devoir éducatif : qu’avec un grand sens des responsabilités, ils veillent à ce que la dignité de chaque personne soit respectée et valorisée en toutes circonstances. Qu’ils aient soin que chaque jeune puisse découvrir sa propre vocation, en l’accompagnant pour faire fructifier les dons que le Seigneur lui a accordés. Qu’ils donnent aux familles l’assurance que leurs enfants puissent avoir un parcours de formation qui ne soit pas en contradiction avec leur conscience et leurs principes religieux.
Que chaque structure éducative puisse être un lieu d’ouverture au transcendant et aux autres ; un lieu de dialogue, de cohésion et d’écoute, où le jeune se sente valorisé dans ses propres potentialités et ses richesses intérieures, et apprenne à estimer vraiment ses frères. Que ce lieu puisse enseigner aussi à goûter la joie qui jaillit du fait de vivre, jour après jour, dans la charité et dans la compassion envers le prochain, et dans la participation active à la construction d’une société plus humaine et fraternelle.
Je me tourne ensuite vers les responsables politiques, en leur demandant d’aider concrètement les familles et les institutions éducatives à exercer leur droit et leur devoir d’éduquer. Un soutien adapté à la maternité et à la paternité ne doit jamais manquer. Qu’ils fassent en sorte que l’accès à l’instruction ne soit jamais nié à personne, et que les familles puissent choisir librement les structures éducatives qu’elles retiennent être plus conformes au bien de leurs enfants. Qu’ils s’engagent à favoriser le regroupement des familles qui sont divisées par la nécessité de trouver des moyens de subsistance. Qu’ils offrent aux jeunes une image limpide de la politique, comme un service véritable pour le bien de tous.
En outre, je ne peux pas ne pas en appeler au monde des médias afin qu’il donne sa contribution éducative. Dans la société d’aujourd’hui, les moyens de communication de masse ont un rôle particulier: non seulement ils informent, mais ils façonnent aussi l’esprit de leurs destinataires et ils peuvent donc contribuer de façon notable à l’éducation des jeunes. Il est important de retenir que le lien entre éducation et communication est très étroit : l’éducation advient en effet par les moyens de communication, qui influent sur la formation de la personne d’une manière positive ou négative.
Les jeunes aussi doivent avoir le courage de vivre en premier eux-mêmes ce qu’ils demandent à ceux qui les entourent. C’est une grande responsabilité qui les concerne: qu’ils aient la force de faire un usage bon et conscient de leur liberté. Ils sont eux aussi responsables de leur propre éducation et de votre formation à la justice et à la paix !
Éduquer à la vérité et à la liberté
3. Saint Augustin se demandait: « Quid enim fortius desiderat anima quam veritatem? – Que désire l’homme plus fortement que la vérité?–» [2] Le visage humain d’une société dépend beaucoup de la contribution de l’éducation à maintenir vive cette demande qu’on ne peut pas supprimer. En effet, l’éducation concerne la formation intégrale de la personne, y compris la dimension morale et spirituelle de l’être, en vue de sa fin ultime et du bien de la société dont elle est membre. Dès lors, pour éduquer à la vérité, il convient avant tout de savoir qui est la personne humaine et d’en connaître la nature. Contemplant la réalité qui l’entoure, le psalmiste réfléchit: « À voir ton ciel, ouvrage de tes doigts, la lune et les étoiles que tu fixas, qu’est-ce que l’homme pour que tu penses à lui, le fils d’un homme, que tu en prennes souci? » (Ps 8, 4-5). Voici la question fondamentale à se poser: qui est l’homme? L’homme est un être qui porte dans son cœur une soif d’infini, une soif de vérité – non partielle, mais capable d’expliquer le sens de la vie – car il a été créé à l’image et selon la ressemblance de Dieu. Reconnaître alors, avec gratitude, la vie comme un don inestimable, porte à découvrir la propre dignité profonde et l’inviolabilité de chaque personne. C’est pourquoi, la première éducation consiste dans le fait d’apprendre à reconnaître dans l’homme l’image du Créateur et, par conséquent, à avoir un respect profond pour tout être humain et à aider les autres à avoir une vie conforme à cette très haute dignité. Il ne faut jamais oublier que « le développement authentique de l’homme concerne unitairement la totalité de la personne dans chacune de ses dimensions » [3], y compris sa dimension transcendante, et que la personne ne peut être sacrifiée en vue d’obtenir un bien particulier, qu’il soit économique ou social, individuel ou collectif.
C’est seulement par sa relation avec Dieu que l’homme comprend aussi le sens de sa propre liberté. Et c’est la tâche de l’éducation de former à la liberté authentique. Celle-ci n’est pas l’absence de liens ou le règne du libre arbitre, elle n’est pas l’absolutisme du « je ». L’homme qui se croit absolu, qui n’est dépendant de rien et de personne, et qui croit pouvoir faire tout ce qu’il veut, finit par contredire la vérité de son propre être et par perdre sa liberté. Au contraire, l’homme est un être relationnel qui vit en relation avec les autres et avec Dieu surtout. La liberté authentique ne peut jamais être atteinte dans l’éloignement de Dieu.
La liberté est une valeur précieuse, mais délicate; elle peut être mal comprise et mal utilisée. « Aujourd’hui, un obstacle extrêmement menaçant pour l’œuvre d’éducation est constitué par la présence massive, dans notre société et notre culture, de ce relativisme qui, en ne reconnaissant rien comme définitif, ne laisse comme ultime mesure que son propre moi avec ses désirs, et sous l’apparence de la liberté devient une prison pour chacun, séparant l’un de l’autre et réduisant chacun à se retrouver enfermé dans son propre « Moi ». Dans un tel horizon relativiste une véritable éducation n’est donc pas possible: en effet, sans la lumière de la vérité toute personne est condamnée, à un moment ou à un autre, à douter de la bonté de sa vie même et des relations qui la constituent, de la valeur de son engagement pour construire quelque chose en commun avec les autres » [4].
Pour exercer sa liberté, l’homme doit alors dépasser l’horizon relativiste et connaître la vérité sur lui-même, et la vérité sur le bien et le mal. Au fond de sa conscience, l’homme découvre une loi qu’il ne se donne pas lui-même, mais à laquelle il doit obéir au contraire et dont la voix l’appelle à aimer, à faire le bien et à fuir le mal, à assumer la responsabilité du bien accompli et du mal commis [5]. Pour cela, l’exercice de la liberté est profondément lié à la loi morale naturelle, qui est de caractère universel. Elle exprime la dignité de chaque personne, pose les bases de ses droits et devoirs fondamentaux, et par conséquent et en dernière analyse, du vivre-ensemble juste et pacifique entre les personnes.
Le juste usage de la liberté est donc central pour la promotion de la justice et de la paix, qui requièrent le respect pour soi-même et pour l’autre, même s’il est loin de son mode d’être et de vivre. De cette attitude proviennent les éléments sans lesquels la paix et la justice restent des paroles privées de contenu: la confiance réciproque, la capacité à construire un dialogue constructif, la possibilité du pardon – que tant de fois on aimerait obtenir mais qu’on a de la peine à donner –, la charité réciproque, la compassion pour les plus faibles, comme également la disponibilité au sacrifice.
Éduquer à la justice
4. Dans notre monde où la valeur de la personne, de sa dignité et de ses droits – au-delà des déclarations d’intentions – est sérieusement menacée par la tendance généralisée à recourir exclusivement aux critères de l’utilité, du profit et de l’avoir, il est important de ne pas couper le concept de justice de ses racines transcendantes. La justice, en effet, n’est pas une simple convention humaine, car ce qui est juste n’est pas déterminé originairement par la loi positive, mais par l’identité profonde de l’être humain. C’est la vision intégrale de l’homme qui permet de ne pas tomber dans une conception contractuelle de la justice et d’ouvrir aussi, grâce à elle, l’horizon de la solidarité et de l’amour [6].
Nous ne pouvons pas ignorer que certains courants de la culture moderne, soutenus par des principes économiques rationalistes et individualistes, ont aliéné le concept de justice jusque dans ses racines transcendantes, le séparant de la charité et de la solidarité : « la cité de l’homme n’est pas uniquement constituée par des rapports de droits et de devoirs, mais plus encore, et d’abord, par des relations de gratuité, de miséricorde et de communion. La charité manifeste toujours l’amour de Dieu, y compris dans les relations humaines. Elle donne une valeur théologale et salvifique à tout engagement pour la justice dans le monde ». [7]
« Heureux les affamés et assoiffés de la justice, car ils seront rassasiés » (Mt 5, 6). Ils seront rassasiés parce qu’ils ont faim et soif de relations justes avec Dieu, avec eux-mêmes, avec leurs frères et sœurs, et avec la création tout entière.
Éduquer à la paix
5. « La paix n’est pas seulement absence de guerre et elle ne se borne pas à assurer l’équilibre des forces adverses. La paix ne peut s’obtenir sur terre sans la sauvegarde des biens des personnes, la libre communication entre les êtres humains, le respect de la dignité des personnes et des peuples, la pratique assidue de la fraternité » [8]. La paix est un fruit de la justice et un effet de la charité. La paix est avant tout un don de Dieu. Nous chrétiens, nous croyons que le Christ est notre vraie paix: en Lui et dans Croix, Dieu a réconcilié le monde avec Lui et a détruit les barrières qui nous séparaient les uns des autres (cf. Ep 2, 14-18); en Lui il y a une seule famille réconciliée dans l’amour.
Toutefois, la paix n’est pas seulement un don à recevoir, mais bien également une œuvre à construire. Pour être vraiment des artisans de paix, nous devons nous éduquer à la compassion, à la solidarité, à la collaboration, à la fraternité, être actifs au sein de la communauté et vigilants à éveiller les consciences sur les questions nationales et internationales et sur l’importance de la recherche de modalités adéquates pour la redistribution de la richesse, pour la promotion de la croissance, pour la coopération au développement et pour la résolution des conflits. « Heureux les artisans de paix, car ils seront appelés fils de Dieu », affirme Jésus dans le discours sur la montagne (Mt 5, 9).
La paix pour tous naît de la justice de chacun. Personne ne peut éluder cette tâche essentielle de promouvoir la justice, selon ses propres compétences et ses responsabilités. J’invite particulièrement les jeunes, qui maintiennent toujours vive la tension vers des idéaux, à avoir de la patience et de la ténacité dans la recherche de la justice et de la paix, dans l’éducation du goût pour ce qui est juste et vrai, même si cela peut comporter des sacrifices et aller à contre-courant.
Lever les yeux vers Dieu
6. Face au difficile défi dans le parcours des voies de la justice et de la paix, nous pouvons être tentés de nous demander, comme le psalmiste : « Je lève les yeux vers les montagnes: mon secours, d’où viendra-t-il ? » (Ps 121, 1).
Je veux dire à tous avec force, et particulièrement aux jeunes: « Ce ne sont pas les idéologies qui sauvent le monde, mais c’est seulement le fait de se tourner vers le Dieu vivant, le garant de ce qui est véritablement bon et vrai… [le fait de] se tourner sans réserve vers Dieu, qui est la mesure de ce qui est juste et qui est, en même temps, l’amour éternel. Qu’est-ce qui pourrait bien nous sauver sinon l’amour? » [9] L’amour se réjouit de la vérité, il est la force qui donne la capacité de s’engager pour la vérité, la justice et la paix, car il excuse tout, croit tout, espère tout, supporte tout (cf. 1 Co 13, 1-13).
Chers jeunes, vous êtes un don précieux pour la société. Face aux difficultés, ne vous laissez pas prendre par le découragement et ne vous complaisez pas dans de fausses solutions, qui, souvent, se présentent comme la voie la plus facile pour résoudre les problèmes. N’ayez pas peur de vous engager, d’affronter l’effort et le sacrifice, de choisir des chemins qui exigent la fidélité et la constance, l’humilité et le dévouement. Vivez avec confiance votre jeunesse et les désirs profonds de bonheur, de vérité, de beauté et d’amour vrai que vous éprouvez! Vivez intensément cette phase de la vie si riche et pleine d’enthousiasme.
Prenez conscience d’être vous-mêmes des exemples stimulants pour les adultes. Plus vous vous efforcez de vaincre les injustices et la corruption, plus vous désirerez un avenir meilleur et vous vous engagerez à le construire, alors vous le serez vraiment. Ayez conscience de vos potentialités et ne vous repliez jamais sur vous-mêmes, mais sachez travailler pour un avenir plus lumineux pour tous. Vous n’êtes jamais seuls. L’Église a confiance en vous, elle vous suit, elle vous encourage et désire vous offrir ce qu’elle a de plus précieux : la possibilité de lever les yeux vers Dieu, de rencontrer Jésus Christ, Celui qui est la justice et la paix.
À vous tous, hommes et femmes qui avez à cœur la cause de la paix! La paix n’est pas un bien déjà acquis, mais un objectif auquel, tous et chacun, nous devons aspirer. Regardons l’avenir avec une plus grande espérance, encourageons-nous les uns les autres dans notre cheminement, travaillons à donner à notre monde un visage plus humain et fraternel, et sentons-nous unis dans la responsabilité envers les jeunes générations présentes et futures, en particulier en les éduquant à être des personnes pacifiques et des artisans de paix. C’est sur la base de cette prise de conscience que je vous confie ces réflexions, et que je vous adresse mon appel: unissons nos forces spirituelles, morales et matérielles, pour « éduquer les jeunes à la justice et à la paix ».
Du Vatican, le 8 décembre 2011.

MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI FOR THE CELEBRATION OF THE WORLD DAY OF PEACE
1 JANUARY 2012

EDUCATING YOUNG PEOPLE IN JUSTICE AND PEACE

1. The beginning of a new year, God’s gift to humanity, prompts me to extend to all, with great confidence and affection, my heartfelt good wishes that this time now before us may be marked concretely by justice and peace.
With what attitude should we look to the New Year? We find a very beautiful image in Psalm 130. The Psalmist says that people of faith wait for the Lord “more than those who watch for the morning” (v. 6); they wait for him with firm hope because they know that he will bring light, mercy, salvation. This waiting was born of the experience of the Chosen People, who realized that God taught them to look at the world in its truth and not to be overwhelmed by tribulation. I invite you to look to 2012 with this attitude of confident trust. It is true that the year now ending has been marked by a rising sense of frustration at the crisis looming over society, the world of labour and the economy, a crisis whose roots are primarily cultural and anthropological. It seems as if a shadow has fallen over our time, preventing us from clearly seeing the light of day.
In this shadow, however, human hearts continue to wait for the dawn of which the Psalmist speaks. Because this expectation is particularly powerful and evident in young people, my thoughts turn to them and to the contribution which they can and must make to society. I would like therefore to devote this message for the XLV World Day of Peace to the theme of education: “Educating Young People in Justice and Peace”, in the conviction that the young, with their enthusiasm and idealism, can offer new hope to the world.
My Message is also addressed to parents, families and all those involved in the area of education and formation, as well as to leaders in the various spheres of religious, social, political, economic and cultural life and in the media. Attentiveness to young people and their concerns, the ability to listen to them and appreciate them, is not merely something expedient; it represents a primary duty for society as a whole, for the sake of building a future of justice and peace.
It is a matter of communicating to young people an appreciation for the positive value of life and of awakening in them a desire to spend their lives in the service of the Good. This is a task which engages each of us personally.
The concerns expressed in recent times by many young people around the world demonstrate that they desire to look to the future with solid hope. At the present time, they are experiencing apprehension about many things: they want to receive an education which prepares them more fully to deal with the real world, they see how difficult it is to form a family and to find stable employment; they wonder if they can really contribute to political, cultural and economic life in order to build a society with a more human and fraternal face.
It is important that this unease and its underlying idealism receive due attention at every level of society. The Church looks to young people with hope and confidence; she encourages them to seek truth, to defend the common good, to be open to the world around them and willing to see “new things” (Is 42:9; 48:6).
Educators
2. Education is the most interesting and difficult adventure in life. Educating – from the Latin educere – means leading young people to move beyond themselves and introducing them to reality, towards a fullness that leads to growth. This process is fostered by the encounter of two freedoms, that of adults and that of the young. It calls for responsibility on the part of the learners, who must be open to being led to the knowledge of reality, and on the part of educators, who must be ready to give of themselves. For this reason, today more than ever we need authentic witnesses, and not simply people who parcel out rules and facts; we need witnesses capable of seeing farther than others because their life is so much broader. A witness is someone who fi rst lives the life that he proposes to others.
Where does true education in peace and justice take place? First of all, in the family, since parents are the first educators. The family is the primary cell of society; “it is in the family that children learn the human and Christian values which enable them to have a constructive and peaceful coexistence. It is in the family that they learn solidarity between the generations, respect for rules, forgiveness and how to welcome others.” (1) The family is the first school in which we are trained in justice and peace.
We are living in a world where families, and life itself, are constantly threatened and not infrequently fragmented. Working conditions which are often incompatible with family responsibilities, worries about the future, the frenetic pace of life, the need to move frequently to ensure an adequate livelihood, to say nothing of mere survival – all this makes it hard to ensure that children receive one of the most precious of treasures: the presence of their parents. This presence makes it possible to share more deeply in the journey of life and thus to pass on experiences and convictions gained with the passing of the years, experiences and convictions which can only be communicated by spending time together. I would urge parents not to grow disheartened! May they encourage children by the example of their lives to put their hope before all else in God, the one source of authentic justice and peace.
I would also like to address a word to those in charge of educational institutions: with a great sense of responsibility may they ensure that the dignity of each person is always respected and appreciated. Let them be concerned that every young person be able to discover his or her own vocation and helped to develop his or her God-given gifts. May they reassure families that their children can receive an education that does not conflict with their consciences and their religious principles.
Every educational setting can be a place of openness to the transcendent and to others; a place of dialogue, cohesiveness and attentive listening, where young people feel appreciated for their personal abilities and inner riches, and can learn to esteem their brothers and sisters. May young people be taught to savour the joy which comes from the daily exercise of charity and compassion towards others and from taking an active part in the building of a more humane and fraternal society.
I ask political leaders to offer concrete assistance to families and educational institutions in the exercise of their right and duty to educate. Adequate support should never be lacking to parents in their task. Let them ensure that no one is ever denied access to education and that families are able freely to choose the educational structures they consider most suitable for their children. Let them be committed to reuniting families separated by the need to earn a living. Let them give young people a transparent image of politics as a genuine service to the good of all.
I cannot fail also to appeal to the world of the media to offer its own contribution to education. In today’s society the mass media have a particular role: they not only inform but also form the minds of their audiences, and so they can make a significant contribution to the education of young people. It is important never to forget that the connection between education and communication is extremely close: education takes place through communication, which influences, for better or worse, the formation of the person.
Young people too need to have the courage to live by the same high standards that they set for others. Theirs is a great responsibility: may they find the strength to make good and wise use of their freedom. They too are responsible for their education, including their education in justice and peace!
Educating in truth and freedom
3. Saint Augustine once asked: “Quid enim fortius desiderat anima quam veritatem? – What does man desire more deeply than truth?”(2) The human face of a society depends very much on the contribution of education to keep this irrepressible question alive. Education, indeed, is concerned with the integral formation of the person, including the moral and spiritual dimension, focused upon man’s final end and the good of the society to which he belongs. Therefore, in order to educate in truth, it is necessary first and foremost to know who the human person is, to know human nature. Contemplating the world around him, the Psalmist reflects: “When I see the heavens, the work of your hands, the moon and the stars which you arranged, what is man that you should keep him in mind, mortal man that you care for him?” (Ps 8:4-5). This is the fundamental question that must be asked: who is man? Man is a being who bears within his heart a thirst for the infinite, a thirst for truth – a truth which is not partial but capable of explaining life’s meaning – since he was created in the image and likeness of God. The grateful recognition that life is an inestimable gift, then, leads to the discovery of one’s own profound dignity and the inviolability of every single person. Hence the first step in education is learning to recognize the Creator’s image in man, and consequently learning to have a profound respect for every human being and helping others to live a life consonant with this supreme dignity. We must never forget that “authentic human development concerns the whole of the person in every single dimension”(3), including the transcendent dimension, and that the person cannot be sacrificed for the sake of attaining a particular good, whether this be economic or social, individual or collective.
Only in relation to God does man come to understand also the meaning of human freedom. It is the task of education to form people in authentic freedom. This is not the absence of constraint or the supremacy of free will, it is not the absolutism of the self. When man believes himself to be absolute, to depend on nothing and no one, to be able to do anything he wants, he ends up contradicting the truth of his own being and forfeiting his freedom. On the contrary, man is a relational being, who lives in relationship with others and especially with God. Authentic freedom can never be attained independently of God.
Freedom is a precious value, but a fragile one; it can be misunderstood and misused. “Today, a particularly insidious obstacle to the task of educating is the massive presence in our society and culture of that relativism which, recognizing nothing as definitive, leaves as the ultimate criterion only the self with its desires. And under the semblance of freedom it becomes a prison for each one, for it separates people from one another, locking each person into his or her own self. With such a relativistic horizon, therefore, real education is not possible without the light of the truth; sooner or later, every person is in fact condemned to doubting the goodness of his or her own life and the relationships of which it consists, the validity of his or her commitment to build with others something in common”(4).
In order to exercise his freedom, then, man must move beyond the relativistic horizon and come to know the truth about himself and the truth about good and evil. Deep within his conscience, man discovers a law that he did not lay upon himself, but which he must obey. Its voice calls him to love and to do what is good, to avoid evil and to take responsibility for the good he does and the evil he commits(5). Thus, the exercise of freedom is intimately linked to the natural moral law, which is universal in character, expresses the dignity of every person and forms the basis of fundamental human rights and duties: consequently, in the final analysis, it forms the basis for just and peaceful coexistence.
The right use of freedom, then, is central to the promotion of justice and peace, which require respect for oneself and others, including those whose way of being and living differs greatly from one’s own. This attitude engenders the elements without which peace and justice remain merely words without content: mutual trust, the capacity to hold constructive dialogue, the possibility of forgiveness, which one constantly wishes to receive but finds hard to bestow, mutual charity, compassion towards the weakest, as well as readiness to make sacrifices.
Educating in justice
4. In this world of ours, in which, despite the profession of good intentions, the value of the person, of human dignity and human rights is seriously threatened by the widespread tendency to have recourse exclusively to the criteria of utility, profit and material possessions, it is important not to detach the concept of justice from its transcendent roots. Justice, indeed, is not simply a human convention, since what is just is ultimately determined not by positive law, but by the profound identity of the human being. It is the integral vision of man that saves us from falling into a contractual conception of justice and enables us to locate justice within the horizon of solidarity and love(6).
We cannot ignore the fact that some currents of modern culture, built upon rationalist and individualist economic principles, have cut off the concept of justice from its transcendent roots, detaching it from charity and solidarity: “The ‘earthly city’ is promoted not merely by relationships of rights and duties, but to an even greater and more fundamental extent by relationships of gratuitousness, mercy and communion. Charity always manifests God’s love in human relationships as well, it gives theological and salvific value to all commitment for justice in the world”(7).
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Mt 5:6). They shall be satisfied because they hunger and thirst for right relations with God, with themselves, with their brothers and sisters, and with the whole of creation.
Educating in peace
5. “Peace is not merely the absence of war, and it is not limited to maintaining a balance of powers between adversaries. Peace cannot be attained on earth without safeguarding the goods of persons, free communication among men, respect for the dignity of persons and peoples, and the assiduous practice of fraternity.”8 We Christians believe that Christ is our true peace: in him, by his Cross, God has reconciled the world to himself and has broken down the walls of division that separated us from one another (cf. Eph 2:14-18); in him, there is but one family, reconciled in love.
Peace, however, is not merely a gift to be received: it is also a task to be undertaken. In order to be true peacemakers, we must educate ourselves in compassion, solidarity, working together, fraternity, in being active within the community and concerned to raise awareness about national and international issues and the importance of seeking adequate mechanisms for the redistribution of wealth, the promotion of growth, cooperation for development and conflict resolution. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God”, as Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5:9).
Peace for all is the fruit of justice for all, and no one can shirk this essential task of promoting justice, according to one’s particular areas of competence and responsibility. To the young, who have such a strong attachment to ideals, I extend a particular invitation to be patient and persevering in seeking justice and peace, in cultivating the taste for what is just and true, even when it involves sacrifice and swimming against the tide.
Raising one’s eyes to God
6. Before the difficult challenge of walking the paths of justice and peace, we may be tempted to ask, in the words of the Psalmist: “I lift up my eyes to the mountains: from where shall come my help?” (Ps 121:1).
To all, and to young people in particular, I wish to say emphatically: “It is not ideologies that save the world, but only a return to the living God, our Creator, the guarantor of our freedom, the guarantor of what is really good and true … an unconditional return to God who is the measure of what is right and who at the same time is everlasting love. And what could ever save us apart from love?”(9) Love takes delight in truth, it is the force that enables us to make a commitment to truth, to justice, to peace, because it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (cf. 1 Cor 13:1-13).
Dear young people, you are a precious gift for society. Do not yield to discouragement in the face of difficulties and do not abandon yourselves to false solutions which often seem the easiest way to overcome problems. Do not be afraid to make a commitment, to face hard work and sacrifice, to choose the paths that demand fidelity and constancy, humility and dedication. Be confident in your youth and its profound desires for happiness, truth, beauty and genuine love! Live fully this time in your life so rich and so full of enthusiasm.
Realize that you yourselves are an example and an inspiration to adults, even more so to the extent that you seek to overcome injustice and corruption and strive to build a better future. Be aware of your potential; never become self-centred but work for a brighter future for all. You are never alone. The Church has confidence in you, follows you, encourages you and wishes to offer you the most precious gift she has: the opportunity to raise your eyes to God, to encounter Jesus Christ, who is himself justice and peace.
All you men and women throughout the world, who take to heart the cause of peace: peace is not a blessing already attained, but rather a goal to which each and all of us must aspire. Let us look with greater hope to the future; let us encourage one another on our journey; let us work together to give our world a more humane and fraternal face; and let us feel a common responsibility towards present and future generations, especially in the task of training them to be people of peace and builders of peace. With these thoughts I offer my reflections and I appeal to everyone: let us pool our spiritual, moral and material resources for the great goal of “educating young people in justice and peace”.
From the Vatican, 8 December 2011

MENSAJE DE SU SANTIDAD BENEDICTO XVI PARA LA CELEBRACIÓN DE LA  XLV JORNADA MUNDIAL DE LA PAZ
1 DE ENERO DE 2012

EDUCAR A LOS JÓVENES EN LA JUSTICIA Y LA PAZ

1. El comienzo de un Año nuevo, don de Dios a la humanidad, es una invitación a desear a todos, con mucha confianza y afecto, que este tiempo que tenemos por delante esté marcado por la justicia y la paz.
¿Con qué actitud debemos mirar el nuevo año? En el salmo 130 encontramos una imagen muy bella. El salmista dice que el hombre de fe aguarda al Señor «más que el centinela la aurora» (v. 6), lo aguarda con una sólida esperanza, porque sabe que traerá luz, misericordia, salvación. Esta espera nace de la experiencia del pueblo elegido, el cual reconoce que Dios lo ha educado para mirar el mundo en su verdad y a no dejarse abatir por las tribulaciones. Os invito a abrir el año 2012 con dicha actitud de confianza. Es verdad que en el año que termina ha aumentado el sentimiento de frustración por la crisis que agobia a la sociedad, al mundo del trabajo y la economía; una crisis cuyas raíces son sobre todo culturales y antropológicas. Parece como si un manto de oscuridad hubiera descendido sobre nuestro tiempo y no dejara ver con claridad la luz del día.
En esta oscuridad, sin embargo, el corazón del hombre no cesa de esperar la aurora de la que habla el salmista. Se percibe de manera especialmente viva y visible en los jóvenes, y por esa razón me dirijo a ellos teniendo en cuenta la aportación que pueden y deben ofrecer a la sociedad. Así pues, quisiera presentar el Mensaje para la XLV Jornada Mundial de la Paz en una perspectiva educativa: «Educar a los jóvenes en la justicia y la paz», convencido de que ellos, con su entusiasmo y su impulso hacia los ideales, pueden ofrecer al mundo una nueva esperanza.
Mi mensaje se dirige también a los padres, las familias y a todos los estamentos educativos y formativos, así como a los responsables en los distintos ámbitos de la vida religiosa, social, política, económica, cultural y de la comunicación. Prestar atención al mundo juvenil, saber escucharlo y valorarlo, no es sólo una oportunidad, sino un deber primario de toda la sociedad, para la construcción de un futuro de justicia y de paz.
Se ha de transmitir a los jóvenes el aprecio por el valor positivo de la vida, suscitando en ellos el deseo de gastarla al servicio del bien. Éste es un deber en el que todos estamos comprometidos en primera persona.
Las preocupaciones manifestadas en estos últimos tiempos por muchos jóvenes en diversas regiones del mundo expresan el deseo de mirar con fundada esperanza el futuro. En la actualidad, muchos son los aspectos que les preocupan: el deseo de recibir una formación que los prepare con más profundidad a afrontar la realidad, la dificultad de formar una familia y encontrar un puesto estable de trabajo, la capacidad efectiva de contribuir al mundo de la política, de la cultura y de la economía, para edificar una sociedad con un rostro más humano y solidario.
Es importante que estos fermentos, y el impulso idealista que contienen, encuentren la justa atención
en todos los sectores de la sociedad. La Iglesia mira a los jóvenes con esperanza, confía en ellos y los anima a buscar la verdad, a defender el bien común, a tener una perspectiva abierta sobre el mundo y ojos capaces de ver «cosas nuevas» (Is 42,9; 48,6).
Los responsables de la educación
2. La educación es la aventura más fascinante y difícil de la vida. Educar –que viene de educere en latín– significa conducir fuera de sí mismos para introducirlos en la realidad, hacia una plenitud que hace crecer a la persona. Ese proceso se nutre del encuentro de dos libertades, la del adulto y la del joven. Requiere la responsabilidad del discípulo, que ha de estar abierto a dejarse guiar al conocimiento de la realidad, y la del educador, que debe de estar dispuesto a darse a sí mismo. Por eso, los testigos auténticos, y no simples dispensadores de reglas o informaciones, son más necesarios que nunca; testigos que sepan ver más lejos que los demás, porque su vida abarca espacios más amplios. El testigo es el primero en vivir el camino que propone.
¿Cuáles son los lugares donde madura una verdadera educación en la paz y en la justicia? Ante todo la familia, puesto que los padres son los primeros educadores. La familia es la célula originaria de la sociedad. «En la familia es donde los hijos aprenden los valores humanos y cristianos que permiten una convivencia constructiva y pacífica. En la familia es donde se aprende la solidaridad entre las generaciones, el respeto de las reglas, el perdón y la acogida del otro»[1].Ella es la primera escuela donde se recibe educación para la justicia y la paz.
Vivimos en un mundo en el que la familia, y también la misma vida, se ven constantemente amenazadas y, a veces, destrozadas. Unas condiciones de trabajo a menudo poco conciliables con las responsabilidades familiares, la preocupación por el futuro, los ritmos de vida frenéticos, la emigración en busca de un sustento adecuado, cuando no de la simple supervivencia, acaban por hacer difícil la posibilidad de asegurar a los hijos uno de los bienes más preciosos: la presencia de los padres; una presencia que les permita cada vez más compartir el camino con ellos, para poder transmitirles esa experiencia y cúmulo de certezas que se adquieren con los años, y que sólo se pueden comunicar pasando juntos el tiempo. Deseo decir a los padres que no se desanimen. Que exhorten con el ejemplo de su vida a los hijos a que pongan la esperanza ante todo en Dios, el único del que mana justicia y paz auténtica.
Quisiera dirigirme también a los responsables de las instituciones dedicadas a la educación: que vigilen con gran sentido de responsabilidad para que se respete y valore en toda circunstancia la dignidad de cada persona. Que se preocupen de que cada joven pueda descubrir la propia vocación, acompañándolo mientras hace fructificar los dones que el Señor le ha concedido. Que aseguren a las familias que sus hijos puedan tener un camino formativo que no contraste con su conciencia y principios religiosos.
Que todo ambiente educativo sea un lugar de apertura al otro y a lo transcendente; lugar de diálogo, de cohesión y de escucha, en el que el joven se sienta valorado en sus propias potencialidades y riqueza interior, y aprenda a apreciar a los hermanos. Que enseñe a gustar la alegría que brota de vivir día a día la caridad y la compasión por el prójimo, y de participar activamente en la construcción de una sociedad más humana y fraterna.
Me dirijo también a los responsables políticos, pidiéndoles que ayuden concretamente a las familias e instituciones educativas a ejercer su derecho deber de educar. Nunca debe faltar una ayuda adecuada a la maternidad y a la paternidad. Que se esfuercen para que a nadie se le niegue el derecho a la instrucción y las familias puedan elegir libremente las estructuras educativas que consideren más idóneas para el bien de sus hijos. Que trabajen para favorecer el reagrupamiento de las familias divididas por la necesidad de encontrar medios de subsistencia. Ofrezcan a los jóvenes una imagen límpida de la política, como verdadero servicio al bien de todos.
No puedo dejar de hacer un llamamiento, además, al mundo de los medios, para que den su aportación educativa. En la sociedad actual, los medios de comunicación de masa tienen un papel particular: no sólo informan, sino que también forman el espíritu de sus destinatarios y, por tanto, pueden dar una aportación notable a la educación de los jóvenes. Es importante tener presente que los lazos entre educación y comunicación son muy estrechos: en efecto, la educación se produce mediante la comunicación, que influye positiva o negativamente en la formación de la persona.
También los jóvenes han de tener el valor de vivir ante todo ellos mismos lo que piden a quienes están en su entorno. Les corresponde una gran responsabilidad: que tengan la fuerza de usar bien y conscientemente la libertad. También ellos son responsables de la propia educación y formación en la justicia y la paz.
Educar en la verdad y en la libertad
3. San Agustín se preguntaba: «Quid enim fortius desiderat anima quam veritatem? - ¿Ama algo el alma con más ardor que la verdad?»[2]. El rostro humano de una sociedad depende mucho de la contribución de la educación a mantener viva esa cuestión insoslayable. En efecto, la educación persigue la formación integral de la persona, incluida la dimensión moral y espiritual del ser, con vistas a su fin último y al bien de la sociedad de la que es miembro. Por eso, para educar en la verdad es necesario saber sobre todo quién es la persona humana, conocer su naturaleza. Contemplando la realidad que lo rodea, el salmista reflexiona: «Cuando contemplo el cielo, obra de tus dedos, la luna y las estrellas que has creado. ¿Qué es el hombre para que te acuerdes de él, el ser humano, para que de él te cuides?» (Sal 8,4-5). Ésta es la cuestión fundamental que hay que plantearse: ¿Quién es el hombre? El hombre es un ser que alberga en su corazón una sed de infinito, una sed de verdad –no parcial, sino capaz de explicar el sentido de la vida– porque ha sido creado a imagen y semejanza de Dios. Así pues, reconocer con gratitud la vida como un don inestimable lleva a descubrir la propia dignidad profunda y la inviolabilidad de toda persona. Por eso, la primera educación consiste en aprender a reconocer en el hombre la imagen del Creador y, por consiguiente, a tener un profundo respeto por cada ser humano y ayudar a los otros a llevar una vida conforme a esta altísima dignidad. Nunca podemos olvidar que «el auténtico desarrollo del hombre concierne de manera unitaria a la totalidad de la persona en todas sus dimensiones»[3],incluida la trascendente, y que no se puede sacrificar a la persona para obtener un bien particular, ya sea económico o social, individual o colectivo.
Sólo en la relación con Dios comprende también el hombre el significado de la propia libertad. Y es cometido de la educación el formar en la auténtica libertad. Ésta no es la ausencia de vínculos o el dominio del libre albedrío, no es el absolutismo del yo. El hombre que cree ser absoluto, no depender de nada ni de nadie, que puede hacer todo lo que se le antoja, termina por contradecir la verdad del propio ser, perdiendo su libertad. Por el contrario, el hombre es un ser relacional, que vive en relación con los otros y, sobre todo, con Dios. La auténtica libertad nunca se puede alcanzar alejándose de Él.
La libertad es un valor precioso, pero delicado; se la puede entender y usar mal. «En la actualidad, un obstáculo particularmente insidioso para la obra educativa es la masiva presencia, en nuestra sociedad y cultura, del relativismo que, al no reconocer nada como definitivo, deja como última medida sólo el propio yo con sus caprichos; y, bajo la apariencia de la libertad, se transforma para cada uno en una prisión, porque separa al uno del otro, dejando a cada uno encerrado dentro de su propio “yo”. Por consiguiente, dentro de ese horizonte relativista no es posible una auténtica educación, pues sin la luz de la verdad, antes o después, toda persona queda condenada a dudar de la bondad de su misma vida y de las relaciones que la constituyen, de la validez de su esfuerzo por construir con los demás algo en común»[4].
Para ejercer su libertad, el hombre debe superar por tanto el horizonte del relativismo y conocer la verdad sobre sí mismo y sobre el bien y el mal. En lo más íntimo de la conciencia el hombre descubre una ley que él no se da a sí mismo, sino a la que debe obedecer y cuya voz lo llama a amar, a hacer el bien y huir del mal, a asumir la responsabilidad del bien que ha hecho y del mal que ha cometido[5].Por eso, el ejercicio de la libertad está íntimamente relacionado con la ley moral natural, que tiene un carácter universal, expresa la dignidad de toda persona, sienta la base de sus derechos y deberes fundamentales, y, por tanto, en último análisis, de la convivencia justa y pacífica entre las personas.
El uso recto de la libertad es, pues, central en la promoción de la justicia y la paz, que requieren el respeto hacia uno mismo y hacia el otro, aunque se distancie de la propia forma de ser y vivir. De esa actitud brotan los elementos sin los cuales la paz y la justicia se quedan en palabras sin contenido: la confianza recíproca, la capacidad de entablar un diálogo constructivo, la posibilidad del perdón, que tantas veces se quisiera obtener pero que cuesta conceder, la caridad recíproca, la compasión hacia los más débiles, así como la disponibilidad para el sacrificio.
Educar en la justicia
4. En nuestro mundo, en el que el valor de la persona, de su dignidad y de sus derechos, más allá de las declaraciones de intenciones, está seriamente amenazo por la extendida tendencia a recurrir exclusivamente a los criterios de utilidad, del beneficio y del tener, es importante no separar el concepto de justicia de sus raíces transcendentes. La justicia, en efecto, no es una simple convención humana, ya que lo que es justo no está determinado originariamente por la ley positiva, sino por la identidad profunda del ser humano. La visión integral del hombre es lo que permite no caer en una concepción contractualista de la justicia y abrir también para ella el horizonte de la solidaridad y del amor[6].
No podemos ignorar que ciertas corrientes de la cultura moderna, sostenida por principios económicos racionalistas e individualistas, han sustraído al concepto de justicia sus raíces transcendentes, separándolo de la caridad y la solidaridad: «La “ciudad del hombre” no se promueve sólo con relaciones de derechos y deberes sino, antes y más aún, con relaciones de gratuidad, de misericordia y de comunión. La caridad manifiesta siempre el amor de Dios también en las relaciones humanas, otorgando valor teologal y salvífico a todo compromiso por la justicia en el mundo»[7].
«Bienaventurados los que tienen hambre y sed de la justicia, porque ellos quedarán saciados» (Mt 5,6). Serán saciados porque tienen hambre y sed de relaciones rectas con Dios, consigo mismos, con sus hermanos y hermanas, y con toda la creación.
Educar en la paz
5. «La paz no es sólo ausencia de guerra y no se limita a asegurar el equilibrio de fuerzas adversas. La paz no puede alcanzarse en la tierra sin la salvaguardia de los bienes de las personas, la libre comunicación entre los seres humanos, el respeto de la dignidad de las personas y de los pueblos, la práctica asidua de la fraternidad»[8].La paz es fruto de la justicia y efecto de la caridad. Y es ante todo don de Dios. Los cristianos creemos que Cristo es nuestra verdadera paz: en Él, en su cruz, Dios ha reconciliado consigo al mundo y ha destruido las barreras que nos separaban a unos de otros (cf. Ef 2,14-18); en Él, hay una única familia reconciliada en el amor.
Pero la paz no es sólo un don que se recibe, sino también una obra que se ha de construir. Para ser verdaderamente constructores de la paz, debemos ser educados en la compasión, la solidaridad, la colaboración, la fraternidad; hemos de ser activos dentro de las comunidades y atentos a despertar las consciencias sobre las cuestiones nacionales e internacionales, así como sobre la importancia de buscar modos adecuados de redistribución de la riqueza, de promoción del crecimiento, de la cooperación al desarrollo y de la resolución de los conflictos. «Bienaventurados los que trabajan por la paz, porque ellos serán llamados hijos de Dios», dice Jesús en el Sermón de la Montaña (Mt 5,9).
La paz para todos nace de la justicia de cada uno y ninguno puede eludir este compromiso esencial de promover la justicia, según las propias competencias y responsabilidades. Invito de modo particular a los jóvenes, que mantienen siempre viva la tensión hacia los ideales, a tener la paciencia y constancia de buscar la justicia y la paz, de cultivar el gusto por lo que es justo y verdadero, aun cuando esto pueda comportar sacrificio e ir contracorriente.
Levantar los ojos a Dios
6. Ante el difícil desafío que supone recorrer la vía de la justicia y de la paz, podemos sentirnos tentados de preguntarnos como el salmista: «Levanto mis ojos a los montes: ¿de dónde me vendrá el auxilio?» (Sal 121,1).
Deseo decir con fuerza a todos, y particularmente a los jóvenes: «No son las ideologías las que salvan el mundo, sino sólo dirigir la mirada al Dios viviente, que es nuestro creador, el garante de nuestra libertad, el garante de lo que es realmente bueno y auténtico [...], mirar a Dios, que es la medida de lo que es justo y, al mismo tiempo, es el amor eterno.
Y ¿qué puede salvarnos sino el amor?»[9]. El amor se complace en la verdad, es la fuerza que nos hace capaces de comprometernos con la verdad, la justicia, la paz, porque todo lo excusa, todo lo cree, todo lo espera, todo lo soporta (cf. 1 Co 13,1-13).
Queridos jóvenes, vosotros sois un don precioso para la sociedad. No os dejéis vencer por el desánimo ante las dificultades y no os entreguéis a las falsas soluciones, que con frecuencia se presentan como el camino más fácil para superar los problemas. No tengáis miedo de comprometeros, de hacer frente al esfuerzo y al sacrificio, de elegir los caminos que requieren fidelidad y constancia, humildad y dedicación. Vivid con confianza vuestra juventud y esos profundos deseos de felicidad, verdad, belleza y amor verdadero que experimentáis. Vivid con intensidad esta etapa de vuestra vida tan rica y llena de entusiasmo.
Sed conscientes de que vosotros sois un ejemplo y estímulo para los adultos, y lo seréis cuanto más os esforcéis por superar las injusticias y la corrupción, cuanto más deseéis un futuro mejor y os comprometáis en construirlo. Sed conscientes de vuestras capacidades y nunca os encerréis en vosotros mismos, sino sabed trabajar por un futuro más luminoso para todos. Nunca estáis solos. La Iglesia confía en vosotros, os sigue, os anima y desea ofreceros lo que tiene de más valor: la posibilidad de levantar los ojos hacia Dios, de encontrar a Jesucristo, Aquel que es la justicia y la paz.
A todos vosotros, hombres y mujeres preocupados por la causa de la paz. La paz no es un bien ya logrado, sino una meta a la que todos debemos aspirar. Miremos con mayor esperanza al futuro, animémonos mutuamente en nuestro camino, trabajemos para dar a nuestro mundo un rostro más humano y fraterno y sintámonos unidos en la responsabilidad respecto a las jóvenes generaciones de hoy y del mañana, particularmente en educarlas a ser pacíficas y artífices de paz. Consciente de todo ello, os envío estas reflexiones y os dirijo un llamamiento: unamos nuestras fuerzas espirituales, morales y materiales para «educar a los jóvenes en la justicia y la paz».
Vaticano, 8 de diciembre de 2011

Nun’s Murder

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 09:29:17 +0100

The Spirituality of Jesus as a Spirituality of solidarity and Struggle

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 09:28:45 +0100

The Spirituality of Jesus as a Spirituality of solidarity and Struggle

George M Soares-Prabhu SJ
There is a growing interest today in spirituality for Liberation. The interest is prompted partly by the felt need by groups engaged in the struggle for liberation to develop attitudes that will enable them to maintain their elan in situations of sustained tension and avoid fragmentation to which such groups (specially in India) seem particularly prone.

It may have been prompted too, by the continuing pressure on Christian social activists to defend their lifestyle against the charges of 'secularism' made by their more traditional co-religionists.

Latin American liberation theology has produced impressive literature on spirituality. Leonardo Boffs call to be a "Contemplative in Liberative Action", was followed by the book of Gustavo Guitierrez, “We Drink from our own wells”, which sets out, as its subtitle tells us, to describe "the spiritual itinerary of a people". And Jon Sobrino has now come out with a work explicitly entitled Spirituality of Liberation which professes to orient us "toward political holiness".

India has been less well served in this regard, possibly because "spirituality" is associated with attitudes of world - negation and social indifference conspicuously displayed by brahmanical Hinduism as well as by traditionalist Christianity and most conspicuously perhaps by ashramic forms of Christian life where these two sources of other-worldly individualism reinforce each other. In the still unresolved tension between 'ashrams ' and 'action groups, spirituality seems to have become a prerogative of the ashramites, 'liberation' (understood as socio-political liberation) of the social activists!

I. PROBLEMS OF A SPIRITUALITY OF LIBERATION

An attempt to overcome this tension is offered by Aloysius Pieris, who in many of his writings offers the Asian monastic ideal of voluntary poverty as the way to a solution of the Asian problem of enforced poverty. My suspicion is that the solution takes care of one of the elements needed for an authentic 'spirituality of liberation' (what I have elsewhere called 'change of heart' or liberation from Mammon), but does not provide the incentive for struggling for the other more positive element ('change of structures’ or liberation from Satan). However this be, the fact is that for many people in India, (Christian and Hindu) the very idea of a spirituality of liberation would seem to make little sense. For spirituality and liberation (in its political meaning) are seen as belonging to different areas of human life. Those who have taken part in inter-religious dialogue will be well aware of this. Any attempt to steer the dialogue towards the social issues is invariably countered with the objection, that these do not concern spirituality or religion. Spirituality (it is believed) treats of things of the spirit; liberation is concerned about the socio-political and economic realities of the material world. Talk on spirituality inevitably becomes talk about prayer, contemplation, inner freedom, detachment, indifference to the pairs of opposites, and so on. It does not descend to the concrete realities of every day material living; to the price of bread, the scarcity of edible oil, the exactions of the money lender, the problems of finding a job. These are not seen as part of 'spirituality'. The spiritual realm, the realm of religion, is kept quite distinct from the material realm, the realm of science, history, economics and politics, about which 'liberation' is concerned.

Underlying this dichotomy is a particular understanding of the structure of the human person. The human person is taken to be a composite of soul and body, or even as a soul residing in a body only extrinsically associated with it. The classical conception of the body - soul relationship is the one we find expressed in Plato's celebrated image of the human person as the charioteer in the chariot. Like any image this is not to be taken too literally, but it does suggest that the human person is essentially a 'soul', a non-material entity temporally housed in a material body.

The biblical understanding of the human person is of course, very different. A human being is not a soul living in a body but an animated body, so perfectly integrated that "the person in his totality can express himself and be apprehended in any part". It is the body, rooted in the Cosmos and related to other human beings, which gives the person his or her identity. The human person is thus essentially material and communitarian. His or her
Ultimate destiny cannot consist in abandoning the body for a spiritual heaven and the purely intellectual delight of endless vision of God. What the Bible looks forward to therefore, is not the salvation of the 'soul', but the resurrection of the body. That is, salvation for the Bible is not eternal life lived out in a spiritual heaven 'up there', to which we go after a provisional time of testing on earth. It is the transformation of the cosmos into" the new heaven: and the new earth" and of humankind into the new and definitive "family of God" (Rev.21: 1-4). Salvation is not the negation of human and cosmic history but their fulfilment.

Traditional Christian theology, in its attempt to express this peculiarly biblical understanding of the nature and destiny of the human person in the language of Greek philosophy has largely lost it. It tried to combine the biblical understanding of the human person as an 'animated body' with a Greek idea of the person as an 'incarnated soul'.

It did this by conceiving the soul as the substantial form of the body. Soul and body are united, as form is united to matter, in the identity of a single indivisible being. But to accommodate the Greek idea of the immortality of the soul, the human soul was pictured as a form of a very unusual kind. Unlike other 'forms' (say the form of a tree or of a stone) which has a separate existence of its own but can only exist in conjunction with matter in a concrete existing being, the human soul was said to be a 'substantial form', which could (after death) exist separated from the body, though always maintaining a 'transcendental relation' to it. However, theologians may have understood the curious construct, it meant, in popular Christian belief, a reversion to the ancient Greek (and Hindu) idea of the human person as essentially an individual, immortal soul temporarily inhabiting a corruptible, mortal body. Spirituality inevitably became a matter of saving the soul.

Such a spirituality in which peoples are preoccupied with the salvation of immortal souls, even at the expense of 'mortal' bodies (hence the fires of the inquisition' and the slaughter of the Crusades) cannot animate a struggle for liberation. The religious conversion of people (saving souls) and not their socio-economic liberation will be its main concern. It is quite understandable, then, that traditional Christian spirituality, while intensely preoccupied with 'evangelization' (whether of 'infidels by converting them to 'the true faith' or of believer by turning them away from sin), has been and still remains indifferent to or even suspicious of 'liberation'.

But because of its holistic understanding of human person as an animated body essentially related to other human beings (so that ha'adam stands for both the human person and for humankind), biblical spirituality is very different. It is this-worldly, communitarian and holistic. It is concerned not with anyone area of life (the spiritual) but the whole of life and the way in which this is lived out. In such a biblical spirituality the dichotomy of spirituality and liberation is overcome. Historical action for liberation becomes a spiritual concern; religious experience spills over into political action. Indeed, it is the specific genius of biblical religiosity that it sees life as a history of salvation in which the saving actions of God are manifest in concrete socio-political events, like the liberation of a group of bonded labourers in Egypt (Exodus), or the return of a band of prisoners of war from their exile abroad to the familiar security of their homeland (the return from exile). A genuinely biblical spirituality will therefore provide the inspiration and the empowerment we need, in order to sustain our struggle for the liberation of the poor and the oppressed. It will be spirituality of and for liberation.

What, one might ask, is the concrete shape such a spirituality will assume? What form will it take? Instead of attempting to sketch out theoretically, the contours of a biblical spirituality of liberation, I would like to propose a tangible model. The Jesus of the gospels, is shown living out just such a biblical spirituality in his own struggle for the poor and the oppressed of his times. His spirituality can be a paradigm for a spirituality of struggle and liberation.

II. THE LIBERATIVE SPIRITUALITY OF JESUS

Any genuine spirituality is a contextualized spirituality. This means that it is a way of life based on certain convictions and values (a dharma) which interacts creatively and appropriately with its historical context. Obviously, no spirituality is ever without a context, for every human being lives in society and is influenced by it. The problem of contextualizing a spirituality is not, therefore, the problem of finding a context for it (no spirituality is ever without one) but of developing an appropriate relationship between the spirituality and the context in which it is lived.

A people living out a particular spirituality may relate to their historical context (and by this I mean their socio- economic and political and cultural situation) in one of several ways. They may (1) withdraw from the 'world' and form their own protected little commune (as the followers of Osho Rajneesh have done) in which they live out values of their dharma in a selfish peace, wholly unconcerned by the world falling apart around them. They may (2) adopt an aggressive stance towards the world they live in and attempt to convert it to their own particular form of spirituality (as the Spanish Catholic missionaries did with such terrifying success in Latin America in the sixteenth century completely destroying indigenous cultures and peoples in the process), and as hard-sell North American Protestant evangelicals are trying to do in Asia today. They may (3) while paying lip service to their spiritual traditions, surrender in practice to the values of the world they live in (as the bourgeois Christians of Europe have succumbed to the anti-Christian ideologies of consumerism and capitalism or as Indian Christians have succumbed to the inhuman ideology of caste). Or they may (4) maintain a healthy relationship of dialectical tension with their world, in which they are influenced by their situation and also influence it. Only the last alternative is authentic contextualization, which respects both the 'text' (the form of spirituality being lived out in a group) and the 'context’ (the situation in which the spirituality is lived out). The other reactions either swallow up the context (aggressive conversion), or abandon the 'text' (surrender), or completely separate the two (withdrawal).

Such authentic contextualization supposes the autonomy of text and context. A spirituality cannot be derived wholly from its context (as text book Marxism holds); nor is it wholly unaffected by it (as the dogmatic pronouncements of fundamentalist theologians suggest). For a spirituality derives, not from a socio-economic situation but from an ordinary religious experience which is ultimately irreducible to any merely historical explanation. But from the first, this experience is conditioned by (and conditions) the historical situation in which it appears and is transmitted. Between text and context, between a spirituality and the world in which it is lived out, there is always (if the spirituality is healthy) an ongoing dialetical relationship of mutual interaction. The spirituality of a group is attentive to and affected by the situation in which it is lived; it also affects this situation.

But, for this to happen the spirituality must both identify with its situation and confront it, and we find in the spirituality of Jesus as depicted in the gospels just these notes of identification and of confrontation. They constitute as it were the two ways of acting on his situation which express his inner attitude of freedom and love. Freedom and love, leading to identification with the powerless and confrontation with those in power, are not by any means the only traits in the spirituality of Jesus. But they are, I believe the most significant traits, and set out for us the thrust of this spirituality as a spirituality suitable for those who are engaged in the struggle for the liberation of the poor and the oppressed. To understand this thrust of the spirituality of Jesus we shall first (1) look at the historical context in which he lived and worked, then (2) describe his spirituality in terms of his reaction to that situation, and finally (3) spell out living symbols through which that spirituality can be experienced today.

1. Historical Context of Jesus

Palestine at the time of Jesus was (like India today) a land of dramatic crises. Politically it was a colony of Rome. This colonial status meant not only substantial economic exploitation, but a cultural imposition which must have appeared particularly degrading to a people who believed that they were a chosen race, ruled by God himself. The economic impoverishment that resulted from colonization has been studied competently enough. But the cultural trauma it produced has scarcely been noticed by scholars, most of whom because they belong to the superior side of Imperialism, (to the side of the rulers, not of the ruled) are in no position to understand the working of a colonized consciousness and of the damage it suffers. The existence of the Roman raj led to a sharp division among those who, like the Chief Priests, collaborated happily with the imperial regime, and those who, like the sectarians of Qumran or the Zealots, opposed it with fanatical zeal. The spirituality of Jesus was lived out in the midst of this dramatic conflict.
The political domination of Palestine led to its massive economic impoverishment. The Romans exacted a tribute of about six million denari (approximately a hundred million rupees today, taking the denarius to be the minimum wage of an unskilled labourer), to say nothing of numerous toll fees and customs duties the collection of which they farmed out to unscrupulous tax collectors whose greed was proverbial (Mk 2:14; Lk19:2). This was in addition to the heavy burden of the religious taxation the people had to bear. Tithes of the harvest, the first fruits of the flock, 'stole fees' for various religious rituals (Lk2:24) and an annual Temple tax for the construction and maintenance of the Temple (Mt 17:24-27), supported a huge, economically unproductive priestly class (numbering, Jaochim Jeremias has estimated, about 20,000); and paid for the upkeep of the enormously costly Temple liturgy (Josephus speaks of 225,660 lambs sacrificed at a single Passover, an exaggeration no doubt but indicative of the scale of Temple sacrifices).

The result was a sharp economic polarization of society. A religious aristocracy (the "chief priest's' of the gospels), made up of the members of the four main priestly families, grew fat on the large incomes they drew from the Temple treasury and from their share in the Temple trade (Mk 1;15-19); and a secular aristocracy, made up of rich merchants residing in the cities (Mt 13:34), land-owners possessing large tracts of land in rural districts like Galilee (MK. 10:22), high officials, employed at the royal court (in Galilee) or in the Roman government (in Judaea and tax farmers who had bought from the Romans the right to collect tolls in a given territory (Lk 19:1) grew rich on trade, plantation agriculture, bribes and the extortion of exorbitant taxes.

All this led to a growing impoverishment of the common people. Increasing rural indebtedness brought on by the heavy civil and religious taxation led to the selling of the small landholdings (which had been the normal pattern of agricultural ownership in pre-Roman Palestine) to rich and often absentee landlords (Mk 12:1), who while enjoying the amenities of cities like Tiberias or Jerusalem, ran their estates on hired labour supervised by salaried managers (Lk 16:1-8). A peasant economy of small farms gave way to plantation economy of huge estates growing cash crops for export. As a result there appeared a growing rural proletariat of dispossessed farmers, now become landless and often unemployed day labourers (Mt 20:1-16), who in times of need might migrate to the cities to eke out a miserable existence by begging, take to banditry (Lk 10:30), or join one of the revolutionary bands in the 'hill country' waging a guerilla war against Rome (Mk 15:7).

The ranks of this economic proletariat were swelled by masses of the socially marginalized. Post exilic Judaism was governed by a system of purities according to which people, places and things were classified as pure or impure (sacred or profane) according as whether they could take part in or be used for worship or not. Cleanness and uncleanness were determined by a series of regulations which defined the categories of persons, things or places which were 'clean', that is, fit for worship; or 'unclean', that is unfit for worship, and therefore to be treated as outcast and untouchable. The system was therefore, not unlike the scheme of purity/pollution which (according to Louis Dumont) lies at the basis of the caste system in India, though 'untouchability' in Israel was never practised with anything even remotely like the inhuman callousness it has assumed in India today.

According to the system of purities prevalent in Israel the time of Jesus, priests, levites and Israelites of pure ancestry who kept the purity regulations and were instructed in the law, made up "pure Israel". Gentiles and Samaritans were treated as impure. So were the great mass of the underprivileged people: the 'am ha’ ares, "the people of the land", as they were contemptuously called by the Pharisees, the Jews of strict observance. This "rabble that know nothing about the law", as they are characterized by the Jewish leaders in the gospel of John (Jn: 7:4-9), were held to be impure because they practised despised trades (so the tax-collectors, tanners, shepherds, or camel drivers), were afflicted by disfiguring diseases which made them ritually unclean (lepers); suffered from psychic disturbances which at the time were attributed to demonic possession (the possessed); were illiterate and therefore unschooled in the law (the 'little ones'), or were notorious violators of the ethical or ritual regulations of the people (the 'sinners').

Economic and social polarization in a situation of political oppression and conflict thus marked the society in which Jesus lived. The situation has been neatly summed up by Michael Glevenot as follows:

In short, First Century Palestine was a class structured society at every level. At the economic level the masses fiercely exploited by the privileged. In politics the priestly class supported by the great landowners, held the mechanism of state in their hands. Ideologically the ruling class imposed its ideology (essentially the system of purity), which was passed in diverse ways by group, sects and parties.

Several types of reactions to this critical situation can be distinguished among the religious groups that made up the Judaism of that time, depending on the different ‘spiritualities’ of the groups. An attitude of surrender or abdication marked the stance of the Sadducees, the party of the privileged 'chief priests' who combined theological fundamentalism (accepting only the written Torah, not the oral interpretations which had grown up around it as valid) with a political conservatism which showed itself in a mutually beneficial collaboration with imperial Rome. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the Zealots opted for a violent confrontation with Rome on the religious ground that the covenant people could have no king other than Yahweh. In between these two extremes stood the sectarians of Qumran and Pharisees both of whom reacted to the economic, social and political crises of their time by withdrawal. The withdrawal was absolute for the Qumranites, relative for the Pharisees. Since strict observance of the Torah, including all its ritual regulations, would make any communication with the unclean Hellenistic gentile world impossible, the Qumran sectarians opted for a physical separation from this world, and settled down on the shores of the dead sea forming a
secluded monastic commune in which they could live out their dharma unpolluted by the 'world'. The reaction of the Pharisees was more muted. They continued to live in the Hellenistic world of colonized Palestine, but protected themselves from pollution by complex rituals of purification (Mk 7:3-4). Both the Qumranites and Pharisees were rigorists, attempting to observe the precepts of the law as perfectly as possible. But where Qumran tended towards a literal and fundamentalist understanding of the Law, the Pharisees engaged in considerable casuistic discussion (halakha) in order to interpret it in ways that would be relevant to their new situation. The reaction of Jesus was radically different from all of these.

2. The Contextualized Spirituality of Jesus.
Unlike the Pharisees or the sectarians of Qumran, Jesus was not a rigorist but a radical. He did not attempt to follow the letter of the law as strictly as possible but sought to reach its spirit. The spirit of the law for Jesus, who had experienced God as Abba, Father, was love. The 'love command', that one love God by loving neighbour is the basis of the law (Mt 22:40); the 'golden rule' that we do to others what we would have others do to us, is the sum total of the law (Mt 7:12). A new experience of God (God as loving father and not as just judge) leads Jesus to a new principle of spirituality (love not Law). This spirituality excludes any surrender to, withdrawal from, or violent rejection of his situation. It leads him instead to the two basic strategies of identification and of confrontation. In his sharply polarized society, clearly divided into economic and social classes with conflicting interests, Jesus takes sides. He identifies with the poor and the outcast, and he confronts the establishment' which impoverishes and rejects them.

a) Identification with the Poor and the Outcast

The identification of Jesus with the poor and the outcast is quite clear in the gospels. It is shown there by the life-style Jesus adopts, the followers he chooses, and the places in which he exercises his ministry.

(1) The Life Style of Jesus

Although he was born into an artisan family, belonging to what one would call the petite bourgeoisie (the class of' small producers who own the tools of their trade and are today part of the lower middle class), Jesus 'de-classes' himself and adopts the life of an itinerant preacher without a home or means of subsistence. He breaks with his family (Mk3: 31-35) to join the 'family' of all those who do the will of their Father in heaven, by their radical obedience to God which shows itself in a radical concern for the neighbour (Mk 12: 28-33). He has, as he says of himself, (like our pavement dwellers in India today) "nowhere to lay his head" (Mt 8:20). He abandons himself wholly to his Father's provident care (Mt 4:1-11; 6:25-34), depending for sustenance on the casual help provided by sympathizing friends (Lk: 8: 1-2). He lives, that is, by religious begging.

Not only does Jesus become poor with the poor, he makes himself an outcast by associating with outcasts. He touches a leper to welcome him back into human fellowship (Mk 1:41). He eats with tax-collectors and sinners earning the reprobation of the religious elite (Mk. 2:15; Lk 15: 1-2), he puts aside the laws of ritual cleanliness to which the Pharisees attached so much importance (Mk. 7:1-23). These are not casual gestures on the part of Jesus. They are expressions of his spirituality of love which, leads him to a consistent and radical identification with the poor and the marginalized of society, not only by announcing their liberation (Mt 11:2-6; Lk 4:16-21; 6:20-27) and protesting on their behalf (Mk 3:1-6; 10:13-16; Lk 7:36-50; 13:10-17), but by sharing their life and their shame. The life of Jesus was a growing identification with the poor and the outcast. It was, as Kosuke Koyama, has described it, an on-going movement from the centre to the periphery, which continues until he reaches the ultimate periphery when he dies utterly poor and totally outcast on the cross.

(2) The Followers of Jesus

The people Jesus chooses to be his disciples come from the same artisan class to which he himself belonged, or are drawn from the social outcasts among whom he lived. Four of them are fishermen (Mk 1:16-20); one an 'untouchable' customs tax collector and a collaborator with the hated Roman Raj; another was (or had been) a Zealot, the member of an outlaw group (made up largely of dispossessed peasants) who violently rejected foreign rule. A healed "demoniac" who had been possessed by an "unclean" (i.e. ritually polluting) spirit is sent by Jesus to be his messenger in the group of ten Greek cities (the Decapolis) to the East of the Sea of Galilee. And a blind beggar, who has been healed by Jesus, follows him "on the way" (Mk 10:52), that is, accompanies him to Jerusalem as a disciple -- because "the way" in this section of Mark's gospel (8:27-10:52) has both a geographical and a symbolic meaning; it stands for the way to Jerusalem and also for the way of discipleship, which, as Mark repeatedly teaches here, is the way of identification and confrontation which leads to the Cross.

Jesus has indeed middle class and possibly even rich friends and sympathizers. The gospels mention Zacchues, the chief customs tax collector in Jericho who was undoubtedly a man of means (Lk:19:1-2), Nicodemus (In 3:1) and Joseph of Arimathea (Mk 15:43), who were members of the Sanhedrin (the council which looked after Jewish religious and political affairs) and so belonged to the wealthy secular aristocracy; certain apparently well-off women (one of them the wife of King Herod's steward) who "provided for him out of their means" (Lk 8:3-4). Others seem to have been at least comfortably off, like Lazarus and his sisters, with a house in Bethany and a family tomb on the outskirts of the village (Lk 10:38-42; Jn 11: 17-44); or the unknown friend who loans him a guest room in Jerusalem so that Jesus can celebrate his last Passover there (Mk 14:12-16). But such followers are few, and do not seem to have been altogether comfortable with the Jesus movement. A rich landlord from Galilee cannot bring himself to give up the 'large property' he owns in order to follow Jesus (Mk 10:17-22). His 'failed vocation 'stands in striking contrast to the prompt response of the poor fishermen who "leave all things and follow Jesus" when they are called by him (Mk 1:16-20). Nicodemus too is a disciple in secret and visits Jesus at night for fear of damaging his standing among the upper class Jews (Jn. 3:2). Joseph of Arimathea is described as a seeker ("waiting for the Kingdom of God") rather than as a full disciple, and is mentioned only as a benefactor who contributes towards the burial of Jesus (Mk 15:42-43). On the whole, the first followers of Jesus were, like himself, poor.

(3) The Mission Field of Jesus

The poverty of Jesus and his followers is shown too by the obscurity of their field of work. Except for Jerusalem, the 'Holy City' of the Jews, and so the inevitable destination of every religious teacher, Jesus seems to have avoided visiting the cities of Palestine. Neither Tiberias nor Sepphoris, capital cities of Galilee, not Jotapata or Gischala, fortified cities which played a significant part in the war of independence against Rome are mentioned in the gospels as places which Jesus visited. Instead, we find him moving about in obscure hamlets like Nazareth (Mk 6:1), a village so insignificant that, outside the gospels, it is not mentioned in any document or inscription that has come, down to us; In fishing villages like Bethsaida (Mk 6:45; 8:22; Lk9:49), in mofussil townships like Capernaum, which he seems to have made his headquarters during his preaching in Galilee (Mt 9:1). We notice too that when the Hellenized cities of Palestine are mentioned at all, Jesus is shown entering their surrounding territory, not the cities themselves. He travels through "the villages of Caesarea Philippi" (Mk 8:27), "the region of Tyre" (Mk 7:24), "the land of the Gerasenes" (Mk 5:1), "the region of the Decapolis" (Mk 7:31). As the well known historian, Geoffrey de Ste. Croix tells us, In so far as we can trust the specific information of the gospels, there is no evidence that Jesus ever entered any Greek city. This should not surprise us: Jesus, as I indicated at the beginning, belonged wholly to the Chora, the Jewish countryside of Galilee and Judea.

The mission field of Jesus was the Palestine countryside, with its poor, backward villages and its primitive townships, not the Hellenized (or as we might say today 'westernized') urban centres to which the rich flocked.

The ministry of Jesus, then, was not like that of the 'god-men' of today, who impart instant enlightenment to rich sophisticates bored with life in urban centres in India and abroad. These god- men had their counterparts in the time of Jesus in the "divine men" or 'teachers of the wisdom" like Appollonius of Tyana (who lived a generation after Jesus and was a contemporary of Paul), and built up a following of rich patrons. A better contemporary analogy for the ministry of Jesus would be that of the sadhus and sannyasis (the genuine ones!), who wander round our villages in stark poverty supported by the generosity of the poor. Wandering charismatics are not unknown to us in India today! There would be of course a radical difference in the social roles played by these sadhus and by Jesus and his followers. The wandering charismatics of India announce a doctrine of personal salvation through gnostic enlightenment to be achieved through prayer techniques or through loving devotion to a particular god. Their teaching does not threaten the social structure of the community; it often reinforces it. It is part of the complex and intricate system of legitimation through which Hinduism has been able to maintain for centuries a social order whose injustice is patent to all. Sadhus pose no threat to the rich and the powerful and so do not arouse their opposition.

Jesus and his followers are very different. The message which Jesus proclaims is subversive. His demand for radical obedience to God, rules out (as the first Christians realized) blind obedience to any human power; his proclamation of human kind as the "family of God" wholly excludes all forms of racist, sexist, ethnic or caste discrimination. His demand for a radical concern for the “neighbour" calls for a rejection of any system which creates or enhances an unjust distribution of wealth, status or power. The kingdom he announces is revolutionary, (a good translation for it would be 'God's revolution') and so arouses the opposition of the guardians of the religious, social and political status quo. Jesus' identification with the poor and the powerless leads inevitably to his confrontation with the rich and the powerful.

b) The Confrontation of Jesus with the 'Establishment'

The life of Jesus, was a life of conflict. Conflict begins (according to Mathew’s story of Jesus) at his birth. He is persecuted by the great King Herod, so that his Family must take refuge in an alien land, and endure (like hundreds of thousands of people today) the tragic plight of a refugee. His ministry too is ridden with conflict. The life of Jesus as described in the gospels is very far removed from the measured calm of the academy or the meditative quiet of the cloister. It is much closer to the harried, conflict filled, continually threatened life of the social activist, than it is to the secluded tranquility of the ashram.

The gospels (and specially Mark) describe the ministry of Jesus as a sustained conflict against Satan. In the apocalyptic world- view of the times, Satan was the "ruler of the world" (Jn: 12:28), who through his demons afflicted humankind with sickness, with mental illness (attributed in those days to demonic possession, and with natural calamities like storms. So Jesus will "rebuke" a fever, so as to drive out the fever-demon from the patient (Lk 4:39); he will heal an epileptic boy by exorcising the demon that throws him into his fits (Mk 9:25-26); and he stills a storm by silencing the storm demon that is agitating wind and the sea, using typically exorcist language: "he rebuked" the sea and said to the wind 'peace, be still" (Mk 4:39 ). The miracles of Jesus (his healings and his exorcisms) are thus seen by the gospels as episodes in this conflict. His healings are signs that the Kingdom of God has come (Mt 11:2-6) and his exorcisms show that the rule of Satan has been ended (Mt 12:28). His healings and exorcisms are not for Jesus individual acts of compassion (analogous to relief work today), but actions which destroy the root cause (the structure) which, as Jesus and his contemporaries saw it was responsible for human ill. Work for justice, which strives to destroy structures of evil as we experience them today (whether at intra-personal, inter-personal or the societal level), would thus be the true contemporary equivalents of the miracles of Jesus.

In apocalyptic thinking, Satan who rules the world through demons, also rules it through demonic men and women. Apocalyptic literature identifies these satanic men and women as the rulers of the world empires who persecute and oppress the lowly people of God - like the Hellenistic king Antiochus Epiphanes IV who oppresses God's people in Daniel, or the Roman emperor Nero, or possibly Domitian, who is their adversary in the Revelation of John. The violent polemic against oppressive world empires so characteristic of the biblical apocalypses is absent in the teaching of Jesus whose conflict does not assume these international dimensions but is limited to controversies with the local representatives of the religious, and political establishment of his people (the scribes, the Pharisees, the chief priests, the Herodians); and who does not demonize his opponents but invites them to conversion. The apocalyptic world- view of Jesus is humanised by his experience of God as love. He sees his opponents not as demonic figures to be destroyed but as misguided human beings to be converted.

But it is precisely this experience of God as love which leads him to confront them sharply. Because he experiences God as "abba" he experiences humankind as brothers and sisters. This experience cannot tolerate any form of discrimination based on race, religion, community or gender; nor can it remain passive in the face of the unjust structures that deprive people of what they need to lead a fully human life, for it is always a brother or sister who is hurt by such discrimination or injustice. Neither will the God-experience of Jesus tolerate any kind of legalism or ritualism (that is any absolutizing of law or cult, as if people are saved by keeping laws, or performing prescribed rituals) because it affirms the absolute primacy of love. Loving neighbour, not observing the law, is for Jesus the norm of right human behaviour. Inevitably Jesus enters into conflict with legalistic scribes who burden the consciences of people with elaborate interpretations of the law, and are totally insensitive to human need (Mk 2:23-28; 3:1-6; Lk 13:10-18); with greedy priests who with the approval of the imperial state (with which they happily collaborate), exploit the people by setting up a highly profitable monopoly trade in the animals needed for the Temple sacrifices and the Jewish coins needed for the Temple tribute (Mk 11:15-19); with the pious and law- abiding Pharisees, who reject whole sections of the people as outcasts (Lk 15:1-2); with the rich who have made Mammon their God (Mk 10:25; Lk 13:12-21) and closed their hearts to their neighbour's needs
(Lk 16:19-31); with Herod whose threat to kill him (obviously because he poses a political threat) he dismisses with contempt (Lk 13:31:33). "By and large" says Samuel Rayan, "the Gospels are an account of Jesus' confrontation with structures and agents of domination: the scribes, the Pharisees and their law systems; the rich and their mechanisms of oppression. Herod and Pilate and the cruel imperialism they represent".

3. The Foundations of the Spirituality of Jesus.

For Jesus to engage in such widespread conflict with the religious, theological, social and political establishment of his people is an act of extraordinary freedom and courage because he is an individual who, in the social set up he lives in, enjoys no privilege or power. He does not command the sacral aura of priest, since he has not been born into a priestly family (Mt 1:18-25; Mk 6:3; Lk 1:26). He cannot boast of the learning of a scribe, because he has not been trained in a scribal school (In 7:15). He wields no political power because he is neither an official at Herod’s court nor an officer of the imperial service. He cannot control people through money because he is poor, nor impose his will by force, because he has no arms. He is utterly powerless. Yet he can speak and act with freedom and authority, because he speaks out of a profound experience of God.

The spirituality of Jesus, the love which drives him to identification with the poor and the freedom which allows him to confront the rich both derive from this foundational experience of God as abba. This God experience is not to be seen as a purely spiritual experience - a sudden, wholly unexpected irruption of the divine into the life of Jesus. Like every religious experience, this too has its context. The foundational God- experience of Jesus, the source of all his authority took place, I believe, at his baptism by John (Mk 1:9-11). That is why this event is narrated by all the evangelists as the beginning of the ministry of Jesus, however embarrassing it was for them to acknowledge that their master had been baptized by the founder of rival a group; and that is why Jesus refers to the baptism of John when, after his cleansing of the Temple, he is questioned by the Jewish leaders about the source of his 'authority' (Mk 11:27-31), His authority, he claims, derives from the God-experience he had at his baptism by John.

But the baptism of John was a "baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins"
(Mk 1:4). That is, it was an 'eschatological sacrament', undertaken by a person, a sign of his or her conversion (a turning away from sin) in face of the impending eschatological judgment, For Jesus to submit to the baptism of John meant that he identified with sinful but repentant Israel, that is, with the simple people who were flocking to be baptized by John - unlike their leaders, who, like religious leaders everywhere, studiously avoided such a threat to their authority (Mt 11; 18; 21:32;.Mk 11:31). And it is this act of identification with the 'poor' that becomes the occasion for Jesus' foundational experience of God. If it is the God-experience of Jesus that empowers him to identity with the poor and confront the rich, it is an act of solidarity with the poor that is the occasion for his experience of God. The God experience of Jesus and his identification with the poor are thus (like spirituality and life) joined together inseparably in a dialectical relationship of mutual dependence. In Jesus, as Sebastian Kappen has put it (speaking of the God-experience of a prophet), "the point of eruption of the repressed longings of the masses," is also "a point of irruption of the divine".

III. PRESENT DAY SYMBOLS FOR THE SPIRITUALITY OF JESUS

Jesus' spirituality of identification and confrontation finds a powerful expression in a pair of symbols (truths which point to something deeper than their "historical" reality) both of which are basic to the Christian life. The symbols are the incarnation and the cross.

The Incarnation
The incarnation symbolizes the identification of Jesus with the poor. "The word" says John "became flesh and dwelt amongst us" (In 1:14). These words echo the oracle of the great prophet of consolation, the second Isaiah in which the solidity of the word of God, which "stands for ever" is contrasted with the frailty of the "flesh" (humankind as created communitarian), which like grass withers and fades:

A voice says, "Cry!"
and I said, "What shall I cry?
All flesh is grass
And all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand of ever. (Is 40:6-8)

What John announces is that in Jesus the enduring word has become transient flesh. But if the word has become flesh in Jesus, all humankind has been divinized in him. For in the Bible, the human person is never an isolated individual but always part of humankind. What happens to one, affects all. Humankind now becomes the locus of our encounter with God. "What you do to the least of my brothers and sisters," Jesus can truly say, "you do to me".

The individualism of Hellenistic philosophy, reinforced by the selfish individualism of bourgeois society has made us forget this. We neglect the social dimension of the incarnation and think only of its individual implication for Jesus. Jesus then becomes a god-made-man (often enough a god-appearing-as man) who becomes an object of devotion, but no longer a paradigm for action. The challenge of his self-giving love, proclaimed to us in the gospel narrative of his words and his deeds, is neatly deflected by the reply, "Jesus, after all was God…” Religion comes to mean worshipping Jesus, without following him. But the incarnation is always a call to follow Jesus in his solidarity with humankind, expressed concretely through his consistent and progressive identification with the poor.

2. The Cross

If Jesus' identification with the poor is anticipated by his incarnation, his confrontation with the rich, indeed the whole of his spirituality, finds its ultimate expression in the Cross. The Cross is not arbitrary irruption into the life of Jesus. It is the natural outcome of his spirituality. A spirituality of identification with the poor and of confrontation with the rich and the powerful leads inevitably to the conflict that culminates in the Cross. Jesus is crucified as King of the Jews by the Romans at the instigation of the Jewish leaders (that is by the rich and the powerful) because his solidarity with the poor had led him to a fatal confrontation which could only end with his foreseen and freely accepted death.
But for Jesus, his death was not only the final outcome of his confrontation with the rich and the powerful, it was also the ultimate expression of his identification with the poor.’ For on the Cross Jesus is wholly poor and totally outcast. Identification and confrontation have here reached their furthest possible limits. Here he is one with all the marginalized and all the martyred victims of the earth. The journey from the centre to the periphery, a journey which was the basic movement of his life and the basic thrust of his spirituality, comes here to its ultimate goal. What was begun at the incarnation now reaches its fulfilment. A spirituality of freedom and of love expressing itself in a radical identification with the poor and the outcast and a resolute confrontation with all the oppressive powers of the world arrives at its paradoxical outcome, baffling all human calculation, where "(God's) power is made perfect in weakness" (2Gor 12:9); and where "the foolishness of God is shown to be wiser than the wisdom of humankind, and the weakness of God stronger than humankind's strength" (1 Cor 1:25). For the Cross shows forth not just the death of Jesus but his resurrection as well (Phil 2:6- 11). It is a sign not of death but of life. It demonstrates with absolute clarity that "God chose (and continues to choose) what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; that God chose (and continues to choose) what is weak and in the world, to shame the strong; and that God chose (and continues to choose) what is lowly and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are"(1Gor 1:27-28). And so the Cross exemplifies and vindicates with absolute assurance the spirituality and the praxis of Jesus, who in his freedom and his love chooses to identity with the weak and the foolish and opposes the wise and the strong. It summons us as followers of Jesus to assume the same spirituality of solidarity and struggle.

NEWSBRIEF - JPIC - December

Sun, 4 Dec 2011 12:46:28 +0100

Commission for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation
USG/UISG Secretariat
JPIC Rome Office – jpicusguisg@lasalle.org / www.jpicformation.wikispaces.com
December, 2011
NEWSBRIEF - JPIC COMMISSION OFFICE Vol.4 No 12

ROME UPDATE

Follow-up to JPIC November 19th Seminar: For copies of the Seminar presentations – Fr. Donal Dorr, Sr. Anne Beatrice Faye and Sr. Teresa Dagdag – go to,
http://jpicformation.wikispaces.com/EN_Seminars+and+Conferences
‘Justice in the World’ by Peter Henriot SJ: For a copy go to
http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=13132

Next JPIC Seminar (all day): It takes place on February 4th, 2012 at the Fratelli Cristiani. The theme is JPIC in formation processes. Two well known speakers (Fr. José Antonio Pagola and Rosemary Mangan, RJM) will present themes in the morning and evening, followed by testimonies and group work. It is open to Leadership Teams, Formation Secretaries, JPIC Promoters and other interested religious. The offering will be €12 Euro. There will be simultaneous translations into English, Spanish, French and Italian. For preparation questions and to register contact jpic@cgfma.org by mid December. For more information contact the jpic office and for a copy of the programme go to,
English: http://jpicformation.wikispaces.com/EN_Seminars+and+Conferences
Spanish: http://jpicformation.wikispaces.com/ES_Promotores+Espanol+Portugues

Position for Religious at FAO: The FAO Working group, representing several Religious Institutes, are looking for a full-time religious man or woman Executive Secretary to represent them at the FAO. A job description is available at - http://www.jpicpassionist.org/component/content/article/24-noticias The closing date for CVs to be presented is January 9th, 2012, to Fr. Alfredo Becerra Vázquez CM at alfredobev@yahoo.com.mx

Feedback on JPIC prayers: The Salvatorian (SDS) leadership used the Peace Prayer during their planning and evaluation meeting in September. The SDS family is being asked to consider a proposal at their General Chapters in 2012 to appoint a person whose principal responsibility will be JPIC animation for the family.

News about Newsbrief: One of the International Promoters, who sends Newsbrief to her sisters, shared that one of her provincials in Latin America sends it to 400 provincials. How are you sharing the information with the members of your congregation and others? For back-issues in English and Spanish, go to http://jpicformation.wikispaces.com/EN_JPIC_Newsbrief

Anti-Trafficking Working group: When Talitha Kum (UISG) was constituted, questions arose about the future of the JPIC Commission Working Group. Many former members have left Rome. Some Promoters are interested in continuing the work of this group, which also includes representatives from some male congregations. If you are interested in contributing to the reflection on the future of this group, please attend the meeting on December 12 at 2.30 till 4.30 at the SJ Curia (Borgo Santo Spirito 4).

Symposium on Child Protection: A Symposium is being organized for a limited number of Superior Generals on Child Protection Policy at the Gregorian University in February 2012. In communication with the organizer, Fr. Hans Zollner SJ, the JPIC office has learned that they plan to establish an E-learning facility "Centre for Child Protection" that will start its activities in January.

Marist Advent and Solidarity Reflections: To access daily reflections during Advent in English, Spanish,
French, Italian and Portuguese, go to
http://www.champagnat.org/es/610.php?caso=view_1909&num=2199

Economic Justice Working Group: The group have made some resources available online relating to Fairtrade ‘Best Practices’ and resources on ‘Alternative Economies’. Also, to be posted soon – Resources/Suggestions for a ‘Non-Consumeristic’, Earth-friendly Christmas, Go to,
http://jpicformation.wikispaces.com/EN_fairtrade

Prayers and thanks:
For Sr. Amelia Kawaji, Superior General of the Mercedaries of Berriz, who died on November 14 in Bilbao.
We wish Sr. Frances Orchard ‘buon viage’ as she returns to England. She has
been actively involved in the Integrity of Creation Working group.
Thanks you all who are contributing time, energy and ideas to each of the working groups. NOTE: Why not become involved in one of the working groups? It is logical, but no volunteers means no groups!!
.
Reminders:
JPIC Distance Learning Program: The Spiritan-owned Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, USA, has launched a JPIC Distance Learning Program (in English) in mid-August 2011. You can find detailed information on the program and contact details at http://www.duq.edu/jpic.
Pax Christi call for Peace Stories: More information on this action can be found in English at 2011-0377-en-me-PS; in French at 2011-0377-fr-me-PS; in Spanish at 2011-0377-es-me-PS; in German at 2011-0377-de-me-PS; and in Dutch at 2011-0377-nl-me-PS.

2. Outside Rome
2.1 Creation and Reconciliation (South Africa): A two-week programme takes place from September 23 – October
25, 2012. Participants are mostly Australian, but there may be an opening for other interested parties. Please
contact Miss Beth McDonnell at bethmcd@powerup.com.au. A brochure can be downloaded at:
http://www.catholicearthcare.org.au/documents/eBrochureCreationReconciliationAUS2010.pdf

Murdered for Justice: Sr. Valsa John, a Sister of Charity of Jesus and Mary, was murdered on November 15th. She was involved in protecting the poor against the ‘Coal Mafia’. For more information go to, http://www.asianews.it/news-en/India,-funeral-for-Catholic-nun-murdered-by-Coal-Mafia-23203.html

2.3 Cristian Brothers Investment Services (CBIS) Resolution: To read more about a resolution that called for the separation of the Chief Executive Officer and Chair of the Board positions at News Corporation at the annual shareholders meeting, go to http://www.cbisonline.com/page.asp?id=1122

2.4 Durban Climate Change (COP 17): There are a number of religious participants: Br. Bernd Beermann ofmcap,
based in Rome. Fr. Paddy Noonan ofm, Sr. Chika Eza, SHCJ, from Nigeria, and Sr. Laura Lepori, Comboni, based in South Africa. Sr. Ann Braudis MM and John Brinkman MM are also present. Articles in English related to the Conference by Fr. Sean Mc Donagh will be posed on our Wikispaces at -
http://jpicformation.wikispaces.com/EN_Integrity_of_Creation

USEFUL RESOURCES
Pontifical JP Council Document on Finances: Copies of ‘Towards Reforming the International Financial
and Monetary Systems in the context of Global Public Authority’ are available in English, Spanish, Italian and
French at: http://www.justpax.it/fra/home_fra.html

3.2 Support for Vatican Statement: A Faith-Based group welcomes the Vatican Statement on Financial
Reform. Go to, http://www.iccr.org/issues/subpages/10.28.11iccrresponsetovatican.pdf

An Action Guide for Churches for ethical options relating to Money: for a copy of the guide in
English go to, http://www.neiw.org/church-guide

3.4 A tour of the Universe in 14 minutes: Fr Pedro Walpole SJ and Fr James Reuter SJ provide the narration for a
Mini-documentary that gives a tour of the universe. They describe in simple terms how the Big Bang really
occurred and the discovery of neutrinos, galactic super-clusters, cosmic voids, and dark galaxies. Dramatic
Hubble space photos are also featured. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhNn2u02wk8

3.5 Declaration by Asian Bishops (FABC) on Climate Change: To read the final statement entitled ‘Church
Response to the Challenge of Climate Change in Asia: Towards a New Creation’ go to,
http://www.fabc.org/

3.6 JPIC-SMA (Ireland): They publish a JPIC formation resource called ‘JUSTICE BRIEFINGS’. The aim of
these Briefings is to give a short and clear overview of JPIC issues from a Christian and Catholic
perspective. They examine 14 issues such as – Migration, Environment, and Food Security etc. Go to,
http://www.coistine.ie/resources/justice-briefings

3.7 Vatican observer to the U.N. on nuclear disarmament: To read the statement by Archbishop
Chulikatt, go to http://www.zenit.org/article-33139?l=english

3.8 Gold mining poisons rivers in Paraguay: To read more and see a video (in Spanish) go to,
http://www.infocaaguazu.com/2011/11/06/arroyo-contaminado-con-mercurio-alimenta-otros-cauces-en-guaira-y-caaguazu/

3.9 World Day of Peace Message: The January 1st 2012 peace is entitled ‘Educating Young People in
Justice and Peace’. For information go to, http://www.zenit.org/article-32614?l=english
  3.10 US Catholic Democrats and Poverty: In a letter addressed to Cardinal Dolan of NY, Catholic Democrats ask
him to address the issue of poverty. Go to, http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/catholic-democrats-ask-bishops-address- poverty

3.11 Stop Trafficking Newsletter: Go to http://www.stopenslavement.org/index.html

3.12 Franciscans International: If you want to be on their email newsletter list, write to press@fiop.org Also their
Web page is - http://www.franciscansinternational.org/

3.13 Re-Occupying Main Street: Seamus Finn OMI reflects on lessons to be drawn from the responsible
citizenship on display by demonstrators across the world. Go to,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-seamus-p-finn-omi/reoccupying-main-reet_b_1062935.html

3.14 Permanent Observer of Holy See to the UN: A Statement on preventable maternal mortality and
human rights by Mons. Silvano Tomasi. Go to,
http://www.radiovaticana.org/EN1/articolo.asp?c=521034

3.15 Spirit of Assisi and Islam: Father Felix Körner SJ., an expert on Islam, is interviewed on Vatican Radio.
Go to, http://www.radiovaticana.org/EN1/articolo.asp?c=531082

3.16 Reaction to Note on financial reform: Cristina Weller, CAFOD's economist gives an interview at,
http://www.radiovaticana.org/EN1/articolo.asp?c=532013

3.17 Italian priest murdered in the Philippines: - PIME Missionary Father Bernardo Cervellera talks about
Fr. Tentorio at, http://www.radiovaticana.org/EN1/articolo.asp?c=529638

3.18 A JPIC Blog (in Spanish): On Human Rights and the Rights of the Poor. Go to,
http://derechoshumanosderechosdelospobres.blogspot.com

4. Upcoming JPIC Meetings: December 2011
English JPIC Core Group: December 6, @ 15.00 at Fratelli Cristiani
JPIC Spanish/Portuguese Promoters’ group: December 7 @UISG at 9.00
FAO Working group: December 7 @ 9.30 in Passionist Generalate
Anti-Trafficking Working group: December 12 @ 2.30 – 4.15 at SJ Curia (Borgo Santo Spirito, 4.)
Africa Working group: December 14 from 10.00-12.00 @ M.Afri Generelate
JPIC English Promoters’ Meeting: Saturday, December 21 @ 9.00 in UISG offices
Economic Justice Working group (EJWG): December 14 @ 15.00 at Caritas Internationalis
English JPIC Core Group: January 9, @ 15.00 at Fratelli Cristiani
JPIC Spanish/Portuguese Promoters’ group: January 4 @UISG at 9.00
Economic Justice Working group (EJWG): January 11 @ 15.00 at Caritas Internationalis
JPIC English Promoters’ Meeting: January 18 @ 9.00 in UISG offices

Note: Please send a brief outline of information you think JPIC Promoters might find useful for future publications to the JPIC Commission Office at the emails below. Please confirm if you do not wish your email to be published.
Gearóid Francisco Ó Conaire ofm and Teresa Dagdag MM Via Aurelia 476, CP 9099 Aurelio, 00165 Roma, Italy.
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UNDP REPORT 2011

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 10:57:16 +0100

UNDP REPORT 2011 - SUSTAINABILITY
AND EQUITY - A BETTER FUTURE FOR US ALL

"Living standards in most countries have been rising - and converging
for several decades now yet the 2011 Report projects a disturbing
reversal of those trends if environmental deterioration and social
inequalities continue to intensify, with the least developed countries
diverging downwards from global patterns of progress by 2050.

The Report shows further how the world’s most disadvantaged people
suffer the most from environmental degradation, including in their
immediate personal environment, and disproportionately lack political
power, making it all the harder for the world community to reach
agreement on needed global policy changes.

The Report emphasizes the human right to a healthy environment, the
importance of integrating social equity into environmental policies,
and the critical importance of public participation and official
accountability.

The 2011 Report concludes with a call for bold new approaches to
global development financing and environmental controls, arguing that
these measures are both essential and feasible".