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The Catholic Church, both in Cuba and in the United States, has repeatedly called for an end to the 50-year-old embargo that has prevented the engagement between the Cuban and American peoples. “The U.S. bishops welcome President Obama’s directives permitting and broadening purposeful and people-to-people travel to Cuba and allowing all Americans to send financial support to the Cuban people,” said Bishop Howard J. Hubbard of Albany, New York, chairman of the USCCB Committee on International Justice and Peace.
“These needed new policies are modest but important steps towards advancing our hopes for a better relationship between our people and the people of Cuba, a relationship which holds great promise of fostering positive and real change in Cuba.”
Christian Churches Together Respond To ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail,’ Voice Gratitude for CR leaders
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King's letter was an answer to a message from a group of clergy in Birmingham in 1963. In their “Call for Unity,” the clergy appealed for restraint and "common sense," and a withdrawal of support for the civil rights demonstrations.
In their one-page letter, the church leaders remember with gratitude the sacrifices of the leaders of the civil rights movement, who demonstrated the power of Christian, nonviolent action. They also express repentance that “some of us have not progressed far enough beyond the initial message from the Birmingham clergy.”
Bishop Joe S. Vasquez of Austin, a member of the CCT steering committee, represented the Committee on Cultural Diversity of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) at the meeting.
“During the struggles of the civil rights movement, Birmingham was one of the most segregated and violent cities in America. Today, the city of Birmingham is filled with monuments, places of worship, and home to the Civil Rights Institute,” Bishop Vasquez said. “I had the opportunity to visit these places; however, most significant to me were the stories and personal testimony given by those who suffered the injustices of racism and segregation. These individuals were filled with prophetic courage, even to the point of sacrificing their own personal safety to bring about equality and justice. Their non-violent efforts to confront racism are deeply rooted in Gospel values that all men and women, regardless of color, are created in the likeness and image of God and, therefore, worthy of respect and dignity.”
Full text of the letter can be found at: www.ChristianChurchesTogether.org
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Some of the 41 propositions of the Special Assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of Bishops on the theme The Catholic Church in the Middle East: Communion and Witness."Given that attachment to the land of one's birth is an essential element of the identity both of individuals and of peoples, as well as an environment of freedom, we exhort our faithful and our Church communities not to give in to the temptation to sell off their real estate. In difficult economic circumstances, we propose to help Christians ... retain possession of their lands or to acquire new ones through the creation of projects responsible for making them prosper, allowing the owners to stay where they are with dignity. This effort must be accompanied by an in-depth examination of the meaning of the Christian presence and vocation in the Middle East.
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O México, anfitrião do Foúm, introduziu no IV Fórum uma novidade altamente apreciada: um espaço comum de debate entre a sociedade civil e governos. Este exercício de diálogo permitiu um "cara a cara" entre as questões políticas e sociais associadas à migração internacional, revelando os compromissos, silêncio e negações que no passado eram feitos atrás dos bastidores.
O SIMN esteve representado na Conferência da Sociedade Civil do Fórum com o seu Director Executivo, Pe. Leonir Chiarello, juntamente com Pe. Flor Maria Rigoni (que fazia parte do Comitê Organizador da Conferência), Pe. Cláudio Holzer, do Centro de Atenção ao Migrante de Chicago, Pe. Mario Santillo, diretor do Centro de Estudo de Buenos Aires, e o Irmão William Becerra, Assistente da Casa del Migrante em Tijuana. Pe. Rigoni, Pe. Holzer e Pe. Santillo também participaram no espaço comum de debate, realizado no primeiro dia do Fórum de Governos. LEIA MAIS
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O bispo prelado do Xingu (PA) e presidente do Conselho Indigenista Missionário (Cimi), dom Erwin Krautler, recebeu nesta segunda-feira, 6, o prêmio Right Livelihood Award 2010. A premiação reconhece o longo e dedicado trabalho do bispo junto os povos indígenas e à Amazônia brasileira. A cerimônia de premiação aconteceu às 18h, horário local suíço, no Parlamento Sueco.Dom Erwin aproveitou a ocasião para agradecer às pessoas que lutam no Brasil junto com ele nas causas indígenas e dos direitos humanos.
“Eu aceito o Right Livelihood Award, em nome de quem luta comigo hoje, em nome dos povos indígenas, a Amazônia e os direitos humanos. O aceito também em nome das dezenas de pessoas que deram suas vidas, cujo sangue foi derramado e que foram brutalmente assassinadas porque se opunham à destruição sistematizada da Amazônia”, disse o bispo. “Sinto-me honrado com o prêmio em um momento, quando a nossa luta em prol dos povos indígenas está tomando novas dimensões e maior importância em face dos projetos de desenvolvimento que ameaçam a Amazônia”, completou dom Erwin durante a entrega da premiação.
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The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops will launch an extensive new website dedicated to the new book Benedict XVI: Essays and Reflections on His Papacy, which was published this fall by the USCCB in conjunction with Sheed & Ward, an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. The site, www.popebenedictbook.com, goes live Wednesday, December 1. The new website, designed by Mach 1 Media, offers a full-color tour of the new book, with a photo gallery, excerpts from the essays and a selection of the personal reflections featured in the book, and Q&As with several of the contributors. Video clips of Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, and Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York add lively reflections from three of the book's contributors. Visitors to the site can click to purchase the book from a variety of retailers.
Archbishop Dolan, Bishop Blaire Urge Congress to Support Tax Credits for Low-Income Families, Relief
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Current unemployment numbers concern bishops
Need to continue Emergency Unemployment Compensation to protect jobless and families WASHINGTON (December 7, 2010) — Congress should protect vulnerable communities, particularly low-income families and children, and support the continuation of the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit and Emergency Unemployment Compensation, said the U.S. bishops in a December 6 letter to both houses of Congress. The priorities of the letter were reflected in a tentative deal struck by Congress and the Obama administration later that day.
“Presently, the Refundable Child Tax Credit and expanded Earned Income Tax Credit encourage work and family life,” said Bishop Stephen Blaire of Stockton, California, chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). “To keep in place tax cuts for more affluent families while ending the tax help for those families in greatest need would be bad policy and unjust. For example, a low-income family with two children, with one income at the minimum wage ($15,000 a year), stands to lose roughly $1,400 if the 2009 Child Tax Credit reform is eliminated. In such an economic climate, a promise to raise taxes on no one must include low-income families.”
Bishop Blaire added that Congress had a moral obligation to help the unemployed, citing that jobless numbers in the U.S. have climbed to over 15 million, or to 9.8 percent.
“Therefore, I strongly urge that effective ways be found to assure continuing Emergency Unemployment Compensation to protect jobless workers and their families,” wrote Bishop Blaire.
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Both Bishop Howard J. Hubbard of Albany, chairman of the USCCB Committee on International Justice and Peace, and Leith Anderson, president of NAE, applied the moral teachings of their faith traditions to concerns related to the treaty, which was signed by President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on April 8.
“Nuclear war is rejected in Church teaching because nuclear weapons cannot insure noncombatant immunity and their awesome destructive power and lingering radiation cannot be meaningfully proportionate,” said Bishop Hubbard. He cited the teachings of the Second Vatican Council and Pope Benedict XVI’s 2006 World Day of Peace message, in which the pope said, “In a nuclear war there would be no victors, only victims.”
Anderson said, “In the long and tragic history of human warfare the nuclear weapon occupies a singular position due to the scope and scale of its terrible and indiscriminate power to destroy human life. Evangelicals strongly believe in the sanctity of life.”
Papa Bento XVI aceita renuncia de dom Cláudio Hummes do cargo de prefeito da Congregação para o Cler
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Bento XVI acolheu, no dia de hoje, 7, a renúncia apresentada, por limites de idade, pelo cardeal dom Cláudio Hummes, do cargo de prefeito da Congregação para o Clero, no Vaticano. O papa Bento XVI nomeou como sucessor do brasileiro o arcebispo Mauro Piacenza, até então secretário do mesmo dicastério vaticano. O cardeal dom Cláudio Hummes, é frade franciscano e nasceu em Montenegro (RS), em 8 de agosto de 1934. Foi o 18º bispo de São Paulo, sendo seu 6º arcebispo e 4º cardeal; é arcebispo emérito de São Paulo.
Em 31 de outubro de 2006, foi nomeado prefeito da Congregação para o Clero, na Cúria Romana. O Papa acolheu também a renuncia apresentada por limite de idade pelo cardeal Paul Josef Cordes, do Conselho Pontifício “Cor Unum”, chamando o secretário da Congregação para a Evangelização dos Povos, arcebispo emérito de Conakry, Robert Sarah, para a sucessão.
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O lema da semana é “Reparação Integral: porque nenhuma vítima está além de mim”.A Conferência Episcopal da Colômbia (CEC), em parceria com o Secretariado Nacional de Pastoral Social (SNPS/Cáritas Colombiana) e Rede Paz, realiza, a partir de quinta-feira, 5, até o dia 12, a Semana pela Paz 2010. De acordo com a assessoria de imprensa da CEC, o objetivo da campanha é avançar em um processo solidário nacional de exigência e construção da reparação integral das vítimas do conflito armado, que reforça a recuperação da dignidade no contexto da verdade, justiça e paz. Mais informações: www.pastoralsocialcolombia.org.co