News Archives » Central America & the Caribbean
Dialogue on Life and Mining from Latin America December 10th, 2013
Religious and Lay representatives from Latin America, “moved by the critical situation of our peoples vis-à-vis the extractive industry”, met in Lima in November 2013. Concerned that mining is a source of “constant and serious conflict” in many countries of Latin and Central American countries, the attendees wanted to develop a vigorous and supportive set of local and international networks to help address the destructive impacts of mining. The Missionary Oblates were represented by Fr. Gilberto Pauwels OMI from Bolivia, and Fr. Seamus Finn OMI from the United States and through their participation in VIVAT, a coalition of religious congregations with ECOSOC status at the United Nations.
There are a number of outcomes from the gathering that included reaching out to a larger number of communities affected by mining, engaging with the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace at the Vatican and convening a broader consultation on the challenges of extractives in the second half of 2014.
Extractives, mining oil and gas exploration, play an important role across the world while also imposing great intrusion and damage in local communities and on the environment where they operate. The search for a way forward that addresses the most serious of those negative impacts has been taken up by a number of different initiatives in the academic, business, stakeholder and shareholder and NGO sectors. Hopefully gatherings like the meeting in Lima can make a constructive contribution to that process.
Read the statement: Dialogue on Life and Mining: Open letter from religious and lay stewards of the goods of creation in Latin America
Oblates Join Faith Groups in Protesting Debilitating Discrimination in the Dominican Republic November 27th, 2013
Photo Credit: HeatherXBradley; Used under Creative Commons License, Flickr
The Missionary Oblates have joined other faith-based organizations and churches in expressing “profound concern” at the September ruling of the Constitutional Court of the Dominican Republic that the children of all persons “in transit” in the country since 1929 are not Dominican. This is part of an on-going effort by the government of the Dominican Republic to deny citizenship and all the rights associated with that to Haitian migrant workers and the children born to them for the past 80+ years. Without legal documents of citizenship (birth certificate, ID cards, passports) Dominicans of Haitian descent are effectively stateless and are unable to go to school, access medical services, open bank accounts, get married, or make needed purchases.
Several years ago, two United Nations human rights experts described in a report a “profound and entrenched problem of racism and discrimination” against blacks in general — and Haitians in particular — in the Dominican Republic.
Dominican citizens of Haitian descent are often among the poorest of the poor. They are the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Haitians who crossed the border in search of a better life, and of migrant workers contracted by the Dominican government to help harvest sugarcane and other crops. They have helped build the wealth of communities, labored at the most difficult jobs, and contributed tremendously to Dominican society and economy. These Dominican citizens for generations have been fully integrated into Dominican society and have long since lost ties to Haiti.
The letter urges “the Dominican government to ensure that all necessary steps are taken to safeguard the nationality and citizenship rights of Dominico-Haitians. This includes ensuring that relevant ministries expedite processing the backlog for issuing of birth certificates and national I.D. cards to Dominicans of Haitian descent born prior to January 2010, whose Dominican nationality is protected by Dominican law as well conventions signed by government.”
The letter goes on to say: “As people of faith, we cannot remain silent as one entire section of the community is dehumanized simply because of the color of their skin and their cultural heritage. Jesus Christ welcomed all into the beloved community, and we cannot honor and follow our Lord and Savior by remaining silent in the face of such extreme injustice.”
Pope Francis to launch “Food for All” campaign November 20th, 2013
On December 10, Pope Francis will launch a worldwide movement to respond to the needs of the poor and vulnerable by acting to end hunger. Access to adequate and nutritious food is a global problem of immense proportions, even for families in the U.S.
At noon local time, a global wave of prayer will begin in Tonga and will progress around the world until it reaches American Samoa some 24 hours and more than 164 countries later.
Please join Catholic Charities USA, Catholic Relief Services, and the network of Caritas Internationalis agencies providing relief to people suffering from hunger around the globe in participating in the wave of prayer. This is the beginning of a much larger campaign to combat hunger.
In addition, please check out the faith-based resource on poverty and hunger available from Catholic Rural Life, called Food Security and Economic Justice.
Philippine Plea for Action on Climate November 19th, 2013
In the wake of Supertyphoon Haiyan, Yeb Sano, Philippine delegate to the international climate negotiations in Warsaw, made an impassioned plea to take action and “stop the madness” that is climate change. Below is an edited video of his address, with scenes of the devastation in the Philippines alongside. It is a powerful video in this second week of the climate negotiations, a major focus of which is financing for climate friendly investments for developing nations.
Vatican Seminar on Human Trafficking November 15th, 2013
The following is taken, with our thanks, from the Stop Trafficking!, the newsletter opposed to human slavery supported by a broad coalition of organizations of Catholic Sisters.
Following a wish expressed by Pope Francis, the Pontifical Academies of Sciences and of Social Sciences (PASS) and the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations (FIAMC), organized a seminar entitled, “Trafficking in Human Beings: Modern Slavery. Destitute Peoples and the Message of Jesus Christ”.
The November 2-3, 2013 seminar, held in Vatican City, brought together some seventy delegates from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, England, France, Guatemala, Ireland, Mexico, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, and the USA. The UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, Joy Ngozi Ezeilo from Nigeria, was among the twenty-two speakers.
The sixty observers in attendance were asked to contribute concrete proposals through which the global Church could better respond to the plight of millions of enslaved peoples.
Pope Francis was directly involved in combating modern day slavery in Buenos Aires, where he actively supported the work of the Fundacion Alameda, an Argentinian organization headed by Gustavo Vera, another of the speakers. The Pope’s first trip after his election was to Lampedusa to pay tribute to the hundreds who had recently died at sea, trying to reach this island half-way between Sicily and Tunisia where many victims of human trafficking end up.
Read more about this conference and efforts to stop human trafficking in the November issue of Stop Trafficking!
