Last evening in the Malmö Arena in Lund (Sweden), the Holy Father participated in an Ecumenical gathering commemorating the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Reform.
That gathering was made up of a series of moments: a word of welcome, four witness talks by individuals from various parts of the world, a Call to Action made up of questions and answers, and speeches by the Bishop of Aleppo (Syria) and the Prime Minister of Sweden.
Pranita Biswasi (India)
Tackling the injustice of climate change: My name is Sunemia Pranita Biswasi. I am 26 years old. I come from the small town of Jeypore in India’s southeastern State of Odisha. My country is often referred to as rural India because the majority of its population of nearly 1.3 billion people lives below the poverty line. It is a country of contrasts – extremely wealthy people and a fast growing middle class, living alongside millions struggling for a daily meal.
We often face relentless disasters due to the changing climate patterns. Severe storms and cyclones lead to flooding, and prolonged dry weather brings deadly heat waves and droughts. Hundreds of millions of small-scale farmers who depend on agriculture as their main livelihood are severely affected.
I have a Master’s in Environmental Science but before then I knew very little about climate and the environment. From my studies I learned that global warming is continuing, its causes and effects. Then in 2013, I saw my people drowning in flood waters, this was the super cyclone Phailin, which caused major devastation in my own province. Thousands were rendered homeless and lost their livestock, food and shelter. In December 2015, flooding again killed more than 500 people and displaced over 1.8 million others in cities in southern India. Damages and losses were estimated at between Indian rupees 200 billion to over 1 trillion (around USD 3 million to 14.9 billion) making it the costliest natural disaster.
I realized the injustice people were facing, and I became involved in the subject of climate justice. Today, my work as a young person in the Jeypore Evangelical Lutheran Church involves advocating with other youth on ecological and social justice issues.
In India climate change directly impacts a farmer’s life, his family, especially the woman. When drought and flooding reduce or wipe out crops, many farmers, mostly men, commit suicide out of the frustration of not being able to provide for their families and repay huge loans they had taken to boost productivity. Left behind, the wife struggles to pay the debt and feed the children. In addition, many of the rural homes lack basic services with most women walking long distances to fetch water and firewood. The smoke inhaled during cooking affects a woman’s health and can cause incurable diseases.
In the past few years I have had the privilege of being a member of The Lutheran World Federation all-youth delegation to the United Nations climate conferences in different world cities. In December 2015, I witnessed the negotiations that produced the historic Paris agreement. My hope since has not been disappointed, the threshold for the Paris Agreement was achieved earlier this month, and it will come into force this Friday, on 4 November. Thanks be to God!
Today, I, a young Indian woman, stand before you—Lutheran, Catholic, and other church leaders—who have had enormous influence as advocates for millions around the world who are victims of the reality of climate change. Despite important steps in the negotiations, there remains a significant gap between where we are today and where we need to be by the end of this decisive decade. The poorest and most vulnerable who have contributed least to the causes of the problem are already experiencing the impact of climate change. This is the injustice at the core of the problem: that those least responsible are the worst affected.
I urge you to increase pressure on the world’s political leaders to push for recognition of the legal rights to sustainable livelihoods for millions of vulnerable people being left on the wayside by climate change in India and other parts of the world. You have the power and responsibility to guarantee a well-planned future for my generation and generations to come. We cannot change the climate but we can change the system, so let us all work together to make a one better world for all.
Monsignor Heector Gaviria (Director of Caritas, Colombia)
Colombia is blessed land, thanks to its excellent location in South America, and its population with their tradition as hardworking people. Nevertheless, profound social divisions and serious political exclusion have caused waves of brutal violence. Sixty years ago, these led to the outbreak of an internal armed struggle with the emergence of the guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the FARC and other guerrilla groups. From the opposite end of the political spectrum, right wing armed para-military movements also emerged, plunging the country into one of the world’s most serious humanitarian crises.
One of the worst massacres in our history took place in 2002 in a territory of the tropical rainforest, when in the midst of combat, the population sought refuge in a chapel where an improvised bomb exploded in the Church, killing around a hundred people. The parish priest and a group of people from the community survived and spent days walking through the forest. Caritas, hand in hand with the local Church, started the long task of rebuilding the lives, the hopes and the social fabric of this community and of so many others who lived alongside the rivers, whilst war continued to be waged throughout the territory, leaving behind thousands of dead, disappeared and internally displaced communities. In December 2015, in an act which had been yearned for, and demanded by the Afro-descendant communities, a leader of the FARC guerrillas arrived in the region to celebrate a ceremony to recognize their responsibilities and to seek forgiveness from the victims.
More than three years ago, the process of dialogue between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrillas started in Cuba, and the final agreement was signed on the 26th September in Cartagena. One of the major tasks of Caritas in Colombia has been the support of the victims to ensure the restitution of their rights. In fact, it was Caritas and the Bishops’ Conference who raised their voices in 1994 to demand public policies to deal with a situation which affects more than six million people today, which means that we are one of the countries in the world most affected by this drama.
In another Colombian region on the border with Venezuela, the conflict has been extremely complex given the multiplicity of armed actors in the territory and the challenge of the border itself. Here we have been able to join forces with the Lutheran World Federation, to respond to the cry of the communities in need of protection. A leader of a Colombian Womens’ Association, described dramatically the litany of constant assassinations of the farmers in the region when she said we women are being left alone with only our children. This territory, like others in Colombia is scourged by the presence of anti-personnel mines which have been planted by illegal groups. Sadly, Colombia occupies the second place in the world of countries affected by anti-personnel mines, and even if progress is made in building peace after the signing of the accords with the FARC guerrillas, and if agreements are reached with other guerrilla groups, the impact of these mines will continue for at least a decade.
A survivor of the anti-personnel mines told us Caritas and the Lutheran World Federation have been our right hand in social and community processes, they have been the driving force which has given life to the Association of Survivors of anti-personnel mines.
We have high hopes in this period of implementation of the accords signed with the FARC guerrillas to end the armed conflict. Holy Father, we thank you wholeheartedly for your closeness to the process of peace-building in Colombia. Your prayers and messages insisting that we must not lose this opportunity have reached even the most remote communities in our country.
Marguerite Barankitse (Burundi)
We are the builders of Hope: When the civil war broke up in Burundi back in 1993, I decided to adopt 7 children and that was the beginning of a mission. When the genocide began I hid these and other 25 children orphaned by the genocide. I didn’t know what to do, but then I heard a voice of hope. We refused the fratricide hatred, to create compassion. We rejected fate, to create creativity. Yes, step by step, our organization Maison Shalom (House of Peace) built itself thanks to the faith and triumphant confidence in Providence. It was created to light a candle in the middle of the darkness; to console, reconcile and restore the hope to children who had lost everything. There is nothing utopian in that which was begun, but all was done in the conviction that The hatred never has the last word. I decided to gather the orphan children to love and educate them, to see them grow up and, through them, build a new generation that can break this cycle of violence.
Today, those children of 23 years ago, have grown up, raised their own families, and now we form a solid team to switch on this light of the hope. It is with this message that we broke indifference and dared to reconstruct our community and our country with various emergency programs, which later became community development programs. Thousands of children have passed through us, most of them have witnessed atrocities and many have lost their parents or became separated from them.
We were not able to keep silent when we saw a policeman firing at point-blank range on an innocent child who knelt down on the ground despite all the risks. Today, the situation has become very dangerous. There have been death threats and even attempted assassinations have become daily occurrences. We therefore took the path of exile in Rwanda where we accompany our brother and sister refugees. We try to encourage them to remain stand up as God has created us. Everyone thinks I am mad and that I have lost my reason—even my family! I say yes, I am mad, but you are mad too because you have started to kill. Who has lost their reason more—someone who is killing or someone who is trying to save lives? Allow me, before concluding my message to express to you my profound gratitude, especially those who understood that our sublime mission in this world is to distribute HAPPINESS. Still, I dream. With each of our dreams we advance humanity. Thank you.
Rose Lokonyen – young refugee (Olympic Refugee Team)
Together in Hope: My name is Rose Nathike Lokonyen, I am 23 years old. I am a South Sudanese by nationality, and I now live in Kenya as a refugee. I became a refugee in 2002, when I was 8 years old. My family and I fled from our country because of war and started a new life in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. When I was 14 years old, my parents went back to South Sudan to look after my grandparents. I lost contact with them and began taking care of my siblings because I am the oldest. I am also the only girl, and according to our culture boys do not do housework. So I went to school, and when I came back I was doing everything even collecting firewood on the weekend. You have to be very careful, because sometimes women get raped in the forest. So you sneak around and cut, and when you see someone, you run. After doing the housework I would run to the football field and play. I like sports, and when we won I got awards to support my younger siblings.
One day we went to play in Nairobi, refugees against Kenyans. We won. LWF was organizing the games; they started the Kakuma football league where I played. That has given me a lot of opportunities, sports has taken me so far. I managed to finish high school, and after that, I joined computer training at the Don Bosco Centre in Kakuma. After that I started working with the LWF. My job was to talk to the girls in the communities and to motivate them to go back to school. Many drop out because they are taking care of their parents or younger siblings. I know what that is like. When someone gets sick, you miss school looking after them and you risk failing school. Some also do not come because they do not have any shoes. Others think: I do not have a book and a pen to write, so I am not going. Some also do not know how important it is to have an education, so they do not go to school. I tell the girls how important it is to finish their education. We tell them about HIV and AIDS and about gender-based violence. Many of the young people take drugs, and drop out of school. That happens especially to the boys.
In Kakuma, the LWF is organizing football games and handing out balls so they can play rather than loitering around. When you are on the football field, you concentrate on the game, and when you go home in the evening, you are able to sleep. We are in a refugee camp, but you have to use the time well. In 2015 there was a race organized by the Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation. It was a ten kilometre race, and we were running barefoot on a tarmac road. I came in second. A month later it was announced that I had been selected to go to the Olympic training camp in Nairobi. There five of us were selected to participate in the Olympic Games. I am now an Olympic athlete and I was selected to be the flag bearer for the team of refugees at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro this summer. We were very proud, because all of us came from Kakuma. In the Olympic Stadium there was a very warm welcome. We felt that we are real people and there are people supporting us all over the world. We were able to spread hope to the people because even as a refugee you are just a human being like any other.
I am very grateful for the support of LWF, who are running the schools and the cultural activities in Kakuma. It is not enough for a refugee to have food and shelter. We are human beings, we need opportunities to learn and to grow and to live instead of just surviving. What does hope mean to me? Hope gives me strength. It helps me achieve my goals in the future and makes me a better person to be able to help our community and my fellow refugees, and of course my family. In a way sport means hope to me, because through sport I have learned so many things, it has given me a future. I am grateful to share this with you.
Please talk to the leaders of the world, because we need peace. We who are displaced from other countries need education so we can go back and help rebuild. We are the young generation now. If we cannot go back to our country, who will rebuild it? No one. The war will just continue. In South Sudan the blood is just flowing, like a river. Every day, I pray for peace. We are all human and we are all called before God, and it is not right to kill and to die like this. We need schools for the young generation, and to construct roads so we can visit our neighbouring countries, and organize sports events. Give us the opportunity to come back and rebuild our country.
Question 1
Can you tell us briefly about your co-operation so far.
Michel Roy (Caritas Internationalis)
Over the years, LWF world service and the CI family members have been working together mainly in welcoming and taking care of refugees in different parts of the world, as well as in working for peace and reconciliation. We come together in the major civil society humanitarian platform to discuss humanitarian policies and at international encounters, lobbying for a better world for all.
Beyond the LWF and Caritas Internationalis as organizations, a lot has been done between Lutheran and Catholic faith communities, with the main purpose of helping people in need recover their dignity and start a new life.
Maria Immonen (LWF World Service)
We have worked together over the decades in many big crises: after the second WW in Germany, Biafra in the 60s, Ethiopia in the 80s and Sudan and South Sudan in the 80s and 90s and most recently now in Colombia around the peace work in the communities. We have come together and worked well in the past, but it has not necessarily been deliberate or planned in advance. We have also worked successfully together on some advocacy issues on a global level, but again, not systematically or deliberately.
Question 2
Today you are signing a Declaration of Intent where you promise to deepen your collaboration. What is the purpose and what are you hoping to achieve?
Michel Roy (Caritas Internationalis)
We will be looking at working together in a more systematic way when challenges arise. We want to strengthen the testimony we give as witnesses of Christ, as Church, in concrete situations where people are overwhelmed by extreme poverty and violence. People are expecting this engagement they see as deeper and responding better to their expectations, it brings them hope. We want to challenge the world leaders through advocacy especially on the realization of this collective engagement that are the Sustainable Development Goals and on the promotion of peace in such situations as Syria or Iraq. We want to mobilize our communities so that they engage together more in making this world a better place to live for all.
Maria Immonen (LWF World Service)
Our collaboration is a new beginning of increased joint action among our communities, families and our organizations. It will extend our work to reach more people and enable lives in dignity for all. Our churches are expecting us. We will actively look for opportunities to work together increasingly in countries affected by conflict and war, and where large numbers of refugees are on the move. The poor are expecting us. The world is expecting us to work more closely together. We need to bring hope, inspiration and faith in humanity through our work together.
Dear Pope Francis and Bishop Mounib Younan,
Dear sisters and brothers,
On this day of joint commemoration of the Reformation, you have invited all Christians to walk together on the paths of communion. Your invitation to common prayer and thanksgiving to the Lord, as well as your appeal to serve the poor together, are not arguments or terms of contention and accusation, but rather a new style, new courageous gestures that open up paths of hope before us Christians, and before humanity as a whole. Following Christ, with a gesture of humility, you want us to accept our differences, speak to each other and let God's Mercy prevail over everything.
As Eastern Christians belonging to Muslim and Arab countries from the Middle East, and sharing a long common history of culture, humanism and living dialogue, we cannot stand before you at this memorable time in history without having in our hearts and consciences the conflicts that our Arab and Muslim brothers and sisters are undergoing. The war we are living through every day in Syria, Iraq and the Middle East makes us witnesses of the destruction of our common house, and the death of innocent people and the poor.
The majority of hospitals are destroyed and 80 percent of doctors have left Aleppo. In Syria, 3 million children do not attend school. The physical and moral deterioration is read in every face, it reaches everyone, especially the poorest and among them, children, adolescents and old people. Schools and universities are bombarded almost daily.
Our sadness is seeing a rich and beautiful Christianity about to disappear: a deep sense of ecumenism, a lifestyle in which Eastern Christians and Muslims were used to live together that is being reduced to fanaticism and distrust. Christians of the world, Muslims between East and West, people of good will, do not leave our beloved Syria to be destroyed and fragmented. I hope that the construction of peace listening to the poor may become the daily bread of humanity and divine inspiration for all religions and beliefs.
Your ecumenical gesture leading Caritas Internationalis and LWF World Service to serve the poor in one fervour, gives us the necessary strength and courage to get through this grave Syrian crisis. Indeed, in Syria, from now on our humanitarian service motto is Become Christians together. For us this implies a process of conversion to Christ and rejection of any reflex of exclusion and confinement of our Eastern Churches.
With you we want to break down all the ideological barriers and move together towards everyone, especially those who have been most tried by the war. In fact, religion should not be a source of impediment to encounter, but rather, in mutual respect and attention to the poorest – whether Christian or Muslim – it should encourage us to defend the human values of dignity, solidarity and seeking the common good. Indeed, one of the latest mottos of Syrian Christians working at Caritas to serve everyone is: Become citizens together.
Dear brothers and sisters in faith, thank you for giving us an example of defence of human dignity through a lifestyle that reveals God's tenderness for every man and woman created in His image. Thank you for asking humanity to seek God's goodness and beauty in the often disfigured faces of the innocent and the poor!
Friends,
I would like to begin with words from the German Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who confronted Nazism in his time. For this, he was interned, and murdered. But his thoughts on optimism live on. He said:
Optimism is, in its essence, not a view of the current situation, but a life force, a force of hope, when others resign, a force to hold your head up high, when everything seems to fail, a force to endure setbacks, a force which never leaves the future to its opponent, but claims it for itself.
Friends, the number of armed conflicts in the world have increased during the latest decade. Before the cruelties of war, we now need, more than ever, a force of hope – creating a global opinion for peace. A force that pressures warring parties from the trenches to the negotiation table. A force that shines a light on those conflicts that are outside the world’s spotlight. A force that fights the roots of conflict: in social divides, in the destruction of our earth, in intolerance, extremism and hate. We can all be that force. And in all the darkness of the world – there are rays of light.
We created a ray of light in Paris, when the world agreed on the first-ever universal, legally binding global climate deal. We created a ray of light in New York, when the world agreed on 17 sustainable development goals to end poverty and ensure prosperity for all. There are rays of light created, wherever we come together to raise our ambitions, and set goals for a more peaceful world.
But a force is needed to fulfil those goals. A force that sets new examples. A force that pushes for new commitments. And a force that makes sure that we all respect promises already made. This cannot be left to us politicians alone. We must all be that force!
And here tonight, shines a new ray of light, from all of you coming together in hope. You represent all the women and men of faith, who live by the ideals of peace, in marches and protests, in humanitarian aid and international development, in simple solidarity with your fellow man.
Your will matters. Your actions matters. Your communion matters. Because time and time again, has people proven, that war is only a creation of man, and when enough people come together to demand peace – then peace is created. And we, all people of good will, share this responsibility. So let us promise each other: We will be that force. A force of hope, a force to hold our heads up high, a force which claims the future for optimism, and the steadfast belief in peace. Thank you.
As we move together in hope, we commit ourselves to serving our neighbor and the world more compassionately and advocating more strongly for:
Refugees whose number today is the largest ever since World War II. They may lose many things when they flee but never their dignity nor their human rights. We draw from the deep wells of our common faith and continue to advocate for an attitude that welcomes the stranger in our midst.
All those who suffer from war and violence, especially the peoples in Syria and throughout the Middle East. We say no to all forms of violence that impact and destroy the lives of so many human beings.
The suffering creation that reminds us of the limits of our freedom, calls us to equitable sharing of resources, to work for sustainable development goals and to recognize our deep connectedness to all people and all of God’s good creation.
Intergenerational justice, particularly in regards to climate change, demands that we change our way of living in order to leave a healthy planet to younger generations.
And we call Catholics and Lutherans as well as their ecumenical partners, in their local context, to:
Pray
Let us gather in common prayer for peace, justice, reconciliation and the healing of the world.
Welcome
Let us welcome immigrants, refugees and others who experience enmity and marginalization by the society.
Engage
Let us engage in dialogue and collaboration with people of other faiths in our neighborhood to jointly work for the well-being of all.
Care
Let us care for the environment in our neighborhood, city, town or countryside.
1. Preamble
Caritas Internationalis, created in 1951, is the social and justice arm of the Catholic Church. It is at the same time a confederation of 165 national organisations present in 200 countries and territories and a central entity of the Holy See. Serve, accompany and defend the poor: its mission is to promote a civilization of love, based on the social and other teachings of the Church and is developed around five central strategic orientations that are: Caritas at the heart of the Church; save lives and rebuild communities; promote sustainable integral human development; build global solidarity; make the Caritas Confederation more effective.
In its first orientation, an objective is to contribute to and promote a culture of partnership and ecumenical and interreligious cooperation. The LWF has engaged with diakonia and service since its founding in 1947. World Service, the diaconal arm of the LWF, focuses especially on the needs of refugees and internally displaced people in humanitarian assistance, development aid and advocacy. The LWF is committed to working with other Christian World communions and faith-based organizations (FBOs) for broader reach and wider impact, aiming to empower and enable local populations through rights-based approaches.
Caritas Internationalis and the LWF World Service have worked together on several occasions during the past decades in many countries and regions addressing the root causes of poverty and humanitarian crises. Caritas member organizations have also cooperated with the LWF World Service.
On the occasion of the commemoration of the 500 years of the Reformation, the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church have taken further steps towards reconciliation and moved forward in the field of joint service to express and strengthen their commitment to the quest for unity. This is expressed in the Lutheran-Catholic study document From Conflict to Communion, in which the 5th ecumenical imperative calls for joint diaconal action. It says:
Catholics and Lutherans should witness together to the mercy of God in proclamation and service to the world. § 243 reads: Ecumenical engagement for the unity of the Church does not serve only the Church but also the world so that the world may believe.
The international community is also calling especially upon FBOs to engage actively in realizing the Sustainable Development Goals agenda, working towards the eradication of extreme poverty in a generation. In the Catholic world, there are various spaces of collective engagement (among which the Forum of Catholic Organizations) and in the broader Christian world, there is ACT Alliance, of which the LWF is a member and with which Caritas Internationalis has been linked for many years.
We believe that faith communities and the organisations with which they engage are uniquely placed to fight extreme poverty in all its dimensions. Not only because these communities are present around the world, but also because when trained, organised and accompanied, they are the best responders to disasters, the best promoters of integral sustainable human development, and the best advocates for their lives. What animates us is our faith and, in a secularized world, this makes a huge difference: courage, commitment, perseverance, taking risks, the belief that God is with us to confront evil and rebuild lives.
As two global Christian organisations working for human dignity and social justice, we decide to join hands. To bring hope. To witness and act together, without being exclusive. And to invite our members to engage with their counterparts and friends locally.
2. Purpose
The overall purpose of this Declaration of Intent is to consolidate and develop a mutually inspiring relationship beneficial to the people we serve, accompany and defend, based on shared values and vision regarding how our organisations can work together in the world today.
Caritas Internationalis and the LWF World Service will seek to expand and deepen their relationships and joint work at all levels. We will:
3. Areas for cooperation
The LWF World Service and Caritas Internationalis will work together in the following fields at global level:
4. Concrete application mechanisms
Caritas Internationalis and the LWF World Service will:
Signed on the occasion of the Joint Ecumenical Commemoration of the Reformation,
In Lund, Sweden,
On 31 October 2016
For Caritas Internationalis For LWF World Service
Michel ROY Maria IMMONEN
Secretary General Director
That gathering was made up of a series of moments: a word of welcome, four witness talks by individuals from various parts of the world, a Call to Action made up of questions and answers, and speeches by the Bishop of Aleppo (Syria) and the Prime Minister of Sweden.
Testimonies presented during the Malmo Ecumenical Gathering
commemorating the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Reform
Pranita Biswasi (India)
Tackling the injustice of climate change: My name is Sunemia Pranita Biswasi. I am 26 years old. I come from the small town of Jeypore in India’s southeastern State of Odisha. My country is often referred to as rural India because the majority of its population of nearly 1.3 billion people lives below the poverty line. It is a country of contrasts – extremely wealthy people and a fast growing middle class, living alongside millions struggling for a daily meal.
We often face relentless disasters due to the changing climate patterns. Severe storms and cyclones lead to flooding, and prolonged dry weather brings deadly heat waves and droughts. Hundreds of millions of small-scale farmers who depend on agriculture as their main livelihood are severely affected.
I have a Master’s in Environmental Science but before then I knew very little about climate and the environment. From my studies I learned that global warming is continuing, its causes and effects. Then in 2013, I saw my people drowning in flood waters, this was the super cyclone Phailin, which caused major devastation in my own province. Thousands were rendered homeless and lost their livestock, food and shelter. In December 2015, flooding again killed more than 500 people and displaced over 1.8 million others in cities in southern India. Damages and losses were estimated at between Indian rupees 200 billion to over 1 trillion (around USD 3 million to 14.9 billion) making it the costliest natural disaster.
I realized the injustice people were facing, and I became involved in the subject of climate justice. Today, my work as a young person in the Jeypore Evangelical Lutheran Church involves advocating with other youth on ecological and social justice issues.
In India climate change directly impacts a farmer’s life, his family, especially the woman. When drought and flooding reduce or wipe out crops, many farmers, mostly men, commit suicide out of the frustration of not being able to provide for their families and repay huge loans they had taken to boost productivity. Left behind, the wife struggles to pay the debt and feed the children. In addition, many of the rural homes lack basic services with most women walking long distances to fetch water and firewood. The smoke inhaled during cooking affects a woman’s health and can cause incurable diseases.
In the past few years I have had the privilege of being a member of The Lutheran World Federation all-youth delegation to the United Nations climate conferences in different world cities. In December 2015, I witnessed the negotiations that produced the historic Paris agreement. My hope since has not been disappointed, the threshold for the Paris Agreement was achieved earlier this month, and it will come into force this Friday, on 4 November. Thanks be to God!
Today, I, a young Indian woman, stand before you—Lutheran, Catholic, and other church leaders—who have had enormous influence as advocates for millions around the world who are victims of the reality of climate change. Despite important steps in the negotiations, there remains a significant gap between where we are today and where we need to be by the end of this decisive decade. The poorest and most vulnerable who have contributed least to the causes of the problem are already experiencing the impact of climate change. This is the injustice at the core of the problem: that those least responsible are the worst affected.
I urge you to increase pressure on the world’s political leaders to push for recognition of the legal rights to sustainable livelihoods for millions of vulnerable people being left on the wayside by climate change in India and other parts of the world. You have the power and responsibility to guarantee a well-planned future for my generation and generations to come. We cannot change the climate but we can change the system, so let us all work together to make a one better world for all.
Monsignor Heector Gaviria (Director of Caritas, Colombia)
Colombia is blessed land, thanks to its excellent location in South America, and its population with their tradition as hardworking people. Nevertheless, profound social divisions and serious political exclusion have caused waves of brutal violence. Sixty years ago, these led to the outbreak of an internal armed struggle with the emergence of the guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the FARC and other guerrilla groups. From the opposite end of the political spectrum, right wing armed para-military movements also emerged, plunging the country into one of the world’s most serious humanitarian crises.
One of the worst massacres in our history took place in 2002 in a territory of the tropical rainforest, when in the midst of combat, the population sought refuge in a chapel where an improvised bomb exploded in the Church, killing around a hundred people. The parish priest and a group of people from the community survived and spent days walking through the forest. Caritas, hand in hand with the local Church, started the long task of rebuilding the lives, the hopes and the social fabric of this community and of so many others who lived alongside the rivers, whilst war continued to be waged throughout the territory, leaving behind thousands of dead, disappeared and internally displaced communities. In December 2015, in an act which had been yearned for, and demanded by the Afro-descendant communities, a leader of the FARC guerrillas arrived in the region to celebrate a ceremony to recognize their responsibilities and to seek forgiveness from the victims.
More than three years ago, the process of dialogue between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrillas started in Cuba, and the final agreement was signed on the 26th September in Cartagena. One of the major tasks of Caritas in Colombia has been the support of the victims to ensure the restitution of their rights. In fact, it was Caritas and the Bishops’ Conference who raised their voices in 1994 to demand public policies to deal with a situation which affects more than six million people today, which means that we are one of the countries in the world most affected by this drama.
In another Colombian region on the border with Venezuela, the conflict has been extremely complex given the multiplicity of armed actors in the territory and the challenge of the border itself. Here we have been able to join forces with the Lutheran World Federation, to respond to the cry of the communities in need of protection. A leader of a Colombian Womens’ Association, described dramatically the litany of constant assassinations of the farmers in the region when she said we women are being left alone with only our children. This territory, like others in Colombia is scourged by the presence of anti-personnel mines which have been planted by illegal groups. Sadly, Colombia occupies the second place in the world of countries affected by anti-personnel mines, and even if progress is made in building peace after the signing of the accords with the FARC guerrillas, and if agreements are reached with other guerrilla groups, the impact of these mines will continue for at least a decade.
A survivor of the anti-personnel mines told us Caritas and the Lutheran World Federation have been our right hand in social and community processes, they have been the driving force which has given life to the Association of Survivors of anti-personnel mines.
We have high hopes in this period of implementation of the accords signed with the FARC guerrillas to end the armed conflict. Holy Father, we thank you wholeheartedly for your closeness to the process of peace-building in Colombia. Your prayers and messages insisting that we must not lose this opportunity have reached even the most remote communities in our country.
Marguerite Barankitse (Burundi)
We are the builders of Hope: When the civil war broke up in Burundi back in 1993, I decided to adopt 7 children and that was the beginning of a mission. When the genocide began I hid these and other 25 children orphaned by the genocide. I didn’t know what to do, but then I heard a voice of hope. We refused the fratricide hatred, to create compassion. We rejected fate, to create creativity. Yes, step by step, our organization Maison Shalom (House of Peace) built itself thanks to the faith and triumphant confidence in Providence. It was created to light a candle in the middle of the darkness; to console, reconcile and restore the hope to children who had lost everything. There is nothing utopian in that which was begun, but all was done in the conviction that The hatred never has the last word. I decided to gather the orphan children to love and educate them, to see them grow up and, through them, build a new generation that can break this cycle of violence.
Today, those children of 23 years ago, have grown up, raised their own families, and now we form a solid team to switch on this light of the hope. It is with this message that we broke indifference and dared to reconstruct our community and our country with various emergency programs, which later became community development programs. Thousands of children have passed through us, most of them have witnessed atrocities and many have lost their parents or became separated from them.
We were not able to keep silent when we saw a policeman firing at point-blank range on an innocent child who knelt down on the ground despite all the risks. Today, the situation has become very dangerous. There have been death threats and even attempted assassinations have become daily occurrences. We therefore took the path of exile in Rwanda where we accompany our brother and sister refugees. We try to encourage them to remain stand up as God has created us. Everyone thinks I am mad and that I have lost my reason—even my family! I say yes, I am mad, but you are mad too because you have started to kill. Who has lost their reason more—someone who is killing or someone who is trying to save lives? Allow me, before concluding my message to express to you my profound gratitude, especially those who understood that our sublime mission in this world is to distribute HAPPINESS. Still, I dream. With each of our dreams we advance humanity. Thank you.
Rose Lokonyen – young refugee (Olympic Refugee Team)
Together in Hope: My name is Rose Nathike Lokonyen, I am 23 years old. I am a South Sudanese by nationality, and I now live in Kenya as a refugee. I became a refugee in 2002, when I was 8 years old. My family and I fled from our country because of war and started a new life in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. When I was 14 years old, my parents went back to South Sudan to look after my grandparents. I lost contact with them and began taking care of my siblings because I am the oldest. I am also the only girl, and according to our culture boys do not do housework. So I went to school, and when I came back I was doing everything even collecting firewood on the weekend. You have to be very careful, because sometimes women get raped in the forest. So you sneak around and cut, and when you see someone, you run. After doing the housework I would run to the football field and play. I like sports, and when we won I got awards to support my younger siblings.
One day we went to play in Nairobi, refugees against Kenyans. We won. LWF was organizing the games; they started the Kakuma football league where I played. That has given me a lot of opportunities, sports has taken me so far. I managed to finish high school, and after that, I joined computer training at the Don Bosco Centre in Kakuma. After that I started working with the LWF. My job was to talk to the girls in the communities and to motivate them to go back to school. Many drop out because they are taking care of their parents or younger siblings. I know what that is like. When someone gets sick, you miss school looking after them and you risk failing school. Some also do not come because they do not have any shoes. Others think: I do not have a book and a pen to write, so I am not going. Some also do not know how important it is to have an education, so they do not go to school. I tell the girls how important it is to finish their education. We tell them about HIV and AIDS and about gender-based violence. Many of the young people take drugs, and drop out of school. That happens especially to the boys.
In Kakuma, the LWF is organizing football games and handing out balls so they can play rather than loitering around. When you are on the football field, you concentrate on the game, and when you go home in the evening, you are able to sleep. We are in a refugee camp, but you have to use the time well. In 2015 there was a race organized by the Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation. It was a ten kilometre race, and we were running barefoot on a tarmac road. I came in second. A month later it was announced that I had been selected to go to the Olympic training camp in Nairobi. There five of us were selected to participate in the Olympic Games. I am now an Olympic athlete and I was selected to be the flag bearer for the team of refugees at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro this summer. We were very proud, because all of us came from Kakuma. In the Olympic Stadium there was a very warm welcome. We felt that we are real people and there are people supporting us all over the world. We were able to spread hope to the people because even as a refugee you are just a human being like any other.
I am very grateful for the support of LWF, who are running the schools and the cultural activities in Kakuma. It is not enough for a refugee to have food and shelter. We are human beings, we need opportunities to learn and to grow and to live instead of just surviving. What does hope mean to me? Hope gives me strength. It helps me achieve my goals in the future and makes me a better person to be able to help our community and my fellow refugees, and of course my family. In a way sport means hope to me, because through sport I have learned so many things, it has given me a future. I am grateful to share this with you.
Please talk to the leaders of the world, because we need peace. We who are displaced from other countries need education so we can go back and help rebuild. We are the young generation now. If we cannot go back to our country, who will rebuild it? No one. The war will just continue. In South Sudan the blood is just flowing, like a river. Every day, I pray for peace. We are all human and we are all called before God, and it is not right to kill and to die like this. We need schools for the young generation, and to construct roads so we can visit our neighbouring countries, and organize sports events. Give us the opportunity to come back and rebuild our country.
Questions and Answers
about the Declaration of Intent
Question 1
Can you tell us briefly about your co-operation so far.
Michel Roy (Caritas Internationalis)
Over the years, LWF world service and the CI family members have been working together mainly in welcoming and taking care of refugees in different parts of the world, as well as in working for peace and reconciliation. We come together in the major civil society humanitarian platform to discuss humanitarian policies and at international encounters, lobbying for a better world for all.
Beyond the LWF and Caritas Internationalis as organizations, a lot has been done between Lutheran and Catholic faith communities, with the main purpose of helping people in need recover their dignity and start a new life.
Maria Immonen (LWF World Service)
We have worked together over the decades in many big crises: after the second WW in Germany, Biafra in the 60s, Ethiopia in the 80s and Sudan and South Sudan in the 80s and 90s and most recently now in Colombia around the peace work in the communities. We have come together and worked well in the past, but it has not necessarily been deliberate or planned in advance. We have also worked successfully together on some advocacy issues on a global level, but again, not systematically or deliberately.
Question 2
Today you are signing a Declaration of Intent where you promise to deepen your collaboration. What is the purpose and what are you hoping to achieve?
Michel Roy (Caritas Internationalis)
We will be looking at working together in a more systematic way when challenges arise. We want to strengthen the testimony we give as witnesses of Christ, as Church, in concrete situations where people are overwhelmed by extreme poverty and violence. People are expecting this engagement they see as deeper and responding better to their expectations, it brings them hope. We want to challenge the world leaders through advocacy especially on the realization of this collective engagement that are the Sustainable Development Goals and on the promotion of peace in such situations as Syria or Iraq. We want to mobilize our communities so that they engage together more in making this world a better place to live for all.
Maria Immonen (LWF World Service)
Our collaboration is a new beginning of increased joint action among our communities, families and our organizations. It will extend our work to reach more people and enable lives in dignity for all. Our churches are expecting us. We will actively look for opportunities to work together increasingly in countries affected by conflict and war, and where large numbers of refugees are on the move. The poor are expecting us. The world is expecting us to work more closely together. We need to bring hope, inspiration and faith in humanity through our work together.
Testimony of His Excellency, Antoine Audo
Chaldean Bishop of Aleppo (Syria)
Dear Pope Francis and Bishop Mounib Younan,
Dear sisters and brothers,
On this day of joint commemoration of the Reformation, you have invited all Christians to walk together on the paths of communion. Your invitation to common prayer and thanksgiving to the Lord, as well as your appeal to serve the poor together, are not arguments or terms of contention and accusation, but rather a new style, new courageous gestures that open up paths of hope before us Christians, and before humanity as a whole. Following Christ, with a gesture of humility, you want us to accept our differences, speak to each other and let God's Mercy prevail over everything.
As Eastern Christians belonging to Muslim and Arab countries from the Middle East, and sharing a long common history of culture, humanism and living dialogue, we cannot stand before you at this memorable time in history without having in our hearts and consciences the conflicts that our Arab and Muslim brothers and sisters are undergoing. The war we are living through every day in Syria, Iraq and the Middle East makes us witnesses of the destruction of our common house, and the death of innocent people and the poor.
The majority of hospitals are destroyed and 80 percent of doctors have left Aleppo. In Syria, 3 million children do not attend school. The physical and moral deterioration is read in every face, it reaches everyone, especially the poorest and among them, children, adolescents and old people. Schools and universities are bombarded almost daily.
Our sadness is seeing a rich and beautiful Christianity about to disappear: a deep sense of ecumenism, a lifestyle in which Eastern Christians and Muslims were used to live together that is being reduced to fanaticism and distrust. Christians of the world, Muslims between East and West, people of good will, do not leave our beloved Syria to be destroyed and fragmented. I hope that the construction of peace listening to the poor may become the daily bread of humanity and divine inspiration for all religions and beliefs.
Your ecumenical gesture leading Caritas Internationalis and LWF World Service to serve the poor in one fervour, gives us the necessary strength and courage to get through this grave Syrian crisis. Indeed, in Syria, from now on our humanitarian service motto is Become Christians together. For us this implies a process of conversion to Christ and rejection of any reflex of exclusion and confinement of our Eastern Churches.
With you we want to break down all the ideological barriers and move together towards everyone, especially those who have been most tried by the war. In fact, religion should not be a source of impediment to encounter, but rather, in mutual respect and attention to the poorest – whether Christian or Muslim – it should encourage us to defend the human values of dignity, solidarity and seeking the common good. Indeed, one of the latest mottos of Syrian Christians working at Caritas to serve everyone is: Become citizens together.
Dear brothers and sisters in faith, thank you for giving us an example of defence of human dignity through a lifestyle that reveals God's tenderness for every man and woman created in His image. Thank you for asking humanity to seek God's goodness and beauty in the often disfigured faces of the innocent and the poor!
Speech given by His Excellency, Stefan Löfven
Prime Minister of Sweden
Friends,
I would like to begin with words from the German Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who confronted Nazism in his time. For this, he was interned, and murdered. But his thoughts on optimism live on. He said:
Optimism is, in its essence, not a view of the current situation, but a life force, a force of hope, when others resign, a force to hold your head up high, when everything seems to fail, a force to endure setbacks, a force which never leaves the future to its opponent, but claims it for itself.
Friends, the number of armed conflicts in the world have increased during the latest decade. Before the cruelties of war, we now need, more than ever, a force of hope – creating a global opinion for peace. A force that pressures warring parties from the trenches to the negotiation table. A force that shines a light on those conflicts that are outside the world’s spotlight. A force that fights the roots of conflict: in social divides, in the destruction of our earth, in intolerance, extremism and hate. We can all be that force. And in all the darkness of the world – there are rays of light.
We created a ray of light in Paris, when the world agreed on the first-ever universal, legally binding global climate deal. We created a ray of light in New York, when the world agreed on 17 sustainable development goals to end poverty and ensure prosperity for all. There are rays of light created, wherever we come together to raise our ambitions, and set goals for a more peaceful world.
But a force is needed to fulfil those goals. A force that sets new examples. A force that pushes for new commitments. And a force that makes sure that we all respect promises already made. This cannot be left to us politicians alone. We must all be that force!
And here tonight, shines a new ray of light, from all of you coming together in hope. You represent all the women and men of faith, who live by the ideals of peace, in marches and protests, in humanitarian aid and international development, in simple solidarity with your fellow man.
Your will matters. Your actions matters. Your communion matters. Because time and time again, has people proven, that war is only a creation of man, and when enough people come together to demand peace – then peace is created. And we, all people of good will, share this responsibility. So let us promise each other: We will be that force. A force of hope, a force to hold our heads up high, a force which claims the future for optimism, and the steadfast belief in peace. Thank you.
Call to Action
read by the four persons giving witnesses
As we move together in hope, we commit ourselves to serving our neighbor and the world more compassionately and advocating more strongly for:
Refugees whose number today is the largest ever since World War II. They may lose many things when they flee but never their dignity nor their human rights. We draw from the deep wells of our common faith and continue to advocate for an attitude that welcomes the stranger in our midst.
All those who suffer from war and violence, especially the peoples in Syria and throughout the Middle East. We say no to all forms of violence that impact and destroy the lives of so many human beings.
The suffering creation that reminds us of the limits of our freedom, calls us to equitable sharing of resources, to work for sustainable development goals and to recognize our deep connectedness to all people and all of God’s good creation.
Intergenerational justice, particularly in regards to climate change, demands that we change our way of living in order to leave a healthy planet to younger generations.
And we call Catholics and Lutherans as well as their ecumenical partners, in their local context, to:
Pray
Let us gather in common prayer for peace, justice, reconciliation and the healing of the world.
Welcome
Let us welcome immigrants, refugees and others who experience enmity and marginalization by the society.
Engage
Let us engage in dialogue and collaboration with people of other faiths in our neighborhood to jointly work for the well-being of all.
Care
Let us care for the environment in our neighborhood, city, town or countryside.
Together in Hope: Declaration of Intent
between
Caritas Internationalis
and the Lutheran World Federation – World Service
1. Preamble
Caritas Internationalis, created in 1951, is the social and justice arm of the Catholic Church. It is at the same time a confederation of 165 national organisations present in 200 countries and territories and a central entity of the Holy See. Serve, accompany and defend the poor: its mission is to promote a civilization of love, based on the social and other teachings of the Church and is developed around five central strategic orientations that are: Caritas at the heart of the Church; save lives and rebuild communities; promote sustainable integral human development; build global solidarity; make the Caritas Confederation more effective.
In its first orientation, an objective is to contribute to and promote a culture of partnership and ecumenical and interreligious cooperation. The LWF has engaged with diakonia and service since its founding in 1947. World Service, the diaconal arm of the LWF, focuses especially on the needs of refugees and internally displaced people in humanitarian assistance, development aid and advocacy. The LWF is committed to working with other Christian World communions and faith-based organizations (FBOs) for broader reach and wider impact, aiming to empower and enable local populations through rights-based approaches.
Caritas Internationalis and the LWF World Service have worked together on several occasions during the past decades in many countries and regions addressing the root causes of poverty and humanitarian crises. Caritas member organizations have also cooperated with the LWF World Service.
On the occasion of the commemoration of the 500 years of the Reformation, the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church have taken further steps towards reconciliation and moved forward in the field of joint service to express and strengthen their commitment to the quest for unity. This is expressed in the Lutheran-Catholic study document From Conflict to Communion, in which the 5th ecumenical imperative calls for joint diaconal action. It says:
Catholics and Lutherans should witness together to the mercy of God in proclamation and service to the world. § 243 reads: Ecumenical engagement for the unity of the Church does not serve only the Church but also the world so that the world may believe.
The international community is also calling especially upon FBOs to engage actively in realizing the Sustainable Development Goals agenda, working towards the eradication of extreme poverty in a generation. In the Catholic world, there are various spaces of collective engagement (among which the Forum of Catholic Organizations) and in the broader Christian world, there is ACT Alliance, of which the LWF is a member and with which Caritas Internationalis has been linked for many years.
We believe that faith communities and the organisations with which they engage are uniquely placed to fight extreme poverty in all its dimensions. Not only because these communities are present around the world, but also because when trained, organised and accompanied, they are the best responders to disasters, the best promoters of integral sustainable human development, and the best advocates for their lives. What animates us is our faith and, in a secularized world, this makes a huge difference: courage, commitment, perseverance, taking risks, the belief that God is with us to confront evil and rebuild lives.
As two global Christian organisations working for human dignity and social justice, we decide to join hands. To bring hope. To witness and act together, without being exclusive. And to invite our members to engage with their counterparts and friends locally.
2. Purpose
The overall purpose of this Declaration of Intent is to consolidate and develop a mutually inspiring relationship beneficial to the people we serve, accompany and defend, based on shared values and vision regarding how our organisations can work together in the world today.
Caritas Internationalis and the LWF World Service will seek to expand and deepen their relationships and joint work at all levels. We will:
- look for opportunities;
- commit to cooperate where appropriate;
- engage in regular strategic discussions;
- share learnings, challenges and opportunities;
- ensure that members, staff and volunteers understand the Declaration of Intent and look to work together in harmony and collaboration.
3. Areas for cooperation
The LWF World Service and Caritas Internationalis will work together in the following fields at global level:
- Refugees, internally displaced people and migrants;
- Peace building and reconciliation;
- Humanitarian preparedness and response;
- Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals;
- Interfaith action and programming.
4. Concrete application mechanisms
Caritas Internationalis and the LWF World Service will:
- Engage in regular strategic discussions on issues agreed upon, with specific experts on board;
- Engage in common programs whenever possible;
- Invite our membership to cooperate and engage in joint programming at national/diocesan/local levels, in consultation with respective member organizations in donor countries when applicable, in those fields referred to above and more as identified locally, including capacity building, interfaith action, reinforcing local civil society;
- Meet annually to appreciate the work done and plan ahead;
- Communicate what we have achieved.
Signed on the occasion of the Joint Ecumenical Commemoration of the Reformation,
In Lund, Sweden,
On 31 October 2016
For Caritas Internationalis For LWF World Service
Michel ROY Maria IMMONEN
Secretary General Director
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