wfn.org | ALC News Service May 3, 2003

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

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HEADLINES

BRAZIL: Garotinho appointed secretary of public safety in Rio de Janerio
CUBA: Protestant leaders warn that United States poses threat to Cuba
ARGENTINA: Protestant Churches analyze foreign debt
ARGENTINA: In debate on globalization, Churches say there are no easy 
solutions
CUBA: Ten-year anniversary of Gospel radio broadcasts
BRAZIL: Lula dialogues with Catholic Bishops

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BRAZIL
Garotinho appointed secretary of public safety in Rio de Janerio

By Edelberto Behs
RIO DE JANEIRO, April 28, 2003 (alc).  Former governor and former 
presidential candidate Anthony Garotinho was sworn in as secretary of 
Public Safety in Rio de Janeiro, a city with a high crime rate that is 
partially dominated by gangs of drug traffickers.

The ceremony, held in the central headquarter of the Military Police was 
presided over by the current state governor Rosinha Garotinho, the wife of 
the new secretary on Public Security.

In recent months drug traffickers have forced shopkeepers in some zones of 
the capital and even some schools to close for several hours, burning 
busses and blocking highways.

Last Thursday, Garotinho, as future public safety secretary, said he would 
call on the federal government to help.  He told local radio that police 
delegations would be restructured, 800 broken down patrol cars would be 
recovered and the number of police on the streets would be increased.

After meeting with Justice Minister Marcio Thomaz Bastos, in Brasilia, 
Garotinho said that he will not tolerate corrupt police officers. Anyone 
breaking the law, including police, will be treated as a criminal, he said.

The new secretary requested support from civil society to combat organized 
crime in Rio de Janeiro. We need to establish peace as a principle. We 
need to re-establish respect for authority and to gird ourselves to win 
this war in favor of the population, he said.	He also promised to create 
a system of police intelligence.

According to Garotinho, in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo at least 7 percent 
of the population are involved in drug use, or more than 1.5 million people.

We need to raise peoples awareness that this is not the best way and we 
must help them, he said. Garotinho added that we are going to separate 
the user from the trafficker. The user needs support he said. The 
trafficker will go to jail.

Last weekend Garotinho lead by of the Clamor for Peace act, which brought 
together more than 150,000 in Quinta Boa Visa in Rio. The act was organized 
by Radio Melodia and included presentations by artists and Gospel music 
groups.

Garotinho was a Marxist who became an Evangelical after suffering a car 
accident during his 1994 political campaign. Currently he and his family 
attend the Presbyterian Light of the World Church in the Laranjeiras barrio 
in Rio.

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CUBA
Protestant leaders warn that United States poses threat to Cuba

HAVANA, April 28, 2003 (alc). Leaders from the main Protestant Churches in 
Cuba warned their brothers and sisters that the US government, which acts 
like a hegemonic power with no limits poses a threat to Cuba.

Ethically we cannot remain silent in the face of such a serious and 
dangerous time, said Cuban Church leaders. We address Churches, Church 
leaders, ecumenical and Christian non-government organizations and our 
brothers and sisters around the world to warn of the danger facing Cuba.

They called on people to continue to pray for them and to carry out a 
common effort to warn the US government of the unforeseeable consequences 
of aggression against our country.

In recent weeks, said the message, we have seen how the US government and 
its president George Bush, unleashed an unnecessary war of extermination 
and occupation in Iraq without taking into consideration the overwhelming 
clamor of international public opinion and Churches leaders and ignoring 
the United Nations and international agreements.

We have observed how the current US administration has stepped up its 
hostility toward Cuba, including it on the list of nations that sponsor 
terrorism and accusing it, a few short months ago, of manufacturing 
biological weapons, it added.

The message is signed by Reinerio Arce Valentmn, president of the Cuban 
Council of Churches and all its board members. It is also signed by Orestes 
Gonzalez, of the Presbyterian Reformed Church; Odin Marichal, of the 
Episcopal Church; Estela Hernandez, of the Baptist Church; Erelio Martmnez 
Garcma, of the Christian Reformed Church and several other Church leaders 
and Cuban Christian organizations.

We are also concerned, said Protestant Cubans about recent declarations 
from the US Ambassador in the Dominican Republic, Hans Hertell, who said 
that the intervention in Iraq was a very positive sign and a good example 
for Cuba.

Moreover, the US Secretary of Defense, asked if there would be a war 
against Cuba, said not for now. Extreme rightwing groups in Miami are 
calling on the Bush administration to hold a navy blockade and have gone 
out on the streets shouting Iraq now, Cuba later.

We believe that we are facing a serious threat for the security and 
integrity of our nation, said Protestant leaders, adding that the aim is 
to find excuses for another war of aggression.

As a Church we are not only responsible for our congregations and faithful, 
but also for fulfilling the mission that God has called us in our 
homeland, they said.

Our aim is to exercise our Evangelizing and prophetic mission criticizing 
what we believe is wrong, they said. We have used done this on this 
occasion, using spaces for dialogue for our people and our authorities, 
that have always been open to Cuban Churches and our brothers and sisters 
around the world who have accompanied us during these years.

We profoundly lament the acts of violence that have taken place in recent 
weeks and we feel, in the love of Christ, compassion for the numerous 
people who have been detained and sentenced and for their families. We 
reject the death penalty. We identify with the pain of the relatives. Life 
is a gift from God and no-one has the right to take it away, they said.

We live in highly dangerous times. We must, all of those who love life, 
Peace and Justice, act with wisdom and love to avoid all the disasters that 
we are facing, the message concludes.

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ARGENTINA
Protestant Churches analyze foreign debt

BUENOS AIRES, April 29, 2003 (alc). Representatives from Latin American 
Protestant Churches, meeting in this capital, are debating a document that 
calls on governments to refuse to pay their foreign debt and creditors to 
cancel it. It also calls for "economic disobedience" and the reform of 
international financial institutions.

Organized by the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI) and co-sponsored 
by the World Council of Churches (WCC), the World Alliance of Reformed 
Churches (WARC) and the Conference of European Churches (CEC), the 
Globalizing the Fullness of Life consultation is taking place in the 
Argentine capital until May 1.

Participants include more than 100 representatives, mostly from Latin 
America and the Caribbean, but also from Europe, North America, Asia, 
Africa and the Pacific.

Entitled "Looking for solutions ... moving forward. Protestant churches say 
'Enough is enough!'", the document was submitted for debate on 28 April 
during the first day of the consultation.

When presenting the document, Israel Batista, General Secretary of CLAI 
said: our countries depend, within the excluding globalization, on an 
informal economy that is linked to traffic in drugs, weapons and human 
beings. We export capital for foreign debt payments and human resources in 
massive migrations.

As Protestant Churches we must speak from a pastoral perspective. We do not 
claim to be economists or to have all the answers.  It is not the economy 
that concerns us, but rather the economic system that degrades the human 
being, he said.

As the Protestant Church, with a constructive as opposed to destructive 
spirit, we want to contribute to efficient solutions. We want to persist in 
speaking about an economic vision that places the human being at the center 
of action, he added.

What we call globalization is the current moment of capitalism. It is an 
economic regime based on the domination of certain social groups, exercised 
through political institutions or cultural instruments. In the face of the 
perverse nature of neoliberal globalization, which has provoked an increase 
in poverty and exclusion in Latin America, a breakdown in living conditions 
and a slide in production, Protestant Churches say: Enough.

The document calls on governments in the continent to "together have the 
courage and the political will to refuse to pay this foreign debt", 
described as "immoral and unpayable". It calls on creditor nations and 
institutions to take a decision - the cancellation of foreign debt - that 
"cannot be postponed if they do not wish to be dragged down into chaos".

Latin American governments are also called to "economic disobedience" 
concerning the "dictates of international financial institutions". "There 
is salvation outside the system" the document declares.

"If it were not for the debt and the International Monetary Fund, Latin 
America and the Third World could have accumulated sufficient capital to 
ensure growth at the level demanded by the needs of their peoples", states 
the document.

After pointing out that Churches in region are moving from being an 
"insignificant to an active minority that makes proposals, facilitates and 
motivates change" the document underscores the need to reform in 
international financial institutions.

Topping the list is a proposal to reform international financial 
institutions (IFIs) like the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank 
and the World Trade Organization. IFIs should link "economics to ethical 
and social aspects", including "respect and promotion of human rights.

It emphasizes the need to create international public bodies to regulate 
capital markets and strengthen international law, and proposes a form of 
economic integration "with a Latin American face" different to the one 
imposed by the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).

The document contains a theological chapter that explores Biblical 
perspectives on God's Grace which nourish the hope that a "different world 
is possible".

The document, said Batista, is an invitation to realism and a breakdown of 
stereotypes but it is also a call to put an end to the fatalism that 
condemns us to not seek solutions to our problems. To be realistic, he 
said, is to believe in miracles.

Early in the consultation, participants agreed that the document was 
"current, concrete, purposeful and prophetic" and reflected accurately 
"what is happening in this part of the world, in the South". Discussion 
will continue throughout the consultation.

Participants also suggested sections on political elites, corruption, 
social and military violence, migration, and environmental destruction, as 
well as a perspective on gender issues and references to other regions in 
the world.

After being redrafted, the document will be used for CLAI's lobbying and 
advocacy work with the US and Canadian governments and with international 
financial institutions.

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ARGENTINA
In debate on globalization, Churches say there are no easy solutions

BUENOS AIRES, April 30, 2003 (alc). On the second day of the Globalising 
the Fullness of Life consultation being held in this capital April 27 - 
May 1, Church representatives exchanged differing opinions about 
globalization. Some openly condemned it, while others pointed to its 
positive aspects.

Some 100 representatives from Protestant Churches in Latin America and the 
Caribbean and from North America and other continents participated in this 
meeting convened by the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI) and 
co-sponsored by the World Council of Churches (WCC), the World Alliance of 
Reformed Churches (WARC) and the Conference of European Churches (CEC).

During the debate on the poverty/wealth issue, representatives from 
different regional context raised different perspectives. Moreover, some 
speakers said that churches sometimes tend to legitimize policies of
exclusion.

Speakers explored the issue from the perspective of Latin American 
indigenous people, European churches and ecumenical organizations, 
according to the WCC press office.

Julian Guaman, an indigenous theologian from Ecuador, was critical of 
globalization, describing it as an "octopus that absorbs everything".

"Among indigenous people, a poor person is someone who has no land to 
cultivate," said Guaman. He explained that in Ecuador, indigenous people 
have "small pieces of land: between 100 square meters and 13 hectares". 
Meanwhile, the big landowners control irrigation and the land "is burned" 
by the intensive use of fertilizers.

Peter Pavlovic, a representative from the Conference of European Churches, 
said that the globalization process does have some positive features for 
central and eastern European nations. Among its positive features, he said, 
are increased mobility, communication and access to democracy, recalling 
that some of these countries have lived under a totalitarian regime for 
more than half a century.

Pavlovic also recognized "a swift decline in solidarity" as being among the 
negative effects of globalization. But he recalled that the environment was 
not a priority during the Iron Curtain era and pointed out that today, as a 
result of globalization, it was on the agenda. "There are no easy answers 
to such a complex issue," warned the European representative.

Bob Goudzwaard, of the Dutch Reformed Church, warned that the negative 
effects of globalization also impact on developed nations, where poverty 
and the gap between the richest and the poorest members of society are 
increasing.

For Goudzwaard, impoverishment and increases in wealth go hand in hand. For 
example, one in four children in the United States faces hunger and he 
called on countries central to the world economy to limit their growth.

After discussing the different presentations participants agreed that, in 
the face of poverty, church intervention tends to focus on giving aid and 
assistance. They noted, however, that "some churches have attempted to 
develop a concept of development for transformation in poor areas".

Some groups went beyond this to deplore the fact that, as churches, "we 
have played a role in the privatization of social assistance". In some 
cases, churches have become "agents that legitimize policies of social 
exclusion, concentrating their action on mitigating rather than resolving 
poverty," they said.

Participants proposed that ecumenical organizations like CLAI spread 
alternative, biblically founded, concepts of ownership.

Participants also encouraged Christians to participate in civil and 
political society at local, regional and national levels, to strengthen 
alternative economies based on solidarity, and to open channels so that 
people from the South and the North are able to exchange information and 
increase their mutual understanding.

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CUBA
Ten-year anniversary of Gospel radio broadcasts

By Josi Aurelio Paz
HAVANA, April 30, 2003 (alc).  The Gospel on the Move radio program, the 
only religious broadcast in mass communication media in Cuba, celebrated 
its 10-year anniversary.

A recent survey from the official CMBF station, National Musical Radio, 
that broadcasts the program the first Sunday of each month from 8:00 to 
10:00 pm, said that it is among the top 15 programs according to listeners.

The program was authorized in April 1993 as a concrete result of improving 
Church-State relations after an April 1990 meeting between Cuban President 
Fidel Castro and 74 Evangelical leaders.

Sponsored by the Cuban Council of Churches (CIC in Spanish) and produced by 
Jose Aurelio Paz, communications director for the CIC, the program has 
given all Cuban Protestant and Evangelical denominations the opportunity to 
publicly express themselves.

The television broadcast of the meeting between the president and 
Protestant leaders opened up access to mass media, something that had been 
closed since the triumph of the Revolution when there were initial 
confrontations between the Church and the recently instated government.

Pastors from a broad religious spectrum (Adventists, Methodists, 
Presbyterians, Baptists, the Assemblies of God, among others) have used 
this space to make statements and to proclaim the Gospel.

Some Latin American Evangelical leaders, such as Bishop Federico Pagura 
from Argentina and Professor Carmelo Alvarez, of the disciples for Christ 
Church from Puerto Rico /United States, have been invited to share the 
microphone on the Gospel on the Move Program.

Recently, during a brief meeting between those carrying out the program and 
the director of the CMBF station and the CIC a new transmitter was 
installed that will allow the frequency to reach all areas of the island.

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BRAZIL
Lula dialogues with Catholic Bishops

SAO PAULO, May 2, 2003 (alc). Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva 
met with Catholic Bishops on Labor Day (May 1) and spoke about the Zero 
Hunger Program, the difficult legacy his government received and 
unemployment and desperation wracking the country.

CNBB President Jayme Chemello said A Catholic President has the authority 
of a pastor. Lula went to the meeting accompanied by five ministers, two 
mayors, a senator and two special advisors, Dominican Frei Betto and 
businessman Odeb Graew.

This is the first time that an acting president has attended a CNBB 
Assembly. The Brazilian Bishops annual meeting was inaugurated April 30 
and will run until May 9.

Regarding the problem of hunger, Lula said it has not declined in Brazil 
and has in fact become chronic. He proposed that each country give at least 
1 percent of what it spends on weapons to combat this social problem.

Unemployment, he affirmed, compounds the problems that families face. 
There are thousands of young people who do not believe in anything while 
the disagreements within families multiply. The backbone of society is 
being destroyed, he added.

The task to recover fundamental values is immense; it goes far beyond all 
other reform. It is not only the work of the government, but it corresponds 
to all of society, said Lula according to the Entre Networks Web site, from 
the diocese of Rio Preto.

At the meeting with Bishops Lula said that he feels more optimistic about 
Brazil each new morning and that nothing keeps him awake at night.

Regarding the foreign policy, the Brazilian president defended the union of 
poor countries because we cannot confront rich nations on our own. The 
government, he revealed, wants to strengthen its relations with Africa, 
Latin America, India and China without losing sight of its relationship 
with Europe and the United States.

He affirmed that Brazil values its relationship with neighboring countries. 
For the first time we are building a true integration in South America, 
he said.

He told Bishops meeting at the 41st General Assembly of the National 
Conference of Brazilian Bishops (CNBB in Spanish) that the Church, as an 
institution, never supported the ruling Workers Party (PT in Spanish) or 
any other party.

The truth is that you had the initiative to create social pastoral 
committees and gave us the gift of the most beautiful social organization 
in the country. The PT was born like that. The PT does not want, he told 
Catholic pastors, for the CNBB to be a transmission belt for my 
government or for the government to be a transmission belt for the Church.

The important thing, he emphasized, is to take on join efforts in order to 
create public policies that benefit the Brazilian people. Lula emphasized 
that his government is avid for debate. The country must be thought of in 
national, regional and sector by sector terms, he said.

At the beginning of his presentation at the CNBB, Lula reminded them that 
he was a northern migrant, the child of poor parents who was lucky enough 
to take a mechanical lathe course. He was the first of 26 brothers to have 
a television, refrigerator and house.

He was not interested in politics until one of his brothers took him to the 
union. In 1977 he was committed to struggling for workers salary rights. 
That was the beginning of my strong ties to the Church, he said.

On May 5 the CNBB will hold an ecumenical assembly and the pastor-president 
of the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession of Brazil (IECLB) 
Walter Altmann will be the main speaker.

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