wfn.org | ALC NEWS SERVICE July 6 2003

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

ALC NEWS SERVICE July 6 2003
E-mail: director@alcnoticias.org

ALC HEADLINES:
ARGENTINA: Meeting between religious leaders and IMF director was tense, 
reported Clarmn.
URUGUAY: Methodist Church demands that military tell the truth about the 
disappeared
BRAZIL: A special version of Cinderella for deaf children
PERU: Pastor Pedro Arana laments division among Churches
MEXICO: Latin American Evangelicals mourn passing of Aristsmeno Porras

ARGENTINA
Meeting between religious leaders and IMF director was tense, reported 
Clarmn.

BUENOS AIRES, July 1, 2003 (alc). During his recent visit to Argentina, 
International Monetary Fund managing director Horst Kvhler met with the 
main religious leaders of the country but the dialogue was tense and there 
was no agreement, according to the daily Clarin.

The conversation, which lasted nearly two hours, took place during meetings 
the IMF leader held last week with representatives from different Argentine 
sectors. The meeting, held in the Sheraton Hotel was described as cordial, 
but tense at times very harsh, the daily said.

Kvhler was accompanied by Anoop Singh, responsible for the Western 
Hemisphere for the IMF and John Dodsworth, responsible for the Argentine
case.

The president of Caritas and bishop of San Isidro, Jorge Casaretto, the 
Episcopal delegate before the Workshop Group and bishop of Lomas de Zamora 
Agustin Radrizzani, president of the Argentine Federation of Evangelical 
Churches (FAIE), pastor Emilio Monti, head of the Association of Mutuales 
Israelitas Argentinas (AMIA) Abraham Kaul and Mohsen Ali, members of the 
Islamic Community, among others attended the meeting.

Kvhler admitted that in recent decades the IMF has not been able to reach 
the objectives it proposed with Argentina and implied that the problems lay 
with the country. Casaretto, for his part, said that corporative interests 
took precedence over common good, applying economic policies without social 
justice.

The religious agreed that what most upset Kvhler was when they blamed the 
IMF for part of the crisis wracking the country. You Argentines, your 
biggest defect is blaming people outside, he said.

Casaretto spoke of the need for a political and judicial reform. Kvhler 
emphasized the importance of ethics. The head of Caritas asked what moral 
backing do some countries have that now demand ethical attitudes, 
mentioning the US invasion of Iraq.

Radrizzani said that value of solidarity was not taken into account when 
loans were used the multiply the foreign debt. For this reason he did not 
hesitate to call it immoral and noted that with the abusive interests 
that were apply the debt has been paid several times over.

Kvhler was apparently expecting some self-criticism from his visitors 
because he asked where were you when during the vote on convertability? 
Several religious and leaders from NGOs responded that he was confusing 
the roles because he spoke to us as if we were officials but we represent 
the victims.

Methodist Pastor Monti, interpreting the feeling of those attended the 
meeting when he asked why did they  lend money to people they knew were 
not going to pay?

He ventured three responses. The first is that the lending party was a 
philanthropist, who hid his benevolence beneath a loan, the second is 
that he was an incapable administrator because he lent the money with no 
guarantee it would be returned and the third is that the aim was to create 
a non payable debt in order to submit the debtor nation to permanent 
payments.

The meeting ended with religious handed over a document aimed both at the 
IMF as well as the president, where it was affirmed that it is not not 
possible to face debt service at the cost of asphyxiating an economy and no 
government can morally call on its people to make sacrifices that are 
incompatible with human dignity, noted Clarmn.

URUGUAY
Methodist Church demands that military tell the truth about the disappeared

MONTEVIDEO, July 2, 2003 (alc). The Methodist Church of Brazil, which 
celebrated 125 years of presence in the country June 19, has called on the 
military tell the truth about the detained-disappeared during the 
dictatorship, in particular the place where they are buried.

The president of the Methodist Church Oscar Bolioli said that the military 
know where to grieve their dead but the families of the disappeared do not. 
Thirty years after the coup the army refuses to tell the truth because some 
of its members maintain an authoritarian messianism, which leads them to 
feel above the law, he said.

While the relatives of the soldiers who were killed know where to weep for 
their relatives, the relatives of the disappeared do not, he repeated. This 
is a major difference and something that must be resolved. We are a 
civilized country. At this point, after 30 years, it is time to close this 
wound, by offering the truth, said Bolioli.

The Methodist leader said that the relatives have the right to know where 
the remains of the disappeared are buried and to know the circumstances of 
their deaths.

Consulted by the daily La Republic about the reason why this situation 
continues, Bolioli said that During the coup there was an authoritarian 
messianism. Some people believe that this messianism that is above the law 
still exists and therefore they have no obligation to say what happened.

He warned that it must be a very difficult and tense situation because it 
involves some sectors of political power. However, he clarified, we must 
seek the way to ensure that this issue is brought to light because sooner 
or later the truth will come out.

The daily noted that according to Bolioli, Argentine and Chile have 
essentially overcome the trauma of the disappeared with a much more 
serious situation - regarding the number of victims and therefore, the 
Uruguayan case should be simple to resolve. He added that this does not 
mean that the Argentine situation is totally resolved but at least Gen. 
Martin Balza has recognized that the army committed an error.

Bolioli recognized the initiative taken on by President Jorge Batlle, who 
was the only president, since the return to legality to have the courage 
to openly raise the issue and to install a Commission that recognized the 
responsibility of the State in the disappearance of Uruguayans.

He recalled that, as a representative of the Methodist Church, he met with 
Batlle when he was a presidential candidate and discussed the issue of the 
disappeared. At that time, he manifested the need to reach the truth for 
humanitarian reasons.

Thirty years ago, when the couple took place, Bolioli was in Montevideo. He 
recalled feeling that he did not know what to say from the pulpit that June 
27. The restrictions and persecutions meant that religious had to offer 
messages between the lines and to adapt to the circumstances without losing 
their convictions, he said.

Methodists had to request authorization to carry out their assemblies and 
some of their members were barred for running for leadership positions, 
such as Bolioli himself. However, in an assembly, in the midst of the 
dictatorship, Methodists resolved to begin defending the rights of 
political prisoners even though this could result in four years in jail for 
association to commit a crime.

In 1978 the Swiss parliament agreed to send 3 tonnes of clothing and 
supplies for political prisoners and it was the Methodist Church that 
received and distributed the shipment, despite the risks involved.

BRAZIL
A special version of Cinderella for deaf children

CANOAS, July 2, 2003 (alc).  A deaf Cinderella finds her prince, who is 
also deaf and loses her gloves instead of her dancing slippers. The story 
of the Deaf Cinderella, slightly different than the traditional version, 
was recently published in Brazil.

The 36-page childrens book is the first to be published using sign 
language. The Deaf Cinderella was published by the Lutheran University of 
Brazil (Ulbra), in the Canoas Campus, close to Porto Alegre.

It is truly a bilingual book, Professor Lodenir Becker Karnopp told ALC. 
Becker has a PhD in linguistics and is the co-author of the book together 
with Carolina Hessel and Fabiano Rosa. The revamped text is aimed at deaf 
children and is written using sign language, illustrations and Portuguese. 
The main objective is to disseminate sign language and to promote is use in 
schools.

Portuguese, said the Ulbra teacher, is really a second language for 
people who learn sign language from birth. In the prologue of the Deaf 
Cinderella the authors explain how the prince learned sign language with 
Le Epee in Paris.

He was one of the first educators to use this method.  Le Epee worked in 
the Deaf School in the XVIII Century.

Among other things, the reason why Cinderella loses her gloves instead of 
her shoes is because gloves are directly related to hand, used for sign 
language.

The 12 bells that indicate that Cinderella should escape from the party 
were exchanged for a huge clock that marked 12:00 In the illustrations, the 
facial expressions of the characters were well done by graphic designer 
Carolina Hessel, a deaf woman and co-author of the book.

The book forms part of the Pimpollo series that will include several 
books written in sign language. The Deaf Cinderella is the first of the 
series. In Porto Alegre only a few schools use this method.

The production of the Deaf Cinderella took more than a year because it 
required a great deal of investigation. The next book, which is currently 
being developed behind closed doors, will be launched at the Porto Alegre 
Book fair at the end of next October.

The book is the result of an investigation carried out by Lodenir Becker, 
post graduate professor at Ulbra who has been working with deaf people 
since 1988, Hessel is a professor of sign language and Rosa is a pedagogy 
student who is deaf and a teacher at a special school. The three work on 
the theme Literacy and deafness: a linguistic and cultural approach.

A professor of deaf children, Hessel was questioned about why she did not 
use books with characters that were deaf. Up until the launch of the Deaf 
Cinderella there were no childrens books in Brazil of this type, despite 
the fact that nearly 2 percent of the Brazilian population is deaf.

PERU
Pastor Pedro Arana laments division among Churches

By Fernando Oshige
LIMA, July 3, 2003 (alc). Presbyterian Pastor Pedro Arana laments the 
division in Peruvian Evangelical Churches that arose after a Congressional 
debate about a project to reform the 1993 Constitution and the approval of 
an article related to Church-State relations.

This is a very sad movement because the emergence of a new Evangelical 
organization weakens the testimony of Churches in society and before the 
state, said Arana, former member of the 1978 Constituent Assembly.

Pastor and director of the Peruvian Bible Society spoke last Monday at a 
conference convened by the Institute of Communication Studies (IEC) and the 
Juan Mackay Institute of Social Studies.

Arana was referring to the constitution of the Christian Union of 
Evangelical Churches of Peru (UNICEP) last April and lamented the excesses 
committed by some of its leaders, who have accused CONEP of betraying the 
wishes of Evangelical community to achieve religious equality. He called on 
UNICEP to make a public apology.

The Inter-confessional Committee that included the participation of the 
Bishops Conference, CONEP, Evangelical Churches and the Jewish Community 
proposed a text that stated in the first paragraph: within a regime of 
independence and autonomy, the State recognizes the Catholic Church as an 
important element in the historic, cultural and moral formation of Peru and 
provides its collaboration.

It then adds that the State recognizes and respects all religious 
confessions and establishes collaboration agreements with them through 
their representative bodies, with criteria of equity. The text was 
approved by Congress representative and forms part of the project to reform 
the 1993 Constitution.

In the wake of that approval, Evangelical Churches that do not form part of 
CONEP held a meeting and said that the text was a concession to the 
Catholic Church and a betrayal of the demand for full religious equality.

During the conference held last Monday about Evangelical Churches and 
their battle for religious equality, Arana lobbied for a sincere, 
unimpassioned dialogue among CONEP and UNICEP leaders that will help to 
improve relations between both institutions.

In order to avoid weakening the interlocution between Evangelicals and the 
State he proposed forming an inter-institutional commission as authorities 
will have a hard time understanding the differences that separate both 
Evangelical institutions.

The Presbyterian leader emphasized two important aspects related to the 
1979 Constitution. He said that this Constitution recognizes the 
Church/State relationship on the one hand and on the other recognizes the 
role of the Catholic Church in Perus historical and cultural formation and 
sustains that collaboration can be established with other religious 
confessions.

It was the first time in Perus religious history that the Evangelical 
Church and other confessions were recognized together with the Catholic 
Church and mentions that the State can establish types of collaboration, 
it added. The 1979 Constitution was replaced by the 1993 magna charter 
under the regime of former President Alberto Fujimori.

Arana said that call a simple recognition of the Catholic Churchs role 
betrayal is excessive. There is no betrayal, rather it is a simple 
recognition that the entire world recognizes, he said.

Regarding equality before the State, he said that Evangelicals should 
demand equal opportunities for pastoral services, in the jails, in the 
armed forces and in other arenas. The aim is not to seek equality of 
privileges granted the Catholic Church. I am opposed to the State paying 
the salaries of pastors, he said.

MEXICO
Latin American Evangelicals mourn passing of Aristsmeno Porras

MEXICO CITY, July 3, 2003 (alc). Colombian writer and pastor Aristsmeno 
Porras, also known by the pseudonyms Luis D. Salem and Uriel D. Azur passed 
away on July 1 in this city after battling a long-term illness.

Porras, who was 86 years old, was director of the magazine La Biblia en las 
Americas for 22 years and had been a columnist for papers such as Excelsior 
and Ultimas Noticias since 1976. He lived in Mexico with his wife Gabrielina.

He published 22 books including: Huerto mmstico, El Dios escondido de los 
libertadores, Romancero Bmblico, Muijeres de la Biblia and La Biblia en la 
poesma de habla castellana.

Presbyter Abner Lopez Perez, director of the Bible Society in Mexico, in a 
message to secretaries from the Latin American Bible Societies, said that 
Porras was highly esteemed in the country and in the Latin American 
Biblical family.

Now Porras enjoys eternity with the Heavenly Father whom he loved 
profoundly because his intense search for God lead him to be an assiduous 
reader of the Scriptures and someone who disseminated the Biblical cause 
through his writings, said Lopez Perez.

Loida A Ortiz, coordinator of the United Bible Societies Publications said 
from Miami: To write about this great man is difficult. Difficult because 
there is so much to say that it is discriminatory to make a selection. He 
was born in Colombia, but spent a great part of his life in Mexico, a land 
he loved.

In 1962 he was asked to organize the Department of Information, Promotion 
and Projects for the Americas, of the United Bible Societies. The offices 
were in Mexico. For 24 years material was produced by this office to 
celebrate the Day of the Bible, radio and television programs, daily Bible 
readings, dubbing for movies and the magazine La Biblia en America Latina.

A short while ago I asked him to document the history of the Bible 
Societies in the Americas. When he began the work he wrote a pleasing task 
that God has assigned me, pleasing because as well as keeping me occupied 
it makes me think about a task I loved and which I have dedicated many 
years: the study and distribution of the Holy Scriptures.

Aristsmeno Porras studied theology and literature. He was a writer and a 
poet and up until the final days of his life he wrote and spoke about the 
Bible. In February 2001, said Loida Ortiz we received a note that said, 
now I can only read and write a little, my sight has declined. I read 
using a magnifying class and in the mornings because in the afternoon the 
shadows fall in my eyes.

We were always in close communication and we published his articles 
whenever he shared them, added Ortiz. One of his favorite subjects was 
Christmas and he wrote two books about the subject : +Rimas del pesebre; 
and +Figuras estelares de la Navidad;.

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