ALC NEWS SERVICE E-mail: director@alcnoticias.org
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CONTENT
COSTA RICA: Sports opens the hearts of young people, affirms Lutheran Church CHILE: Indigenous peoples are submitted to a museum role without recognizing their millenary experience SWITZERLAND: Swiss cooperation organizations reject accusation of vice president of Colombia MEXICO: "I am not a dictator" said Presidential Candidate Lopez Obrador at meeting with Catholic hierarchy DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Conference to address Haitian migration in Dominican Republic
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COSTA RICA
Sports opens the hearts of young people, affirms Lutheran Church
SAN JOSÉ, April. 28 (ALC). The Lutheran Church of Costa Rica (ILCO) said that carrying out mission through sports is completely in tune with the missionary understanding of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and for this reason it backs the Football for Life program, a key that opens the hearts of young people.
Football for Life gives children and adolescents from less favored classes the hope that a different world is possible, emphasizing prevention regarding drugs and violence. "Football is an essential tool as it captures the attention and opens the hearts of young people to discuss these and other essential issues," said the general coordinator of the project Roy Arias Cruz.
More than 50 collaborators, the majority parents and friends of the community volunteer with Football for Life, which also has the support of Germany's Bread for the World. It is now an independent NGO but continues under the coordination of the Church.
The mission of the Church covers three basic aspects, to announce the Word, to serve and to defend the weakest, said Pastor Kjell Nordstokke, when he analyzed a document about the issue for Lutheran leaders from the Caribbean and Latin America.
Mission is not a group issue, but the task of the Church said Nordstokke in a Conference of Bishops and Presidents of Lutheran Churches in Latin America and the Caribbean affiliated with the LWF. The event began on April 24.
The 52 Lutheran leaders and invited guests who participated in the COP meeting visited three ILCO service programs: the La Carpio Community, the Alajuelita community, a poor neighborhood in the capital with 15,000 people where Football for Life is developed and the indigenous community of Quitirrisi.
As well as Football for Life, the Lutheran congregation of Alajuelita offers the Open Pastoral House, a daycare program for children of working mothers. It also provides English, computer and music classes, and develops work with Nicaraguan migrants.
Xenophobia is a major stigma that weighs on the community of La Carpio, in the district of Uruca. The community was born in 1993 when it occupied some government land and currently houses a large number of undocumented Nicaraguan migrants.
The community, which is also home to poor Costa Ricans, offers training for women in dress making and helps migrants obtain legal status.
The Quitirrisi reserve is located one hour from the capital and is home to the indigenous community Huetar. The community has been hard hit by the exodus of young people in search of better educational opportunities in the city and in the majority of cases they lose their indigenous roots.
The Women's Association and ILCO began together the difficult task of recovering the communities educational and cultural roots, beginning with simple issues like food, dress, languae and natural medicine said Evelyn Heck of Argentina and Rodrigue Covarrubias of Chile, who participated in the COP event.
"We say that the mission of the Church is integral and for this reason it must be a ministry of Word, the sacrament and service (.) faith must be incarnate in the daily life of these people," concluded Pastor Melvin Jimenez of ILCO and coordinated or the Service network of Lutheran Churches in the region.
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CHILE
Indigenous peoples are submitted to a museum role without recognizing their millenary experience
ARICA, Abr. 28 (ALC). The VI International Event "Migration and Indigenous Peoples" held in Arica denounced the critical situation of many indigenous peoples like the Aymara who live in northern Chile and are "submitted to a mere archeological and museum role" rather than a recognition of their millenary existence and experience.
The event held April 20 - 22 with the participation of 32 indigenous leaders from Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Chile maintained that indigenous people have been stigmatized and that they have been "uprooted" despite being aboriginal to these lands.
The meeting was convened by the Ecumenical Network for Refugees, Migrants and Displaced in Latin America, the Andean Region of the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI), the CLAI Indigenous Pastoral, the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Fraternity of Pastors of Arica and the Social Help Foundation of Christian Churches (FASIC). The theme was "Migrations; training us for a good response from faith."
The meeting addressed the Andean cosmovision, its spirituality and contribution to Andean society. The organizers said that the destructive practice against indigenous peoples on the part of current day society "destroys our habitat including all living beings and nature, necessarily leads us to rescue ancestral principles."
They affirmed that the problem of migrations in current times, in the light of scripture, allows us to understand what it means to be expelled, to be a migrant, to be a refugee, to be displaced."
The participants announced that they will continue the training to seek strategies of accompaniment, orientation and aid, from a Christian identity, in the face of the situation that migrants and refugees face in the region.
Among the main conclusions of the event was the establishment of permanent networks to exchange information and communication among countries and the related institutions as well as training migratory law.
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SWITZERLAND
Swiss cooperation organizations reject accusation of vice president of Colombia
BERN, Abr. 27 (ALC). Cooperation organizations Bread for All (BFA) and Fastenopfer (FO) rejected statements from Colombian Vice president Francisco Santos who last week said that they support the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC) with state money.
According to a communique from the nongovernmental organizations, Santos subsequently retracted the statements in a meeting he held with the Swiss Minister of Foreign Relations and the Swiss Ambassador to Colombia.
BFA, a Protestant Church agency and FO, a Catholic Church body said that they were grateful for the explicit rectification which they consider very important for the "human rights work we support in Colombia" and clarified that they do not collaborate "in any manner with armed groups."
Fastenopfer and Bread for All indicated that for the past several years they have been collaborating with women's associations and other civil society organizations in conflict zones, defending the rights of people affected by violence in search of a political solution.
The work of these organizations is in danger if they are linked to the guerrillas. They frequently receive death threats on the part of paramilitary groups for their valuable commitment.
Francisco Santos had told journalists that both organizations were part of a campaign against Colombia launched in Switzerland. He alluded to the ecumenical work of Bread for All and Fastenopfer, whose slogan this year is "We believe. Human rights require commitment."
"Our campaign is not against the population or against the government of Colombia," said BFA and FO, after explaining that the goal is to "raise the awareness of the Swiss population about the issue of human rights, using as examples projects in different countries that we support and to raise funds for the respective programs."
They said that for this type of campaign they did not receive any state funding. "We are convinced that violence is an attack on human dignity. Each violation of human rights, no matter which side it comes from, is intolerable," it stated.
However, the vice president of Colombia reiterated his denouncement of an "aggressive campaign" against Colombia on the part of Swiss NGOs. He said that graffiti has appeared on the walls of buildings, including on Colombian diplomatic offices with "inadmissible" phrases against the government.
Santos said in a radio interview that Colombia will request that the Swiss government provide protection for Colombian diplomats in Switzerland.
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MEXICO
"I am not a dictator" said Presidential Candidate Lopez Obrador at meeting with Catholic hierarchy
MEXICO, April 26 (ALC). "I am not the dictator that many describe me as but a democrat who does politics at the grassroots level," said Manuel Lopez Obrador, the presidential candidate for the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) at a meeting with the Mexican Bishops' Conference (CEM).
Bishop Abelardo Alvarado, president of the CEM's department of Church State Relations had said minutes earlier that the meeting would be crucial. Jokingly he said "We are going to see if (Lopez Obrador) passes the test," he said.
Lopez Obrador, a candidate on the left of the Mexican political spectrum, told more than 100 bishops that he will respect the triumph of the winner in the upcoming July 4 elections.
He underscored that he believes in dialogue and respects grassroots decisions. He also emphasized that he does not support violence.
According to an article in La Jornada, the PRD candidate impressed his audience when he said that if he wins the electoral race he will convene a national agreement for governance that will include the Catholic hierarchy.
Lopez Obrador and his foreign policy advisor Jose Maria Perez and his press coordinator Cesar Yanez sat at the end table during the meeting held behind closed doors. He was accompanied by the president of the CEM, Bishop José Guadalupe Martín Rábago and Apostolic Nuncio in Mexico Giuseppe Bertello.
According to some of the ministers present Lopez Obrador said he was Catholic, like his family and said that he is misinterpreted when they say he is a Christian (Evangelical) because he makes references to Christ.
As was to be expected, the first questions on the part of the bishops were related to abortion, euthanasia, the so-called day after pill and the family. He said that when he is elected he will submit these issues to consultation "because that is how they should be addressed in a democratic nation."
There was a moment of tension in the meeting when the candidate separated the issue of the day after pill stating that it was a decision of the Health Secretary. The Bishop of Cuernavaca, Florencio Olivera objected stating that the "natural law is first and can not be submitted to consultation."
Lopez Obrador answered by saying that it is always good to listen to people "as corresponds to a democratic government" and underscored his best disposition to respect the beliefs of all the groups.
The candidate made no reference to a demand previously expressed by Bishops to have full freedom in the areas of education and the media.
Lopez Obrador received the applause of the bishops. At the end of the meeting Bishop Alvarez said that the candidate "had passed the verification" although he clarified that the true verification will be done by the citizens.
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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Conference to address Haitian migration in Dominican Republic
SANTO DOMINGO, Abr. 24 (ALC). The serious situation facing thousands of Haitians and Dominicans originally from Haiti in the Dominican Republic will be addressed May 2-5 in the First International Conference on bi-national relations.
The event will be attended by 120 people from both countries, including representatives from government, political parties, the media, international agencies and civil society, as well as congress representatives, academics, diplomats and intellectuals.
The event is being held at the initiative of the Social Service of Dominican Churches, the Dominican-Haitian Dialogue of Evangelical Churches and the Caribbean-Haitian Program (ProCaribe). It is sponsored by Norwegian Church Aid, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry and the Norwegian Foundation Innsikt.
More than 500,000 Haitians and Dominicans originally from Haiti live in the Dominican Republic, suffering discrimination, xenophobia and the vast majority lack identity documents. This precarious legal situation makes them vulnerable to economic exploitation, arbitrary deportation and human rights violations.
Organizers say that the event seeks to encourage joint action between the two states, to reduce the level of conflict, eradicate the insulting and exclusive language from the media and involve civil society in social, labor and family integration programs.
It also seeks to encourage the inclusion of the political class in the application of protocols that lead to an improvement in the relations and facilitate in Churches the promotion of a spiritual testimony that reduces tension between the two peoples and supports mutual tolerance.
A central part of the event will focus on proposals for consensus-based solutions for both countries. However, one issue that has sparked the interest of both parties in the conflict is the responsibility of the media as support for an environment of social harmony.
Other points included in the program are opportunities for civil society to become involved in the construction of productive and solidarity-based relations for the two countries, support from the political class and the skills that Churches can offer regarding acceptance, tolerance and the proximity of the two nations
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