wfn.org | ALC Noticias Oct 18 2004 Brazil, Columbia, Paraguay, Pery

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

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

----------------
CONTENT

BRAZIL: Hunger humanity's worse misfortune, said Fray Betto
COLOMBIA: President Uribe named the co-founded of the Charismatic Mission
Church Ambassador to Brazil
PARAGUAY: President of the IERP analyzes role of Churches before economic
system
PERU: Evangelicals attract attention in Lima

-----------
BRAZIL
Hunger humanity's worse misfortune, said Fray Betto

By Micael Vier B.

SAO LEOPOLDO, Oct14 (alc).  Renowned Catholic writer and theologian Fray
Betto, adviser to President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva and coordinator of the
government's "Zero Hunger" social movement said that hunger is humanity's
worst misfortune.

Hunger, he said, kills 24,000 people around the world on a daily basis. It
is shameful that in the XXI Century a lack of food costs more lives than
war, terrorism, illness and traffic accidents combined.

The Dominican priest emphasized that while Brazil is one of the world's top
five food producers malnutrition remains a problem despite the efforts of
the current government. In Brazil, he said, we still struggle for animal
rights not human rights.

Betto, internationally renowned for his tenacious struggle to defend human
rights, said that among the major causes of the death in the world, hunger
is the only one that makes a class distinction.

He spoke at the inauguration of the XXIV General Council of the Evangelical
Church of the Lutheran Confession of Brazil (IECLB), in the Lutheran Church
of Reloj, representing President Lula.

Betto said that everyone present was a child of a biological lottery. Fray
Betto began his studies in theology in Sao Leopoldo, a city where he was
also imprisoned during the military dictatorship.

Betto said that the famous Zero Hunger program spearheaded by President Lula
is a public policy of social inclusion, capable of multiplying the loaves
and the fish.  He emphasized that during Brazil's Republican history only
two presidents have concerned themselves with misery: Lula and NIilo
Pecanha, vice president who assumed the presidency between June 1909 and
September 1910 after the death of President Moreira Penna.

"Our major current objective is to ensure that the dignity of our all fellow
men (in Brazil) because this dignity is sacred. All human beings are a
living temple of God," affirmed the presidential advisor.

Interviewed by ALC Fray Betto praised the work of different religious
denominations in favor of the Zero Hunger Program. "There are Churches that
are building cisterns to capture water in the Northeast or member of the
Food and Nutrition Security Council who are encouraging the creation of
school and family gardens among other initiatives."
Regarding criticism that some major dailies have levied against the Zero
Hunger Program, Betto said that the media is badly informed and
concentrating its attention on the major urban centers in Brazil. "By next
December, Zero Hunger will have reached 6.5 million families across the
nation," he affirmed, emphasizing the broad coverage of the social
assistance program.

Pastor Homero Severo Pinto preached during the IECLB General Council
inaugural worship service. Severo is the first vice president of the
denomination. In his homily, he emphasized that this is a special year as
Protestantism commemorates 180 years of presence in Brazil.

He recalled the first immigrants and said that of 39 Germans who landed in
Sao Leopoldo on July 25, 1824 33 were Evangelical-Lutherans who build
communities of faith and educational spaces on these lands.

-----------------
COLOMBIA
President Uribe named the co-founded of the Charismatic Mission Church
Ambassador to Brazil

By William Delgado

BOGOTA, Oct 14 (alc).  Evangelical leader Claudia Rodrmguez de Castellanos
was sworn in October 6 as Colombia's new ambassador to Brazil.

Lawyer Rodrmguez de Castellanos, graduate of the Law Faculty of the
University of Greater Colombia and her husband Pastor Cesar Castellanos
founded the International Charismatic Mission Church, one of the largest in
Colombia.

Rodrmguez de Castellanos was president of the International Charismatic
Mission between May 1998 and July 2000 when Cesar and Claudia Fajardo were
appointed presidents of the growing mission.

Currently the Charismatic Mission is one of the fastest growing
neo-Pentecostal movements in the country. It holds weekly meetings in the El
Camping Coliseum, with nearly 40,000 people. It also holds annual
conventions with more than 75,000 in the Nemesio Camacho Stadium.

The mission has two radio stations, one in Cucuta, in the department of
Santander and the other in Bogota. Moreover, it administers a secondary
school.

The new Colombian Ambassador in Brasilia was also Senator between 1991 and
1994 for the National Christian Party. She has served as president of the
Human Rights Commission in Senate and ran as Mayor of Bogota.

------------------
PARAGUAY
President of the IERP analyzes role of Churches before economic system

ASUNCION, Oct 11 (alc) - "Unemployment and the misery of millions is
knocking on our doors," said Federico Hugo Schdfer, president of the
Evangelical Church of the River Plate (IERP) in his report before the Church
synod in Hohenau, Paraguay October 9 -11.

The IERP, with a presence in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, is a member of
the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the World Reformed Alliance. With
around 25,000 members the IERP holds a synod and assembly every two years
and the two are the maximum spiritual and juridical bodies respectively.

Schdfer, at the inauguration of the event last Saturday said that economic
problems affect both the personal life of each Christian and the life of the
Church itself and the world. "We live the globalization of a perverse
economic situation that only favors the powerful minorities," he added.

The president of the IERP emphasizes that importance of Churches becoming
interested in analyzing economic issues. He recalled that at the last LWF
General Assembly, representatives from the Evangelical United Lutheran
Church and the Evangelical Church of the River Plate, with the support of
other Lutheran Churches on the continent, brought the issue of the foreign
debt to the federation's agenda.

Schdfer explained that the idea is that the LWF proposes, in collaboration
with the World Reformed Alliance and the World Council of Churches and even
the Catholic Church, taking the issue of the foreign debt to the
international court in The Hague.

The objective is that the maximum tribunal decree the "need to audit. The
foreign debt in countries where, such as the case of Argentina, it is
partial but probably illegal, illegitimate and usurious."

In his report to the synod Schdfer emphasizes that the foreign debt
continues to oppress our people as a heavy mortgage, and that despite
certain economic recovery, major social problems generated years ago
continue to go unresolved.

Regarding ecumenical work, Schdfer emphasizes the need to continue to
strengthen ties with other Churches.

  "I am convinced that our Church has an ecumenical vocation and must
continue developing it in obedience with our Lord's mandate." He added that
the ecumenical challenge "should not just be a utopian ideal but should be
demonstrated here and now."

At the same time, the IERP president pointed to the need to continue working
in the mission. "We cannot elude this challenge. It is inherent to our
Church. There can be no true Christian Church that does not do mission."

----------
PERU
Evangelicals attract attention in Lima

LIMA, Oct 11 (alc). Intense Evangelical activity last week took place in the
Peruvian capital and the major media (dailies and television) who are
generally reluctant to publish activities that are not linked to the
Catholic Church, dedicated broad coverage to these events.

Considerable coverage was dedicated to the Lima 2004 Festival, with well
known Argentine Preacher Luis Palau and popular singers Jose Luis Rodrmguez
or El Puma and Mexican Yuri.

While the daily La Republic said it was the largest religious gathering to
be held in Lima with the exception of John Paul II's visit, El Comercio said
it was "one of the largest Evangelical concentrations in memory."

The figures about the number of people attending the festival on October 8
vary from 80,000 estimated by La Republica to 100,000 in El Comercio and
200,000 according to the organizers. However, the huge Campo de Marte, in
downtown Lima, was full for the six hour presentation both on October 8 and
October 9.

Not only the did that event catch the media's eye. Previously the media
published stories about the meetings Palau held with President Alejandro
Toledo, his meeting with Congress leader Antero Flores Araoz and the mayor
of Lima, Luis Castaqeda Lossio, who declared him a distinguished visitor to
the city.

On October 5 he met with scores of legislators and Church leaders and
offered a conference about Values and Politics. Later, Congress declared the
Festival of Lima of national interest and emphasizes his contribute to
values and the construction of a country marked by solidarity.

However, Palau's presentation was not the only Evangelical event to attract
the attention of the media. Over the week, the television and press
commented on a visit to different jails in Lima on the part of Champions for
Life, a group made up of former stars that turned to crime, served time and
now are dedicated to preaching the Gospel.

US citizen Jack Murphy who spent 23 years in jail for a robbery in 1964 in
the Natural History Museum in New Cork, Colombian John Millan, former head
of Pablo Escobar's hit men and North Americans Kidh Davis, Tanya Crever,
John Kreger and other famous names offered testimony about their conversion
to Christianity and gave Bibles to thousands of Peruvian inmates.

Less well attended, but equally important in academia circles were
conferences that a group of Christian scientists offer to defend creationism
as opposed to the theory of evolution from October 6-17.

Robert Relye, Australian and professor from the State University of New York
and US Duane Gish, of the University of Berkeley California spoke about the
"Geological Evidence of the flood" and the "Human Genome, cloning and
genetic engineering," respectively at the Universities of San Marcos, the
Agrarian University, Ricardo Palma, San Martin de Porras as well as in
Evangelical Churches and institutions.

  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Latin American and Caribbean Communication Agency LAC)
P.O. Box 14-225 Lima 14 Perz
Tel. (51 1) 462 0189 - Telefax (51 1) 463 2496
E-mail: director@alcnoticias.org