wfn.org | ALC Noticias 20 Nov 2005 Cuba Brazil Mexico Chile Peru

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

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

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CONTENT

CUBA: Surprise meeting between Fidel Castro and Catholic leaders
BRAZIL: Lutheran youth support community projects
PERU: Churches must monitor fulfilment of the Objectives of the Millennium
MÉXICO: Uncertainty continues for 36 Evangelical families
CHILE: Lutherans criticize the fact that women are rendered invisible

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CUBA
Surprise meeting between Fidel Castro and Catholic leaders

By Enrique López Oliva

Havana, Nov. 18 (ALC). Fidel Castro held a surprise meeting with Msgr. Luigi
Bonazzi, Papal Nuncio in Havana and a delegation from the Catholic Bishops'
Conference of Cuba, led by Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino, Archbishop of
Havana last week in the Revolution Palace.

Other participants included government officials and leaders from the Cuban
Communist Party. Castro said the meeting was the "culminating point" of
celebrations for the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic
relations between the Holy See and Cuba.

The relationship between the Catholic Church and Cuba has been in place for
seven decades. However, it has not been exempt from moments of major
tension.

The Cuban leader dedicated part of his extensive intervention in the Magna
Hall at the University of Havana where he celebrated 60 years since entering
this educational establishment to commenting on the meeting with Catholic
leaders. He recalled that he learned of Latin American Liberation Theology
when he visited Cuba during the Socialist government of President Salvador
Allende in 1973, an opportunity he took advantage of to meet with a group of
Catholic priests and theologians.

Castro said he was impressed by the search for ecumenism and recalled that
when he was young and studied in Catholic schools "it was not like that."

He recognized that many are seeking to work together. "Ecumenism did not
exist before the Second Vatican Council," he said.

"I think the most important thing is the ethical basis," he said after
indicating that there are many religious, mentioning the Muslim religion
among them. "It is important for this to be known, because I believe that
the fundamental issue is the ethical basis," he said.

He emphasized his meeting with the Apostolic Nuncio and with Cuban Catholic
Bishops. "We talked about a lot of issues and then we had dinner and we kept
on talking." He recalled Pope John Paul II and pondered on his ability to
"have had a vision of the most urgent problems affecting society."

The world, said Castro, needs unity. The official daily the "Granma"
published a front page story about Castro's meeting with the Catholics and
his statements about John Paul II.

He said he was a "tireless struggler in favour of ecumenism, unity and
cooperation among different religious denominations, the battle against
poverty and for peace in the world."

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BRAZIL
Lutheran youth support community projects

By Micael Vier B.

Sao Leopoldo, Nov. 17 (ALC). More than 1,000 young people confirmed in the
Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession of Brazil (IECLB) voluntarily
collected close to $5,900 that will be used for Church projects in the
cities of Manaos, Joinville and Jaguarao.

The amount was collected through the project "Confirmed Action 2005", an
initiative spearheaded by the Gustavo Adolfo Project (OGA), a non profit
entity that is historically liked to the IECLB. The expectation is that in
2006 the number of young people incorporated in the project grows to 2,500
and they collect more than $30,000.

For the executive secretary of the entity, Pastor Rolf Droste, the most
important thing is what the young people learn for their lives from the
confirmation courses. "This initiative is important because those who are
confirmed assume a sense of belonging to this Church and also come into
contact with the Gustavo Adolfo Project, he said.

According to Droste, the OGA does not impede any form to collect money. In
the 2005 campaign many sold recycled material; others gave up their
allowance or sold raffle tickets with prizes donated by the commerce or
industry in their cities. "The creativity of these young people surprised
us," he said.

He told about three girls in the city of Umuarama, who gathered significant
sums selling salami.

Project beneficiaries include Norbeto Arnhold de Manaus school, capital of
Amazonas, that carried out work to value different cultures, integrating
parents and other members of the Satare Maue indigenous community in the
pedagogical activities of the school.

In Jaguarao, on the border between Rio Grande do Sul and Uruguay the project
will help the local parish with computer equipment for young people age
11-16. Of the 527 parishes in the IECLB, 45 participate in the OGA program.

In 2006, the project will include Cuiaba and Curitiba, capitals of the
States of Mato Grosso and Parana respectively, as well as the city of
Cachoeira do Sul.

By 2010, the centenary year of OGA, the goal is that nearly all the 11,500
people confirmed each year in the IECLB are inserted into the project so
that this entity can also participate in some programs carried out by
Churches that participate in the Latin American Council of Churches, said
Droste.

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PERU
Churches must monitor fulfilment of the Objectives of the Millennium

Lima, Nov 16 (ALC). The struggle against poverty does not advance because
rich countries have not invested enough in fulfilling the Objects of the
Millennium and poor countries do not apply social development policies, said
Jorge Chediek, representative of the UNDP.

Chediek called on Churches to monitor fulfilment of the objectives of the
millennium during the Evangelical Pastoral and Poverty Consultation carried
out by the National Evangelical Council of Peru (CONEP) with members and
leaders from diverse Churches and Christians denominations in the framework
of world campaign to struggle against poverty called the Micah Challenge
Campaign.

The Objectives of the Millennium (ODM) signed by world leaders in 1990 after
being formulated by the United Nations, indicates the goals that the world
should reach by 2015. These include eradicating hunger and extreme poverty,
making primary education universal, gender equality and reducing infant
mortality.

The UNDP representative in Peru, according to CONTEXTO proposed mobilizing
religious groups to eradicate exclusion and promote economic growth among
the poor, as the ODM represent a moral agreement at a national and global
scale.

The General Coordinator of the Jubilee Peru Network, Rocio Valdeavellano
said that social investment in the country is meagre due to excessive
payment of the foreign debt, which currently stands at around $30 billion.

In 2005, 26.7 percent of the national budget was used to pay the debt while
health and education garnered 7.9 percent and 15.9 percent respectively.

Peru is internationally classified as a middle income nation, which is to
say outside of the group of countries that need urgent social support, such
as Bolivia, said Valdeavellano. She added that 54 of every 100 Peruvians are
poor and in the Southern Andean region more than 80 percent are poor.

Chediek said that the lack of cooperation is due to a lack of information.
"No one knows that inside of Peru there is an Africa. It is the task of
religious leaders to mobilize consciences and hearts," he said.

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MÉXICO
Uncertainty continues for 36 Evangelical families

Pachuca, Nov. 18 (ALC). Uncertainty continues for some 36 Evangelical
families in the town of San Nicolas, in the municipality of Ixmiquilpan,
threatened to be expelled by the Catholic majority after talks broke down
the offices of the state executive in this capital.

According to La Jornada, Catholics and Evangelicals have not managed to come
to an agreement as the first insist on rejecting the aim of the Christians
to build a temple and the Evangelicals say they are not only threatened with
eviction but they are barred from meeting to hold worship services.

The meeting between the two groups, the first since the conflict broke out
at the beginning of October, when the community assembly ordered the
eviction of 36 Evangelical families was led by the director of Religious
Affairs for the Government Secretariat Francisco Gonzalez Perrioni and the
Secretary of the State Government Francisco Olivera Ruiz.

The representative of around 500 Evangelicals who live in the town of some
8,000 residents Guillermo Cano criticized the federal government as it made
no proposals during the talks.

Last Saturday, a significant number of Christian believers blocked the road
to Ixmiquilpan, between the communities of Julian Villagran and Taxadho with
trailers, trucks, busses and private cars, to support the cause of the
threatened families in San Nicolas.

The demonstration that closed the highway for more than 6 hours brought
together different Evangelical denominations and communities. Participants
included pastors from the Church of Nazareth of San Pedro Capula, the King
of Kings Church, the Beth-el Church and the Emmanuel Church.

Recent talks were the result of protests on the part of several hundred
Evangelicals who demanded that community leadership respect the religious
beliefs of the Evangelical minority in front of the Hidalgo Government Place
in the Juarez Square in this capital on October 10.

Evangelicals demand the right to profess their religion without suffering
discrimination of any type or reprisals and indicated that in San Nicolas,
Catholics maintain the control of the town, to the point where they are not
even allowed to bury their dead in the local cemetery.

On October 31 the deadline passed that the Catholics set to evict the
Evangelical families. Some Catholics have warned that they will not give a
specific date and will act in the night or at dawn to avoid the presence of
authorities or journalists.

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CHILE
Lutherans criticize the fact that women are rendered invisible

SANTIAGO, Nov 17 (ALC).The National Meeting of Lutheran Churches
that met in Guanaqueros, Coquimbo  repudiated the fact that women have
been rendered invisible throughout history and their leadership has not
been recognized. The event brought  together some 150 Lutheran women
from the country to address the issue Overcoming Violence.

"The silence of the Churches about these issues is an accomplice in a
complex system of cultural and structural violence" they said in a
communiqué about the meeting held November 10 - 13 under the slogan "in the
image and likeness of God, Chilean Lutheran Churches say NO to Violence and
YES to fraternal love."

The declaration demanded a greater commitment from the Churches and faith
communities to overcome the "logic, practice and justification of violence
in all its forms" and called on them to make efforts to form transforming
leadership.

It called on Churches to "break the silence about violence and restore the
dignity of women and all the victims affected by the growing violence in
society."

One of the central thesis of the event was that there is a practice, just as
there are theological and Biblical justifications of violence against women,
both in societies and in the Churches themselves.

Participants worked on Bible studies, accompanied by Pastor Gloria Rojas,
president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Chile  (IELCH), pastor
Judith Van Osdol of the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI) and Pastor
Raquel Rodríguez, of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA).

Women's low self esteem is a consequence and cause of the violence against
them, they said.

Lutherans denounced the misuse, abuse and manipulation of power, violence
within the Churches and the justification of the aggression and lack of
awareness within the communication media that frequently increases violence
rather than resolving it.

Finally, they committed themselves to promoting gender awareness among the
Churches and in society, through education and called on communication media
to encourage spaces free from violence.
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