wfn.org | ALC Noticias Jan 22 2006 Dominican Republic Peru Brazil Mexico

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

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

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CONTENT

MEXICO: Religious signed agreement to not interfere in elections
PERU: Pentecostal Pastor emphasizes evangelical presence in society
BRAZIL: The history of Latin America will be told using a multi-media show
in the WCC Assembly
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Catholic Bishops call on people overcome barriers of intolerance regarding
Haitians

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MEXICO
Religious signed agreement to not interfere in elections

MÉXICO, January. 20 (ALC). Church leaders signed a document before the
Electoral Federal Institute that set important guidelines regarding the
controversial issue of Churches and electoral processes.

"It doesn't say anything new," said Anglican Bishop Carlos Touche one of
the people behind the agreement, said that it doesn't say anything new but
"puts in writing what the attitude of the Churches should presumably be
regarding elections."

In an interview with ALC, Touche, Primate Bishop of the Anglican Church of
Mexico and Vice President of the Inter-Religious Council of Mexico (CIM)
maintained that the "Decalogue for Transparency and Legitimacy" in the 2006
elections was extremely well received on January 10 by electoral
authorities and President Vicente Fox.

According to the Anglican Bishop, the three key points of the agreement are
that ministers will not associate worship with political ends, they will
promote a reasoned, informed vote and they commit themselves to not
discouraging people from participating in next July's elections.

"In fact, we are prohibited by law from associating for political
purposes," he said. Regarding promoting the vote he specified that it is a
commitment that excludes support for any political party.

In Mexico, the vote is not obligatory. Up until 1992 when the relevant
constitutional articles were modified (in particular article 130) the laws
did not recognized the Churches or give political rights to the ministers,
no matter what confession. "We did not have the right to vote, this changed
and explains our decision to disseminate this 'Decalogue'," they added.

According to the Anglican leader, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera,
Archbishop Primate of Mexico also signed the "Decalogue" and is committed
to promoting it among the faithful. This is important because the Catholic
Church, as the majority Church in the country, directly or indirectly has
an enormous influence on the electoral process, he said.

"This influence is exercised, above all trying to orient the faithful as to
whether they should vote or not for parties that promote the culture of
life or the culture of death. For this final thing, issues like birth
control, abortion, euthanasia, cloning, etc. are taken into account," said
the bishop.

According to the religious, the influence of the Catholic Church in
politics comes from the colonial period in Mexico's history until the XIX
Century, when the majority Church had total dominion over national life.

However, the 1857 Constitution and the Reform Laws (1859) stipulate equal
treatment for all Churches, including non believers. However, for many
years there was a simulated situation on the part of the Catholic Church
and the Mexican state.

Mexico is one of the few countries where laws bar official authorities,
beginning with the president, from publicly practicing their religion or
carrying out religious militancy.

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PERU
Pentecostal Pastor emphasizes evangelical presence in society

Lima, January 19 (ALC) Pentecostal Pastor Dario Lopez Rodriguez affirmed
that Evangelical Churches in Latin America have an increasingly visible
presence in the public scenario and a notable numeric growth that will
continue in the following decades.

This growth is modifying the religious map and today the Catholic Church,
predominant on the continent, is not the only confession that regulates the
religious dynamic, said Lopez, vice-president of the National Evangelical
Council and pastor of the Church of God.

According to the Nationmaster 2003 Encyclopedia in Panama, Costa Rica,
Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala have Evangelical
faithful that oscillates between 15 and 25 percent of the total population.

Pastor Lopez said that Evangelicals in Latin America are no longer an
imperceptible minority and their influence is now felt in the public sphere.

According to Lopez there are undeniable facts that confirm that Evangelical
sectors have obtained their own voice and their opinion is taken into
account by the political community, civil society and the State. He cited,
among these, their defense of human rights and their growing participation
in key spaces to defend democracy and affirm citizen values.

He recognized politics as a legitimate missionary field for Evangelicals
but warned that Christians who enter politics must have a solid biblical
foundation, a concrete experience of service to their neighbor, a political
culture and coherence between what they preach and what they do each day in
their work.

He criticized "illuminated" Christians who affirm that Evangelical
believers have been called to "be the head and not the tail" in public
affairs and ignore the fact that serious politicians do not emerge
spontaneously.

He deplored that the public management of the majority of Evangelicals who
have entered Congress and the municipalities, in particular in the
1990-2000 period under former President Alberto Fujimori, has not been
different from that of questioned politicians, marked by the vices of
opportunism, nepotism, ambition and others.

Many of them believed it was an opportunity to enjoy the benefits of a
short time in power and accepted temporary favors, as if they were divine
gifts, he said.

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BRAZIL
The history of Latin America will be told using a multi-media show in the
WCC Assembly

SÃO PAULO, Jan  17 (ALC).  An elderly indigenous man and woman from the
Andean zone, a revolutionary, a black pilgrim and a girl will tell the
story of the people of the Latin American continent in the IX World Council
of Churches (WCC) Assembly. The five personalities, created by Jesús Seda,
will speak of the struggle against different kinds of economic and
political domination since the Spanish conquest, the struggle of indigenous
peoples, women and children.

Telling the history of Latin America to the world in a show that will last
an hour and 20 minutes was a challenge taken on by Alvaro Peterson Jr., a
radio and television professor from the Methodist University of Sao Paulo
(UMESP). He was responsible for creating the Latin American Plenary, a show
that will be presented in the Pontifical Catholic University next February 19.

The WCC Assembly will begin next February 14 with the presence of Brazilian
government authorities and the State of Rio Grande do Sul, as well as Nobel
Peace Laureates Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Desmond Tutu and Rigoberto Menchu.
More than 3,000 people will attend among delegates, observers, guests and
journalists.

"It is not a comedy," warned Peterson. The show includes projected images,
testimony, scenes and shots of grassroots manifestations in diverse
regions. For this, the UMESP mobilized a five-person team that worked for a
year collecting and editing videos and photos from different of the continent.

Similar work was carried out with the sound track that includes Andean
sounds, Brazilian samba, mixed with the voices of a 300-person live choir.

Peterson will be in Porto Alegre from January 21 - 23 for the final
rehearsals of the show that he said was a "multimedia pantomime".  With a
great deal of experience in children's programs, Peterson opted for the
language of critical humor, characteristic among Latin Americans. He also
said he was inspired by Charles Chaplin.

----------------------------------- DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Catholic Bishops call on people overcome barriers of intolerance regarding
Haitians

SANTO DOMINGO, January 20  (ALC). The Bishops' Conference called on people
to overcome the barriers of intolerance and discrimination regarding the
Haitians who live in the country and other foreigners who visit.

The call was contained in a Pastoral Letter published by 20 Dominican
Bishops for the festival of Our Lady of High Grace, Patron Saint of the
Dominican Republic, celebrated January 21.

Living together, said the Pastoral Letter, demands common learning, to see
what is positive in others in order to gather it and value it as a gift of
God, which demands overcoming barriers of intolerance and discrimination.

The Bishops said it was indispensable that "clear legal solutions be
applied to the growing undocumented Haitian immigration" but they said that
the Church must support this unavoidable reality, maintaining itself as a
home and school of communion.

The message entitled "Disciples of the Lord in Communion and mission"
identifies the "disorganization and breakdown of the people" as the
fundamental problem in Dominican society and called on the population to
seek common good and reject corruption.

The religious asked the country to seek "ethics in political practice" In a
country, like the Dominican Republic, where internal migration, tourism or
Haitian migration marks its economic, social and political life, the need
to learn to live together becomes vital," they said.

They questioned the "strong divorce" between profession Christian faith
carried out by main politicians and leaders from diverse areas, and the
implementation of Evangelical values in the fields where they work.
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