Note #9149 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:
06106 Feb. 17, 2006
Brazilian president urges churches to help build 'just and equitable society'
by Stephen Brown Ecumenical News International
PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has appealed to a global gathering of church leaders to support his country's efforts to construct a more egalitarian society.
"Religious organizations have played an irreplaceable role in transforming Brazil," Lula da Silva told delegates at the World Council of Churches' ninth Assembly on Feb. 17, referring to a wide-ranging program of social reform he introduced after his election in 2002.
"We call on the Council to continue working with us to continue building a more just and equitable society," Lula da Silva told representatives of the world's major Protestant, Anglican and Christian Orthodox denominations meeting here.
"I want to thank the World Council of Churches for choosing Brazil for its ninth Assembly and this city of Porto Alegre, which is the cradle of the World Social Forum and which expresses the ideals and the diversity of contemporary civil society," said Lula da Silva, a former trade-union leader who helped found the left-wing Workers' Party in 1980.
He was referring to the global gathering against exploitative globalization that first met in the southern Brazil city in 2001, under the slogan, "Another World is Possible."
Lula da Silva set out what he described as the achievements of his social-reform agenda in areas such as agrarian reform, education, job creation, economic development and the "zero hunger" program.
"These actions have greatly changed the lives of millions of Brazilians," he said, noting that in many cases it was the involvement of churches in civil society that had made it possible to promote such initiatives.
Responding to some hecklers outside the hall where he was speaking, the president said: "For a country that went through 23 years of authoritarian rule, here is no more pleasant noise than the noise of people shouting. Whether they are in favor or against is not important. What is important is that they are shouting."
Presidential elections are scheduled later this year, and Lula da Silva is widely expected to seek re-election.
The Brazilian president said his country is committed to freedom and tolerance for religions. Although most Brazilians belong to the Roman Catholic Church, fast-growing evangelical and Pentecostal groups are making inroads into that traditional allegiance.
A new civil code would "guarantee to all religions and especially to the many evangelical denominations the legal support they need for their Operations," Lula da Silva said.
He also praised the WCC for the role it played while Brazil was under military rule from the 1960s to the 1980s.
"When we were fighting for democracy, we found in the World Council of Churches not only moral and spiritual support but active solidarity," he said. "Those were years of hard struggle in defense of freedom and human dignity."
He paid tribute to the WCC in particular for having "rescued" Paulo Freire, a lay Catholic educator who was imprisoned under Brazil's regime, which said his methods as Communist-inspired. He served as a consultant for the Geneva-based WCC from 1970 to 1980, promoting literacy programs in Latin America and Portuguese-speaking Africa, among other places.
You are currently subscribed to the PCUSANEWS listserv of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
To unsubscribe, send a blank message to
mailto:PCUSANEWS-unsubscribe-request@halak.pcusa.org.
To update your email address, send your old email address and your new one to mailto:PCUSANEWS-owner@halak.pcusa.org.
For questions or comments, send an email to mailto:PCUSANEWS-owner@halak.pcusa.org.
To learn more, visit http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 100 Witherspoon Street Louisville, KY 40202 (888) 728-7228