World Day of Peace - Pope's Message

Pope Benedict XVI's message for this new year's World Day of Peace is presented in the document, If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation. It demonstrates that peace and care for creation are not separate issues; they are connected to eachother. If we want peace on earth, we need to ensure that the earth as a whole and in each of its regions has sufficient clean water, food security, and is kept healthy so that everyone has what they need to live on.

The Indigenous: Peru's Forgotten People

Br. Victor Correa Vargas ofm
Missionary Province of Saint Francis Solano, Peru

Last June, various stoppages initiated by unions, workers and especially the indigenous, took place in Peru. A lack of understanding of various government decrees was the main cause. Blockades left the population without access to necessary goods and the resulting confrontation left 30 dead. This gloomy story affects the Andean and Amazonian indigenous peoples.

The opinion of Peruvian president Alan García is that the Amazon region is underdeveloped and that native populations have neither the ability nor the capital needed to extract the resources that the forest offers. To address this situation he introduced a series of laws meant to facilitate investment in extractive industries (oil, gas, mining and lumber). These new government norms made the market for land more flexible, which further erodes the ability of the Amazon indigenous people to control their own territory. The indigenous population were neither consulted nor asked for their consent. Remember that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples requires their free consent, prior and informed, before the State or any business can proceed with such undertakings.

The dream of the government is a vision of the Amazon region as a great empty space, entirely at its disposal. Indigenous groups, who do not speak Spanish and were already concerned with this government attitude, were tricked and used by some extremists, who told them that the government had sold their lands, their water, their forests, etc. The extremists did this to provoke the ensuing stoppages. Such stoppages do nothing to further dialogue and solve problems, or to find the lasting peace that we all desire. The government did not sell indigenous land, but it has surely long ignored the situation of these peoples. It needs to bring them education, health care, roads, infrastructure, title to their lands, etc…

The Church, acting as mediator in the situation, has led the government to repeal some of the norms that affected the indigenous peoples. A high-level commission still needs to be formed, with indigenous representation, to create projects that will benefit these peoples. The government must fulfill the commitments it has made with the indigenous. We Franciscans are near these forgotten people, and we struggle for justice, peace and the development of the poor of Peru. We are also committed to protecting the natural resources of the country.

FRANCISCAN PEACE & INTEGRITY OF CREATION

Workshop organized by the Franciscan JPIC Office in Africa

In August 2009, the Office of JPIC Franciscans Africa offered a two-day workshop on Franciscan Peace and Integrity of Creation at Baraka College, Molo, Kenya for Sustainable Agriculture. Br. Gianfrancesco Sisto ofm, Br. Joe Ehrhardt ofm and Mr. Richard Kakeeto facilitated the workshop.

The college is involved in agricultural extension activities to boost the incomes of farmers and with the help of Sustainet has turned Baraka Village into a model for sustainable agriculture. Extension activities reach as far as Baringo District, where the college promotes a horticulture project.

College activities were affected by Kenyan post-election violence in 2007 and 2008. Violence left homes burnt and relationships devastated. The college served as a refuge for more than 4000 displaced persons. After the violence, extension workers felt the effect of the violence in the tension that was evident among the people, so the friars asked Br. Boniface Kyalo to develop a peace-building strategy to be implemented along with the livelihoods programme.

The extension workers were given trauma counseling before the JPIC FA office was asked to do the workshop on Franciscan Peace and Integrity of Creation. The workshop started off with the role of socialization on pre-disposing individuals for violence. The 33 participants were then invited to reflect on the conversion of Saint Francis from a young fighter to a seeker of peace. They acted out the peace stories of the wolf of Gubbio, Francis and the thieves, Francis and the Sultan, and Francis with the Bishop and Mayor of Assisi.

What participants liked most was the participatory approach of the workshop, which allowed them to dialogue and to discover the best ways to promote non-violence. Being in touch with oneself, with God and with nature, and always respecting the dignity of every human being, were attitudes highlighted as basic to the promotion of non-violence.

Franciscans call for disamament

Franciscans working at the United Nations are advocating for disarmament as part of their peacemaking work. Their primary focus is on two aspects: guns and landmines. Read more at Franciscans International

Damietta Project

Read about how contemporary Christians and Muslims are seeking mutual understanding through local dialogue facilitated by a Franciscan initiative called the Damietta Initiative.

Franciscan Peacemaking

One model of Franciscan peacemaking is demonstrated in the story told by the early Franciscans of how St. Francis brought reconciliation to the people of the town of Gubbio who were terrorised by a wolf. He did this, not by banishing the wolf, but by having the people feed the animal so that the needs of all were met. To read more about this, click on the 'St Francis & the Wolf of Gubbio' link below.

Franciscan Dialogue

His meeting with the Sultan of Egypt shows how Francis' manner of relating to people was different: Francis came in peace in stark contrast to the Crusaders laying siege to Alexandria, against whom the Sultan's armies were fighting. To find out more about this model of dialogue and how what it may teach peacemakers today, click on the 'St. Francis encounter with the Sultan' link below.

Peaceful to all

St. Francis urged his followers always to be courteous and to avoid quarrels. The peace that St. Francis promoted was not merely an absence of violence but an actively non-violent way of life. It reached out in love to others, especially to those who are poor and who live on the margins of society. In St. Francis' time lepers were those most shunned, and it was to lepers that he turned first to bring the message of peace and love. No one and no thing is excluded from St. Francis' Peace which he believed was the Peace of the Lord God Himself. To find out more about Franciscan peacemaking and non-violence, click on the 'Franciscan Non-Violence' link below.

Links

Franciscan Non Violence

St. Francis and the Wolf of Gubbio
St. Francis encounter with the Sultan
Decade to Overcome Violence

The Promotion of Peace

Before being God's gift to man and a human project in conformity with the pine plan, peace is in the first place a basic attribute of God: "the Lord is peace" ( 6:24). Creation, which is a reflection of the pine glory, aspires to peace. God created all that exists, and all of creation forms a harmonious whole that is good in its every part (cf. 1:4,10,18,21,25,31). Peace is founded on the primary relationship that exists between every human being and God himself, a relationship marked by righteousness (cf. 17:1). Following upon the voluntary act by which man altered the pine order, the world experienced the shedding of blood and pision. Violence made its appearance in interpersonal relationships (cf.4:1-16) and in social relationships (cf. 11:1-9). Peace and violence cannot dwell together, and where there is violence, God cannot be present (cf. 22:8-9). (From: paragraph 488, Compendium of Catholic Social Teaching (Social Doctrine of the Church) )

Prayer for Peace

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury, pardon,
Where there is doubt, faith,
Where there is despair, hope,
Where there is darkness, light,
Where there is sadness, joy.

O pine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love.

For, it is in giving, that we receive,
It is in pardoning, that we are pardoned, and
It is in dying, that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.