Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Callao (Agenzia Fides) - Hundreds of Catholics are taking part in the 9th National Social Week 26-30 September promoted by the local Catholic Church. The event, organised by various commissions of the Peruvian Bishops Conference, including Caritas Perù, Social Action, Health Pastoral Care, and Pastoral Care for Human Mobility, is reflecting on two Church documents, Populorum Progressio by Pope Paul VI and Sollicitudo Rei Socialis by Pope John Paul II, respectively 40 and 20 years since their promulgation. The title of the Week is in fact "40 years since Populorum Progressio and 20 years since Sollicitudo Rei Socialis".
The Week opened with an address by Bishop Miguel Irizar Campos, Bishop of Callao and president of Caritas Peru, who underlined the importance of the event and the two encyclicals which, he said “concretise the teachings of Vatican II with regard to development of peoples and solidarity". He added that "development is only authentic if it gives central place to the human person, human rights and responsibilities" and that Church teaching continues to orient Catholics of today to work for a more human world. “We must keep this teaching in mind, not only to be informed but to help us as we strive to follow Christ who calls us to give our life for the poor and the excluded" said Bishop Irizar Campos
Fr. Peter Henriot, S.J, Director of the Centre for Theology and Pastoral in Lusaka, Zambia, have a conference on "Populorum Progressio and Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, Challenges for a globalised World" in which he highlighted three social challenges to development to be tackled according to the teaching of both documents: first the Church's idea and teaching that social development must be the basis for elaborating plans for development at the national and international level must be put into practice; secondly "there can be no true evangelisation without social teaching"; thirdly, and most important of all, the spiritual connection between love and commitment for social justice essential for human development, must always be kept in mind.
Other conferences will focus on: "Human right to development in the light of Populorum Progressio and Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, present day challenges"; "Populorum Progressio and Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, challenges for a model of development in relation to the ecosystem" (Archbishop Pedro Barreto Jimeno, S.J. Archbishop of Huancayo); "Integral human development and solidarity in the diocese of Callao" (Bishop Miguel Irizar Campos, CP). (RG) (Agenzia Fides 27/9/2007; righe 30, parole 420)
