Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Buenos Aires (Agenzia Fides) - "Zero Poverty, dignity for all" is the title of the new campaign of Caritas Argentina, launched today, June 9, as Fides learned from the Episcopal Conference Argentina.
Mgr. Oscar Vicente Ojea, Bishop of San Isidro and President of the Episcopal Commission of the National Caritas, explained the meanings and purposes: "To say 'Zero Poverty' responds to the more immediate human desire: since we were young, we want a world with more equality, more justice, we wish to remove barriers so that every person is able to grow and develop in the best way, to pull out of the heart the best in each person. We know that we will always have problems, but we try to build a more equitable, more humane, more just world." Invoking such a "dignified life for all," says the Bishop, "we use the term 'dignity' that comes from Latin and means value. Dignity is the value of the person. The value of the person is in the way God looks at us and that God loves us. Decent life for all is to live and be recognized. " "Unfortunately – notes Mgr. Ojea to Fides - we have a perception of dignity, when human life is violated, when it is humiliated, when one sees man in inhumane conditions. Seeking dignity appears as a claim that is deep in the heart of every man, in situations where it is exploited or neglected, the so-called new scenarios of poverty. We are accustomed to thinking of Christian charity as help, to provide accommodation, food, health, education. But today we have new scenarios of poverty: drugs, violence, environmental destruction. Drugs divide families, destroys, violence is a new problem, the protection of creation concerns our future." In these scenarios we find the work of Caritas which with the new campaign, says: "Giving up something to give to the needy means tangible reality and not escaping from it." (CE) (Agenzia Fides 09/06/2012)
