Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Brasilia (Fides Service) - To coincide with the liturgical Celebration of Ash Wednesday, the Brazilian Bishops’ Conference CNBB and the Brazil National Council of Christian Churches CONIC will open officially the 41st Fraternity Campaign 2005 (CF) with the theme “Solidarity and Peace”.
The CF 2005 deals with three major questions which grip humanity: violence, solidarity and peace. In 2002 alone in Brazil, 40,000 people died in gun fights. Violence is everywhere in families, in social relations, in the actions of individuals, in groups connected with organised crime, in wars and terrorism. All over the world there is an atmosphere of growing insecurity and for even a minor reason barriers and walls are built, there is hatred, much suffering and loss of peace. Therefore “this calls for a great effort and good will to overcome the logic of violence through dialogue and recourse to non violent means to solve conflicts” said Bishop Odilo Pedro Scherer, Auxiliary of Sao Paulo and CNBB Secretary General. “If however building peace is the duty of every person, it requires also an effort of solidarity. The culture of solidarity which makes us recognise one another as brothers and sisters, members of the same family, promotes recognition of the dignity and rights of every person”.
CONIC is a fraternal association of Churches which feel called to bear common witness to the Gospel and to service in solidarity especially in favour of the poorest of the poor. This year the Fraternity Campaign will be an eminently ecumenical action involving the Church members of CONIC, and because “it is a united ecumenical effort to eliminate violence and therefore build peace”, declared Bishop Scherer. The Fraternity Campaign, from this point of view, “is also a call to conversion of all who believe in Jesus Christ and in God, because it proposes a united effort on the part of everyone, regardless of religious beliefs, in view of purification and conversion of culture, structures and organisation of human co-existence to eliminate violence and build a culture of peace”.
The Fraternity Campaign is also a programme of universal evangelisation oriented towards the proclamation of the Word to reawaken the faith and lead to conversion. This conversion is expressed in different actions which each person is called to make during Lent, as an expression of a journey of conversion. There is also a common concrete gesture: a special collection for the Fraternity Campaign on Palm Sunday 20 March with an ecumenical solidarity collection. The proceeds will go to support programmes for peace, citizenship, human rights, struggle against violence.
The opening of the CF 2005, in Brasilia (DF) will take place in the local Methodist church with the participation of the Directors of CONIC, leaders of different Churches, members of the Campaign organising committee and the Ecumenical Group of Brasilia. In Sao Paulo Cardinal Claudio Hummes, Archbishop of Sao Paulo will launch the Campaign with a Eucharistic Celebration attended by representatives of all religions, pastoral sectors and parishes of the Church of Sao Paulo. (RZ) (Agenzia Fides 8/2/2005 righe 48 parole 568 )
