The Comboni Family and the socio-environmental mission

Open letter to the Comboni Family

RECONCILIATION WITH CREATION

The Comboni Family and the socio-environmental mission

The promotion of Peace, Reconciliation, Social and Environmental Justice is an essential dimension of mission. Gradually, we are becoming aware of the particular urgency of the ecological question and, consequently, of the necessity to include it among our priorities of apostolic action [1].

The Earth, which we received as a gift from the Creator, Father and Mother of Humanity, has since forever elicited the reverential awe and contemplative admiration of whoever believes in the bible: “Lord, Our God, how great is your name over all the Earth” (Ps 8). This Earth over which we walk became sacred a second time when the creative Word came to live in it (John 1,14) The original Spirit, blowing again over the Earth, keeps alive in it the Dream of God of new heavens and  new Earth where Justice ill live” (2Pt 3,13).

In contrast with the total docility of all creatures, guarantors of the primordial harmony (Baruc 3,32-35),  today the Earth is threatened more than ever, object of greediness, manipulation and tyranny, violated and enslaved in order to serve vile and abject interests. The cry of the poor, arising from all sides, is also the cry of the Earth which asks for respect and for justice.

We missionaries of the Good News and of Liberation (Lc 4,14-21) bring peace a the primary ghift: “Peace to this house” (Lc 10, 5-). But peace will not reign in this “global house” if it will not find men and women who will accept the needs of social and environmental justice, warranty of fraternity and ecological balance. The challenge that humanity faces today is enormous and ha unmeasurable consequences. From our answer depends also the triumph of Life over the dark forces of Death.

The Comboni family gathered in Rio.

We members of the Comboni family from three continents, gathered in Rio de Janeiro, on the occasion of the Rio+20 Conference and Summit of the Peoples, which we followed with interest on June 20-25, 2012, go beyond the lack of success of the official conference, but feel in its depth the presence of God in the entire creation and in the struggles of people in its defense.

Together we have reflected and have prayed; we have listened and shared the long history that has brought us here, passing through the Comboni Social Forums of Nairobi, Belém and Dakar, and the indications of our General Chapters from 1997 to 2009.

Let us allow ourselves to be challenged by the great socio-environmental problems that arise in our provinces and on our continents. We cannot answer these challenges and this global scenery of degradation without thinking of changes in the paradigms of civilization and without changing, with courage and humility, our style of life and our very organization.

Challenged by the great socio-environmental problems

A new environmental awareness must permeate our communities with regard to their models and customs of consumerism, the type of food and our relation with natural goods.

Our popular and religious education must include in its pastoral, liturgy and catechetics the theme of reconciliation with creation, trying to include in particulate the laity.

It is up to us missionaries to rediscover and offer the biblical, theological and moral foundation of the preservation of common goods and of the various forms of life and to engage in a prophetic denunciation of the indiscriminate commercialization of the planet and of life itself.

Necessity of a structural change

The Comboni structure must change at the service of a mission that will be more inclusive and effective. For this reason we see the need for:

- A new interaction of the general secretariats of our Institutes, considering JPIC to all effects and integral part of the secretariat of evangelization;

- A greater administrative decentralization, starting from the continental councils as instrument at the service of the secretariat and of the general administration;

- A greater involvement of the centers of theological reflection at the continental level, so as to help to contextualize and deepen our commitments in the promotion of Peace, Reconciliation, Environmental and Social Justice;

- A consistent insertion of the themes of the promotion of Peace, Reconciliation and Social and Environmental Justice in basic formation and for the formators themselves;

- A greater interaction at the level of Comboni Family, in particular in a joint reflection for our participation in the next Theological Forum and in the World Social Forum to be held in Tunis, Tunisia in March 2013.

- A clear availability of the general administrations of our Institutes to support the next Comboni Social Forum in Tunis, in March 2013.

Some promotion proposals

- In order that Peace, Reconciliation and Social and Environmental Justice be an essential part of our Comboni mission, inspiring our evangelization, mission promotion basic and on going formation and the economy, we propose a common campaign of orientation during 2013. So our next meeting in Tunis would be a good occasion to launch this campaign.

- Land conflicts and land grabbing threaten in a violent manner the territories and the people in both African and American circumscriptions. We have already gathered information and documents on this topic, but we feel the need to deepen this theme, studying it in a comparative way among the Comboni circumscriptions and to organize advocacy ways among the members of the Comboni family who work in Europe and in North America.

- We have also strengthened interprovincial research tools, denunciation activities and support of communities on the mining topic. We support the holding of meetings on this topic among the province and delegations touched by this menace.

- We further recommend attention and study on the grave problem of the privatization of water and the conflicts arising from it, that impact in a global way the entire world. This will be one of the main challenges of the next decades, which will hit directly all peoples and in particular the poorest and the marginalized.

In the certainty that Comboni and his prophetic courage confirm us in these ways of promotion of Peace, Reconciliation and Social and Environmental Justice, we wish as a Comboni family meet again the people of faith and the social movements at the Theological Forum and at the World Social Forum in 2013.

Rio de Janeiro, June 20-25, 2012

Names of the Participants to the FCIC and their location:
Bro. Antonio Soffientini (Brasil Nordeste – BNE)
Fr. Arturo Bonandi (Brasil Nordeste – BNE)
Fr. Claudio Bombieri (Brasil Nordeste – BNE)
Fr. Dario Bossi (Brasil Nordeste – BNE)
Fr. Domingos Sávio de Oliveira (Brasil Nordeste – BNE)
Fr. José Manuel Guerra Brites (Brasil Nordeste – BNE)
Fr. Juan Manuel Rodríguez Martín (Brasil Nordeste – BNE)
Fr. Justino Martínez Pérez  (Brasil Nordeste – BNE)
Fr. Adriano Zerbini (Brasil do Sul - BS)
Fr. Alcides Costa (Brasil do Sul – BS)
Fr. Dunn Álvarez Henry Oswaldo (Brasil do Sul – BS)
Fr. Joaquín Manuel Sánchez Macías (Brasil do Sul – BS)
Fr. Martinho Lopes Moura (Brasil do Sul – BS)
Fr. Massimo Ramundo (Brasil do Sul – BS)
Fr. Robinson de Castro Cunha (Brasil do Sul – BS)
Fr. Jaime Roberto Dubón Chávez (Delegación de Centro América – DCA)
Fr. Juan Armando Goicochea Calderón (Peru/Chile – PE)
Fr. John Michael Converset (North American Province – NAP)
Fr. José Manuel Baeza Gama (North American Province – NAP)
Fr. Daniele Moschetti (South Sudan – SS)
Fr. Herivelto de Sousa Marques (Moçambique – MO)
Fr. Alessandro Zanotelli (Italy – I)
Fr. Arlindo Ferreira Pinto (Curia – Italy)
Fr. Fernando Zolli (Italy – I)
Fr. John Robert Anthony Clark (London Province – LP)
Fr. Josef Altenburger (Deutschsprachige Provinz – DSP)
Fr. Robert Turyamureeba (Deutschsprachige Provinz – DSP)
Sr. Olga Estela Sanchez (Brasil – SMC)
Sr. Loreta Dalla Stella (Brasil – SMC)
Sr. Caterina Ingelido (Brasil – SMC)
Mr. Danilo Chammas (Lay person from Brasil Nordeste – Justiça nos Trilhos)
Mr. Raffaello Zordan (Lay man –Nigrizia)

[1] “Healing a broken World”, Special Report on Ecology of the Social Justice and Ecology Secretariat of the Society of Jesus (Rome), 2011.