Reflections on the ministry of Justice and Peace (JPIC)

 REFLECTIONS ON THE MINISTRY OF
JUSTICE AND PEACE AND INTEGRITY OF CREATION

Foreword: a welcomed decision
A welcomed decision: An office for JPIC (Justice and Peace and Integrity of Creation) in the MCCJ Generalate formally distinct from the one for evangelization. The opening of such an office in Rome and the provinces will definitely contribute to the renewal of the missionary activity of the Comboni Family; renewal which was the overall objective of the XVII General Chapter preceded by a vast consultation in all continents. Not all the confreres are of this opinion; several are rather perplexed. They quote the Rule of Life n. 61.6: “The missionary must be aware that political choices are the prerogative of the people of the country and that it pertains primarily to the Local Church to assume responsibility in this field to denounce any oppression”. A relatively young confrere, highly sensitive to the new challenges of Mission, gave us the following answer to the question: Which kind of JPIC is being done in your zone and in your parish (pastoralists and nomads, boarder clashes, animal rustling, ethnic clashes, female genital mutilation, and so forth)? The answer: In our area we do human promotion and not JPIC: the latter is the task of the local Church.
In this research we try to elaborate on JPIC ministry as constitutive of our missionary and Comboni Charism, with due respect to different opinions.