Pope Francis, wearing a yellow raincoat, celebrates mass amidst heavy rains and strong winds near the Tacloban Airport Saturday, January 17, 2015. After the mass, the Pope visited Palo, Leyte to meet with families of typhoon Yolanda victims. The Pope's visit to Leyte was shortened due to an ongoing typhoon in the area. Credit: Malacanang Photo Bureau/public domain

By Tomás Insua
BOSTON, Jun 22 2015 (IPS)

On June 18, Pope Francis issued Laudato Si, the first ever encyclical about ecology, which promises to be a highly influential document for years to come. The encyclical, which is the most authoritative teaching document a Pope can issue, delivered a strong message addressing the moral dimension of the severe ecological crisis we have caused with our “throwaway culture” and general disregard for our common home, the Earth.

One of the most important points of this document is that it connects the dots between social justice and environmental justice. As a parishioner from Buenos Aires I have seen firsthand how Jorge Bergoglio cared deeply about both issues, and it is beautiful to see how he is bringing them together in this historical encyclical.Climate change is a moral issue, so the exasperating lack of ambition of our political leaders in the climate negotiations raises the urgency of mass civic mobilisation this year.

The most prominent example of this connection is how our role in causing climate change is hurting those who had nothing to do with this crisis, namely the poor and future generations.

Although the encyclical will have an impact on Catholic teaching for generations to come, its timing at this particular juncture is no accident. As the Pope himself stated, “the important thing is that there be a bit of time between the issuing of the encyclical and the meeting in Paris, so that it can make a contribution.”

The Paris meeting he referred to is the crucial COP21 summit that the United Nations will convene in December, where the world’s governments are expected to sign a new treaty to tackle human-made climate change and avoid its worst impacts.

This is significant because the international climate negotiations have been characterized by a consistent lack of ambition during the past two decades, allowing the climate change crisis to exacerbate. Greenhouse gases emissions have grown 60 percent since world leaders first met in the Rio Earth Summit of 1992, and continue to accelerate setting the foundation for a severe disruption of the climate system.

Scientists are shouting at us, urging humankind to change course immediately, but we are not listening. That is why strong moral voices such as the one of Pope Francis have the potential to change people’s hearts and overcome the current gridlock.

Climate change is a moral issue, so the exasperating lack of ambition of our political leaders in the climate negotiations raises the urgency of mass civic mobilisation this year. Faced with the clear and present threat of climate change, governments have long used the supposed passivity of their citizens as an excuse for inaction.

The climate movement is growing fast and is building up pressure at an increasing scale, but its growth rate needs to be boosted to meet the size of the challenge. Pope Francis’ encyclical has the potential to draw a huge amount of people to the climate movement by inspiring the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, as well as non-Catholics who are open to his message, to mobilise in this important year.

Catholics are already responding to the Holy Father’s call by scaling their mobilisation, mainly through the recently founded Global Catholic Climate Movement. This is a coalition of over 100 Catholic organizations from all continents, aiming to raise awareness about the moral imperative of climate change and to amplify the encyclical’s message in the global climate debate by mobilising the Church’s grassroots.

The flagship campaign of the movement is its recently launched Catholic Climate Petition, which the Pope himself endorsed a month ago when we met him in the Vatican, with the goal of collecting at least one million signatures for world leaders gathered in the COP21 summit in Paris. The ask, to be delivered in coalition with other faith and secular organisations, is for governments to take bold action and keep the global temperature increase below the dangerous threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius, relative to pre-industrial levels.

At the same time, people of all faiths are coming together with a strong moral call for action through initiatives such as Fast for the Climate – whereby participants fast on a monthly basis to show solidarity with the victims of climate change – and the People’s Pilgrimage – a series of pilgrimages in the name of climate change led by Yeb Saño, former Philippine climate ambassador, and designed to culminate in a descent on Paris around COP21.

Leaders of other faiths will furthermore join their Catholic counterparts in celebration of the encyclical on June 28, when the interfaith march “One Earth, One Human Family” will go to St. Peter’s Square as a sign of gratitude to Pope Francis.

Whatever happens, this year will go down in the history books. Be sure of that. The Pope has made a massive contribution to making sure it’s remembered for all the right reasons. Now it’s our turn to step up and finish the job.

Edited by Kitty Stapp

Excerpt:

His Holiness Pope Francis departs Malacañan Palace aboard a Pope Mobile after the Welcome Ceremony for the State Visit and Apostolic Journey to the Republic of the Philippines on January 16, 2015. Credit: Malacañang Photo Bureau/public domain

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 18 2015 (IPS)

Judging by his recent public pronouncements – including on reproductive health, biodiversity, the creation of a Palestinian state, the political legitimacy of Cuba and now climate change – Pope Francis may upstage more than 150 world leaders when he addresses the United Nations, come September.

“The Pope will most likely be the headline-grabber,” predicts one longtime U.N. watcher, “particularly if he continues to be as outspoken as he has been so far.”“The failure of global summits on the environment make it plain that our politics are subject to technology and finance.” -- Pope Francis

As his mostly socio-political statements become increasingly hard-hitting, the Argentine-born Il Papa, the first Pope from the developing world, is drawing both ardent supporters and hostile critics.

Last January, during a trip to Asia, he dropped a bombshell when he said Catholics should practice responsible parenthood and stop “breeding like rabbits.”

In the United States, the Pope has been criticised by right-wing conservatives for playing a key behind-the-scenes role in the resumption of U.S. diplomatic relations with Cuba, and incurred the wrath of the pro-Israeli lobby for recognising Palestine as a nation state.

In fact, most of his pronouncements are closely in line with the United Nations – and specifically its socio-economic agenda.

In his 184-page Encyclical released Thursday, the Pope says “Our immense technological development has not been accompanied by a development in human responsibility, values and conscience.”

“Faced with the global deterioration of the environment, I want to address every person who inhabits this planet. In this Encyclical, I especially propose to enter into discussion with everyone regarding our common home.”

The Pope also complains how weak international political responses have been.

“The failure of global summits on the environment make it plain that our politics are subject to technology and finance,” he said.

There are too many special interests, and economic interests easily end up trumping the common good and manipulating information so that their own plans will not be affected, the Pope declared.

Speaking on the global environment last year, he said: “The monopolising of lands, deforestation, the appropriation of water, inadequate agro-toxics are some of the evils that tear man from the land of his birth.”

“Climate change, the loss of biodiversity and deforestation are already showing their devastating effects in the great cataclysms we witness,” he added.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has consistently warned against the devastating effects of climate change, praised Pope Francis for his papal encyclical which highlights that “climate change is one of the principal challenges facing humanity, and that it is a moral issue requiring respectful dialogue with all parts of society.”

He agreed with the encyclical’s findings that there is “a very solid scientific consensus” showing significant warming of the climate system and that most global warming in recent decades is “mainly a result of human activity”.

Ban urged governments to place the global common good above national interests and to adopt an ambitious, universal climate agreement in Paris this year.

Tim Gore, Oxfam International Climate Adviser, told IPS the Pope has set out how climate change is at its most basic a moral issue – it is a deep injustice that the pollution of the world’s richest people and countries drives harmful climate disruption in the poorest communities and countries.

“Anyone that is concerned about injustice should rightly be concerned about climate change, and in making his call, the Pope joins many other leaders of faith, civil society and trade unions. Climate change is all of our business,” he said.

Janet Redman, director of the Climate Policy Programme at the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies, said: “Pope Francis is crystal clear — the current development model, based on the intensive use of coal, oil, and even natural gas, has to go. In its place, we need renewable sources of energy and new modes of production and consumption that rein in global warming.”

Taxing carbon, divesting from fossil fuels, and ending public corporate welfare for polluters can help end the stranglehold dirty energy companies have on our governments, economies and societies, she added.

In a statement released Thursday, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, currently chair of the Africa Progress Panel and Kofi Annan Foundation, said as Pope Francis reaffirms, climate change is an all-encompassing threat.

“It is a threat to our security, our health, and our sources of fresh water and food. Such conditions could displace tens of millions of people, dwarfing current migration and fuelling further conflicts,” Annan said.

“I applaud the Pope for his strong moral and ethical leadership. We need more of such inspired leadership. Will we see it at the climate summit in Paris?,” he added.

In the United States, the criticisms have come mostly from right-wing conservatives, who want the Pope to confine himself to religion, not politics.

Representative Jeff Duncan, a Republican from South Carolina and a strong supporter of Israel, said Pope Francis should avoid the Palestine debate altogether – the Vatican should focus on spiritual matters and stay out of politics.

Asked Tuesday, just ahead of the Pope’s statement on climate change, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who is running for the Republican nomination for the U.S. presidency, said: “I think religion ought to be about making us better as people, less about things [that] end up getting into the political realm.”

Edited by Kitty Stapp

The writer can be contacted at thalifdeen@aol.com

Candlelight vigil co-organised by 350.org, the global grassroots climate movement, held just before the Pope's visit to the Philippines in January this year. Photo credit: LJ Pasion

By Edwin Gariguez
MANILA, Jun 17 2015 (IPS)

My country, the Philippines, is one of the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Even though we are among those countries that hardly contributed emissions and benefited least from burning fossil fuels, we find ourselves at the frontline of the climate crisis.

The catastrophe we experienced from Super Typhoon Haiyan [in early November 2013], one of the most powerful storms ever recorded, which killed thousands and damaged billions of properties, is proof to this. Almost two years later, our people are still struggling to recover from its devastating impact.“If it is wrong to wreck the planet, then it is wrong to benefit from its wreckage; a growing global movement to divest from fossil fuels takes this ethos at heart”

It should therefore not come as a surprise that concern about climate change is higher in the Philippines than elsewhere. A recent public consultation showed that 98 percent of Filipinos are “very concerned” about the impacts of climate change, compared with a global average of around 78 percent.

The Church cannot remain a passive bystander. It is our moral imperative to give voice to the voiceless.

The Catholic Church in the Philippines has pronounced its strong opposition to coal mining because it will make our country contribute to climate change, and endanger ecosystems as well as the health and lives of people.

Our churches have often led the struggles against dirty energy. In my hometown of Atimonan, Quezon, for example, more than 1,500 protesters led by church leaders staged a demonstration against a proposed coal-fired power plant last week.

Similarly, Catholic priests in Batangas are at the forefront of the fight against the construction of a new coal power plant. Last month, about 300 priests held a prayer rally ahead of a committee hearing that discussed the project.

Pope Francis also understands that climate change is not only an environmental issue but a matter of justice. His upcoming encyclical is anticipated to bring the link between climate change and the poor to centre stage.

In the Philippines, we are grateful that Pope Francis came to visit and held mass in areas hit the hardest by Typhoon Haiyan.

We admire him for standing in solidarity with us, using his position to inject momentum for faith communities around the world to take a moral stance on climate change.

A papal encyclical is an extraordinary way to send a powerful message to world leaders whose actions to date lag far behind the scale of the response that is necessary.

We hope that the Pope’s message will remind world leaders of their moral duty to act as we approach the climate summit in Paris [in December], where a new international climate agreement is supposed to be reached.

The moral imperative to act could not be stronger and the world now needs to stand united in the face of the climate crisis that knows no geographic boundaries, while the worst impacts still can be avoided.

Through the Pope’s encyclical, the Church will raise critical issues that need to be taken into account in the global response to this unprecedented threat.

Global capitalism has lifted millions out of poverty by burning fossil fuels. On the flipside, it has also created vast inequalities and sacrificed the environment for the sake of short-term gain. Now is the time to break the stranglehold of fossil fuels over our lives and the planet.

If it is wrong to wreck the planet, then it is wrong to benefit from its wreckage; a growing global movement to divest from fossil fuels takes this ethos at heart.

The Pope’s critique of today’s destructive, fossil-fuel dependent economy will not go down well with the powerful interests that benefit from today’s status quo.

But we, the Church and the people of the Philippines, will stand alongside the Pope as strong allies in the struggle for a socially just, environmentally sustainable and spiritually rich world that Pope Francis and the broader climate movement are fighting for.

Edited by Phil Harris    

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, IPS – Inter Press Service. 

Excerpt:

Actors Luis Gnecco (left) and Benjamín Vicuña in a scene from “Karadima’s Forest”, a film that portrays pedophile Chilean priest Fernando Karadima, seen here with one of his victims, James Hamilton, his “favourite”, who finally dared to speak out. Credit: Courtesy of Constanza Valderrama

By Marianela Jarroud
SANTIAGO, Mar 20 2015 (IPS)

Victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Latin America are taking the first steps towards grouping together in order to bolster their search for justice – a struggle where they have found a new ally: filmmaking.

“Besides entertaining us, movies urge people not to forget, to memorise what is happening to us as a society,” Chilean filmmaker Matías Lira told IPS.

He added that, with respect to the sexual abuse committed within the Catholic Church, “the media has a pending task, and society has a duty.”“When they named Pope Francis, we felt that in the Vatican we had someone from home, someone who spoke our own language, who understood our culture; it was an enormous source of pride. But the first victims he met with were from the United State, Germany and Great Britain; he never met with us.” -- Juan Carlos Cruz

Based on this premise, Lira directed “Karadima’s Forest”, based on real events. The film, which comes out in Chile in April, tells the story of a priest who sexually and psychologically abused dozens of boys and young men, and who was one of the country’s most influential priests thanks to his enormous charisma and his reputation as a “saint” – which was even his nickname.

There is great expectation surrounding Lira’s film in Chile, a country with a highly conservative society where 67 percent of the population of 16.7 million identifies as Catholic.

The film comes after “The Club”, by Pablo Larraín, winner of the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in February, which also tackles the question of pedophile priests in Chile.

The case of Fernando Karadima is emblematic. As the parish priest of El Bosque (“the forest”), in the wealthy Santiago neighbourhood of Providencia, the priest forged an empire with the backing of high-level church authorities from the early 1980s until his retirement from his post in 2006.

An ecclesiastical court sentenced him in 2011 to “a life of prayer and penitence” for pedophilia and ephebophilia (a sexual attraction to post-pubescent adolescents), after he spent decades abusing boys and young men who trusted him, while amassing a fortune from donations to the church, according to an investigation by the Centro de Investigación Periodística (Centre for Investigative Reporting).

Journalist Juan Carlos Cruz was one of those youngsters. He met Karadima when he was 15 years old, right after his father died, when he was grieving and vulnerable.

“They recommended that I go and talk to this priest, who was considered a saint, a man of enormous kindness. He was a very influential man and it was incredible when he paid attention to me,” he told IPS.

“He told me that from then on he would be my father, that I had to make my confession only to him, and that he would be my spiritual director,” he added.

Cruz said that at the age of 15 he was dazzled by the priest’s powerful friends: ranging from then dictator Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) to Angelo Sodano, who during the military regime in Chile was apostolic nuncio (1978-1988) and later became the Vatican’s secretary of state (1991-2006), and including businessmen, senior military officials and high-level politicians.

Shortly after Cruz met Karadima – who is now 84 – the priest began to sexually and psychologically abuse him.

“Psychological abuse sometimes is the most complicated: living under constant threat, under his yoke, living in fear and not being able to forgive yourself for it even once you’re grown up,” said Cruz from the United States, where he now lives.

“I consider myself an intelligent guy who has gone far. I’m vice president of a multinational corporation responsible for 130 countries. Nevertheless, I can’t forgive myself for how I let that man torture me for eight years,” he lamented.

Karadima’s horrific abuse came to light in May 2010, when Cruz and other victims recounted what they had suffered on the weekly programme Informe Semanal of the public TV station Televisión Nacional (TVN).

James Hamilton, the priest’s “favourite”, had contacted TVN after seeing a report on that channel about the aberrations committed for years by Mexican priest Marcial Maciel, the founder of the ultraconservative Legionaries of Christ congregation. Maciel had a great deal of influence in the Vatican during the papacy of John Paul II (1978-2005).

Maciel, the most famous pedophile priest in the region, who even had children despite his vows of celibacy, died in 2008, two years after Pope Benedict XVI (2005-2013) removed him from active ministry for creating a “system of power” that enabled him to lead an “immoral” double life “devoid of scruples and authentic religious sentiment.”

Advocates of the victims unsuccessfully sought to bring to a halt the beatification of Pope John Paul II, arguing that he systematically covered up the sexual abuse committed by the powerful Mexican priest.

In Chile, Karadima’s victims are now fighting the appointment of Juan Barros as bishop of the city of Osorno. According to Cruz and other victims, Barros witnessed and participated in the abuse by Karadima.

But far from listening to the victims, the Apostolic Nunciature or Vatican embassy confirmed its support for Barros, who became bishop on Mar. 21.

“That support is arrogant and stupid,” Cruz said.

Karadima’s victims also accuse Cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz, who was named adviser to Pope Francis, Benedict’s successor, of taking part in the cover-up. Several investigations concluded that Errázuriz turned a deaf ear for years to the victims’ complaints, when he was archbishop of Santiago.

His successor, Ricardo Ezzatti, is also accused by Karadima’s victims of helping cover up the powerful priest’s crimes.

This is one of the reasons that prompted the victims of abuses by different priests in various countries of Latin America to meet in mid February in Mexico City to join forces and try to draw attention – mainly the attention of the first Latin American pope, Francis, from Argentina – to the problem.

“When they named Pope Francis, we felt that in the Vatican we had someone from home, someone who spoke our own language, who understood our culture; it was an enormous source of pride. But the first victims he met with were from the United State, Germany and Great Britain; he never met with us,” said Cruz.

“I just want to sit down with him and tell him what we have gone through,” he said.

And that is because, even though he believes the Catholic Church in Latin America covered up the abuse by its priests, Cruz is still a fervent Catholic.

“I go to mass every Sunday,” he said. “I’m not going to let them also steal something so precious as my faith.”

Lira, the filmmaker, is also Catholic, although he said the priesthood “has a great debt to society” in Chile and the rest of the region.

“They should understand that apologising is not enough; what matters is that actions are taken,” he said.

Edited by Estrella Gutiérrez/Translated by Stephanie Wildes

Billboard for the referendum called to strengthen a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and same-sex adoption in Slovakia in February. It says: WE ARE DECIDING ABOUT CHILDREN'S FUTURES. LET'S PROTECT THEIR RIGHT TO A MOTHER AND FATHER. Credit: Pavol Stracansky/IPS

By Pavol Stracansky
BRATISLAVA, Mar 15 2015 (IPS)

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) groups in Central and Eastern Europe, which still faced mixed prospects as they fight for rights and acceptance, are now taking some heart from the “failure” of a referendum in Slovakia, a member of the European Union.

Last month, a referendum called to strengthen a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and same-sex adoption in Slovakia was declared invalid after only just over 20 percent of voters turned out.

The controversial plebiscite was heavily criticised by international rights groups, which said it pandered to homophobic discrimination and was allowing human rights issues affecting a minority group to be decided by a popular majority vote.

The campaigning ahead of the vote had often been bitter and vitriolic, including public homophobic statements by clergy, and a controversial negative commercial about gay adoption, which Slovak TV stations refused to broadcast and eventually only appeared on internet.The reasons behind the relative societal intolerance towards LGBT groups in Central and Eastern Europe vary from entrenched conservative attitudes rooted in countries’ isolation under communism, to local political aims and the influence of the Catholic Church.

The commercial showed a child in an orphanage being told that his new parents were coming to collect him and, after two men appear at the door, asking: “Where’s Mum?”

Activists here say that the referendum’s outcome was a sign that, despite this campaigning, Slovaks know that LGBT people pose “no threat” to society and has positively furthered discussion about allowing registered partnerships in the country.

Martin Macko, head of the Bratislava-based LGBT rights group Inakost, told IPS: “The referendum showed that people consider the family important, but that they do not see same-sex families as a threat to traditional families. The long-term perspective regarding discussions on registered partnerships in Slovakia is positive.”

Importantly, the result has also been welcomed in other parts of Central and Eastern Europe where many LGBT groups still face intolerance and discrimination.

Evelyne Paradis, Executive Director of international LGBT rights group ILGA-Europe told IPS: “LGBT activists across Europe have welcomed the outcome of the Slovak vote … hopefully the referendum will lead to a constructive discussion about equality in Slovakia. At the same time, we know that there is a broad diversity of views in the region which means that much work remains to be done before full equality is realised.”

Compared with Western Europe, attitudes in many countries in Central and Eastern Europe to LGBT people and issues are often much more conservative and in some states actively hostile.

The Czech Republic, whose larger cities have relatively open and vibrant gay communities, is the only country in the region which allows for registered partnerships of same-sex couples.

In other countries, such as Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia and Poland, marriage is defined constitutionally as only between a man and a woman. In January this year, Macedonia’s parliament voted to adopt a similar clause in its constitution.

Adoption by same sex couples is banned in all states in the region while other important legislation relating to LGBT issues is also absent. In Bulgaria, for instance, inadequate legislation means that homophobic crimes are investigated and prosecuted as ‘hooliganism’. This, activists claim, creates a climate of fear for LGBT people.

Poor records on minority rights in general in places like, for instance, Ukraine, mean that while the state may ostensibly be committed to LGBT rights, such communities are in reality extremely vulnerable.

In Russia, legislation actively represses same-sex relationships, with federal laws criminalising promotion of any non-heterosexual lifestyle, while Lithuania has legal provisions banning the promotion of homosexuality.

Deeply negative attitudes towards homosexuals are widespread in some societies. A 2013 survey in Ukraine showed that two-thirds of people thought homosexuality was a perversion, while a study in the same year in Lithuania showed that 61 percent of LGBT people said they had suffered discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Isolated verbal and physical attacks and passive intolerance among more conservative groups are common across the region. But in some countries, specifically Russia, anyone even suspected of being non-heterosexual faces open, organised and sometimes lethally violent persecution.

Natalia Tsymbalova, an LGBT rights activist from St Petersburg, was forced to flee Russia in September last year after receiving death threats. Now claiming asylum in Spain, she was one of at least 12 LGBT activists who left Russia last year.

Speaking from Madrid, she told IPS about the continuing repression of LGBT people in her home country.

She said that although state propaganda campaigns had “switched to ‘Ukrainian fascists’ and the West” being portrayed as the public’s greatest enemy instead of LGBT people since the annexation of Crimea and the start of the Ukraine conflict, “state homophobia has not disappeared”.

“It has just faded into the background,” she added, “no longer making top headlines in the news, but it is still there and it has never left. The number of hate crimes is not falling, and they are being investigated as badly as before.”

The reasons behind the relative societal intolerance towards LGBT groups in Central and Eastern Europe vary from entrenched conservative attitudes rooted in countries’ isolation under communism, to local political aims and the influence of the Catholic Church.

In Slovakia, a strongly Catholic country where the Church’s influence can be extremely strong in many communities, supporters of the referendum welcomed Pope Francis’ personal endorsement of their cause.

It has been speculated that the conservative Alliance for Family movement, which initiated the referendum, is funded by Slovakia’s Catholic Church and that the Church was the driving force behind moves to bring about the vote.

In Lithuania, another strongly Catholic country, Church officials have supported laws restricting LGBT rights and have openly called homosexuality a perversion.

However, some rights activists also say that politicians in countries struggling economically or looking to entrench their own power can often use minorities, including LGBT people, as easy political targets to gain voter support.

ILGA’s Paradis told IPS: “Unfortunately many political leaders use the LGBT community as scapegoats … from activists we often hear that they do this to hide ‘real problems’ in countries, such as youth unemployment, access to education and healthcare. They promote ‘traditional family values’ as the way to rescue society. Sadly, in doing this, political leaders build a climate of intolerance and hatred.”

Saying that Russian politicians are now using homophobia to push wider agendas, Tsymbalova told IPS: “Homophobia plays an important role in the anti-Western rhetoric of President [Vladimir] Putin and his fellows. It is one of the main points of the conservative values that they try to promote and the public still has negative attitudes toward LGBT communities.”

The outcome of the Slovak referendum has left activists there more optimistic about the future for LGBT people in their country.

They are now pushing for discussions with the government about introducing registered partnerships and they hope that LGBT communities in other countries in the region will be heartened by the result or that, at least, people hoping to organise similar referendums will reconsider what they are doing.

Macko of Inakost told IPS: “Religious groups in some Balkan and Baltic countries are considering organising similar referendums and we really hope this will discourage them.”

Paradis told IPS that while the Slovak referendum had already been welcomed by many of its member groups in Central and Eastern Europe, progress on LGBT issues in many countries, including registered partnerships, was unlikely to be swift. “There indeed is more discussion in the region on granting rights to same sex partnerships, but what we see is a very mixed picture.”

However, the outlook for LGBT people in some places remains grim. Tsymbalova told IPS that many LGBT people in her home country have given up hope of any positive changes in the foreseeable future.

“In our community, there is almost no one who believes that the situation for LGBT people in Russia will seriously change for the better any time soon. Under the existing regime, which promotes and exploits homophobia, these changes will not happen and there is almost no hope of a regime change, so expectations are gloomy.”

She added: “Many LGBT activists have either left Russia, like me, or are going to. [As] for same-sex registered partnerships, it would take several decades to be accepted in Russia and I don’t believe I will see this in my lifetime. It is completely out of the question for the next 20 or 30 years.”

Edited by Phil Harris    

By Mairead Maguire
BELFAST, Dec 18 2014 (IPS)

I recently visited Assisi, the home of St. Francis and St. Clare, two great spirits whose lives have inspired us and millions of people around the world.

St. Francis, a man of peace, and St. Clare, a woman of prayer, whose message of love, compassion, care  for humans, animals and  the environment comes down through history to speak to us in a very relevant and inspirational way.

Mairead Maguire

Today, in the 2lst century, as we the human family face increasing violence, we are challenged to admit that we are on the wrong path, and that we need to find new ways of thinking and doing things from a global perspective.

Peace is a beautiful gift to have in life, and it is particularly treasured by those who have known violent conflict, war, famine, disease and poverty.  I believe that Peace is a basic human right for every individual and all people.

Love for others and respect for their rights and their human dignity, irrespective of who or what they are, no matter what religion – or none – that they choose to follow, will bring about real change and set in motion proper relationships.  With such relationships built on equality and trust, we can work together on so many of the threats to our common humanity.“For the first three hundred years after Christ, the early Christian communities lived in total commitment to Jesus’s non-violence. Sadly, for the next 1700 years, Christian mainline churches have not believed, taught or lived Jesus’s simple message: love your enemies, do not kill”

Poverty is one such threat and Pope Francis challenges us to take care of the poor, and has declared his desire that the Catholic Church be a church of the poor and for the poor. To meet this challenge, we can each ask ourselves ‘how will what I do today help the poor’?.

Pope Francis also has spoken about the need to build fraternity amongst the nations. This is important because building trust amongst people and countries will help bring peace to our interdependent, inter-connected world.

Violence begets violence as we witness every day on our television screens, so the choice between violence and non-violence, is up to each one of us.  However, if we do not teach non-violence in our education systems and in our religious institutions, how can we make that choice?

I believe that all faith traditions and secular societies need to work together and teach the way of non-violence as a way of living, also as a political science and means for bringing about social and political change wherever we live.

A grave responsibility lies with the different religious traditions to give spiritual guidance and a clear message, particularly on the questions of economic injustice, ‘armed resistance‘, arms, militarism and war.

As a Christian living in a violent ethnic political conflict in Northern Ireland, and caught between the violence of the British army and the Irish Republican Army, I was forced to confront myself with the questions, ‘do you ever kill?’ and ‘is there such a thing as a just war?’.

During my spiritual journey I reached the absolute conviction that killing is wrong and that the just war theory is, in the words of the late Fr. John L. McKenzie, “a phony piece of morality”.

I became a pacifist because I believe every human life is sacred and we have no right to kill each other. When we deepen our love and compassion for all our brothers and sisters, it is not possible to torture or kill anyone, no matter who they are or what they do. 

I also believe that Jesus was a pacifist and I agree with McKenzie when he writes: “if we cannot know from the New Testament that Jesus rejected violence absolutely, then we can know nothing of Jesus’ person or message. It is the clearest of themes.”

For the first three hundred years after Christ, the early Christian communities lived in total commitment to Jesus’s non-violence. Sadly, for the next 1700 years, Christian mainline churches have not believed, taught or lived Jesus’s simple message: love your enemies, do not kill.

During the last 1700 years, Christians have moved so far away from the Christic life of non-violence that we find ourselves in the terrible dilemma of condemning one kind of homicide and violence while paying for, actively participating in or supporting homicidal violence and war on a magnitude far greater than that which we condemn in others.

There is indeed a longstanding defeat in our theology. To help us out of this dilemma, we need to hear the full gospel message from our Christian leaders.

We need to reject the ‘just war’ theology and develop a theology in keeping with Jesus’ non-violence.

Some Christians believe that the ‘just war’ theory can be applied and that they can use violence – that is, ‘armed struggle/armed resistance’ – or can be adopted by governments to justify ongoing war.

It is precisely because of this ‘bad’ theology that we need, from our spiritual or religious leaders, a clear message and an unambiguous proclamation that violence is not the way of Jesus, violence is not the way of Christianity, and that armaments, nuclear weapons, militarism and war must be abolished and replaced with a more human and moral way of solving our problems without killing each other. (END/IPS COLUMNIST SERVICE)

(Edited by Phil Harris)

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, IPS – Inter Press Service. 

Excerpt:

At the conclusion of the International Conference on Migration, Childhood and Family, civil society organisations called for migrants to be seen as human beings rather than just statistics in official files. Credit: Casa Presidencial de Honduras

By Thelma Mejía
TEGUCIGALPA, Jul 18 2014 (IPS)

The migration crisis involving thousands of Central American children detained in the United States represents the loss of a generation of young people fleeing poverty, violence and insecurity in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, the countries of the Northern Triangle of Central America where violence is rife.

Some 200 experts and officials from several countries and bodies met in Tegucigalpa to promote solutions to the humanitarian emergency July 16-17 at an International Conference on Migration, Childhood and Family, convened by the Honduran government and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

The conference ended with a call to establish ways and means for the countries involved to implement a plan of action with sufficient resources for effective border control and the elimination of “blind spots” used as migrant routes.

They also called for the rapid establishment of a regional initiative to address this humanitarian crisis jointly and definitively, in recognition of the shared responsibility to bring peace, security, welfare and justice to the peoples of Central America.“It is like someone has torn open an artery in Honduras and other Central American countries. Fear, grinding poverty and no future mean we are losing our lifeblood – our young people. If this continues to happen, the hearts of our nations will stop beating” – Cardinal Óscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga of Honduras

But the declaration “Hoja de Ruta: Una Invitación a la Acción” (Roadmap: An Invitation to Action) does not go beyond generalisations and lacks specific commitments to address a crisis of unprecedented dimensions.

The U.S. government says that border patrols have caught 47,000 unaccompanied minors crossing into the United States this year. They are confined in overcrowded shelters awaiting deportation.

José Miguel Insulza, Secretary General of the Organisation of American States (OAS), told the conference that in 2011 there were 4,059 unaccompanied minors who attempted to enter the United States. But this figure rose to 21,537 in 2013 and 47,017 so far in 2014.

“These huge numbers of children are from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. According to the data, 29 percent of the minors detained are Hondurans, 24 percent are Guatemalans, 23 percent are Salvadorans, and 22 percent are Mexicans,” said Insulza, who called for the migrants not to be criminalised.

Images of hundreds of children, on their own or accompanied by relatives or strangers, climbing on to the Mexican freight train known as “The Beast” on their way to the U.S. border, finally aroused the concern of regional governments.

The U.S. administration’s announcement that it would begin mass deportations of children apprehended in the past few months was also a factor. Honduran minors began to be deported on July 14.

The Tegucigalpa conference brought together officials and experts from countries receiving and sending migrants. According to analyses by participants, in Guatemala migration is motivated by poverty, while in El Salvador and Honduras people are fleeing citizen insecurity and criminal violence.

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández said these migrants were “displaced by war” and that an emergency “has now erupted among us.”

Out of every nine unaccompanied minors who cross the border into the United States, seven are Hondurans from what are known as the “hot territories” of insecurity and violence, the president said.

Ricardo Puerta, an expert on migration, told IPS that the Central American region is losing its next generation. “This is hitting hard, especially in countries like Honduras where people are fleeing violence and migrants are aged between 12 and 30.

“We are losing many new and good hands and brains, and in general they will not return. If they do come back it will be as tourists, but not permanently,” he said.

Laura García is a cleaner. She earns an average of 12 dollars for each house or office she cleans, but she can barely get by. She wants to emigrate, and does not care about the risks or what she hears about the hardening of U.S. migration policies, whose officials endlessly repeat that Central American migrants are “not welcome”.

“I hear all that, but there is no work here. Some days I clean two houses, some days only one and sometimes none. And as I am over 35, no one wants to give me a job because of my age. I struggle and struggle, but I want to try up in the North, they say they pay well for looking after people,” she told IPS in a faltering voice.

She lives in the poor and conflict-ridden shanty town of San Cristóbal, in the north of Tegucigalpa, which is controlled by gangs. After 18.00, they impose their own law: no one goes in or out without permission from the crime lords.

“They say that a lot can happen on the way (migrant route), attacks, kidnappings, rapes, they say a lot of things, but with the situation as it is here, it’s the same thing to die on the way than right here at the hands of the ‘maras’ (gangs), where you can be shot dead at any time,” Garcia said.

At the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington on July 7, Honduran cardinal Óscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga spoke about the despair experienced in Honduras and the rest of Central America.

“It is like someone has torn open an artery in Honduras and other Central American countries. Fear, grinding poverty and no future mean we are losing our lifeblood – our young people. If this continues to happen, the hearts of our nations will stop beating,” said the cardinal in a speech that has not yet been disseminated in Honduras.

Rodríguez Maradiaga criticised the mass deportations of Honduran children who have started to arrive from Mexico and the United States. “Can you imagine starting your adult life being treated as a criminal? Where would you go from there?” he asked.

The Catholic Church in Honduras has insisted that fear and extreme poverty, together with unemployment and violence, lead parents to take the desperate measure of sending their children off on the dangerous journey of migration in order to save their lives. The Church is demanding inclusive public policies to prevent the flight of a generation.

Violence in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador is considered to have grown as a result of the displacement of drug trafficking cartels from Mexico and Colombia, due to the war on drugs waged by the governments of those countries.

In 2013, the homicide rate in El Salvador was 69.2 per 100,000 people, in Guatemala 30 per 100,000 and in Honduras 79.7 per 100,000, according to official figures.

At present over one million Hondurans are estimated to reside in the United States, out of a total population of 8.4 million. In 2013 remittances to Honduras from this migrant population amounted to 3.1 billion dollars, according to the Honduran Association of Banking Institutions.

Polish conservatives protesting against a reading of Golgota Picnic in Warsaw. Credit: Maciej Konieczny/Courtesy of Krytyka Polityczna

By Claudia Ciobanu
WAESAW, Jul 8 2014 (IPS)

A mix of conservative Catholicism and nationalism has become the predominant view in Polish public debate, with some worrying effects.

These were the values around which the opposition to communism led by trade union Solidarity built itself up in the 1980s but, after the fall of communism, opinion makers in the media and politicians continued to depict them as part and parcel of being Polish.

Observers note that the Polish Catholic Church has also grown increasingly conservative since 1989, in apparent contrast to an opening up of the Church worldwide.Conservative Catholicism and nationalism were the values around which the opposition to communism led by trade union Solidarity built itself up in the 1980s but, after the fall of communism, opinion makers in the media and politicians continued to depict them as part and parcel of being Polish.

Last month, the director of a theatre festival in the city of Poznan decided to cancel showings of a play fearing he could not ensure the safety of viewers in the face of threats by conservative and far-right groups. The play – “Golgota Picnic” by Argentinian director Rodrigo Garcia – describes the life of Jesus using striking depictions of contemporary society, including some with a sexual meaning.

Among those asking for play to be cancelled were representatives of Poland’s main opposition party, Law and Justice, the main trade union Solidarity, and the far-right Ruch Narodowy (National Movement), all of which stand for traditional Catholic values. The Church also voiced its opposition to the play.

In itself, protesting against the play was unremarkable (it has also been met with opposition from Catholics in other countries, for example in France), but the Polish response was interesting: even if the festival was largely financed from public sources, the show was cancelled and there was hardly any resistance from public authorities to the decision. The public, however, made itself heard and readings of the play were organised in major Polish cities, with hundreds attending.

Meanwhile, the dynamics surrounding “Golgota Picnic” are being replicated over other issues in Polish society, among which the most striking is women’s reproductive rights. Poland is one of only three countries in the European Union where abortion is prohibited, unless the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest, there is a serious threat to the mother’s health or foetal malformation has been detected.

Abortion had been legal in communist Poland but was outlawed in 1993 after pressure from the Catholic Church. Ever since, attempts to make abortion legal have failed. In 2011, the Polish parliament came close to further tightening the law on abortion by prohibiting it no matter the circumstances.

At the time, it was not only the political forces explicitly standing for Catholic values that endorsed a total ban, but also many members of the governing centre-right Civic Platform, which depicts itself as Poland’s main liberal political force.

De facto, even the current restrictive law is not being implemented. In a series of high profile cases over the years, Catholic doctors in public hospitals have refused to perform abortions even if girls were pregnant as a result of rape, had serious health conditions or malformation had been detected in foetuses.

In May, in an escalation of the situation, over 3,000 Polish doctors, nurses and medical students signed a “Declaration of Faith” in which they rejected abortion, birth control, in vitro fertilisation and euthanasia as contrary to the Catholic faith. Signatories included employees of public clinics and hospitals. One of them was the director of a Warsaw maternity hospital who said he would not allow such procedures to take place in his institution.

The “Declaration of Faith”, which has been endorsed by the Polish Catholic Church, is contrary to Polish law and Prime Minister Donald Tusk has spoken out against it.

State authorities have been carrying out check-ups at those institutions in which signatories of the Declaration work to establish whether the law is being respected, and one fine has been imposed on the Warsaw maternity hospital whose director prohibits legal abortions. Yet more determined measures are still pending.

“Lack of massive resistance [to the Declaration] is not a sign of approval on the part of the general public,” comments Agnieszka Graff, writer and feminist activist. “It is rather a question of resignation: for 20 years we have seen politicians court the Church while ignoring public opinion on matters that have to do with reproductive rights. The pattern of submission has emboldened the radical anti-choice groups.”

Political power in Poland is firmly in the hands of conservatives. Law and Justice, the party with the best chance of winning next year’s parliamentary elections, is staunchly pro-Catholic and nationalist, and has in the past allied in government with far-right politicians. The governing Civic Platform, the choice of many liberals in this country, is bitterly divided between social conservatives and liberals, meaning it cannot enforce the constitutional secularity of the Polish state.

As Graff explains, in this political context, those who oppose the Catholicism-nationalism nexus find it difficult to coalesce into a strong movement. And ultra-conservatives continue to advance.

Far-right elements breeds in this environment and, in an ethnically and racially homogeneous country, their main targets are feminists, the LGBTQ community and leftists (the same groups that the Church condemns). Their strength is most visible in Poland during the annual Independence March on November 11, when tens of thousands of far-right youth take to the streets of Warsaw and other cities wreaking havoc.

According to June polls, the third strongest political force in Poland is the New Right Congress, which has a neo-liberal far-right agenda. The party, whose leader Janusz Korwin-Mikke has declared that women have lower IQs than men and that they enjoy being raped, gathered 7.5 percent of the vote in the May elections for the European Parliament.

“There is no clear demarcation between the Polish extreme right, the populist right and the mainstream right,” notes political scientist Rafal Pankovski of anti-racist group Nigdy Wiecej (Never Again). “The notion of a cordon sanitaire against the far-right does not seem to have been accepted in Polish politics and the media.”

Over recent years, civic mobilisation by progressive forces has nevertheless grown, and political parties with a strong liberal, secular and anti-nationalist message have been forming, but they still lack consolidation. Faced with the constant accusation of being “communists”, leftist forces that might counterbalance the conservative, nationalist and far-right trend are slow to grow in Poland.

“No one can stop me from working for migrants’ rights, because no one is above my own conscience,” said Mexican Catholic priest Alejandro Solalinde.

Solalinde, one of the most dauntless activists for the rights of undocumented Central American migrants who cross Mexico en route to the United States, was referring to new changes imposed by the Catholic Church leadership.

Catholic priest Alejandro Solalinde (wearing a white shirt, to the right of the cross) leading a 2011 march for migrant rights. Credit: Emilio Godoy/IPS

“There has been no support for our work,” he told IPS. “The pastoral structure is being dismantled and everything is going to be directed from above, by the bishops.

“It’s a top-down ecclesiastical project,” complained the parish priest, founder of the “Hermanos en el camino” (Brothers on the Road) shelter in the city of Ixtepec, in the impoverished southern state of Oaxaca, which assists hundreds of Central American migrants a month.

Solalinde said that while “there was a great need for involvement by the bishops, the danger now is that pastoral work will be disregarded.”

The changes were announced at the 13th national workshop of the Pastoral Dimension for Human Mobility (DPMH), held Aug. 26-29 in the northern city of Monterrey.

Pastoral work with migrants will now be coordinated by each bishop in Mexico’s 32 dioceses, in contrast with the previous arrangement where a coordinator on the ground was responsible for oversight.

There are 54 shelters at strategic points along the route followed by migrants mainly hitching hazardous rides on top of freight trains. One of these shelters is run by lay civil society organisations and the other 53 by the DPMH, belonging to the Episcopal Social Pastoral Commission which comes under the Mexican bishops’ conference.

The DPMH has a total of 108 pastoral action groups, 63 of which include shelters, soup kitchens, health and education programmes, and six human rights centres, according to its report for 2006-2012.

The pastoral action groups, made up of laypeople, priests and members of religious orders, with the support of volunteers, provide assistance to migrants and their families and communities. The changes that are being introduced will complicate their organisation, which will be subject to the views of each diocese.

But with or without support, “we will carry on,” said Tomás González, the director of “La 72”, a shelter in the city of Tenosique in the southeastern state of Tabasco, on one of the main routes for undocumented migrants.

The Franciscan friar and his team have received death threats for their work with migrants, and in 2011 the state National Human Rights Commission issued precautionary measures to protect them.

Each year an estimated 170,000 Central Americans enter Mexico from the south and cross the country heading north towards the United States, according to projections by Mexico’s migration authorities and experts like Jorge Schiavon at the Centre for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE).

Along that 5,000-km route migrants are exposed to kidnapping, robbery, extortion, rape and murder at the hands of criminal organisations with the connivance of corrupt police and migration officials, migrants and activists report.

From January to July 2013, Mexican migration authorities deported 21,127 Hondurans, 18,799 Guatemalans and 9,089 Salvadorans.

“It’s ridiculous, because migrant rights activists don’t do this as a hobby,” Leticia Calderón, head of political and economic sociology at the state José María Luis Mora Research Institute, told IPS. “Activists exist because they are needed. If not, who will protect (migrants’) rights?”

At the shelters, undocumented migrants are provided with food, a bed, clean clothes, washing facilities, medical attention and practical advice on keeping safe. The shelters survive mainly on donations of clothes, food and medicines.

Activists say the Catholic Church could provide more support to migrants.

They are also concerned about harassment faced by the shelters. The Casa del Migrante San Juan Diego, in the town of Tultitlán on the outskirts of the capital, was forced to close in July 2012, as a result of pressure from local residents. The shelter then set up a camp under a bridge, near the railroad. But they were driven out of there as well.

The state government finally relocated the migrants to the town of Huehuetoca, 30 km from Tultitlán.

Another disturbing development cited by activists was a June 2013 police raid on the San José Huehuetoca soup kitchen.

In its report for 2006-2012, titled “La comunión en la misión: inclusión de los excluidos en el escenario actual de violencia en el país” (Communion in mission: Inclusion of the excluded in the current scenario of violence in the country), the DPMH underlines “the lack of awareness in many parishes, which are not familiar with our pastoral work and consider it to be mere social activism, bearing little relationship to evangelism.”

The report says only some of the pastoral action groups create appropriate and realistic plans for priority activities and the necessary resources to carry them out. It also says they lack staff and have only intermittent access to funding and other resources.

Only some of them make regular reports of their activities, mainly on the people they serve and the services they offer, and there are shortcomings in obtaining and recording information and keeping it secure, according to the report.

“Communication between the pastoral action groups is not consistent; the majority of them do not have knowledge about the location or activities of the other groups. The growth of the groups is neither similar nor systematic. Other pastoral groups in the parishes and other dioceses could be involved,” says the report, which may have given rise to the changes announced at the DPMH workshop.

Neither the harassment of migrant rights activists nor the troubles affecting undocumented migrants have ceased. This year, the organisations documented at least seven incidents such as attacks and police raids on shelters in several parts of Mexico.

And on Aug. 25 a freight train was derailed in Tabasco, leaving 11 migrants dead and at least 18 injured. There have been at least four accidents along this railway line since 2012.

“Laypeople, both men and women, have been involved (in the pastoral action groups),” Solalinde said. “Now it will not be so easy for them to participate. Life grows from the ground up; things look very different from above, but they have to be solved on the ground. The Church is afraid of change.”

Solalinde will be travelling to Europe in October, and will take a letter to Pope Francis from families of migrants who have gone missing in Mexico, asking for help finding their sons and daughters. He is taking another letter from “church people” calling for major changes in church structures.

Analysts wonder how solid are the changes in the Catholic Church, referred to by Pope Francis. Credit: Fabiana Frayssinet/IPS

By Fabiana Frayssinet
RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 1 2013 (IPS)

“The rivalry between our countries is over: if the pope is Argentine then God is Brazilian,” Francis joked when journalists asked him why he was so beloved in this country, where millions came out to see him, despite the historic football rivalry between South America’s two giants.

Meanwhile, religious analysts wonder how far the Catholic Church is willing to “negotiate”, as an institution, on taboo issues like the ordination of women as priests, the integration of divorced and remarried Catholics, and the rejection of homosexuals.

Pope Francis – formerly Argentine bishop Jorge Bergoglio – was especially careful to leave those issues off the agenda of the Jul. 22-28 events of World Youth Day, which drew him to Brazil.

Reading between the lines, many saw his responses to reporters on the plane that took him back to the Vatican as signs of a “revolution” from the pope who comes from the land of legendary revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Or at least as a sign of a new openness on the part of the Roman Catholic Church.

“If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord in good faith, who am I to judge? The Catholic Church teaches that gay people should not be discriminated against; they should be made to feel welcome,” Pope Francis said in the press conference.

But he went on to condemn the “gay lobby,” saying ”I think that when we encounter a gay person, we must make the distinction between the fact of a person being gay and the fact of a lobby, because lobbies are not good.”

Frei Betto, a Brazilian writer, theologian and Dominican friar, told IPS that the pope was a leader willing to make concessions, a man of dialogue rather than discipline. “We no longer have a conservative pope, like the two who preceded him,” he said.

But they are concessions, not revolutions, said sociologist Luiz Alberto Gomes de Souza, director of the Science and Religion Programme at the private Cándido Mendes University in Rio de Janeiro.

The sociologist doesn’t see the Argentine pope as a “rebel” who has come to the Vatican to change the Church’s doctrine.

“I would say the pope won’t change the traditional doctrine on a series of issues, but that yes, by avoiding a full-on condemnation, to a certain degree he has emitted a liberating silence. In other words, a silence that allows these issues to begin to be discussed,” Gomes de Souza told IPS.

But the bishop of Rome – as Francis prefers to call himself, as part of the no-frills style he has brought to the papacy – closed the door on other issues like abortion or same-sex marriage, to which he was staunchly opposed as a cardinal in Argentina.

“On the ordination of women, the church has spoken and said no,” Francis said on the plane. “John Paul II definitively said that door is closed.”

The pope also specifically confirmed church teachings on abortion, saying “you know perfectly the Church’s position”.

Nevertheless, Gomes de Souza said Francis had opened another door: to a new “climate” favourable to debate on questions that had been “frozen,” such as mandatory celibacy for priests, sexual morals, chastity among the young, the condemnation of birth control methods, and sexual diversity.

“People (in the Church) were afraid to discuss these questions,” the expert said. “Now, to a certain degree, he has thawed the freeze surrounding them.”

Frei Betto said: “He will not close the debate within the Church on issues of moral theology that have been frozen since the 16th century, and that theologians could not address without running the risk of censure or sanctions.”

The pope did not refer to the questions in regard to which debate has been “frozen”. But he did address other hot issues tackled by the journalists on the plane, such as divorce or the participation of women in the Catholic Church.

“I believe this is a time of mercy…In terms of communion for those who have divorced and remarried, it has to be seen within the larger pastoral context of marriage. When the council of eight cardinals meets Oct. 1-3, one of the things they’ll consider is how to move forward with the pastoral care of marriage,” Francis said, referring to the demand that Catholics who remarry after divorce be allowed to take communion.

He also left open the question of reforming the process for annulling marriages.

In addition, he opened a door for women. “A church without women would be like the apostolic college without Mary…we don’t yet have a truly deep theology of women in the Church,” he said.

Paulo Carneiro de Andrade at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro described the new climate in the Church as “optimistic,” not because of a “change in doctrine, but in the pastoral relationship.”

A climate that is necessary in a Catholic Church that is losing ground to evangelical groups with more festive rituals and preachers who are closer to their flock.

What changed, according to Carneiro de Andrade, was “the pastoral context in which we are now speaking.” Like Gomes de Souza, the theologian said there was no “innovation” in issues like the integration of gays in society and the condemnation of homophobia – or the integration of divorced and remarried Catholics, which had already been discussed during the time of Francis’ predecessor, Benedict XVI.

“It comes as a surprise because the tone used to be negative, one of condemnation, of distrust towards the modern world,” Carneiro de Andrade told IPS. “This pope shows a more positive and constructive vision of the Christian faith. That’s why what he says takes on another dimension.”

A new dimension carefully interwoven in the choice of a new pope.

He is “a necessary pope, who was selected due to Benedict’s resignation and admission that he could not handle the problems that the Church was facing,” Frei Betto said.

In an interview with Brazil’s Globo TV station that aired Jul. 27, “Francis made it clear that the cardinals at the conclave had agreed to choose someone who was capable of transforming the Church,” he said.

Carneiro de Andrade said they were looking for a more proactive pope, with a more optimistic view of the future.

The attitude of Francis, all smiles and jokes in Rio de Janeiro, pointed the way. Which, compared to Benedict’s ever stern, serious expression, is indeed a revolution.

"The loss of Catholics is related to the conservatism of the Church. But the mere presence of Francis, his cheerfulness and charisma, will have an effect." - Sociologist Ivo Lesbaupin

By Fabíola Ortiz
RIO DE JANEIRO, Jul 29 2013 (IPS)

Pope Francis’ first overseas trip, to Brazil, the country with the largest number of Catholics in the world, was marked with setbacks, disorganisation and lack of infrastructure for an event that brought half a million pilgrims to the city of Rio de Janeiro.

The pope attended World Youth Day events held Monday Jul. 22 to Sunday Jul. 28 in Rio, where most of the religious ceremonies took place in well-known locations like the statue of Christ the Redeemer, the Metropolitan Cathedral and a park at Copacabana beach, the site of the inaugural masses and the Stations of the Cross.

The Jesuit former president of the Pontifical Catholic University, Jesús Hortal, admitted to IPS that during the preparations for World Youth Day, he had realised that the logistics would be “a big problem.”

“Our infrastructure is not up to scratch. We don’t have express buses, airports or transport facilities, and the metro is a joke,” said Hortal, who knew the Argentine pope, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires."The loss of Catholics is related to the conservatism of the Church. But the mere presence of Francis, his cheerfulness and charisma, will have an effect." - Sociologist Ivo Lesbaupin

Getting around the city was very difficult for the tens of thousands of visitors from all over the world who spent hours stranded in crowded metro stations trying to get to Copacabana.

Roads were closed in the famous Rio neighbourhood, blocking buses and forcing the faithful to walk for kilometres or to face the power outages that interrupted the metro, the only means of transport to reach the main scenario of the Catholic celebrations.

Every day long lines of people waited to take the metro, causing the stations to overflow and crowding the streets of Copacabana.

“Are you a journalist? Then report on this absurd situation; nowhere in the world is the metro as bad as this,” one Brazilian pilgrim said crossly.

The week-long celebrations surrounding World Youth Day were not only hard on the faithful, who also had to put up with cold, rainy weather, unusual in this tropical city.

Francis was taken by surprise too.

When he arrived in Rio, his motorcade was caught in a traffic jam of buses on one of the main avenues. The news spread quickly that the pope was trapped in traffic, and tens of thousand of faithful surrounded his vehicle, trying to catch a glimpse of him.

The first Latin American pope in the history of the Roman Catholic Church came to Brazil at a time when the country has for weeks been shaken by social unrest. Young people have been protesting in dozens of cities since early June, demanding political and social change.

It was fortunate that the pope should arrive at this time, sociologist Ivo Lesbaupin of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro told IPS.

“The demonstrations put two million people on the streets, young people demanding their rights, calling for changes, reacting against a way of doing politics…that is separate and removed from society,” he said.

Three protests took place during Francis’ visit, which ended Sunday Jul. 28. First, a few hundred people gathered on Monday Jul. 22 in front of Guanabara palace, the seat of the state government, where leftwing President Dilma Rousseff, her ministers and hundreds of politicians and prelates were welcoming the pope.

Outside the palace the police isolated the demonstrators and put down the protest. Six demonstrators were injured and three were arrested.

On Friday Jul. 26, another protest was held close to the Copacabana beachfront promenade, where the Stations of the Cross were being re-enacted. The demonstrators complained that the papal visit and World Youth Day cost 53 million dollars. The police dispersed them with water cannons and tear gas.

“It was clear that the protests were not going to suddenly end, and with the presence of the pope and so many media outlets, it was very likely that some demonstrations would be organised,” Lesbaupin said.

Hortal said he felt nervous when people began to gather in front of the state government house, on Francis’ first night in Rio.

“It was young people complaining about the way politics are done in Brazil. The main question is corruption; politicians are not in a very good situation. People were there to protest against the governor, but some might also have protested against the pope, and some of the crowd were violent,” he said.

The priest was afraid violent acts might interrupt the religious celebrations.

According to Lesbaupin, the demonstrators wanted a word of support from the pope.

“He gave signs of support to the young people’s demands, we saw it subliminally. Speaking to the politicians, he communicated confidence in young people as the window to the future,” the sociologist said.

In his homilies and speeches in the favela or shantytown of Manguinhos and a hospital for people with drug problems, Francis emphasised the ideas of fraternity, community and social justice.

The pope called on young people to fight against injustice and “never be discouraged” by corruption. In reference to the local policy of pacification of the favelas, he said it would only be possible when efforts were made to integrate the poor areas surrounding the cities.

Lauro Condiran, a 30-year-old pilgrim from Brasilia, hoped that Francis would manage to bring government representatives together to listen to the people.

“The people want health, security and education. The pope will not remain neutral in the face of this situation,” he told IPS.

Hortal recalled that World Youth Days have several times in the past been the scenario of demonstrations, because of their international dimension, such as in Germany in 2005, Australia in 2008 and Spain in 2011.

“There are groups that protest against the government. That happened in Madrid, in Cologne and in Sydney. There are always some people who express their problems,” said the Jesuit.

While social agitation grows in Brazil, Catholicism is losing adherents, many of whom are switching to evangelical churches.

According to the most recent census by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, in 2010, out of the population of 190 million that year, 64.6 percent described themselves as Catholics – almost 123 million people. But in 1970 the proportion was 91.8 percent.

The proportion of evangelical Christians, meanwhile, climbed from 5.2 percent of the population in 1970 to 22.2 percent – or 42.3 million people – in 2010.

The state of Rio de Janeiro is the least religious of all. Less than half of the population declare themselves Catholic, and over 15 percent say they have no religion at all.

In Lesbaupin’s view, the pope does not appear to be very concerned with attracting new adherents.

“The loss of Catholics is related to the conservatism of the Church in recent decades, and its lack of openness to young people. But the mere presence of Francis, his cheerfulness and charisma, will have an effect,” said the sociologist.

Human rights groups are calling for the Committee on the Rights of the Child to bring the Mexican state to account, as it has done in other countries, for failing to investigate widespread reports of sexual abuse of minors in Catholic institutions.

Experts consulted by IPS said the lack of action by the Mexican authorities and justice system violated the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was adopted by the Unite Nations General Assembly in 1989 and went into effect in 1990.

“There is a high level of impunity,” Juan Martín Pérez, the head of the Red por los Derechos de la Infancia en México (REDIM – Network for Children’s Rights in Mexico), told IPS. “There is clear evidence of collusion between the authorities and the Catholic Church, so cases seldom wind up in court.

“The high-profile cases show the power of the church. It is one of the powers-that-be that is untouchable.

“Protecting children is a duty, at school, in the home, and in church…Usually the excuse is that these are areas of private life,” he said.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which monitors and reports on implementation of the Convention, is made up of 18 independent experts, including two from Latin America – Sara de Jesús Oviedo from Ecuador and Wanderlino Nogueira Neto from Brazil.

Mexico’s fourth and fifth periodic reports were due in April 2011, but were not completed until June 2012. And the combined report does not discuss paedophilia or measures to combat it.

The scandal over sex abuse of children and adolescents by Catholic priests broke out in the United States in 2002 before spreading to European countries like Germany, Ireland and Belgium, and to Latin America, especially Mexico and Chile.

“The state has not taken action and the Church has protected its own, reassigning priests to different parishes without even facing up to the issue or apologising to the victims. The state has never taken a stand on the matter,” Nashieli Ramírez, the coordinator of Ririki Intervención Social, a civil society organisation working with children and teenagers, told IPS.

According to the Mexican bishops’ conference, there are 5,000 seminarians in 145 seminaries and 15,000 priests in Mexico.

The Church leadership in Mexico has stated that it will follow the Vatican’s new guidelines and respect the reforms approved, in order to prevent sexual abuse and penalise the perpetrators.

They were referring to the Jul. 11 announcement by Pope Francis – who is now visiting Brazil – of an overhaul of the laws that govern the Vatican city-state.

The reform of Church law, to take effect in September, stiffened penalties for physical or sexual abuse of children, child prostitution and the creation or possession of child pornography.

In April 2012, the Mexican bishops’ conference approved guidelines to prevent and eradicate sexual abuse in churches. The guidelines are focused on the selection of candidates for the priesthood, taking into account factors like personality, psychology, spirituality and vocation.

In May 2011, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had instructed bishops all over the world to prepare clear procedures to handle cases of abuse, to be implemented by May 2012.

At the 62nd session of the CRC, held Jan. 14 to Feb. 1, 2013 in Geneva, the Committee on the rights of the Child harshly censured the United States for its failure to take action against clerical sex abuse.

“The Committee is deeply concerned at information of sexual abuse committed by clerics and leading members of certain faith-based organisations and religious institutions on a massive and long-term scale and about the lack of measures taken by the state party to properly investigate cases and prosecute those accused who are members of those organisations and institutions,” it said in its observations.

The Vatican has also come under the scrutiny of the CRC, which has asked for information on measures adopted against clerical sexual abuse, to be provided by November.

Ahead of its 65th session, to be held Jan. 13-31, 2014, the CRC has asked the Vatican to “provide detailed information on all cases of child sexual abuse committed by members of the clergy, brothers and nuns or brought to the attention of the Holy See over the reporting period,” on measures adopted, investigations and legal proceedings against perpetrators, and support for victims.

Children’s rights activists are again blaming the state for negligence, as they did in 2005 in their shadow report to the CRC titled “Infancias mexicanas, rostros de la desigualdad” (Mexican Children: Faces of Inequality).

The report concluded that “information on sexual abuse by priests is not available to those responsible for guaranteeing due process of defence and protection for human rights, particularly of children.”

And it denounced that “the concealment of information by the Catholic hierarchy has hindered victims in filing claims.”

In 2010 the Mexican Congress approved a reform of the Federal Law on the Protection of the Rights of Children and Adolescents, criminalising paedophilia.

The law compels religious organisations to report ministers who sexually abuse children and adolescents, on pain of losing their accreditation.

Experts complain they are still not seeing concrete results from these actions.

“The state must develop mechanisms to protect children and overcome impunity,” Pérez said. “It is important to change civil codes that whitewash sexual abuse, like the offence of statutory rape (sexual intercourse with a minor) where the laws protect the perpetrator rather than the victim and avoid prison sentences. Mechanisms are needed to prevent abuse and to report those responsible for abuse.”

NGOs are preparing their shadow report for the 69th session of the CRC, to be held from May to June 2015, when Mexico is due for evaluation of its official report. The NGOs’ report will include cases of sex abuse by priests.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), a support group for victims all over the world, has identified at least 65 priests in Mexico involved in sexual offences, none of whom has gone to prison.

By Fabíola Ortiz
RIO DE JANEIRO, Jun 27 2013 (IPS)

The Catholic Church has become sclerotic and is afraid of facing the issues of post-modernity, Brazilian theologian Frei Betto says, although he hopes that Francis, the first Latin American pope, will inspire it to renew its emphasis on social issues and the defence of the poor.

Carlos Alberto Libânio Christo, known as Frei Betto, hopes that Pope Francis will encourage young people to dream again, commit themselves to social issues and believe in utopias, when he visits Brazil Jul. 22-29.

Liberation theology exponent Frei Betto, during the interview. Credit: Fabíola Ortiz/IPS

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the archbishop of Buenos Aires until he assumed the papacy on Mar. 13, will undertake his first international journey to lead the 28th World Youth Day, to be held in Rio de Janeiro Jul. 23-28.

In this interview with IPS, Frei Betto, a Dominican friar who was a special adviser to leftwing former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2011) in the early years of his mandate, called on Brazilian authorities to enter into “face-to-face” dialogue with social movements and listen to their demands, without empty words and hollow promises.

The author of more than 56 books and the winner of major literary prizes and awards for defending human rights, Frei Betto has just published a new work, “O que a vida me ensinou” (What Life Has Taught Me).

Q: What has life taught you?

A: The particular thing about this book is the autobiographical stories that I had never made public before, like my sharing in the last days of Tancredo Neves (the first president elected after the 1964-1985 dictatorship, who died before taking office), or how I looked after my father, who was chemically dependent.

In the book I also tell how I dealt with an attempted bribery, when I was offered a chance to make two million dollars, and I devote three chapters to my current views on spirituality.

Q: As an exponent of liberation theology, what role would you say this school of thought played in Latin American Catholicism?

A: I don’t think it should be consigned to the past. Liberation theology still plays an important role in the Latin American Catholic Church, especially in and through basic Christian communities, Bible reading groups, and meetings like the forthcoming National Conference on Faith and Politics in Brasilia in November.

I believe, moreover, that this school of thought has compelled papal discourse on social affairs to change. Recently pontiffs have been more forceful about these issues, shown by the criticisms of neoliberalism voiced by John Paul II and Benedict XVI, or on the positive side, the visits they both made to Cuba.

Q: How do you interpret Benedict XVI’s resignation and the election, for the first time, of a Latin American, Francis, to succeed him, rather than a European?

A: Resigning was an act of evangelical humility on the part of Benedict XVI, when no other pope had taken such a step for centuries.

I am very hopeful about the pontificate of pope “Chico Bento” (as Francis is popularly known, in reference to a rustic character created by Brazilian comic book artist Mauricio de Sousa), because he is Latin American. He is open to social questions and, above all, committed to defending the rights of the poor.

The fact that he adopted the name of Francis of Assisi, the most beloved saint in Christian history, admired for his evangelical poverty, says a great deal. I look forward to the 12 speeches he is due to give at the World Youth Day celebrations.

Q: Do you think a reform of the Catholic Church is possible? What, in your view, are the most sensitive challenges the church faces?

A: Pope Chico Bento will have to open up debate within the Catholic Church on urgent, burning issues that have long been kept on ice: an end to mandatory celibacy, ordination of women to the priesthood, condom use, biogenetics and the reform of the Roman Curia.

Q: World Youth Day will be Francis’ international debut. What are your expectations for this event?

A: I hope that the Youth Day, through the pope’s words and gestures, will bring hope to young people and encourage them to commit themselves to a world of justice, freedom and peace. I am convinced that the more utopian they are, the less they will turn to drugs, as in my generation, which was 20 years old in the 1960s.

And the less utopian, as in our present “globo-colonised” world, the more the drug use. Nowadays young people have no dreams.

Q: Do you think World Youth Day will be a call on the Church to renew itself, in order to counteract the loss or apathy of the faithful?

A: Yes, the Catholic Church has become sclerotic for fear of facing the issues of post-modernity, like those related to faith and science, social inequality, the new sexual profiles and gender relations.

Q: You were very close to Lula. From that viewpoint, what is your analysis of his successor, President Dilma Rousseff? Do you think that the governing Workers’ Party (PT) has changed course?

A: I regret that the PT has turned its project for Brazil into a project for power. However, I think the governments of Lula and Dilma are the best we have had in our history as a republic. Structural reforms are needed – land reform, political reform and so on – and better communication with the party’s base, the social movements.

Q: What do you think of the president’s handling of the numerous conflicts and social protests that have taken over the main cities?

A: She has shown lack of determination, timidity and a fear of displeasing the most reactionary members of her alliance and the barons of agribusiness. The PT has distanced itself from its social base, the movements that mobilise hope, and now it is in danger of falling victim to them.

The only way out for the government is to enter into face-to-face dialogue with these social movements, without empty words and hollow promises, and for the PT to return to working with its base, together with the oppressed and excluded sectors of the population.

The government is doing well in the distribution of income, and badly in the distribution of ‘political dividends.’ There is no dialogue with grassroots leadership, no progress on the demarcation of indigenous people’s territories or on land reform, nor is there consultation, as the constitution requires, of indigenous peoples about the construction of large projects in their territories.

Q: What is your view on the ongoing social protests, which were originally about public transport fare increases and then flared up because of harsh police crackdowns in Rio, São Paulo and other cities?

A: This is a new phenomenon. Analysts still haven’t realised it, but it’s enough to be linked to the social networking sites to feel the mobilisation, through information or the street demonstrations themselves. These protests confirm that our governments are very much distanced from the social movements and organised youth, especially the São Paulo government and the federal government.

Excerpt:

Fatima Hernández, a Nicaraguan rape victim denied justice in a high-profile case, protesting in front of the Supreme Court in 2011. Credit: Oscar Sánchez/IPS

By José Adán Silva
MANAGUA, May 30 2013 (IPS)

Conservative sectors in Nicaragua have launched an offensive against the Comprehensive Law Against Violence Toward Women, seeking amendments including an obligation for women victims to negotiate with their abusers, human rights groups reported.

The Supreme Court (CSJ) decided on May 23 to ask the single chamber legislature reform Law 779, which has been in force since June 2012.

The vice president of the CSJ, Rafael Solís, said the Supreme Court believes it is essential to modify Article 46, which prohibits mediation between women and their assailants for the crimes defined in the law. By changing this it is partially admitting a series of appeals lodged against the law, which included calling for it to be ruled unconstitutional.

The CSJ’s request is a victory for religious groups and other powerful conservative sectors that have waged a steady campaign against the law during the 11 months it has been in force, arguing, for example, that it discriminates against men.

The law stipulates that the state and its institutions have a duty to guarantee the physical, psychic, moral, sexual, patrimonial and economic integrity of women. It also punishes any kind of gender-based discrimination, including femicide (gender-based murders of women).

Solís said the CSJ judges decided by consensus that the law should establish mechanisms for mediation between victims and assailants as an alternative form of conflict resolution, in cases where the alleged crimes carry sentences of less than five years in prison.

Mediation is a legal mechanism in the Nicaraguan justice system for conflict resolution in private law, but not in crimes of public law such as those covered by Law 779. In fact, in family law, mediation is only used in cases of property rights, divorce or separation.

The law was approved by a large majority in parliament and has overwhelming social support, according to opinion polls. It put Nicaragua among the countries with a comprehensive law against gender violence, in line with international conventions.

Since March, when the CSJ began scrutinising the appeals, the debate on the law has reopened, confronting the branches of government, political groups, churches and civil society organisations, especially those defending women’s rights. Protest demonstrations in favour of and against the law have been held in front of the Supreme Court.

Appeals were lodged against the law by legal experts, on the grounds that it violates the principles of equality and presumption of innocence, and enshrines “radical feminist” positions by eliminating mediation in cases of domestic violence.

Bismarck Dávila, one of the five lawyers lodging the appeals, told IPS that the law violates the constitutional principle of equality “because it designates special judges to judge men, while women who commit the same crimes are tried by ordinary judges.”
Law 779 establishes special courts and prosecutors for crimes of gender violence, as well as special police units for women.

According to Dávila, the law also violates the presumption of innocence because from the moment he is accused, “the man is presumed guilty.” He further argued that it violates the right to a defence because “the efforts of public or private defenders are useless in the face of a law that treats men unequally.”

The Asociación Democrática de Abogados de Nicaragua (ADANIC – Democratic Association of Lawyers in Nicaragua) represents men accused under Law 779 free of charge.

The debate has taken on religious overtones after representatives of evangelical churches and the Catholic Church preached from the pulpit against a law that “destroys families by punishing men.”

On May 7, Abelardo Mata, a Catholic bishop, went so far as to say: “The new number of the beast is not 666, but 779.” No clarification or apology has been issued by the Catholic hierarchy.

In parliament, the majority is against amending the law. The first secretary of the legislature, Alba Palacios, recalled that the law was approved by 82 votes out of 92 in February 2012.

In her view, the law should be enforced without amendments, “because before it was approved it was widely debated; all sectors were consulted; and it is the result of those broad consultations.”

Irma Dávila, the chair of the parliamentary Justice Commission, said: “80 percent of the Nicaraguan population supports Law 779, so we cannot say that there is a large majority against the law.”

A survey by the Sistema de Monitoreo de Opinión Pública (SISMO – Public Opinion Monitoring System) carried out Apr. 2-18 found that 82.3 percent of respondents backed the law.

The governing Sandinista National Liberation Front, which holds 63 of the 92 seats in parliament, holds the key to accepting or rejecting the CSJ’s request to modify the law.

If parliament turns down the CSJ’s request, the Supreme Court can alter the way the law is enforced by issuing instructions to judges. In fact, it has already sent out a circular with guidelines for courts to reduce sentences in cases of crimes punishable by less than five years’ imprisonment under Law 779.

Women’s rights groups repudiate the reform, saying that to require mediation between victim and assailant “revictimises women.”

Juana Jiménez of the Movimiento Autónomo de Mujeres (MAM – Autonomous Women’s Movement) said femicide statistics for 2012 show why mediation should not be required: 13 out of the 85 women murdered because they were female had entered into mediation with their assailants, after reporting them to the authorities.

“Experience shows that far from solving the problem, mediation only gives men an opportunity to organise their revenge, kill the woman and then flee,” she told IPS.

Amnesty International (AI) issued a press release in support of the law. “The violence perpetrated against women and children is what breaks up families, not legislation designed to help victims escape from violence and hold abusers to account,” said Esther Major, AI’s researcher on Nicaragua.

According to figures from the special police units for women, an average of 97 men per day were reported to the authorities for abusing women in Nicaragua in the first quarter of the year, an increase of 30.7 percent compared to the same period in 2012.

Between Jun. 21, 2012, when the law came into force, and Apr. 28, 2013, 6,482 cases were prosecuted under the law, including 17 femicides. A total of 5,726 alleged assailants were arrested, 1,050 of whom were freed because they were deemed to have only committed misdemeanours.

So far, 692 cases have resulted in conviction and sentencing, and 297 in acquittal, while the remainder remain open.

By Mathieu Vaas
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 6 2013 (IPS)

For homeless youth, life on the streets is brutal. They experience sky-high rates of mental health problems, substance abuse and sexual assault. But despite the fact that it costs just under 6,000 U.S. dollars to permanently end homelessness for one youth, too little is being done to help them.

As the founder and executive director of the Ali Forney Centre, an organisation that helps homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth, Carl Siciliano has witnessed firsthand how harsh life is for them. He started the centre in 2002, naming it after Ali Forney, one of seven youths Sicilian knew who were murdered on the street and whose deaths moved him to found the centre.

Carl Siciliano, founder and director of the Ali Forney Centre. Photo courtsey of the Ali Forney Centre.

Other experiences also influenced Siciliano. “I was really religious when I was young, and worked with the homeless,” explains Siciliano. “When I came out of the closet, I wanted to figure out a way of integrating my work with them with my being an openly gay man.”

IPS spoke with Carl Siciliano about the Ali Forney Centre, the young people it shelters, and what needs to be done to improve circumstances for LGBT youth, homeless or not.

Q: What services does your organisation offer? What do you wish you could offer but can’t?

We have workers that reach out to kids on the streets and tell them about our program. We also have a big drop-in centre in Harlem where we provide food, clothing, showers and toilets, along with mental health, medical and substance abuse services.

Young people can also stay from three to six months in our emergency housing program while they figure out longer term housing. Our centre also has a transitional housing program where young people who can get a job or go to school can stay for up to two years. About 90 percent of our young people are employed and about 75 percent are going to college. When they graduate, they usually find a job and move into their own apartments.

There are several programs I would like to build, including a housing program specifically for transgender youth, who are the most vulnerable and experience the most violence and harassment on the streets. I also want to develop a model of studio apartments with intense staff supervision for youth with mental illnesses or developmental delays who find congregate housing situations difficult to manage.

One kid from Uganda reached out to us – he said that his parents kicked him out and he was afraid he was going to get killed, so I am interested in developing an international network of providers that can help young people get out of countries where their lives are in danger to reach us or other programs.Homophobia creates an environment of abuse and rejection.

Q: LGBT youth represent 40 percent of New York City’s homeless youth. As a small shelter, what are the biggest challenges the Ali Forney Centre faces every day?

The biggest challenge we face is the lack of resources. There are only 250 shelter beds for 3,800 homeless youth in New York City, and the waiting list to enter our shelter has about 150 to 200 kids on it. It breaks my heart to have to turn kids away every night.

Our day-to-day work is challenging. We occasionally have to deal with violence, and homeless LGBT youth have a very high risk of suicide, so we’re constantly monitoring them. We’re trying to protect them, but I wish there were more of a commitment on the part of the city to provide a safety net to these young people.

Q: What typically brings young people to the Ali Forney Centre? What kind of threats do they face?

The biggest common denominator tends to be family rejection. About 75 percent of our young people report that they were harassed or abused in their home for being LGBT. Some of them are kicked out. Others face so much violence and cruelty in their homes that they find it unbearable to stay. Too many parents don’t know how to cope with having a gay child.

Compared to straight homeless youth, LGBT homeless youth face twice the amount of violence on the streets by being gay bashed. They get beaten up by kids in other shelters, or staff in a Catholic youth shelter, for instance, will tell them they are sinners and going to hell.

A lot of them turn to prostitution, which puts them at greater risk of violence and a very high risk of HIV infection. Almost 20 percent of New York’s LGBT homeless youth has HIV. The stress and pressure of homelessness and the trauma of family rejecting harms their mental health, too.

Q: What should local politicians and international organisations such as the United Nations be doing to improve the situation of LGBT young people?

New York City has shelter systems for children and adults, but those the ages of 16 and 24 don’t fit in these systems. Local politicians must understand and recognise that it’s a disaster for these kids to be left out on the streets. If they get adequate support, these young people can get jobs, go to school and become healthy independent adults.

If you leave them on the streets, they become addicted to drugs and infected with AIDS. They will become an enormous cost and burden to society. Even if politicians look at it in term of smart public policy and not in term of human decency, it just doesn’t make sense to leave kids out there on the streets. You’re creating a social disaster by doing that.

In term of international organisations, the most important thing is to understand that homophobia creates an environment of abuse and rejection. Organisations trying to combat homophobia must focus more how it affects youth – how it makes them feel unsafe in their own homes and endangers the children’s welfare. It would be harder for conservative organisations that promote homophobia, such as the Catholic Church, to do it with a clear conscience if these connections were clearer.

Excerpt:

Jorge Bergoglio begins his papacy as Francis I facing the challenge of a Catholic Church caught up in a burdensome contradiction with modern society, because of its negative attitude to sexuality and women.

“There would be much more common sense, efficiency and tenderness in the church, rather than that immense wave of paedophilia and paederasty in the hierarchy and the Catholic schools” if the Catholic Church had incorporated women into the priesthood and the different leadership roles in the institution, said João Tavares, a married former priest living in São Luis, in northeastern Brazil.

Women, who are “the real pillar of Christian communities,” can no longer remain without equal rights within the church, “as if they were second-class human beings,” he said in an interview with IPS.

As well as being excluded from the hierarchy, a woman cannot even become the partner of a priest without invalidating his ministry, unless they both live a secret, hypocritical life. In practice, women are depicted by the church as a contagious source of sin.

The Catholic Church is characterised by androcentrism, excluding women from its decisions and the performance of its celebrations, although they are the majority of the faithful and the greatest “consumers of spiritual goods,” complained Regina Jurkewicz, one of the coordinators of Católicas pelo Direito de Decidir (CDD – a partner of the U.S.-based Catholics for Choice) in Brazil.

The church’s discrimination against women contrasts with other faiths, such as Afro-Brazilian religions which have male and female priests and priestesses, or Buddhists, who admit women monks, or Anglicans who have women bishops, Jurkewicz, who holds a doctorate in sociology of religion, told IPS.

The clash with reality is even more marked because Catholicism predominates in some regions where women have made great progress in terms of their rights.

CDD is a Latin American network formed in 1996 in association with Catholics for Choice. “We fight for changes in the cultural patterns that restrict the autonomy of persons in our societies, especially women,” the network says on its web page.

The Brazilian branch emerged in 1993, and one of its founders was Jurkewicz, who was active in social pastoral work from a young age. In the early 1990s she encountered feminist ideas and joined other activists in discussing the role of women in the Catholic Church.

The conferences organised by the United Nations in the 1990s, including the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, were important for the development of concepts like sexual and reproductive rights, in spite of opposition from the Vatican, Jurkewicz said.

With “such blinkered sexual morality and such blindness to reality,” the Catholic Church remains a hurdle to progress on these rights and is sliding backwards, she said. The hierarchy continues to reject condom use, contraceptives, abortion, same-sex couples and married priests.

“One consequence of Rome’s imposition of this line is loss of the faithful. Brazil, and other Latin American nations, can no longer call themselves ‘Catholic countries,’ when new religions are springing up like mushrooms,” she said.

The decline in the number of Catholics must have been one of the factors that led to the election of Bergoglio of Argentina, the first Latin American pope, Jurkewicz said.

But in spite of the strides made by evangelical faiths, the region still has a Catholic majority. And unlike in Europe, there is a high level of participation by young people – a decisive factor for the future of the church.

But it is difficult to maintain youth participation levels when running counter to public opinion. A survey carried out by the Datafolha Institute on Mar. 20-21 found that 93 percent of Catholic respondents were in favour of condom use, 64 percent thought that women should be able to celebrate mass, and 51 percent approved of priests marrying and having families.

The poll also found slightly lower percentages saying the new pope should lead the Catholic Church down these paths favoured by the majority. For instance, 58 percent of those surveyed wanted the Vatican to support women in the priesthood, and 48 percent wanted official support for married priests, while 41 percent were against.

Furthermore, 87 percent of respondents from the general population, and 86 percent of Catholics, believed that some priests were involved in paedophilia and sexual abuse.

But the obligation of priestly celibacy “was never a dogma and has no natural, biblical, philosophical or theological foundation; it was a sorry invention of the Catholic Church hierarchy,” said Tavares, in charge of communications for the Movimento Nacional das Famílias dos Padres Casados (MFPC – National Movement of Families of Married Priests).

Questions of “organisation and power,” because it’s harder to control priests who have wives and children, and of economics, because of savings on family support, are behind the rule of celibacy adopted in the 11th century, according to Tavares, who was married in 1979 to Sofía, a philosopher and theologian.

“I loved the priesthood very much,” he said, but he left it after years of reflection, dissatisfied with the “humanly impoverished life” and the mentality of a Church that “instead of being light, salt and leaven for the world preferred power, vanity, great cathedrals and the domination of consciences.”

He joined the Movement of Married Priests, which he presided from 2000 to 2002, in a search for shared values. An estimated 5,000 priests in Brazil have got married, like Tavares, who has two daughters and a granddaughter.

The new pope has already made “captivating, engaging gestures,” such as the choice of his name, his simple lifestyle and his vow of poverty, said Tavares. But, he added, Francis has declared his opposition to abortion and same-sex unions, “so not much can be hoped for on these fronts. Only time will tell if there will be any changes,” he said.

But there is “a certain fear of, or even aversion to, sexuality in the Western Catholic hierarchy,” which from its origins has been associated with “Platonism, in which the body is evil and the soul, trapped within it, longs to be freed,” he said. He also alleged that the last two popes had tried to cover up “the tsunami of homosexuality and paedophilia.”

Pope Francis, as a South American, might want to pay attention to “those two serious and urgent problems,” celibacy and the exclusion of women, said Tavares.

Born in Portugal, the former priest has lived since 1967 in the northeastern Brazilian state of Maranhão, first as a missionary in rural areas and later as a professor of philosophy at a public university in the state capital, São Luis.

Jurkewicz, however, said that only a “conversion” like that undergone by Oscar Arnulfo Romero, a conservative turned progressive archbishop in El Salvador who was assassinated in 1980 for his actions on behalf of the poor and human rights, could move Francis to promote major changes in the Church.

Indigenous women fetching water from a well near San Cristóbal de las Casas in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. Credit: Mauricio Ramos/IPS

By Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, Mar 22 2013 (IPS)

The new pope’s choice of the name Francis, to honour the Catholic Church’s patron saint of animals and the environment, has awakened the hopes of ecologists and others who are concerned about rampant consumerism and the deterioration of the planet.

In 1979, then Pope John Paul II proclaimed St. Francis of Assisi (1181/1182-1226) the patron saint of ecologists. In his first mass as pope, on Mar. 19, Jorge Bergoglio said: “Let us be protectors of creation, protectors of God’s plan inscribed in nature, protectors of one another and of the environment.”

”It’s excellent that a world leader is taking up this issue as a priority,” Diego Moreno, director of the Fundación Vida Silvestre, Argentina’s main wildlife advocacy organisation, told IPS. “With the Church’s ability to reach people, the fact that the environment is part of the pope’s discourse is very important, because it will get more people involved.”

In Latin America and Africa, “environmental problems are closely linked to poverty, with the poor living in areas that are the most vulnerable to climate change and the degradation of the soil,” he said.

But there are also other areas in which the pope “could turn out to be an ally,” Moreno added. For example, excessive consumption – “verging on squander” – has a huge impact on natural resources, he said.

Both environmentalists and bishops in Latin America criticise consumerism and urge people to follow a simpler lifestyle.

The pope’s homily was in line with the recommendations set forth in the final document of the 5th General Conference of the Council of Latin American Bishops in Aparecida, Brazil, in 2007.

Bergoglio, who was an Argentine cardinal before he was elected pope on Mar. 13, presided over the committee that drew up the final conclusions.

The document criticises the extractive industries and agribusiness for failing to respect the economic, social and environmental rights of local communities, and questions the introduction of genetically modified organisms because they do not contribute to the fight against hunger or to sustainable rural development.

The final document also stressed the region’s rich flora and faun and social diversity, defended traditional indigenous know-how that has been “illicitly appropriated” by the pharmaceutical industry, and called for the preservation of the Amazon rainforest as part of “the inheritance we received, for free, to protect.”

The call for the preservation of the environment “is a little-known aspect” of the Aparecida final document, Pablo Canziani, a doctor in physical sciences who is in charge of the environmental area of the department of laypersons in the Argentine bishops’ conference, told IPS.

Environmental issues were not traditionally a concern of the Catholic Church, until they took on importance because of their links with human development, said Canziani, a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

“It is the poor who suffer the most from climate change, desertification, or the waste of food,” said the scientist, who has served as an adviser to several Vatican delegations to United Nations conferences on poverty, the environment and food.

In Aparecida, the bishops stressed that in Latin America and the Caribbean, nature “is fragile and defenceless in the face of the economic and technological powers.” And they said “the interests of economic groups that irrationally destroy the sources of life” should not be predominant over natural resources.

The final document also called for educating people to live a simple, austere lifestyle based on solidarity, for expanding the pastoral presence in communities threatened by activities that destroy the environment, and for seeking “an alternative development model, based on an ethics that includes ecology.”

John Paul II (1978-2005) was the first to put these issues on the Church agenda, said Luis Scozzina, a priest who is the director of the Franciscan Centre of Studies and Regional Development.

The Centre was created in Argentina’s Catholic University “to contribute to information and research on questions related to the environment,” its web site says.

“Protecting creation” is one of the central focuses of Franciscans, Scozzina told IPS. And he said Bergoglio is “the most Franciscan Jesuit we have ever known,” because besides his intellectual leanings, characteristic of the Jesuits, he leads an austere lifestyle with close ties to the poor, as Franciscans do.

“Francis will put the ecological crisis high up on the agenda. He already indicated that in his mass, when he spoke of protecting three dimensions: ourselves, one another, and creation. By ‘one another’ he meant the poor, who are hurt the most by the consequences of environmental deterioration.”

Father Scozzina added that “even the most optimistic warn that we are moving towards steady destruction, and in response to that, we in the Church are calling for an ethics of austerity, a change in lifestyle that leaves behind this frenzied consumption.”

In Aparecida, he noted, the bishops signalled the need for a change in the production model. “In Latin America, this merits reflection. Are we going to continue with the model of extraction of our natural resources?” he said.

What is the interest of some groups in raising the question of Pope Francis’s past rather than discussing the serious crisis in the Church? asks Leonardo Boff. Credit: Daniela Pastrana/IPS

By Fabiana Frayssinet
RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 19 2013 (IPS)

Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff, a leading exponent of liberation theology, the progressive current in the Latin American Catholic Church, does not believe reports that depict the new Pope Francis as collaborating with Argentina’s 1976-1983 dictatorship.

In this interview with IPS, Boff acknowledged that it was a “controversial issue,” and that there were contradictory accounts. But he said he believed prominent human rights defenders in Argentina who denied that Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio, elected pope by the Vatican, had any ties with Argentina’s military regime.

Boff, a key figure in liberation theology, which emerged in Latin America in the 1950s and 1960s with a focus on social justice and the poor, said he was looking towards the future with hope and that he was confident that Francis would honour his Jesuit faith and would take a “vigorous and radical” stance against the epidemic of paedophilia and corruption plaguing the Church.

Q: How do you interpret the “decentralisation” that the selection of a Latin American pope implies?

A: The central Church, that is, the Vatican and the European churches, felt humiliated and ashamed by the scandals created within their own walls. So they chose someone from outside, with a different approach and a different style of leading the Church.

Sixty percent of all priests live in the Third World. It was time for those churches to be heard better. They are no longer churches that mirror Europe but are now churches that are a source, with their own face and their own forms of organisation, generally in community networks.

For me, the name Francis is more than a name – it’s a reflection of a poor Church with close ties to the people, evangelical, a lover and protector of nature, which has been devastated. Saint Francis is the archetype of this kind of Church. Pope Francis is inaugurating a Church of the third millennium, far removed from the palaces and with a deep connection to people and their cultures.

Q: To what do you attribute the choice of Bergoglio, instead of Brazilian Cardinal Odilo Scherer?

A: Scherer was the candidate of the Vatican, where he worked and made a lot of friends. But he publicly defended the curia, and the Vatican Bank, which was criticised by many, including many cardinals. That unleashed a public debate, which hurt him. Besides, he would not have been good for the Church at this juncture. He is conservative and authoritarian. He would have been a Benedict XVII.

Q: In Argentina, the election of Bergoglio was criticised because of his supposed complicity in the abduction of two Jesuit priests during the dictatorship.

A: I know that in general the Argentine church was not very prophetic in denouncing state terrorism. Despite that, there were bishops like (Enrique) Angelleli, who died in a shady manner, (Jorge) Novak, (Jaime) De Nevares and Jerónimo Podestá, among others, who were openly critical.

But with regard to Bergoglio, I prefer to believe Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, a Nobel Peace Prize-winner, and a former member of the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (Graciela Fernández Meijide), who say that allegation is slanderous. They didn’t find a single mention of Bergoglio’s name on documents or legal accusations.

On the contrary, he saved many people by hiding them in the Colegio Máximo de San
Miguel (Argentina’s main Jesuit training centre). Besides, it runs against his known character – he is strong but also tender, and poor, and he continuously speaks out against social injustice in Argentina and for the need for justice, not philanthropy.

But in the end, what matters isn’t Bergoglio and his past, but Francis and his future.

Q: Why did you omit any reference to this issue in your initial remarks?

A: It’s a controversial issue and you have to be familiar with it. The versions are contradictory. I don’t talk about things that I am not fully clear about. And I have to wonder: what is the interest of some groups in raising this question rather than discussing the serious crisis in the Church…?

Perhaps – I’ll concede this much – he could have been more prophetic, like Bishop Hélder Câmara and Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns were in Brazil. But here, the state is secular and separate from the church. In Argentina, Catholicism is the state religion, which hindered but didn’t impede resistance and denunciations by the Church.

Q: Omission isn’t a sin?

A: It isn’t a question of responding whether it is a sin or not…The question is political and for me it’s about what side the person is on – are they on the side of the poor, of those who suffer terrible inequalities? Or of the status quo that wants unlimited growth and a culture of consumption?

Bergoglio took the side of the victims and is constantly calling for social justice. If we don’t understand that, we are getting away from the main point.

Q: You attributed his choice of the name Francis to the “demoralisation” of a “Church in ruins” as a result of various scandals. How should that name be expressed in practice?

A: He has given signs of a different kind of papacy, without symbols of power or privileges. A pope who pays his own hotel bills, drives in a simple car to pray at the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, and secretly visits his friend, Cardinal Jorge Mejía, who is ill in Rome…these are gestures that the people understand.

I am sure that with regard to the paedophiles and the financial crimes, he will be more Jesuit than Franciscan, vigorous and radical, because things cannot go on the way they are now in the Church.

Q: The new pope believed he saw the hand of the devil in questions like the decriminalisation of abortion and the legalisation of homosexual marriage in Argentina, and he has confronted the government because of this. Should we expect a pope who is more or equally conservative on these questions of doctrine?

A: These questions are banned by the Vatican. No one could distance himself from the official position. I hope that Francis, as pope, will start a lengthy discussion of all of these issues, because they are a part of the real life of the people and of the new culture that is emerging, especially the question of celibacy and sexual morality.

That doesn’t mean the Church has to renounce its most deeply-held positions, but that it should debate things within a context of democracy, and should respect what is decided in a democratic fashion. The good thing about democracy is that it impedes top-down decisions from being imposed and allows different opinions to be heard, even if they do not win out in the end.

Excerpt:

Argentine archbishop Jorge Bergoglio was selected as pope at a time when the Roman Catholic Church in this South American country is facing a rebellion by priests and laypersons who reject the role of the church leadership during the 1976-1983 dictatorship and the lack of reparations for past omissions and complicities.

The accusations against Bergoglio for his alleged ties to the dictatorship, which made headlines around the world when his appointment as pope was announced by the Vatican, are just the tip of the iceberg of a controversy that has raged for decades without a solution and which is coming to light as the regime’s human rights violators have been brought to trial since the amnesty laws were scrapped.

Groups like Curas en la Opción por los Pobres (Priests with an Option for the Poor), Cristianos por el Tercer Milenio (Christians for the Third Millennium) or Colectivo Teología de la Liberación (Liberation Theology Collective) have voiced increasingly harsh criticism against the Argentine bishops’ conference’s shortcomings in terms of self-criticism, in spite of an apology and pledge to investigate issued a few months ago.

Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio in Buenos Aires in 2008. Credit: 3.0 CC BY-SA

“It’s good that this debate is happening, that we work to clarify what happened, so that the truth will come to light. That would be very healthy,” Claudia Touris, a researcher at the University of Buenos Aires and the coordinator of Relig-Ar Grupo de Trabajo en Religión y Sociedad de Argentina (Relig-Ar: Working Group on Religion and Society in Contemporary Argentina), told IPS.

The debate that has divided Catholics in Argentina broke out as a result of a statement issued in November 2012 by the Argentine bishops’ conference, in which they apologise “to those we let down or failed to support as we should have” during the dictatorship.

They also promised to carry out “a more thorough study,” to find out the truth.

The statement was issued as a “Letter to the People of God” and was titled “Faith in Jesus Christ leads us to truth, justice and peace.” It condemns the crimes committed as a result of “state terrorism” but adds that “We also know of the death and devastation caused by the violence of the guerrillas”.

Opponents of the regime criticise that interpretation.

Cristianos por el Tercer Milenio described the statement as falling short because it denies the connivance between some prelates and the dictatorship. According to the group, made up of laypersons, those who served as military chaplains should be demanded to provide information, and “scandalous situations that confuse and weaken the faithful should be brought to an end.”

For their part, Curas en Opción por los Pobres said they were “scandalised by so many stances running counter to the Gospels” and by the fact that priest Christian von Wernich, who was sentenced for human rights violations, “was not expelled from the priesthood,” and unrepentant former dictator Jorge Rafael Videla, found guilty of crimes against humanity, continues to receive communion.

On the eve of Bergoglio’s appointment as pope, Curas en Opción por los Pobres, priests who live and work in Argentina’s slums, loudly protested because the bishops had taken reprisals against one of the priests who had criticised the statement released by the bishops’ conference.

Bishop Francisco Polti of the northern province of Santiago del Estero transferred Father Roberto Burell, one of the signatories of the letter that the Curas en Opción por los Pobres sent to the bishops, from his parish.

“We aren’t going to call you ‘estimados’ (esteemed – the formal form of address in a letter in Spanish) because we do not esteem cowards,” says the letter sent by the priests.

The priests also told the bishops that when they are no longer bishops “only the powerful will be sorry, because the poor, the peasants and indigenous people will celebrate.”

That was the climate among Catholics in Argentina when Cardinal Bergoglio was elected Wednesday Mar. 13 as the first pope from Latin America.

Touris said the bishops’ conference statement was considered overly timid by many Catholics, although it was a fairly novel call for those who have information on forced disappearances or the theft of the children of political prisoners – two human rights abuses widely committed by the dictatorship – to come forward.

“We’ll have to see if this continues, and if it goes deeper,” she added.

She said there was no single, unanimous Church position with respect to the regime, which is why some bishops were ideologically in line with the military and helped “sweep out alleged communist infiltrators,” while other priests and bishops supported the victims of persecuation.

As examples of the former, Touris mentioned Cardinal Raúl Primatesta, army vicar Victorio Bonamín, and archbishops Adolfo Tortolo and Antonio Plaza – all of whom are dead – who witnesses said they had seen in clandestine detention centres.

But, Touris said, there were also bishops who stood alongside the victims of the regime, such as Jaime de Nevares, Jorge Novak or Miguel Hesayne, as well as dozens of priests, nuns, seminary students and laypersons who were kidnapped, “disappeared”, murdered, or forced to flee into exile.

Two bishops are considered martyrs for their opposition to the regime.

The first is Enrique Angelelli of the diocese of the northern province of La Rioja, who was killed in 1976 in a purported car accident which is suspected to have been a murder. The other is Carlos Ponce de León, bishop of the Buenos Aires district of San Nicolás, who also died in a suspicious car crash in 1977.

At the time, Bergoglio was the Jesuit Provincial (elected leader of the order). Two Jesuit priests who worked in poor neighbourhoods were abducted. Some accuse the new pope of turning them over, but others say that on the contrary, his influence saved them.

Touris said the superior general of the Society of Jesus was Spanish priest Pedro Arrupe, who urged the priests to assume a political and social commitment. As a result, more Jesuits were persecuted, tortured and forcibly disappeared in Latin America in the 1970s than priests from any other order.

In Argentina, under Bergoglio’s leadership, the order assumed a more traditional position, the professor noted. He urged the more socially committed priests to abandon their social activism in order to avoid repression, as he himself stated in his defence.

Argentine human rights activist and 1980 Nobel Peace Prize-winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, an active believer, said this week that “the Catholic Church did not take a homogeneous stance” with respect to the regime, and “there were bishops who were complicit in the dictatorship…but not Bergoglio.”

“I believe he lacked the courage to support our struggle for human rights at the most difficult times,” Esquivel said in a statement issued by his organisation, Servicio de Paz y Justicia (Peace and Justice Service) in Argentina.

No one would expect a Pope elected by an extremely conservative conclave to implement revolutionary reforms within the Catholic Church. Still, many see in the newly elected Pope Francis some signs of change.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio (76), cardinal and archbishop of Buenos Aires, was elected Wednesday by an assembly of Roman Catholic cardinals, and became the successor to Pope Benedict XVI, who abdicated unexpectedly in February.

This is the first time in the history of the papacy that a non-European from the Jesuit order has been elected as pontiff.

The reaction among hundreds of people gathered Wednesday night in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican City awaiting the announcement was positive. Some feel this is because the new Pope chose the name Francis, a symbol of poverty and interreligious dialogue, and because of the non-conventional attitude he struck with his first few words.

“Signs are important,” Tonio dell’Olio, an Italian priest and head of the international section of Libera, a leading anti-corruption association, told IPS. “The choice of the name (and) his very simple and humble way of addressing the people is already a promise of change.”

“Perhaps it is the kind of change that does not reflect our common parametres and expectations, and won’t necessarily (fit into) the category ‘progress’, which we normally use for our evaluation. But what is certain is that we are facing a change that will need to be fully understood” in time.

Certainly, Cardinal Bergoglio is a theological conservative with a clear stand on “non negotiable values” like abortion, gay marriage and the adoption of children by gay couples,  some of the main causes for clashes with Argentina’s left-leaning government.

Bergoglio also has a history of ambiguous relationships with Argentina’s 1976-1983 military dictatorship – during which the country was torn apart by the conflict known as the Dirty War — which were made public through extensive reports that have appeared over the last few years.

Yet Christians have seen in his symbolic, unconventional actions some signs of hope for a humbler Church, closer to the people.

To the eyes of more progressive churches, the challenge of responding to civil rights issues is something the new Pope cannot delay further, nor the necessary, renewed, interreligious dialogue.

“We want to congratulate him and express best wishes to him (in the hopes) that he can be a leader of the Catholic Church who can build a real, strong and sincere ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, (together) with modern Western culture,” Pastor Eugenio Bernardini, moderator of the Waldensian Church, told IPS.

The 58-year-old father of three recently succeeded former moderator Maria Bonafede, the first woman to hold such position.

In cultural, political and social arenas, Bernardini said, leaders of the Catholic Church tend to deliver “monologues” rather than “engage in frank dialogues”.

This is also true for the ecumenical relation with different Christian confessions, which has been on hold since the time of John Paul II, he said. “Yes, we do meet regularly and have fraternal relationships but no concrete steps have been taken on ecumenism.”

The same is true from the point of view of rights. Much of the international community now recognises values such as personal responsibility, democracy, and transparency, which the Catholic Church fails to recognise, Bernardini said. “But the Catholics are now asking the Church to move on these lines.”

While no particular progressive steps are expected from Bergoglio from a doctrinal point of view, his devotion to Francis, the saint of the poor, and his personal lifestyle, which has been described as “simple and close to the poor”, might lead to a different style of handling the controversial relationship between power and money within the Church.

In a phone interview with IPS, Bernd Nilles, secretary-general of CIDSE, a Brussels-based international alliance of Catholic development agencies, said he expects the new Pope to pay particular attention to the poor.

“We do hope that Pope Francis, in his reflections and guidance, will go beyond the encyclical from former Pope Benedict XVII, where he already spoke of human dignity, charity and global injustice,” Nilles told IPS.

“Maybe this new Pope who comes from the global South, has worked with the poor and understands the daily struggles of poor people and communities, can give new perspective on what exactly human dignity means and how we can overcome the suffering of so many people.”

According to Nilles, Bergoglio is also well placed to understand “the potential and the creativity of the contribution that poor communities can make to a world that is in crisis.

“Let’s take the issue of sustainability and respect for nature: the modern world we have created is reaching planetary boundaries with our (current rate of) resource consumption. Pope Francis, by choosing this name, indicates already that we need a fundamental change in the way we live, in terms of how we deal with natural resources but also how we deal with people.”

Given that the Catholic Church has made the fight against poverty and social justice a high priority, many organisations build their daily advocacy and lobby work for global justice on the key pillars of this teaching, he said.

But much of how these teachings are translated into action depends on the Pope and the presence of the Church’s commitment “in the field”.

“We hope for a leadership that will strengthen our efforts for a more just world,” Nilles added.

For Pastor Benardini, it will be hard for the new Pope to introduce deep changes, being an expression of Catholic conservatism.

“This Pope was very close to John Paul who had a very conservative approach. He is leading an institution with a very traditional – and non transparent – selection method,” he stressed.

The change in such rigid institutions will come about primarily through a bottom-up push, he said, from a request raised by society.

“If the pope is able to listen to the people and can bring about a progressive change of direction” that will be a good result in and of itself, he added.

“He is the third consecutive non-Italian pope. But if the Roman Curia and the Vatican remain attached to tradition, even a Pope who comes from another continent will have to struggle a lot to reproduce in Rome the more open, informal and lively approach of faith in non-European countries.”

The selection of a Latin American pope, who is known for his austere lifestyle and his work with the poor, has created a stir among Catholics in the region, who are confident that Pope Francis will help bolster the Vatican’s tarnished reputation.

To the surprise even of Argentine cardinals, the archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Bergoglio, was elected the new pontiff Wednesday, and his first actions as he greeted crowds of faithful from the balcony over St. Peter’s Square thrilled those clamouring for a leader to demonstrate a clear preferential option for the poor.

Sources consulted by IPS say Pope Francis is conservative in doctrine, but his lifestyle, they all agree, testifies to his unassuming modesty and closeness to the poor, the homeless, the sick, the elderly, prisoners, immigrants, victims of human trafficking for sexual exploitation and forced labour, and to parish priests.

Pope Francis on his first appearance in St. Peter’s Square. Credit: The Vatican

The hope is that his personal qualities will help to restore the credibility of the Catholic Church and the Vatican, rocked by paedophilia and corruption scandals. For deeper changes, those in the know recommend waiting for the first appointments to his entourage and his future designations of cardinals.

“The bishops of northwest Argentina were all very happy,” Pedro Olmedo, the bishop of Humahuaca in the province of Jujuy, who was meeting with about ten other bishops of the region, the poorest in the country, when the news broke, told IPS. “There were tears, because we know him well, he always helped us and was there for us.

“Having a Latin American pope has been an aspiration of the region for many years. The Vatican has opened itself to a church from the New World, in a choice made by cardinals, the majority of whom are European. I hope this will give the Vatican a Latin American imprint, even in its structures,” said Olmedo.

Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff, a founder of Liberation Theology, a social justice-oriented current that stresses a ”preferential option for the poor” and has been heavily criticised by the Vatican, was also optimistic about Pope Francis’s first gestures of humility, beginning with his selection of the name of Francis of Assisi, the 12th century friar who devoted his life completely to the poor.

At the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean, held in May 2007 in Aparecida, Brazil, Bergoglio was elected by the bishops to draft the concluding document. It sets out the regional church’s position on a wide array of issues.

The document recognises the Church’s concern that in Latin America, home to 43 percent of the world’s Catholics, the growth of new members is lower than the rate of population growth. And it expresses regret for “the weakness of our option for the poor.

“The preferential option for the poor is one of the most characteristic facets of the Latin American and Caribbean Church,” says the text, which also laments “the significant number of Catholics who leave the Church in order to join other religious groups.”

Bergoglio appears to have lived in accordance with this commitment. He gave up the archbishop’s palace and chauffeur-driven car, to live in a room adjacent to the Cathedral in Buenos Aires. He travelled by bus or metro, cooked his own meals and avoided social events and the press.

Those close to him say he visited HIV/AIDS patients at the Muñiz Hospital for infectious diseases. He was also a frequent visitor to homeless shelters and soup kitchens, personally cared for elderly and ailing priests, and could be seen at bus stops when he went home in the early hours of the morning.

Organisations working against labour and sexual exploitation in Buenos Aires counted him as an ally. He often visited victims of trafficking, was moved by their testimonies and denounced those responsible for these forms of slavery in his homilies.

He would often visit penitentiaries, another issue raised in the concluding document from Aparecida, which calls for strengthening pastoral work in prisons.

The greatest stain on Bergoglio’s past is his alleged complicity with the 1976-1983 military dictatorship, when he was the provincial superior of the Jesuit order. He was accused of failing to protect priests and catechists who were subsequently abducted, and in some cases were forcibly disappeared.

He was called to testify as a witness in a case investigating these crimes, and in another investigation of the illegal appropriation of the young daughter of disappeared parents. Bergoglio stated he only found out about the theft of the babies of political prisoners after the end of the dictatorship.

Argentine theologian María Alicia Brunero, a retired university professor who has written several books on ethics, told IPS that “the important thing about the designation is not so much that it has fallen on an Argentine or a Latin American, but on someone from the periphery, outside of Europe.

“The cardinals are hoping for solutions to arrive from outside, from someone with a different profile, who is less contaminated and removed from the Vatican’s pomp and bureaucracy, and in that sense Bergoglio fulfils the expectations, because he is an austere man, who travels on buses and is close to the people,” she said.

Brunero, who knows Bergoglio personally, said that he is also someone who “knows how to command and delegate,” and that “he is not exempt from the aspiration to power, which is not necessarily a bad thing. He knows how to build networks and does it well, without trampling on anyone,” she said.

“He gives me hope,” she said.

On the other hand, no great changes in doctrine can be expected from him, Brunero said. As archbishop, he was an uncompromising critic of Argentina’s law on same-sex marriages and of any attempt to decriminalise abortion.

But she did predict he might bring a breath of fresh air to other issues.

“Ninety percent of theologians believe that women can exercise the priesthood, and the majority also want priests to be able to marry. It is possible that steps in this direction may be taken during his papacy,” she said.

Brunero said the priesthood is the Church institution facing the deepest crisis at present. Half of the priests ordained in recent years have left the priesthood, not because of loss of faith, but “because they fell in love, or came into conflict with Church structures because of its rigidity on the issue,” she said.

She pointed out that the first Vatican Council, in 1869, focused on the figure of the pope. The second, in 1959, focused on the bishops. “Perhaps there will now be a third council focused on priests,” she said.

In contrast with the conservatism of his other positions, in Buenos Aires Bergoglio reprimanded priests who refused to baptise the children of single mothers. He also accepted non-Catholic godparents for baptism candidates, Gustavo Vera, an activist for the rights of victims of labour and sex trafficking, told IPS.

The pope is open to inter-faith dialogue, and has had frequent contacts with representatives of the Jewish religion in Argentina.

As the Roman Catholic Church gets ready for the conclave that will select a new pope, activists and victims worldwide are stepping up their efforts to keep cardinals directly or indirectly involved in cases of paedophilia from participating in the papal election process.

Pressure has been brought to bear on at least five cardinals who protected priests accused of sexual abuse, including Norberto Rivera of Mexico, one of the 117 cardinals under the age of 80 set to choose the successor to Benedict XVI, who stepped down on Feb. 28.

“In order for the Church to recover its moral stature and to go back to what it was before, the next pope must be chosen by people who are moral,” Mexican activist Joaquín Aguilar told IPS.

“In order for the Church to pull out of the terrible crisis into which it has fallen because of the concealment of sexual abuse, those who have been accused must withdraw from the conclave,” said Aguilar, Mexico director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

“All around the world, if someone is an accomplice of a crime, or faces charges or has been sentenced, their political rights are suspended, which means they can’t vote or be voted for,” he said. “Why doesn’t the Vatican do this, if it claims to be a moral institution? It is a disgrace for the Church. The accused scoff at the victims and their demands.”

As a seminary student, Aguilar was a victim of sexual abuse in 1994, by Father Nicolás Aguilar (no relation).

Father Aguilar served as a parish priest in the central Mexican city of Puebla in the 1980s, before he was transferred to Los Angeles, California.

According to documents that the Los Angeles archdiocese declassified in February by court order, Norberto Rivera – who is now a cardinal – transferred Father Aguilarto that U.S. city to protect him.

A court in Mexico found him guilty of the sexual abuse of boys. But he remained free on bail, and his whereabouts are currently unknown. He is also wanted in the United States for allegedly molesting at least 26 boys.

Joaquín Aguilar has brought a lawsuit in Los Angeles against Rivera for covering up the sexual abuse committed by the priest, when Rivera was a bishop in Puebla in the 1980s.

The legal action also targets U.S. Cardinal Roger Mahony, who was archbishop of Los Angeles from 1985 to 2011, when he retired amidst a scandal over his role in concealing sexual abuse by priests in his archdiocese.

On Feb. 1 he was stripped of his remaining duties after the archdiocese, under court order, released thousands of declassified personnel files for 122 priests accused of molesting children. The documents shed light on Mahony’s involvement in covering up sexual abuse. On Feb. 23 he testified in court.

But this week, Mahony confirmed that the Vatican had invited him to participate in the conclave.

The cardinals who have been urged by victims of sex abuse not to attend the conclave include Sean Brady, the Catholic primate of Ireland. In 2010, it was revealed that as a priest, Brady was present at meetings in 1975 where two teenagers signed vows of silence over their complaints of abuse by another priest.

Activists are also calling on Belgian Cardinal Godfried Danneels, who headed the Church in his country from 1979 to 2010, to stay away from the conclave.

Newspapers in Belgium reported that the cardinal had been notified at least 40 times about child molestation by priests under his jurisdiction.

The most recent case is that of the former head of the Catholic Church in Scotland, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who was forced to resign in late February by Pope Benedict.

The British daily The Observer had reported that three priests and a former priest in Scotland had complained to the Vatican about “inappropriate” behaviour by O’Brien, and had demanded his immediate resignation.

O’Brien, who has announced that he will not take part in the conclave, admitted in a Mar. 3 statement that his sexual conduct “fell below standards,” for which he apologised.

“This is a question of justice for victims of sexual abuse, and of ethics within the College of Cardinals, when they are about to choose someone who should make sure justice is done. They can’t do that if they have been complacent,” the executive secretary of the non-governmental Observatorio Eclesial (Church Observatory), Gabriela Juárez, told IPS.

Of the cardinals who have come under fire, only O’Brien decided not to take part in picking a new pope.

Victims of sexual abuse complain that Pope Benedict – Joseph Ratzinger – frequently apologised for the harm done by priests but never took effective action to rectify it.

In his 2010 book “Abusos sexuales en la Iglesia Católica” (Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church), Argentine journalist Jorge Llistosella points to more than 9,000 cases of abuse by priests worldwide in the last five decades, which he says is just the tip of the iceberg as it only includes cases that were publicly reported.

In the United States, 4,450 priests were accused of sexually abusing minors between 1950 and 2002, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. In Mexico, SNAP reports that at least 65 priests have been accused of sexual crimes.

In a Jan. 25 report, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed deep concern to the U.S. government about its failure to properly deal with “sexual abuse committed by clerics and leading members of certain faith-based organisations and religious institutions on a massive and long-term scale”.

The Committee also stressed “the lack of measures taken by the State party to properly investigate cases and prosecute those accused who are members of those organisations and institutions.”

“The only way to make reparations is to begin to punish people,” said SNAP’s Joaquin Aguilar. “Civil authorities also have to be pressured. We are at a critical juncture, when a new pope is about to be chosen, but we also have to lay our cards on the table regarding this question once and for all.”

Frei Betto: "Benedict XVI was never sensitive to social issues." Credit: Official web site for Frei Betto

By Fabiana Frayssinet
RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 15 2013 (IPS)

The only difference the resignation of Benedict XVI as head of the Catholic Church will make in Brazil will be the name changes needed on posters advertising his coming to this city in July for World Youth Day, jokes Frei Betto.

German prelate Joseph Ratzinger, who will retire on Feb. 28 after nearly eight years as Pope Benedict XVI, will have considerable influence on the election of his successor, said the Brazilian friar in an interview with IPS.

Carlos Alberto Libânio Christo, better known as Frei Betto, and other distinguished thinkers, priests and bishops who embrace liberation theology, a progressive form of Catholicism originated in Latin America in the 1960s, have been targeted by critics and were even censured by the outgoing Pope.We are experiencing a change of epoch, from modernity to postmodernity. However, the Catholic Church is still loaded down with mediaeval baggage...

Ratzinger was a hardline opponent of this movement, which emphasises the need to confront social injustice based on the Christian commitment to the “preferential option for the poor”, and used his previous post as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – the successor to the Inquisition – to ban people like Hans Küng, of Switzerland, and Leonardo Boff, of Brazil, from teaching theology.

“I am very pessimistic” about the new Pope being able to change the conservative nature of the Catholic Church and modernise it, said Betto, the author of “Fidel and Religion”, among other books, and a friend and former special adviser early in the government of left-wing Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2011), for programmes like Zero Hunger.

Q: What will the repercussions be for the Catholic Church, especially in Brazil and the rest of Latin America, of Pope Benedict XVI’s announcement of his resignation on Monday Feb. 11?

A: I think that for Brazil, in particular, the only consequence will be having to redo all the publicity for World Youth Day, to be held Jul. 23-28 in Rio de Janeiro, and replacing images of Benedict XVI with those of his successor, who will be elected in March.

The abdication itself will have no major effects. The election of a new Pope could do, depending on the direction in which he steers the Catholic Church.

Q: In that sense, can we look forward to a modernisation of the Church?

A: I am not optimistic, for the following reasons: Benedict XVI will have a major role in the election of the next Pope. And he has decided to continue to live at the Vatican. It appears that the Church is at risk of having, for a time, dual power.

The new Pope will never do anything to displease his predecessor. Therefore he will maintain the Church’s ban on debating issues like abortion, ending priestly celibacy, the ordination of women to the priesthood, condom use, stem cell research, gay unions, etcetera.

Only after Benedict XVI dies will we really know what the new Pope thinks and wants.

Q: How did Joseph Ratzinger imprint his conservatism on Latin America and Brazil?

A: I do not say that Benedict XVI continued the policies of John Paul II (1978-2005) because, in fact, it was Ratzinger who inspired and provided the theoretical background to the conservative measures taken by Karol Wojtyla, the Polish Pope.

They both refused to implement the decisions of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) – a conference held 50 years ago! They both ruled out progressive bishops and appointed conservatives; they gave more importance to movements like the (ultra-conservative) Opus Dei than to pastoral ministry to the poor or basic Christian communities. And they both held Eurocentric worldviews.

The difference is that John Paul II’s head was on the right but his heart was on the left, that is, he was doctrinally conservative but progressive on social issues, to the point of criticising neoliberalism and praising the Cuban revolution. Benedict XVI, on the other hand, was never sensitive to social issues.

Q: What course will progressive approaches within the Church be able to take after his resignation, such as liberation theology, which attained great weight in Latin America?

A: The progressive approach persists at the base of the Catholic Church, in the basic Christian communities and the pastoral ministries (for workers, indigenous people, the elderly and others), and in the writings of liberation theologians. However, this progressive structure has lost the support of bishops and cardinals in the last few decades.

Q: The last Brazilian census indicated that the Catholic Church lost 1.7 million adherents between 2000 and 2010. Now, 64.6 percent of the country’s 192 million people declare themselves Catholics, whereas in 1970 the proportion was 90 percent. How do you explain this steep decline, which is evident also in the rest of Latin America?

A: We are experiencing a change of epoch, from modernity to postmodernity. However, the Catholic Church is still loaded down with mediaeval baggage, such as the division of territories into parishes, and it barely enters into dialogue with modernity.

Hence its difficulty with understanding and entering modernity. The Catholic Church does not even know how to cope with the new digital technologies that are essential for the task of evangelising. This is where the Neo-Pentecostal churches shine, although their content is alienating.

Q: Given this context, what potential for reversing the decline in numbers of the faithful in Brazil does the Catholic Church have with a new Pope?

A: The Catholic Church in Brazil has become increasingly Vaticanised. The national Conference of Bishops, which had a prophetic voice during the 1964-1985 military dictatorship * and up to the 1990s, has now withdrawn into the sacristy, and has ceased to be the voice of the voiceless.

* Because of his political action for the opposition, Frei Betto was imprisoned by the dictatorship on two occasions.

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