AEC Justice Seminar highlights key regional issues in light of Pope's latest Encyclical

by Mike James

“Let’s keep together.” These were the parting words of Bishop Emmanuel Lafont, Diocese of Cayenne, French Guiana and Chair of the AEC J&P Commission, to the 19 participants who attended the AEC Justice & Peace Seminar at St John Vianney Seminary on 12 and 13 September.

Inter alia, the Seminar provided a wonderful opportunity for fellowship/solidarity/strengthening relationships across the region. Representatives from French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago considered:

• the main issues arising out of Pope Benedict XVI’s 3rd Encyclical, Charity in Truth; and the challenges and opportunities of applying the Encyclical in the context of our various Dioceses/in the region;
• the role of the AEC in promoting and supporting Diocesan J&P Commissions;
• the ways in which Diocesan J&P Commissions can better address priority issues – including a concern to promote the integrity of creation – environmental/ecological issues;
• Strategies for strengthening the AEC J&P Commission.

Bishop Lafont provided an overview of the Encyclical and Msgr. Jason Gordon and Leela Ramdeen, Chair of the Catholic Commission on Social Justice of Trinidad and Tobago presented papers focusing on the applications and challenges of the Encyclical for us in T&T and on the Methodology and Structure of a J&P Commission – using CCSJ as an example. Analyses on the Human rights Challenges in Jamaica and Guyana were presented by Fr. Peter McIssac S.J. and Attorney Gino Persaud while reports were also received from the other territories represented.

General Secretary of the Caribbean Conference of Churches Gerard Granado’s participation in the Seminar helped focus attention on regional issues as well as on ways of strengthening ecumenical response and inter-faith relations even as justice and peace issues are addressed.

All Commission representatives agreed to make the workshop content the subject of study in their own Commissions and the Trinidad and Tobago representatives agreed to organize a Seminar in October to plan how to address the 6 main challenges identified at the Seminar – in light of the Encyclical and T&T Synod Resolutions

At the end of the Seminar it was agreed that in order to contextualise the Encyclical within the Caribbean context, reflections on the following themes will be submitted to Bishop Lamont by March 2010 for consideration by the AEC Bishops at their Annual Plenary Meeting in April 2010:

T&T: Climate change – taking into consideration issues arising affecting the region addressed at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, 7 – 18 Dec. 2009;
Jamaica: Racism
Guyana, Suriname and French Guyana: Youth and the challenges they face in the midst of unemployment, HIV/AIDS, crime and violence and racial divisions;

Caribbean Conference of Churches: Economic arrangements impacting on integral human development in the Caribbean e.g. addressing concerns about the sustainable development of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the Caribbean, in light of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union.

It is to be noted that although specific dioceses have been allocated areas of responsibility above, each diocese, including those that were not represented, will be invited to submit reflections on each of the 4 areas by March 2010. It was also agreed that all dioceses be encouraged to establish active Justice and Peace Commission to assist the Church to respond to the very pressing issues facing the region, and especially those on which the Encyclical urges priority response

A report of the presentations and the discussions that took place over the 2 days will be produced and circulated to the 20 Catholic Dioceses across the region.

It was agreed that all representatives will work in their organizations to study and reflect on the implications of this Encyclical for individuals, communities and territories. A particularly useful precis of the encyclical was noted as available on line at www.coc.org and the US Bishops also have a useful study guide on the Encyclical at www.usccb.org/jphd/caritasinveritate/

The meeting agreed with the assessment study guide assessment that Charity in Truth “provides helpful guidance for finding answers to the social, economic and moral questions of the contemporary world in a search for truth…it is a call to see the relationship between human and environmental ecologies and to link charity and truth in the pursuit of justice, the common good, and authentic human development. In doing so, the Pope points out the responsibilities and limitations of government and the private market, challenges traditional ideologies of right and left, and calls all men and women to think and act anew.”

In a world that is becoming more and more secular and in which individualism and moral relativism is rampant, the Pope’s words are pertinent: “Without God man neither knows which way to go, nor even understands who he is.”

Participants ended the Seminar full of hope, encouraged by Pope Benedict XVI's reminder that “the current crisis obliges us to re-plan our journey, to set ourselves new rules and to discover new forms of commitment, to build on positive experiences and to reject negative ones. The crisis thus becomes an opportunity for discernment, in which to shape a new vision for the future.”