OFM Myanmar Foundation has been actively participating in GCCM-Myanmar (Global Catholic Climate Movement) since 2017. We consider this as coordinated with the JPIC office that we serve for the common good, showing our Franciscan identity and promoting Franciscan spirituality among the people. Our main activities are organizing an Earth Hour celebration, symposium, training workshop on ‘Deep Journey into Laudato si’’ and day trip outreach program.
Each year since 1988, the world community is invited to pause for a moment to reflect on the HIV/AIDS pandemic, increase awareness and knowledge, speak out against all forms of stigma, commit to a deeper engagement, and call for an increased response to move towards ending the pandemic as a public health threat. These goals can be achieved by facilitating access to early and affordable diagnosis and treatment for all people who need it, no matter what their social or economic status might be.
It was the first climate pilgrimage prepared by the OFM JPIC Commission of the Korean Province, Green Asia, and ICE-Network since last year. The global climate crisis is already happening in the world. It’s evident when we look at wildfires in forests and droughts. And the poor and the vulnerable are crying out for immediate action for justice. However, there is no consensus in Korea on the issue. The Korean governments and the people are either ignorant or neglecting this global problem. People are struggling to survive in a fierce competition to acquire more economic prosperity rather than to feel the responsibility for the disasters, even though they are responsible for massive carbon emission and the climate crisis.
The course ‘Mimicking Natural Ecosystems – Growing Food Sustainably’ is meant to be yet another tool in the rediscovery of a better quality of life through simple and archaic processes such as agriculture. It aims at helping participants strengthen their connection to all that exists, while learning clean and sustainable ways of practicing agriculture.
“Chile’s waken up” is an anthem we have sung in the demonstrations. We sing it to tell the government, the politicians, the businessmen and all those who have allowed social inequalities that enough is enough. The social awakening is happening in various forms of demonstration, both peaceful and violent, and protests on the street and in the different churches and spiritual traditions on the days of reflection and prayer (although they are not visible by the mass media). “Chile’s waken up” is an expression of each and every citizen in the country, calling for a structural, profound transformation that would allow us to overcome injustices. But it is also no less true that if we want to ask for changes in the economic model, we must also do so in our lifestyle which is shaped by that same model, lacking fundamental human values such as equality, justice and equity. We should bring changes in a competitive, selfish, individualistic and consumerist lifestyle, changes to a collaborative lifestyle of solidarity. This movement means waking up to get out of oneself by opening to a more fraternal (serving each other) social coexistence.
Throughout the pilgrimage, all the participants have prayed for the genuine Peace in the world, keeping in mind the fact that today’s world needs the interreligious and intercultural dialogue and that our vocation lies in the fraternal attitude of openness that shines through in the life of Jesus Christ and St. Francis.
On 2 October, West Papua Network in Rome organized the seminar “West Papua, a Neglected Heaven – Justice and Human Rights based on the Gospel value” at Augustinianum in Rome to address the issue of human rights violation of indigenous West Papuan people.
From October 25 to 27, 2019, the first JPIC Commission Worshop was held in Calpan, Puebla (Mexico). The objective was to let the wider Franciscan family of the Holy Gosepl Province (Mexico City) gain a deeper insight into JPIC as well as its three main lines of action: Laudato si’, migration and extractivism.
How many times do we see poor people rummaging through garbage bins to retrieve what others have discarded as superfluous, in the hope of finding something to live on or to wear! They themselves become part of a human garbage bin; they are treated as refuse, without the slightest sense of guilt on the part of those who are complicit in this scandal. Frequently judged parasites on society, the poor are not even forgiven their poverty. Judgment is always around the corner. They are not allowed to be timid or discouraged; they are seen as a threat or simply useless, simply because they are poor.
After a long synodal journey of listening to the People of God in the Church of the Amazon, which Pope Francis inaugurated during his visit to the Amazon, 19 January 2018, the Synod took place in Rome in a fraternal gathering of 21 days in October 2019