Boquete, Panama (September 16-21, 2024). 6 Franciscan friars from various countries of the Americas (United States, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Argentina and Brazil) met in the city of Boquete, Panama, to participate in the VI Continental Meeting on Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC).
We conclude Season of Creation 2024 with the Oikos Mediterranean project of the Conference of Provincial Ministers of Italy and Albania, based in the friars’ convent in Taranto, Italy. The OIKOS project was officially born in June 2023.
In the framework of the Centenary of the Stigmata of St. Francis, on Tuesday the 17th September, at the retreat house of the Franciscan Seminary in the city of Boquete, David, Panama, the VI Continental Meeting of Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation of the Americas began.
During the Season of Creation 2024 the General Office of JPIC will be sharing various Franciscan experiences in the world on integral ecology. We begin with the Custody of the Holy Land.
In the northeast of Colombia, in Santander, is the region known as Catatumbo, characterized mainly by a war that has been going on for more than fifty years, there are large coca plantations for the production of alkaloids and the presence of armed groups outside the law.
Ecological conversion requires a “reversal of direction” of everyone’s conscience, because Creation is intimately connected to a revolution of the spirit: this is the heart of the conference presenting the Pope’s message for the World Day of Prayer for Creation, held today in the Vatican Press Office. The reference to the upcoming Jubilee and the need to involve young people in protecting the environment, also through social media, is central.
From Friday the 14th to Sunday the 16th June 2024 the Chapter of the Mats was held in Taranto, entitled “A sea of fraternity. The Franciscans for a new humanism of the Mediterranean”, in which friars, Poor Clares and lay people belonging to the Franciscan family participated.
On the morning of the 4 th June 2024, the main streets of the Salvadoran capital, San Salvador, the same ones where the saint and martyr Oscar Arnulfo Romero walked, were painted brown, yellow, green and white.
On behalf of Franciscans International and its International Board of
Directors (IBD) I am pleased to present the annual report of our work in defense of the rights and dignity of all and care for creation” (Br. Michael Perry, OFM)