The Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Commissions of the Franciscan Family of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, with deep sorrow we lament the death of Rev. Fr. Juan Antonio Orozco Alvarado, OFM, belonging to the Franciscan Province of Saints Francis and James in Mexico, JPIC animator and composer of the Hymn of the Revolution Laudato Si’
We wish Merry Christmas to all of you! We hope each of you rejoice in Peace, which is the fruit of Justice. We want to thank you all who are pursuing and promoting the values of Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation, especially, those who are working for migrants and refugees in the world. We all are pilgrims and strangers in this world!
“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.
Almost more than half a million migrant workers, who live in and around the city of Chennai, are unskilled workers. Migrants who come to the city of Chennai are typically at the receiving end of misplaced bias, such as loud, sexually open, dirty and so on. In workplaces, migrant labor is often deprived of the most necessary and essential of amenities such as a clean toilet, drinking water, and a place to rest. It is perhaps not news that migrants are taken for granted and the accounts show that there is a long way to go before migration with dignity is achieved.