On April 18-19, 2010, U.S. faith-based organizations will engage in The Days of Prayer and Action for Colombia, an ecumenical opportunity for Catholics in the U.S. to support our Colombian brothers and sisters in a new vision for peace.  Please join us and many other people of faith across the United States, Canada and Colombia for the ecumenical Days of Prayer and Action for Colombia and advocacy on Colombia.

This webcast will provide:

• A first hand account of the conflict’s impact on the internally displaced, refugees and other victims from a leading voice of the Catholic Church in Colombia;
• An overview of the Colombian Church and CRS’ humanitarian response and support for peace initiatives;
• USCCB and CRS’ policy recommendations based on Catholic social teaching and our experience;
• How Catholics in the U.S., through the Catholics Confront Global Poverty initiative, can support peace in Colombia.
• Thirty minutes of this webcast will be reserved to answer questions from the audience.

Background:

More than forty years of violent conflict has caused great suffering and forcibly displaced millions of Colombians, especially Afro-Colombian and Indigenous communities.  It has also inspired amazing efforts in Colombia to create a new vision for peace. Together, CRS, USCCB and the Catholic Church in Colombia are responding to the needs of the conflict’s victims and influencing U.S. policy towards a greater focus on humanitarian needs, human rights and a lasting resolution of the conflict.

For more information:

• Visit Catholics Confront Global Poverty now to learn how you can join us to confront poverty in Colombia.
• Read the Catholics Confront Global Poverty info sheet: “Peace, Conflict and Our Catholic Response.”
• Watch a brief video on global poverty and peacebuilding.
• Learn about USCCB’s policy and advocacy regarding Colombia.
• Learn about CRS’ work in Colombia.
• Learn about CRS’ advocacy efforts to support peace in Colombia.

Monsignor Hector Fabio Henao

The Social Pastoral (SNPS/Caritas Colombia) is responsible for implementing the Colombian Catholic Bishops Conference’s priorities in peacebuilding, human rights; humanitarian response and citizen participation initiative in Colombia, a country which continues to have one of the highest rates of internal displacement in the world. Monsignor Henao is a recognized national leader in peacebuilding and humanitarian response and leads the international Campaign “Peace is Possible in Colombia” of the Caritas Internationalis Confederation of Catholic social agencies. The campaign seeks to increase international awareness of the gravity of the humanitarian crisis in Colombia, and the importance of the role  the international community can play in achieving a just and sustainable peace .

Bill O’Keefe of CRS and I are accompanying Bishop Gerald Kicanas, the Vice-President of the United States Conference of Bishops, on a pastoral visit to the Holy Land. Our travels have taken us to Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, and briefly through the airport in Jordan. Contrary to public perception and usage, Jesus walked through places in all of these countries and together they comprise a land made holy by his presence.

Driving down the narrow streets of Beirut with occasional glimpses of the calm blue of the Mediterranean or walking the cobblestone passages of the walled Old City in Jerusalem, I often feel a spirit of peace that is at odds with today’s harsh realities that plague all of the people of the Holy Land—Jewish, Christian and Muslim.

In Jerusalem Patriarch Twal of the Latin Patriarchate welcomed us to a meeting of the Coordination of Bishops’ Conferences in Support of the Church in the Holy Land. We are here with delegations from bishops’ conferences from Western Europe and Canada. In his opening remarks the Patriarch shared both hopeful signs and discouraging developments of the past year. He reminded us of Last May’s pilgrimage of Benedict XVI to the Holy Land. The visit brought spiritual encouragement to the native Christian population at the same time that it highlighted the tragic conflict that divides Israelis and Palestinians. The Patriarch noted that new Christians were arriving in the Holy Land, but sadly many were refugees fleeing the violence of Iraq and other places.

The Patriarch’s reflections brought to mind the Iraqi refugee families we had met in Lebanon last week. We spoke with a father who had fled Iraq with his family of nine after two of his nephews were murdered. He wept out of concern for his two adult married daughters who had remained behind with their husbands. A mother told of her nine year old son’s kidnapping. He was ransomed back with the help of local churches in raising funds only to have his father taken for a much larger ransom that they could never hope to pay. She fled with her remaining sons.

Time and again in Lebanon, Israel and Palestine, we heard how the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the occupation of the Palestinian Territories, and the war in Iraq have devastated the ancient Christian communities, many of whose members have emigrated. But we also witnessed great courage, determination and faith of the local Christian communities; they stay in the hope of a better tomorrow.

Our visit to the Holy Land will help inform and shape the Catholics Confront Global Poverty initiative. We will work to increase aid to refugees and those made poor by the conflicts, especially the people of Gaza where there is a humanitarian crisis. We will promote strong U.S. leadership for a two-state solution to the conflict, with security and recognition for Israel and a viable and independent state for Palestinians. Please join us in these efforts that are critical for the long-term security and prosperity of all of the peoples of the region, including the vulnerable Christian minority.

Mindy described how she first arrived in Lebanon on a transport plane in the midst of the 2006 conflict with Israel because it was the only one that could land on the damaged runway. In response to the conflict, CRS used $12 million in aid provided by the U.S. government and other donors to assist 250,000 Lebanese victims from all faiths in 200 villages throughout the country. Working with local partners including Caritas-Lebanon, CRS organized vouchers for crops and livestock to restore lost incomes, construction projects for buildings damaged in the war, and summer camps for children traumatized by violence.

Doug Norell (left), CRS Director of Legislative Affairs, and Mindy Burrell (right), Country Representative for CRS-Lebanon during a visit to Capitol Hill to update Members of Congress on CRS’ work in Lebanon. Photo by Brendan Cavanagh/CRS

CRS’ work in Lebanon has expanded since the end of the war through a number of projects. One such project trains youth leaders to effectively advocate for positive change. The participants learn how government works and then interact with local authorities to accomplish goals. These newly formed advocates have launched public gardens in their villages, shadowed their local government officials, monitored their municipal budget, and lobbied for funding for a policeman where the village did not have one. CRS also provides comprehensive care to the continuing influx of Iraqi refugees through the Caritas Lebanon Migrant Center (CLMC). During home visits, social workers assess families’ health, employment, educational and other needs and then plan with the families to meet those needs. CRS’ other activities consist of building peace at the local level by training ‘consensus teams’ to address local issues and strengthening civil society by helping nongovernmental organizations promote dialogue.

Brendan Cavanagh (left), CRS Grassroots Advocacy, Doug Norell (center), CRS Director of Legislative Affairs, and Mindy Burrell (right), Country Representative for CRS-Lebanon, during visits to Capitol Hill. Photo by CRS staff

Mindy was met with varying degrees of knowledge and interest by Congressional staff. Some Members and their staff had traveled to the region and were highly knowledgeable about the country and regional dynamics while others were simply interested to learn how CRS’ is able to work in communities that are hostile to the United States.

Mindy explained how CRS helps communities address the injustices in their society that cause conflict and how we facilitate respectful relationships between conflicting parties in order to build sustainable peace. Peacebuilding is an essential part of what CRS does because we believe that in order for all of us to have an opportunity to grow and develop fully, a certain social fabric must exist within society. The United States government should support these peace efforts because it is the right thing to do and because it is the only sustainable way to strengthen our national security.

You can help support these peacebuilding efforts in Lebanon and around the world through your own advocacy. Join Catholics Confront Global Poverty today and make a difference in our world.

Brendan Cavanagh, CRS Grassroots Advocacy

Please join us for:

• An analysis of the situation in Sudan based on CRS’ humanitarian efforts and our relationship with the Sudanese Catholic Church;
• CRS’ humanitarian response and preparedness;
• USCCB and CRS’ policy recommendations based on Catholic social teaching and our experience;
• How Catholics in the U.S., through the Catholics Confront Global Poverty initiative, can support peace in Sudan.

Prepare for the webcast:

• Please visit Catholics Confront Global Poverty now to learn how you can begin using your voice to confront poverty.
• Read the CCGP backgrounder – Peace, Conflict and Our Catholic Response.
• Watch a brief video on global poverty and peacebuilding.
• Learn about CRS’ work in Sudan.
• Learn about CRS’ advocacy efforts to resolve the conflict in Sudan.
• Read Bishop Hubbard’s letter to the U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan.

RSVP to join.

• The current state of global hunger and food insecurity based on CRS’  relief and development work in more than 100 countries
• Agricultural trade and aid and the impact on global food security
• USCCB and CRS’ policy recommendations based on Catholic social teaching and our experience
• Policy proposals currently under consideration by the Obama Administration and Congress to address these issues
• How Catholics in the U.S., through the Catholics Confront Global Poverty initiative, can support long-term food security around the world

RSVP here to join us.

Join this webcast to discuss:

* Current trends that are influencing peace in Africa;
* The role of the Church in Africa;
* The significance of this African Synod;
* The increasingly important role of the Church in peacebuilding; and
* How Catholics in the U.S. through the Catholics Confront Global Poverty initiative, can participate in resolving conflict and building peace in Africa and around the world.

Thirty minutes of this webcast will be reserved to take questions from the audience.

- Learn more and RSVP here.

Live from the Synod in Rome, Catholic Relief Services peacebuilding and justice experts from East and Central Africa will discuss current peace trends in Africa; the role of the Catholic Church in peacebuilding and the significance of this African Synod; and how Catholics in the U.S. can participate in resolving conflict and building peace in Africa and around the world. RSVP here to join us.

At last, the needs of the global poor affected by climate change are getting some attention!  Yesterday, I was part of a press conference of inter-faith leaders discussing the effects of climate change on poor and vulnerable people around the world.  We focused on how we can help poor people adapt to climate change’s effects.  Lots of media joined in, which was great.  You can read some of the press coverage at CBS News and InterPress Service.

The basic message that Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish leaders all communicated was that climate change legislation needs to do more to help the world’s poorest adapt to the effects of climate change, a problem they—poor people—did not create.

The press conference allowed me to talk about how CRS’ field offices and local partners already see how climate change is stirring up more frequent and violent storms—many of my colleagues at CRS have spent the last few weeks organizing the response to the latest round of cyclones in Asia—and altering rainfall patterns critical to agriculture in Africa. We already have developed a lot of experience responding to these challenges and along with a host of faith-based and secular groups can do a lot more with additional resources.

You don’t have to be on a press conference to raise your voice about this issue. Visit the Catholics Confront Global Poverty website and take action now.

As Senate climate bill negotiations heat up, Catholics Confront Global Poverty is actively supporting legislation that helps poor and vulnerable people worldwide adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change in their communities.

As part of an interfaith effort to prioritize the most vulnerable members of our global community, and if you’re a member of the media, please listen to Bill O’Keefe, senior director of Advocacy for Catholic Relief Services as he discusses this pressing issue with other faith leaders.

WHEN: Thursday, October 8, 2009 at 1 PM EDT
DIAL-IN: (866) 439-0902, Call Title: Day Six
RSVP: Contact Kristin Williams at kwilliams@faithinpubliclife.org or 202.459.8625 to reserve your place on the call.

“….With latest estimates showing 1 billion people around the world suffering from hunger as a result of the global economic recession, religious leaders believe that, by gathering together to speak for the world’s poor, they can impact those decisions,” CNS’ Patricia Bartos writes.

“Most people in high levels of government “really do want to do the right thing for the poor. They really do have a moral compass,” said Stephen Colecchi, director of the U.S. Catholic bishops’ Office of International Justice and Peace, at a press conference in Pittsburgh Sept. 23″

Read the full CNS story here.