“Not only is a world with no poverty possible, it is also in agreement with the grace of God for the world”. This sentence opens the appeal for “love and action” launched this afternoon in Porto Alegre by the representatives of the 340 Christian Churches, gathering for the IX Assembly of the Ecumenical Council of the Churches. During the plenary session of this afternoon, they will talk about “economic justice”. Several experiences that are alternative to the current economic system, and promoted by the Churches, will be shown. In the appeal drawn up by the “Justice, Peace and Creation” Committee – the people in charge of the Churches express their worries about “growing disparity, concentration of wealth and power in the hands of few people, and destruction of the Planet, plus the aggravating circumstance of the scandal relating to poverty of the South, which is also expanding northwards”. “Gathered in Porto Alegre, the place which welcomed the worldwide Social Forum, we are encouraged by the constructive and positive message” launched by those movements telling us that “other solutions are possible”. Now the appeal changes into a sort of “mea culpa” (my fault) for all the times “we have been apathetic in front of suffering and injustice”, for “not having been able to take a standing on the basis of our faith, and for not having really fought economic injustice and its disruptive consequences for human beings and the Earth”. (to be continued)
