Trade treaty threat to Mexico, bishops say
MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- Mexico’s Catholic bishops have pleaded with the federal government to renegotiate a trade treaty with the U.S. and Canada that they say is leading to the cultural death of their nation.
The bishops said the Jan. 1 abolition of agricultural tariffs under the North American Free Trade Agreement is putting poor Mexican farmers out of business and threatening the destruction of entire rural communities.
They said farmers and their families are now being driven to migrate to cities in Mexico or to the U.S., which “currently has a very strong and anti-humane immigration program.”
In a statement, the bishops’ social action commission called on the state to “analyze the legal possibilities and economic feasibility of renegotiating the agricultural section of the free trade agreement in order to protect more decisively the interests of the poor rural and indigenous communities who are in the majority.”
“There exist legal, economic and moral conditions to renegotiate this section, which should be the priority for the government and legislators,” said the statement, signed by 10 bishops.
“No system is untouchable when it generates death,” the bishops added.
The bishops argued that the 14-year-old agreement has effectively pitted poor Mexican farmers against heavily subsidized U.S. and Canadian producers with whom they cannot compete.
They warned the government that the consequences of libertarian trading conditions could include the temptation of poor farmers to grow crops for illegal drugs which in turn could see a surge in violent crime.
Mexico may not be able to feed itself if it succumbs to demands to produce biofuels from grain, they said.
The bishops said they fear the threat to Mexican flora from the import of genetically modified seeds for growing crops. They also expressed concern that communities whose focus has been the farming of beans and corn will begin to break down.
“When the laws of the market impose upon the rights of the people and communities, profit becomes the supreme value and serves the large interest groups, excluding the poor and generating a global economic system which is both unjust and inhumane,” said the bishops.
“We are worried that this openness of trade, although beneficial for some powerful and technologically advanced farmers, will bring painful consequences for those whose survival depends on the land,” they said.
“In the present circumstances they will never be able to compete with the enormous subsidies the U.S. and Canada give their farmers and will remain in a disadvantaged position unless there are measures implemented that regulate and compensate for the difference in our economies,” the bishops said.
“We require new structures which promote authentic human cohabitation, which restrain the arrogance of others and which facilitate constructive dialogue aimed at social consensus,” they added.
The statement was welcomed by the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, the development agency of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.
“Economic growth that tramples on the poor isn’t progress,” said Clare Dixon of CAFOD’s Latin American and Caribbean department, “and wealth accumulated at the expense of the poor isn’t wealth.”
Almsgiving conquers temptation, Pope says
By CAROL GLATZ
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY -- Almsgiving helps Christians conquer the constant temptation to become slaves to wealth and material goods, Pope Benedict XVI said in his 2008 message for Lent.
The practice of almsgiving “represents a specific way to assist those in need and, at the same time, an exercise in self-denial to free us from attachment to worldly goods,” the pope said in the message.
The theme of the message is “Christ Made Himself Poor for You.”
Jesus recognized that material riches possess an enormous “force of attraction,” but he was resolute in confirming “how categorical our decision must be not to make of them an idol,” the pope said.
“Almsgiving helps us overcome this constant temptation, teaching us to respond to our neighbor’s needs and to share with others whatever we possess through divine goodness,” he said.
The Lenten season is a time of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, which aid in an “inward cleansing” that allows the Christian to welcome Easter with renewed spirit, he said.
The pope said he wanted this year’s message to reflect on almsgiving so that it would not be an empty, loveless gesture of philanthropy or an egotistical attempt for attention or applause.
“There is little use in giving one’s personal goods to others if it leads to a heart puffed up in vainglory,” he said. Christian almsgiving must be hidden and, as everything, “must be done for God’s glory and not our own,” he added.
He said countries where the population is mostly Christian have an even more urgent call to share “since their responsibility toward the many who suffer poverty and abandonment is even greater.”
“To come to their aid is a duty of justice even prior to being an act of charity,” he said.
The pope made special mention of those who particularly feel burdened by “the weight of the evil they have committed.”
Sinners can often “feel far from God, fearful and almost incapable of turning to him,” the Pope said, but by reaching out to others through almsgiving “we draw close to God” and this can lead to “authentic conversion and reconciliation” with God and one’s neighbors.
Cardinal Paul Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, said this year’s papal message for Lent underlined the importance of the intentions, feelings and spirit of the person doing the giving.
Bishops must lead
HUNTINGTON, N.Y. (CNS) -- Bishops must take the lead in a process of “pastoral conversion” to help their people experience a life of discipleship and mission in the church.
That was the conclusion of the participants in the 35th meeting of the bishops of the Church in America Feb. 11-13 at Immaculate Conception Seminary in Huntington in the Rockville Centre Diocese.
“I have to be a missionary where I live and where I work,” said Archbishop Raymundo Damasceno Assis of Aparecida, Brazil. “I have to give testimony, to be joyful and full of faith and charity and solidarity. Then we can attract people to the church.
“We must put the structures of the church at the service of the mission of the church and not the other way around,” he said in an interview with Catholic News Service. Archbishop Assis is president of the Latin American bishops’ council, known by its Spanish acronym as CELAM.
The meeting was devoted to a pastoral and theological discussion of the final document issued by the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean, which took place in Aparecida last May.