May we all build bridges
Dear friends:
This quarter has seen a change in the pontificate. On Easter Monday, we were struck by the sad news of the death of Pope Francis, who had captured the attention of believers and non-believers alike, reached out to the peripheries, and placed peace and environmental care at the center of the Church. The white smoke of the Spirit has brought us a new Pope, Leo XIV, who continues the Church's work with a worldwide plea: "Help us build bridges." This call entails leaving aside the comfort of one's own shores and reaching out to the other, seeking dialogue and encounter.
In his first greeting, he proposes the need for "an unarmed and disarming peace." A play on words that encapsulates an entire worldview: it's not enough to renounce weapons; we must practice a peace that disarms even hardened hearts. Faced with a tense, polarized, and wounded world, the new Pope proposes something as countercultural as empathy: meeting, listening, and understanding one another as beings in relationship, as a society: a mission of "building bridges." It is a more concrete and demanding step than that of a "firm and lasting peace."
Once again, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is being hit by conflict. The country, cursed with its wealth, is experiencing a serious humanitarian crisis in its eastern region. The attacks carried out by the M23 against the civilian population constitute a flagrant violation of human rights and even potential war crimes in the context of an armed conflict, pursuant to Article 8 of the Rome Statute (1998) of the International Criminal Court.
The Laudato Si' Week webinar on peace, justice, and the preservation of creation analyzed the European rearmament plan, highlighted the importance of resisting the normalization of war, promoting multilateral diplomacy, and strengthening peaceful voices and actions at the citizen and government levels, denouncing genocide—such as the current one in Gaza. At the same time, it exposed the serious humanitarian, environmental, and social risks and consequences of the use and testing of nuclear weapons, emphasizing the need for their total abolition. It was an invitation to maintain hope and to transform civic commitment into concrete action to achieve a more just and equitable society.
From April 25th to 27th, we celebrated the annual Justice and Peace Conference in Tenerife with the theme "Human Rights and Migration" in a family-oriented, participatory, and in-depth atmosphere. After decades of urging governments and companies to maintain human control over the use of force and AI in the war industry, Stop Killer Robots warns of the increasing automation of war. On May 1st, the Church for Decent Work agreed that the Pastoral del Trabajo (Workers' Ministry) would prepare the reflection booklet "Organize Hope," with the liturgical script for the conference. This year's manifesto was dedicated to the job insecurity suffered by youth. Together with Enlázate por la Justicia (Link for Justice), the Spanish Episcopal Conference, and the Church of Seville, we participated in the IV Summit on Financing for Development, which is being held at the beginning of this summer, with the call for foreign debt forgiveness and the goal of "Transforming debt into hope."
Fidel García Gutiérrez
Secretary-general