Vocation for Justice: Responding with Hope

An introduction to the Spring 2025 newsletter of the Columban Justice, Peace and Ecology Team as 'Vocation for Justice' enters its 39th year!

The 2025 Jubilee is the third that I have prepared for.

My first was in 1986 when I worked for CAFOD, and it was celebrating its 25th anniversary. How many remember CAFOD taking over the Royal Festival Hall for a day and the diminutive Dom Heider Camara from Brazil being a keynote speaker. Dressed in a simple beige cassock, he seemed to have stepped out of his famous CAFOD poster, "When I feed the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist". Barely five feet tall, he was a giant in terms of implementing the Church's Social Teaching, particularly the 'Option for the Poor'. As Archbishop of Olinda and Recife, Camera abandoned the archbishop's palace for a modest house, warning, "be careful of the way you live, it is the only gospel most people will ever read!" He gave away Church land to landless people and set up a Justice and Peace Commission.

His talk received a standing ovation from the thousands present, deeply touched by his holiness, warmth and joy. He smiled the whole day and greeted everyone near him. In fact, his is the only hug I have ever received from an archbishop!

CAFOD also ran a three-year development education campaign on the Jubilee themes of Land, Debt, and Slavery. And these featured in my second Jubilee celebration: the Great Jubilee of 2000. CAFOD's 1999 preparatory Conference at Ushaw College looked at the social justice elements of Jubilee and Bernadette Farrell's popular Jubilee Song was written for that conference.

From 1997 the National Justice and Peace Network ran a three-year conference programme based on the papal letter The Coming of the Third Millennium and its call for the cancellation of debt. Columban Ed O'Connell helped to provide a popular version of the document. Then, Columbans were among Jubilee 2000 supporters who formed human chains to lobby world leaders meeting in Birmingham and Cologne in 1998 and 1999. The Churches wanted the Millennium celebration to have a strong ethical dimension.

And here we go again. The 2025 Holy Year offers another opportunity to renew our commitment to Christ and to renew society. Laudate Deum, released last October, reminded of the urgency of the Laudato Si' message - marking 10 years in May - and the need for both personal and cultural transformation to address ecological and climate crises.

Debt cancellation is a key theme of Jubilee 2025. Yet, we know that debt remission will not on its own end poverty, that structural injustice inherent in the world's financial architecture must also be addressed. We are also more alert to intergenerational injustice because of the challenges of worsening human-caused climate change, diminishing biodiversity and our polluted water systems.

This newsletter picks up on these issues for the year ahead and linking into the Columban mission priorities of Migrants and Biodiversity, chosen at last year's Columban General Assembly. But our overarching theme is Hope, following the lead of Pope Francis, and following on the Autumn 2024 'Vocation for Justice' which looked at 'Jubilee: Pilgrims of Hope'. Pope Francis has said that Hope, "is the most beautiful gift that the Church can give to all of humanity." And he added, "Christians cannot be satisfied with having hope" but must also "radiate hope."

The newsletter centrespread. 'Hope: A Gift and a Duty' was written by Anna Blackman, a Lecturer in Catholic Religious Education at the University of Glasgow and a member of the Columban Justice, Peace and Ecology Team. She says: "The social dimension of hope is inherent throughout Catholic social thought and practice. The social encyclicals are filled with the language of hope, speaking of where signs of hope can be seen, and where the Church hopes transformation and change will occur. It is also hope that underpins and motivates Catholic social action, by refusing to accept that things must remain the way that they are."

Do encourage 13-18 year olds to enter our current Columban competition, 'JUBILEE: PILGRIMS OF HOPE,' which encourages them to identify Jubilee initiatives. Entry closes in three weeks' time, on 7th February.

LINKS

Columban 'Vocation for Justice' newsletter: https://columbans.co.uk/how-you-can-help/subscribe/vocation-for-justice/
(Scroll down to Recent Editions. Invitation to sign up for regular e-mailing)

Jubilee Schools Media Competition 2024/25 https://columbans.co.uk/justice-peace/15031/schools-media-competition-jubilee-pilgrims-of-hope/

Columban Competition: www.columban.com