OCEANIA/AUSTRALIA - The Bishops: "May the most vulnerable be the priority of electoral programs"

Friday, 1 February 2019 politics   human rights   poverty   migrants  

Sydney (Agenzia Fides) - "In recent years, in view of some of the federal elections, the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council has prepared some leaflets addressing key social justice issues and containing questions to ask all candidates. It is all too evident that the questions raised have not been adequately addressed. Many of the problems raised in the last 15 years should be re-proposed to the candidates of the next federal elections". This is the appeal launched by the "Justice and Peace" Commission of the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council (ACSJC), and addressed to the citizens of the nation who, in the next months, will be called to the polls, after the mistrust received in the August 2018 in Parliament by former Premier Malcom Turnbull, replaced with Economy Minister Scott Morrison.
In the note sent to Fides, the Commission notes: "We are among the many ecclesial and social organizations that raise concerns for the most vulnerable groups: their life circumstances are rarely presented as important political priorities during electoral campaigns". The topics on which the message focuses can be summarized in four large areas that include: justice for indigenous peoples; justice for asylum seekers; the situation of the poor; the attention to the protection of Creation.
The note recalls the Pope's message for the World Day of Peace, celebrated on January 1: "Charity and all human virtues - 'respect for life, freedom and dignity of people' - are the foundations of politics at the service of human rights and peace. According to the Pontiff, every politician should be endowed with some particular virtues that enable him to work for the good of all: justice, equality, mutual respect, sincerity, honesty and faithfulness. The work of the politician must promote mutual obligations by ensuring respect for human rights and building bonds of trust now and for future generations".
The Bishops’ text concludes: "Our work for justice, development and peace impels us to imagine a world in which the divisions that generate oppression, poverty and conflict can make room for the integral development of each person, the construction of a sense of community and care for the environment in which we live. In our country, this work acquires greater importance especially during the election year". (LF) (Agenzia Fides, 1/2/2019)


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