Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
During this Lent period, I invite you to Create Hope by participating in Development and Peace—Caritas Canada’s Share Lent campaign 2024.
This year’s theme, Reaping our Rights, shows our solidarity with small, marginalized farmers of the Global South, who feed over 80% of the world’s population. They face challenges of land grabbing by multinational companies, pollution by the extractive industry, and the climate upheavals we are all facing.
The Reaping Our Rights campaign introduces us to three peasant farming communities: in Bolivia, in Indonesia, and in Nigeria. They are at the heart of agricultural production, the fight against hunger, the movement for food sovereignty, and action for the protection of our common home, the earth.
Pope Francis has ably reminded us that “human life is incomprehensible and unsustainable without other creatures… all of us are linked by unseen bonds and together form a kind of universal family, a sublime communion which fills us with a sacred, affectionate and humble respect” (Laudate Deum, 67).
As part of this campaign, we are invited to celebrate and support the work of peasant men and women in the South, whose daily lives bear witness to a way of life more conducive to that sacred and humble respect which the Pope reminds us is so necessary today.
The annual collection for Development and Peace will take place on the fifth Sunday of Lent – March 17th. I strongly encourage parishes, religious communities, and all people of good will to donate to the fundraising efforts to support our partners in the Global South. And, as always, to remember the work of our partners in your prayers. Together we can sow the “seeds of peace” and reap a “harvest of righteousness” (James 3:18).
✠ Marcel Damphousse
Archbishop of Ottawa-Cornwall
P.S Established in 1967, Development and Peace ― Caritas Canada is the official international solidarity organization of the Catholic Church in Canada.
