Have you signed these urgent petitions?

Westminster Justice and Peace Commission is inviting Catholics in the Diocese and beyond to add their signatures to two online petitions to show their support for two international campaigns working to bring about peace and justice on the largest of scales.

In his Easter message for 2020 Pope Francis challenged all peoples to dispel indifference, self-centredness, division and forgetfulness during this time of Covid-19 - and to spread the "contagion" of hope. "This is not a time for indifference," said the Pope, "because the whole world is suffering and needs to be united in facing the pandemic.

Firstly, the Commission has endorsed the urgent call by UN General Secretary, António Guterres for a Global Ceasefire, in a petition promoted by Avaaz. Pope Francis is among those making this appeal and in the Urbi et Orbi Easter Message he called for "an immediate global ceasefire in all corners of the world," saying this is not a time for division.

Secondly, they have signed up to the Jubilee Debt Campaign, advocating for debt relief for the Global South to keep money in developing countries for healthcare to respond to the pandemic, responding to the Pope's appeal for "the reduction, if not the forgiveness, of the debt burdening the balance sheets of the poorest nations.

Colette Joyce, Justice and Peace Co-ordinator, says: "In these days of crisis, a great number of online petitions have been pouring into the Commission inbox and I have been signing and promoting as many as possible to beg for social change at home and abroad, but found it isn't easy to keep current when policy is changing on an almost daily basis. We strongly encourage people to continue to put immediate pressure on governments to make urgent and essential policy improvements, but we decided we needed to look at the big picture as well, to see what large-scale changes need to be made in the longer term to move us away from daily fire-fighting.

The COVID19 pandemic is laying bare the staggering inequalities between human beings and the huge injustices that maintain our structurally unfair societies. At the same time, we have discovered that despite, maybe even because of lockdown, there is an increasing capacity for universal co-operation. Now is the time to harness it for the greater good!"

Fr Dominic Robinson, SJ, Justice and Peace Chair, writes: "Pope Francis is urging us to recognise how on a global scale now is the time to make choices which will build a new more human future. The current global crisis requires us to put aside our past divisions and to work together for the health of the whole human race. This requires us to cancel the debt of the poorer nations and to put an end to conflicts between peoples. It is our hope that this radical call will be heeded by those who have the power to bring this about."

No-one is safe until everyone is safe!

LINKS

Westminster Justice and Peace Commission - https://westminsterjp.wordpress.com/campaigns/

Petition - Call for Global Ceasefire - https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/global_ceasefire_loc/

Petition - Coronavirus: Cancel the debts of countries in the global south - https://jubileedebt.org.uk/actions/stop-coronavirus-debt-disaster