Mexico – Communiqué: The Church proposes a National Dialogue for peace and justice
Walking towards building peace, proceeding against impunity, and living with dignity and justice in a country of victims of disappearances, murders, kidnappings, displacements, and femicides is the desire of millions in Mexico and the objective of the National Dialogue for Peace, which we celebrate from September 21 to 23 at the Universidad Iberoamericana Puebla.
This Dialogue arose in response to the murders of Jesuit priests Javier and Joaquín in Cerocahui,Chihuahua, and thousands of other victims, the seeds that sprout and produce resilience. And that is why civil society organizations, academia, victims, vulnerable groups (migrants and indigenous), representatives of different religions, local governments, business people, experts and committed citizens will converge.
Also behind the Dialogue are 15 months of work carried out in the Conversations and the Forums, where hundreds of people brought their commitment and proposals, convinced there is a better future, and are now preparing to converge against the crisis of violence and insecurity.
The Mexican Province of the Society of Jesus, the Conference of the Mexican Episcopate, the Conference of Major Superiors of Religious of Mexico and the Episcopal Dimension for the Laity will host this National Dialogue, to which the whole society is invited to share proposals and testimonies and join the path towards the construction of peace.
The axes to reflect come from our good practices around three major themes: citizen security, daily justice, human rights and reconstruction of the social fabric. As a result of the Dialogue, a National Peace Agenda will be presented, whose objective is to submit concrete proposals to create conditions against violence.
The [National Peace] Agenda will be a living document that will be working with an interdisciplinary group of leading experts on issues of violence, advocacy and peace, such as Sergio López Ayllón, from CIDE; Elena Azaola, CIESAS; Rodrigo Peña, COLMEX; Raúl Benítez, UNAM / CASEDE; Diana Lepe, SERAPAZ; Carlos Juárez, Institute of Economics and Peace; Sergio García and Alfonso Celestino, INCIDE SOCIAL, and Ana Paula Hernández, Ibero Mexico City.
As a Church, we know we have a country wounded in all sectors of society, that fear and violence are intensifying, and that the cruelty of recent events undermines our social coexistence and mounts a collective feeling of fear and powerlessness. Faced with such social decay, we shall propose ways to build from the local level towards the desired peace. The answer to changing this panorama requires everyone’s commitment.
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