Eradication of poverty high priority in Argentina, notes bishop

Jun 25, 2010 / 19:49 pm

During a press conference Thursday announcing the Mar de Plata Social Week, which will take place June 25-27, Bishop Jorge Casaretto who heads the Argentinean bishops’ social ministry committee, said the objective of the event is “to continue working on the priorities of the 2010-2016 bicentennial to eradicate poverty and promote comprehensive development.”

According to the press office of the Diocese of Mar de Plata, Bishop Casaretto said, “A consensus must be achieved by contemplating the concrete faces of those who suffer the most and await concrete actions by all of us who, at different levels, have responsibilities to the public.”

“As we pointed out in the bicentennial document, we need to be aware that we will only obtain stable achievements through dialogue and consensus in support of the common good, if we take into account particularly our poor and excluded brothers and sisters.  When personal interests take precedence over the common good, poverty will inevitably increase,” the bishop said.

“These six years of the bicentennial can be a great opportunity, a time of conversion to grow in social awareness and in an authentic culture of justice, solidarity and the just distribution of goods,” he added.  “The Church operates from this perspective in order to achieve … a greater fraternity, so that we can truly encounter each other as brothers,” the bishop said.