Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

The Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace is now in its 41st year of bringing hope to the poor and defenceless in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Over $500 million has been raised in Canada since Development and Peace was founded by our Catholic Bishops in1967. Since then more than 14,000 projects have been completed with 200 partners in 28 countries of the global south. All this has been made possible by your generous contributions to Share Lent – the main source of funding for Development and Peace.

The theme for this year’s Share Lent campaign is “I believe: I give”. Our belief in justice and international solidarity leads us to pray, to act and to give. Today the gap between rich and poor nations grows even more huge and harmful, while warfare rather than peace is the tragic norm in many parts of the world. Two billion poor people in Asia, Africa and Latin America – a full one third of humanity - do not have the health programmes, the educational opportunities, the housing or the clean water to which they are entitled as God’s people.

Pope Paul VI’s encyclical letter Populorum Progressio (The Progress of Peoples) was written in 1967, the year Development and Peace was created. Many of today’s parents and educators were in their youth when Paul VI presented his challenge to be in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in need. He insisted that, we in rich countries are woefully underdeveloped as human beings as long as a world exists where so many struggle in poor countries with unacceptable human conditions. Forty years later this call is as significant as ever. I urge parents, grandparents and educators to strive to ensure that the youth of today are challenged, as were we, “to be in solidarity with the poor”.

Last year’s Share Lent collection was $ 351,196.00. I urge all the people of our Diocese to again be generous with their contributions to Share Lent.  The needs are greater than ever.

Fraternally yours in Christ,
+Jean-Louis Plouffe
Bishop of Sault Ste. Marie

Sudbury, ON
March 11, 2008

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