A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to look back over past editions of Columban Connections. Being the most recent addition to the PEJ centre team, I was fascinated reading about the state of the world from the Connections perspective over the years. The process prompted me to reflect about where I was at the time of the very first Columban Connections – all the way back in 2002.
In 2002, I was an eager 12 year old with eyes glued to the whiteboard in my year seven classroom at St Pius X Catholic School in Brisbane. My world back then was simple - school, family and friends, weekends an adventure and school holidays filled with fun, laughter and learning. I remember John Howard as Prime Minister, long warm summer days, and lawns all around Brisbane turning various shades of brown due to the worsening drought.
I also remember one September morning the year prior, I had stayed home sick from school. My mother came into my room in tears. Something terrible had happened. I was confused, I didn’t understand. What were the twin towers? Who would do something like this? We watched over the coming hours as the devastation unfolded. Shock, disbelief, pure suffering. Within an instant, the world seemed a different place.
2002, a year later, I was still mostly oblivious to the events of the world going on around me. The ‘war on terror’ was in full swing, the ‘millennium drought’ was worsening yearly and poverty and debt were wreaking havoc in developing nations.
Also at this time, the Columban PEJ Centre began to further its mission to connect issues of peace, ecology and justice with the gospel perspective in order to educate and inspire change in the wider community. In the very first issue of Columban Connections, then-convenor and Columban missionary priest, Fr Brian Gore, writes about debt in developing nations, unfair trade, genetic modification, slavery, asylum seekers and the ‘war on terror’. Over the ensuing years, Connections has remained focused on these very issues, aiming to promote an agenda of non-violence, economic justice and ecological conversion.
13 years on, it is both surprising yet expected that all of these issues remain at the forefront of PEJ education and campaigning in 2015. There have been successes. What this shows is that progress, whilst slow and often painstaking, is not altogether unattainable. People like me who once knew so little about the issues plaguing the world, are now working towards achieving the same goals.
In his last issue as Convenor of the PEJ Centre in 2003, Fr. Brian Gore stated:
If we ever had doubts as to the importance of this Columban ministry
then maybe now we will become believers. I pray that the work of this
Centre will continue to inspire and support all those who are working
for a more just, equitable and sustainable world.
I echo this sentiment exactly. Whilst it may be disheartening to see that issues of debt, war and conflict are still prominent around the world, it should also be encouraging to know that good can and will prevail.
Hannah Cifuentes is a staff member of the Columban Centre for Peace, Ecology & Justice.