Last Updated: Tuesday - 01/04/2011

Archbishop supports Share Lent

You may have heard the saying, "If you give people a fish, you feed them for a day. If you teach them how to fish, you feed them for life." But what if you already know how to fish, but now your river has been diverted; the water is polluted; the fish are dead or contaminated; and your children are sick. What would you do?

This is the type of situation facing all too many of our sisters and brothers in the developing world today. Their very existence is threatened and so they cry out to the world for help. You can respond to their cry through your participation in Share Lent, our annual education and fundraising campaign led by the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace.

The Share Lent theme for this year, The Earth Is For All, Not For Sale, echoes the words of Pope John Paul II in Sollicitudo Rei Socialis in which he writes: "It is necessary to state once more the characteristic principle of Christian social doctrine: the goods of this world are originally meant for all."

Our Share Lent program this year gives us the opportunity to learn more about the threats to human dignity and basic livelihood experienced by many in Africa, Asia and Latin America, to judge these circumstances in the light of the Gospel and Church social teaching, and to act to help our partners in their struggle.

With your prayers and financial contributions you can help Development and Peace and its partner groups in the developing world to continue the struggle for a better world, one where the land and its resources are shared fairly, where local communities decide their future, where the fundamental dignity and human rights of all peoples are respected, where children can grow up healthy and safe.

I wish to thank each of you for your generosity in supporting Share Lent and participating in this vital work.

Thomas Collins
Archbishop of Edmonton

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