Teens encourage support for Development and Peace

By AL MELLA
Special to the WCR
Edmonton

Solidarity Sunday, March 26, the fifth Sunday of Lent, marked a high point of Share Lent, a Development and Peace campaign of educating Canadians of the causes of poverty and injustice and fundraising to support its projects in the Global South.

In St. Theresa's and Corpus Christi parishes in Millwoods, Edmonton, Solidarity Sunday was observed with two families sharing their reflection during the Masses. They expressed solidarity with communities in the Global South.

"By using our Lifestyle Awareness Calendar, our family has discovered many things that we should be very thankful for. For instance, we have five televisions in our house," says Anya Palm, 13.

Anya and her brother Schyler, 15, shared their thoughts with Corpus Christi parishioners during the Masses.

Schyler said, "Aluminum pop and soup cans can be recycled. I'm sure that if you look at your household, like we did, you'll discover that you use a lot more soup cans and pop cans than you realized."

The Lifestyle Awareness Calendar was distributed by Development and Peace at the start of Lent. It invited reflection on the omnipresence of metal in our daily lives. It also offered opportunity to express solidarity with communities in the South that are demanding that mining companies act responsibly.

Anya said, "One of the most common minerals in the world is salt. Our family is able to have salt at every meal, and on popcorn, pretzels and all sorts of other foods.

"Salt is mined and children in the poor places in the world have to mine to help support their families. Our family and most families in North America do not have to send their children to work just to survive."

Schyler added, "We are fortunate enough to have water whenever we are thirsty, or to wash our hands or have showers.

"We are also able to eat healthily, while people in three-quarters of the places in the world don't even get enough food, let alone healthy foods from all food groups."

The Palms urged the parishioners to help make a difference in the lives of people in the South by contributing to Share Lent.

This year's Lenten theme - No Peace Without Development - is a pointed reminder that the glaring inequalities between countries in the North and South, addressed by Pope Paul VI in his Populorum Progressio (Development of Peoples) encyclical 40 years ago, still exist today.

"Solidarity Sunday is a fitting reminder to Catholics in Canada that support of the poor is inherent in the Catholic social teaching, whose principles emphasize human dignity and respect in community, with a preferential option for the poor,' said Michael Casey, executive director of Development and Peace.

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