A recent seminar organized by Viva Rio and entitled “Human Security, a Social Agenda for the Next Ten Years”, aimed to animate leaders from social pastors of Catholic Churches in Rio to become more active in reducing violence in their communities. The human security theme will be at the heart of Viva Rio’s activities over the next years, and is already a priority in important international forums like the United Nations. Participants discussed spirituality, social responsibility, and the challenges of working to construct a more just society, among other topics.
The following participants were present at the seminar: Rubem César Fernandes, anthropologist and executive coordinator of Viva Rio; Adilson Pires, local politician and coordinator of the political pastoral of the Archdiocese of Rio; Padre Renato Chiera, general coordinator of the youth center in São Miguel Arcango, Marcelo Camurça, of the Department of Sciences and Religion of the Federal University in Juiz de Fora; Dom João Maria Messi; Rogério Dardeau, of Ceris; Maria Clara Bingemer, director of the Loyola Center for Faith and Culture of the Catholic University in Rio; and Tião Santos, coordinator of Radio Viva Rio and of the Viva Favela Network.
Tião Santos mediated the event. “This is the first of many such meetings ahead of us. In order for a human security project to be a success, we need to work together. In this seminar, the priority is to seek ways in which we can make the community leaders take up the issue again since we have noted that participation has been decreasing in recent years. We invited representatives of pastorals of the Catholic Church so that they will become our partners and get interested in participating more,” he explained. The idea is that various segments of the population, both policy makers and civil society, work together for a more secure and humane life.
“There is already one municipality that is developing a pilot project in human security. In Resende (Rio de Janeiro state), a partnership between Viva Rio and the mayor – with the participation of military, civil and municipal police – has been underway for nearly three months. Research on violence has been conducted and these results gave way to a Municipal Public Security Plan, which will be coordinated by all of these partners,” according to Santos. On the December 2nd, there will be a large meeting with Catholic leaders and agents of the pastorals in Resende to help push the plan forward. The next cities to be inserted in the project are Niterói, Barra Mansa and Petrópolis.
In addition to defining the December meeting, other actions were also laid out during the meeting. In partnership with the Center for Biblical Studies (
Centro de Estudos Bíblicos, CEBI), Viva Rio will produce a bulletin, using accessible language, to help explain the concept of human security. The bulletin will be distributed by the social pastoral agents. The objective is that all communities understand the importance of working together with many different segments of society, in order to improve quality of life.
