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"The Current Economic System is Immoral", affirms Pastor Carlos Möller |
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The president of the Brazilian National Council of Christian Churches (CONIC), Pastor Carlos Möller, presided over the ecumenical celebration marking the opening of the Ecumenical Fraternity Campaign (CFE), on the evening of 17th February at the Church of Dom Bosco in Brasilia . Speaking on the theme of the Campaign, “Economics and Life”, the pastor criticized the world economic system and, citing a lot of data concerning international and Brazilian economies, denounced the increase in the number of the world’s hungry.
"We must have the courage to affirm that the current economic system is immoral and insufficient," he said. "The Fraternity Campaign should provide us with the courage to revise the economic concepts that prevail in the world and in our country," he added. He condemned, for example, the high interest rates and the profit of the bankers. "Nothing justifies the high interest rates," he stressed.
The Fraternity Campaign this year discusses the economy and its relationship to life. The five churches that make up Conic, responsible for the Campaign, denounce an economy that places profit above the life and dignity of the human person. They equally reject an economic system that is based on a development that harms the environment and increases the gap between rich and poor.
“Each and every economic system should be at the service of life and not the profit of the banks” , said the President of Conic.
According to Möller, the goal set by the UNO to reduce by half the number of hungry and impoverished people in the world by 2015 is far from being attained. “Ten years have gone by and the number of the poor has increased”.
For the pastor, Brazil will be viable in the measure that it applies the taxes collected to that for which they were destined. He further demanded "honesty and better distribution of income" in the country
Ecumenism
Present at the ecumenical celebration in the Church of Dom Bosco were representatives from the Lutheran, Anglican, Roman Catholic, Syrian Orthodox and United Presbyterian Churches, A group of approximately 150 faithful took part in the ceremony that lasted an hour and a half.
A message from Pope Benedict XVI to the CFE was read by the archbishop of Brasília, dom João Braz de Aviz. While the president of the Lutheran Church read a message from the World Council of Churches, in which he is the moderator.
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