Justice and Peace - Past Articles

Between 2005 and 2007, the Justice and Peace Group was involved in:

• The Migrants’ Mass in Westminster Cathedral and the rally in Trafalgar Square, in May 2007.
• The Make Poverty History campaign of 2005.
• The peaceful demonstration at the G8 Summit in Edinburgh in July 2005.

In addition, some members have attended the National Justice and Peace Conference in Swanwick and the lecture by Fr. Sean McDonagh on the environment. We also link up with Westminster Justice and Peace.

Our past studies have focussed on sex trafficking which included a visit to the exhibition in Trafalgar Square and sending a letter to our MP, Sir Malcolm Rifkind. During our sharing we felt the need to start Fair trade in our parish.

Migrants’ Mass and March

This parish is a member of London Citizens who organized a Mass for Migrants at the Cathedral on May 1st 2008.

At the Mass Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor said that he wanted migrants to know “how much we welcome you migrants who are worthy of dignity and a place in our country.”

After the Mass, the congregation joined thousands of people marching to Trafalgar Square chanting the slogan of the day, “Strangers into Citizens.” In the Square faith leaders, politicians and trade union leaders called for the many thousands of irregular migrants who have lived and worked among us for years to be given legal status.

The great publicity given to this campaign means that it cannot be ignored by the Government; more that 60 MPs have now signed a motion supporting this movement.

Make Poverty History

We from the Servite Parish were part of the 8,000 people who joined the march in the autumn of 2005 calling for Trade Justice, not free trade, for the poor countries.

Three hundred and seventy five MPs were lobbied that day. Each area met their MP so we had time with Sir Malcolm Rifkind.

Lots of people wore white bands – the symbol for the global fight to end poverty.

Although things have happened since there is still a need to put pressure on the government.

Joining the March for Poverty at Edinburgh

by Lucy Westmore

My Scottish cousin put it into words perfectly, “how lovely” she said “have you brought everyone from your church with you” – she was of course referring to our signed sash, but it hadn’t struck me until then just how important and humbling a job I was doing in representing all the lovely people from the Servite Church on Fulham Road.

My cousins live near the Meadows venue so we set out on foot, all in white, towards the march. As we got nearer the streets filled with more and more of us heading in the same direction, most people like us dressed head to toe in white, and some already carrying Make Poverty History banners. The atmosphere was wonderful, very peaceful, very friendly, but with a serious intent.

As we walked through the crowds of people we noticed hundreds of banners from all denominations from all over the country, it was an amazing thought that so many people had worked so hard and travelled far and wide to be there.

There were temporary stages set up with huge video screens where films from Africa illustrated the human face of the poverty everyone there was fighting against. An AIDS stricken man from Zambia told how he was watching a programme on the BBC in which mothers were complaining about the type of food their children were given at school “our children have no food at all at school,” he said. At 41 years old he had no friends of his own age left, they had all died. Another film which played over again and again, showed people clicking their fingers to represent the death of a child from poverty every three seconds, a powerful reminder of why we were there.

There were people of all ages, hundreds of banners and placards, most on the Make Poverty History theme.

On one side of the Meadows lay enormous wooden letters each about 10 feet high, spelling out Make Poverty History, the intention was to raise them up high at the end of the day for everyone to see. We were asked to staple our sashes and banners to them, so I found a spot on the cross bar of the T in History to leave ours, it was sad to see this was not shown on the news; however I was pleased that we were able to do our bit to Make Poverty History.