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Chrysostomos: Address to World Summit 2020
Written by Archbishop Chrysostomos (CELI): Metropolitan Archbishop of Orthodox Church of Latin America
Wednesday, February 5, 2020
Address to World Summit 2020, Seoul, Korea, February 3-8, 2020
Dear Brothers and Sisters of this big family under Universal Peace Federation. Once again I bring all love and best wishes from our beloved people of Latin America. This part of the Americas consists of 20 countries and 14 dependent territories that cover an area that stretches from Saint Pierre and Miquelon to Tierra del Fuego and includes much of the Caribbean. Its population is estimated at more than 642 million. Languages spoken are mainly Spanish and Portuguese.
In recent years we had a lot of changes in this territory because of politicians and the clear Neo Socialist Agenda, but Latin-Americans woke up in many countries and kicked out many of these autocrats. But their terrible consequences continue creating difficulties in all kind of ways.
For decades, anti-abortion campaigns in Latin America have been built around principles outlined in the Bible, and values of morality and decency, says Fernanda Doz Costa, Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Americas. Now, a new generation of activists opposed to abortion has adopted a rights-based approach arguing in favor of both the mother’s and the child’s rights, saying that abortion can be avoided in many cases without the mother having to raise the child.
Lawmakers in Argentina, Paraguay and Panama are proposing legislation that would allow the adoption of fetuses before birth, or would pressure hospitals into minimizing the number of abortions they carry out. In Paraguay, campaigners are trying to create a register for fetuses that die before birth. In Panama, Deputy Corina Cano is proposing a bill that would require hospitals to preserve for 72 hours the remains of fetuses that die before birth.
“This is all over the place now,” says Sonia Corrêa, a Brazilian researcher and founder of multiple nonprofit initiatives working on gender and sexual rights. “It’s the new front line of an offensive, and going toward the connection of adoption and abortion.”
These unconventional proposals come at a time when, according to a survey by Chilean polling firm Latinobarómetro, more people in 18 major Latin American nations feel abortion is justified (compared to 2007). But a majority of people across all countries in the region remain opposed to the practice. El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Haiti and the Dominican Republic already have complete bans on abortion.
Abortion, same-sex marriage, divorce, sex change, free use of drugs, and a systematic silencing campaign over all the religions, is part of this international agenda used in all countries in the world and attempted directly to the heart of the cleverest Christian Teachings. It is a Real ANTICHRIST Agenda.
An interreligious council at the United Nations, proposed by Rev. Sun Myung Moon, is of paramount importance for world politics. A council within the United Nations composed of representatives from various religions, parallel with the General Assembly, would enhance not only the United Nations’ effectiveness as an institution of global governance but also humanity’s spiritual renewal on the foundation of God’s true love.
By failing to fully appreciate the importance of religions and spirituality, the United Nations chose a path that could not but compromise its influence. Rev. Moon noted that, in analyzing contemporary problems and trying to solve them, the UN has been leaning to one side, ignoring the moral and spiritual aspects of current political developments. If this continues, the UN will be unable to accomplish the purpose for which it was founded, and its relevance will diminish in the future.
Rev. Moon speaks of an interreligious council as a way to renew the UN, based on the ideal of God’s true love and living sacrificially for the sake of others. His fundamental concern with the current UN is that it does not consider God to be the ultimate standard of moral value and has not adopted living for the sake of others as its guiding principle. An interreligious council should emphasize service which promotes reconciliation among religions, nations, races, ethnic groups, rich and poor, north and south, etc.
This interreligious council was proposed by Rev. Dr. Moon at the UN in August 2000. The formal initiative to establish such a body was introduced by the Philippines to the UN General Assembly in 2005. Since that time we have seen the work of the different bodies inside the UPF, and the extraordinary development of the IAPD (Interreligious Association for Peace and Development), in perfect harmony with IRLC (International Religious Leadership Conferences), and with the example of the American Clergy Leadership Conference (ACLC). Now we give welcome to this absolutely necessary inspiration of God, the World Clergy Leadership Conference, and I feel totally grateful to Mother Moon to be included in the Steering Committee. I am totally sure the ideal of Rev. Moon is being accomplished through these different organizations in only one Spirit: One True Family in God.
The effectiveness of the council will depend on its ability to cooperate with national governments, international organizations, and other civil society institutions. It would build upon the success of Universal Peace Federation programs such as the Middle East Peace Initiative, the Northeast Asia Peace Initiative, HIV/AIDS prevention, character education, marriage and family education, global citizenship education, and humanitarian service and relief.
Such an interreligious council should be a critical part of UN reform. However, for it to become part of the United Nations system will require vision, leadership, courage and creativity. The key objective is to transform the UN from the traditional “diplomatic club” and arena of interaction among national governments into a comprehensive international body representing different national, ethnic, social and professional groups with the same decision-making powers as governments (not all of which are democratically elected and thus authorized to represent their respective nations and countries). The United Nations could then be guided by spiritual principles and moral values, as Dr. Moon proposed.
The council would embody the moral authority of its members, who would represent religious traditions in all countries. If the assertion that each religion calls for peace and reconciliation is true, then an interreligious council would draw upon the practical abilities of people of different beliefs to cooperate and change the world for the better.
From his first years in America, Father Moon always talked about how to solve what he called the “three headaches of God.” All the work he undertook, and every effort he made from that day until his passing and return to God seven years ago, was always focused on healing these three headaches.
The first headache is the breakdown of the family and resultant moral corruption of young people. Then we need to continue educational programs for youth, and in particular women, wanting to tap the hearts and minds of the mothers of the world for peace, cultivating more and more true families living in accordance with God’s will.
The second headache of God is the human tendency to value things above people, wealth above relationships, power above justice. Dr. Moon determined to fight against materialism and selfish individualism, and to work for a peaceful end to the Cold War and the unification of his native Korea. This new fight is not only fundamental in Latin America, Africa and Asia, but there is a real need to fight against continued international efforts to make all religions and all moral principles disappear.
The third headache of God is the problem of religious discord and conflict. It is a miserable and lasting paradox that violence continues to be carried out in the name of God by those who profess faith but practice violence, who call for peace but only on terms favorable to themselves, who seek to exclude, judge and separate, causing enormous pain to the one parent of us all.
Now, my dear brothers and sisters, I will invite you to work really hard on all these proposals, and let us declare in our hearts this 2020 until 2028 the season of Victory, where we need to give the best of ourselves, working together, and avoiding all kind of divisions, to achieve the final glorious moment to give to all this convulsed world a real path of Truth, a real path of Love, a real true Family to restore this world.
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