Religions for Peace Brazil Sponsors An Interreligious Website to Mourn & Memorialise 100,000 Victims of COVID-19

Religions for Peace, Brazil 20200915

As of August 8, Brazil surpassed the mark of 100,000 deaths caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the pain and the sadness in the country was huge. To transmit a message of solidarity and empathy to all Brazilians, Religions for Peace Brazil issued the “Multi-religious Declaration for the Brazilian Nation Amid the Covid-19 Crisis” which was signed by diverse religious leaders and faith-based organisations (FBOs) including the Alliance of Baptists (ABB), Evangelical Christian Alliance (ACEB), Islamic National Union (UNI, and Israelite Confederation (CONIB), National Conference of Catholic Bishops (CNBB), National Council of Christian Churches (CONIC), and National Institute of Afro-Brazilian Tradition and Culture (INTECAB) were among the signatories.

“It is a moment of interruption of indifference. Faith does not authorise us to remain indifferent in the face of human suffering”, said Pastor Romi Bencke, Secretary General of the National Council of Christian Churches and signatory of the Multi-religious Declaration.

In order to ensure that the Multi-religious Declaration reached those most vulnerable and in need of emotional and spiritual solidarity, Religions for Peace Brazil, CONIC, the Institute of Religious Studies (ISER), and Peace and Hope Brazil launched the Lamento 100 Mil website, dedicated to the mourning and memory of COVID-19 victims in Brazil. The website not only shares in the grief and sadness of bereaving families but also delivers songs, prayers, homilies, and messages of hope from countless religious leaders, artists, celebrities, and ordinary Brazilians.

The Multi-religious Declaration and Lamento 100 Mil received widespread dissemination in the general and religious press due to the devotion of religious leaders and organisations to the challenging, yet noteworthy, undertaking of interreligious collaboration and coordination.

Michel Schlesinger, Rabbi of the Congregação Israelita Paulista and Representative of the Israelite Confederation of Brazil for Interreligious Dialogue, reiterated that solidarity and community are essential values to overcome the detrimental impacts of the coronavirus. “We are on a collective journey that already counts 100,000 fatal victims in Brazil. Only empathy and solidarity will be able to lead us to the other side. Only in this way, we will arrive faster and stronger at the end of this pandemic.”

By way of the Multi-religious Humanitarian Fund, launched by Religions for Peace in April 2020, and in partnership with CONIC, the ISER, and Peace and Hope Brazil, Religions for Peace Brazil organised an event to honour those who passed in the pandemic, announcing the “Lamento 100 mil” and concluding with a live reading of the Multi-religious Declaration.

Moderator of the Latin American and the Caribbean Council of Religious Leaders (Religions for Peace Latin America and the Caribbean), H.E. Cardinal Raymundo Damasceno Assis, also shared a message at the event in which he expressed his solidarity with the victims of COVID-19.

The power of religious leadership is increasingly witnessed in moments of uncertainty. But faith-based traditions, organisations, and leaders are far more powerful together – mobilising towards a common goal and mission, than they are when working in silos. Religions for Peace Brazil further proves that through multi-religious collaboration, those most impacted by disaster and catastrophe are best served when faiths are united side-by-side across gender, socioeconomic, religious, and generational confines.

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