Misereor's Lent 2024 campaign was launched on Sunday with a solemn service in St Ludwig's Church in Ludwigshafen. Under the motto "Does the bean interest me", the Catholic organisation for development cooperation is inviting people to get involved in sustainable agriculture and healthy nutrition together with partner organisations from Colombia. During Lent, Misereor will provide information about its project work throughout Germany and ask for donations. The campaign is supported by groups in parishes, schools and organisations that carry out extensive education, lobbying and advocacy work as well as imaginative fundraising campaigns. On 17 March, the 5th Sunday of Lent, donations for the work of Misereor will be collected in all Catholic parishes in Germany.

In his sermon during the service, which was broadcast live on ARD television, the Bishop of the Diocese of Speyer, Dr Karl-Heinz Wiesemann, appealed for solidarity with disadvantaged people in the Global South. "'I don't give a damn': the Misereor motto wants to shake us up and call out to us: Wake up! Stand up against injustice and exploitation! Be alert wherever human dignity is not applied equally to all, where justice and freedom are threatened! Where power is not controlled by the people, where democracy is being undermined and diversity and solidarity are being made contemptible." Wiesemann denounced the "frightening indifference" of many people "who don't give a damn about how the farmers in Colombia and all countries of the global South are faring. Under what, sometimes inhumane, conditions they have to grow coffee beans, bananas or oranges. How much they suffer from the global political and economic mechanisms, about which Pope Francis makes the harsh judgement: 'This economy kills'".

Much has already been achieved

Claudia Burbano, Misereor partner from the Catholic diocese of Pasto in Colombia, who spoke together with the Colombian Misereor partner Rafael Jurado in the context of the sermon, expressed her thanks for the support from Germany in favour of an agricultural project that shows a way out of poverty and violence by converting to organic farming: "Thanks to the project, we and many families have grown closer together and are more self-confident in their dealings with the state. We have already achieved a lot: electricity connection, access roads to the farms, regular waste collection, a secondary school."

Pirmin Spiegel, Managing Director of Misereor, invites us to "let our partners motivate us to protect biodiversity and use nature sparingly. A common path only works through genuine interest in each other and remembering this in everyday life."

Under this link: https://my.hidrive.com/share/5vklnn4gat you can download photos from the opening service of the Misereor Lent campaign on Sunday, 18 February 2024, from around 2 pm. The photos may be used with reference to the copyright Landry | Misereor.