“We cannot separate action for justice from the proclamation of the Word of God.”
Inspired by the words of the late Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ, Jesuit Superior General (1965-1983), we call for a political system that is inspired by faith. Our small island communities with close relationships and deep abiding faith in God have been negatively impacted by the political system. Politics as practiced in Chuuk today has torn our people apart and caused unnecessary hardships among an otherwise peace-loving culture. It has caused disunity among our clans and hopelessness in our faith communities. The corruption in the political system has made us cynical about the goodness of democracy. We are easily persuaded by a new culture of obligation through bribery. Today we seem to put our faith aside when participating in the political system. We seem to separate our faith in God from the politics of civic engagement. We must learn to let our faith inspire our political decisions rather than allowing the hopelessness of politics to divide us. We need faith-filled leadership and a faith-inspired people in the outer islands.
Action Strategies:
- Produce a Training Manual for religious leaders in the outer islands on how to organize the faith community to organize faith-inspired forums and discussions on their respective island communities which look at the root causes of political disunity while enabling people to seek information to be informed voters.
- Partner with Xavier High School to host a week-long Northwest Leadership Retreat program in the summer for all Catholic and Protestant religious leaders from the Northwest Region to reflect prayerfully on the topic of “How Faith Can Inspire and Unite our Political System” in the outer islands. The retreat would lead to the creation of
- Facilitate regular discussions between political leaders, traditional leaders, and religious leaders on how to continue to work together to achieve a faith-inspired political system.
