“Catholic Approaches to Mining is the result of a year-long consultation process with Catholic groups and individuals working in mining-affected areas,” said , assistant director of CPN. “It’s a collection of their insights, offering guidance for how others in the global Catholic community can more effectively engage issues of mining to promote peace, integral human development and environmental protection.”
The nearly 50-page report identifies problems associated with mining — social, economic and environmental among them — and analyzes these issues through Catholic social teaching to provide a path forward for mining-affected communities.
Mining is difficult and dangerous work and workers are often exploited, which impacts family relations and structure. Mining can have serious impacts on the health of local communities, especially for children and for women’s reproductive health. Its activities often generate unjust economic relations and can deepen poverty dynamics, with mining companies at times taking the place of the state as providers of public services. Collectively, these outcomes jeopardize the social fabric of local communities.
From an environmental standpoint, there are myriad negative ecological impacts associated with mining activities: deforestation, desertification, increased climate vulnerability, biodiversity loss, pollution and contamination. These contribute to permanent changes in the landscape, which introduce a new set of risks and vulnerabilities for mine-affected communities already confronting more extreme weather events induced by climate change. In turn, this can lead to loss of livelihoods and increased migration.
Furthermore, these social, economic and environmental factors often worsen violent conflict by pitting members of communities against one another, causing danger for civic leaders and defenders of human rights and the environment, or exacerbating existing conflict dynamics.
“In many parts of the world, the Catholic Church serves as a peacebuilder at the forefront of accompanying communities faced with systemic crises,” Montevecchio said. “Because of the power inequalities related to mining, it is imperative for Church actors to defend the rights of local communities, and with them determine local and global responses that promote integral human development, protect ecosystems and mitigate conflict.”
To that end, the report offers modes of engagement to help Church actors and their collaborators make informed decisions about mining and the most prudent path forward. All engagement stems from pastoral closeness, or what Catholic organizations call accompaniment. Among these accompaniment measures are documentation and communications, such as data collection, case studies and communication campaigns; training and capacity building in legal literacy, mediation and advocacy skills, scientific understanding, land management and alternative livelihoods; advocacy through legal prosecution, legislative reform and disinvestment campaigns; and nonviolent civil resistance.
Montevecchio moderated the panel discussion, which featured a slate of participants representing organizations that collaborated on the report: Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development; Elena Sofia Fanciulli, Caritas Internationalis; Jing Rey Henderson, Caritas Internationalis; Liliana Zamudio Vaquiro, Caritas Colombia; Rev. Rigobert Minani, SJ, Centre d’Etudes pour l’Action Sociale (DRC); and Séverine Deneulin, Laudato Si’ Research Institute.
The consultation process leading up to Catholic Approaches to Mining involved a series of online workshops over the past year with 35 individuals from 18 countries. It culminated in an international conference, “,” in Bogotá, Colombia, in June that brought together another 60 people from around the globe who shared their experiences, challenges and successes facing problems from mining and gave additional input for the newly released report.
The Catholic Peacebuilding Network is made up of two dozen bishops’ conferences, universities, research centers and peace and development agencies that work to enhance the Catholic Church’s capacity for peacebuilding by deepening solidarity, sharing best practices and conducting research. Its accompaniment of conflict-affected communities led CPN to begin its in 2014.
After publishing in 2022, CPN sought to develop a practical publication aimed at an audience of Church leaders and practitioners. That effort was accelerated after CPN joined a 2024 meeting of the focused on conflict and mining. At that meeting, the African bishops voiced a desire for a manual that could serve as a starting point for Church organizations to learn more about mining and how to effectively defend communities from the mining-related conflict and harm that they were seeing in their dioceses.
“Catholic Approaches to Mining is an attempt to meet that need, not only for the bishops in Africa but for others in the worldwide Catholic community facing similar challenges,” said Montevecchio said.
“The framework we’ve created supports the concern of Pope Francis, who emphasized mining-related ecological and social issues in Laudato Si’ and elsewhere. It also sheds light on the teaching and experience of the Church in the Global South, where bishops and others have been on the front lines of confronting pollution, deforestation, land dispossession, violence and human rights violations in connection with mining.”
The report is a collaboration of CPN; the at ; the Holy See Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development; ; and the Kroc Institute.
Originally published by at on Oct. 21.
Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu
]]>The presentation can be watched live on the U.N. livestream service: .
, director of PAM and associate professor of the practice, will offer a briefing as part of an open debate, “Peace through Dialogue: The Contribution of Regional, Subregional and Bilateral Arrangements to the Prevention and Peaceful Resolution of Disputes.”
Debate attendees include both permanent and non-permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, in addition to civil society representatives such as Michelle Bachelet, former U.N. high commissioner for human rights and former president of Chile. The debate is being convened by the Mission of Brazil to the U.N., which occupies the presidency of the council in October.
“An invitation to present on a world stage such as this is testament to the pivotal work of Josefina and the entire PAM team,” said Asher Kaufman, the John M. Regan Jr. Director of the Kroc Institute and professor of history and peace studies.
Click for more information about the debate.
The is part of the at the .
Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu
Originally published by at on Oct. 17.
]]>Drawing on case studies from civil wars, such as those in Colombia, Central African Republic, Guatemala and Northern Ireland, the brief was written by a team of scholars, practitioners and policymakers and edited by of the University of Notre Dame and Catherine Panter-Brick and Bisa Williams from Yale University. The policy brief builds on conversations generated during the , an event held last November that attracted a diverse pool of attendees with wide-ranging experience as academics and practitioners.
Echavarría Alvarez, who convened last year’s colloquium, is an associate professor of the practice at Notre Dame and director of the Kroc Institute’s .
“Peace agreements represent the beginning — not the end — of a reform and reconciliation process that must be inclusive and participatory throughout its duration,” she said.
“Evidence shows that public buy-in of an agreement by a range of stakeholders, including those of local communities directly affected by violence and armed groups, leads to better outcomes.”
“This brief crystallizes new ideas in the field of peacebuilding — such as ways to support the meaningful inclusivity, legitimacy and sustainability of peace agreements,” said , the Bruce A. and Davi-Ellen Chabner Professor of Anthropology, Health and Global Affairs at Yale University.
The timing of the policy brief’s release complemented President Joe Biden’s visit to Northern Ireland this week, marking the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement that ended decades of violence of the Troubles, an ethno-nationalist conflict that began in the late 1960s.
In another nod to the anniversary, the Kroc Institute and the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish 91Ƶ will co-host an in-person roundtable on the Good Friday Agreement at 3:30 p.m. April 14 at the University of Notre Dame. Echavarría Alvarez will join panelists from the University of Oxford to discuss peace processes and treaties in a comparative framework. More information can be found .
Originally published by at on April 13.
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