- Hélder Câmara
-
Hélder Pessoa Câmara
Dom Hélder Pessoa Câmara (February 7, 1909, Fortaleza, Ceará, North East Brazil - August 27, 1999 Recife) was Roman Catholic Archbishop of Olinda and Recife.
He was known as the 'Bishop of Corum' and took a clear position with the urban poor.[1]
In 1959 he founded Banco da Providência in Rio de Janeiro, a philanthropic organization that still exists fighting poverty and social injustices.
He is famous for stating, "When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why are they poor, they call me a Communist."[2]
Camara's short tract, Spiral of Violence (1971), was written at the time of the Vietnam war. It is distinctive not just for the manner in which it links structural injustice (Level 1 violence) with escalating rebellion (Level 2 violence) and repressive reaction (Level 3 violence), but also for the way in which Camara calls upon the youth of the world to take steps for breaking the spiral to which their elders are often addicted. This book has been out of print for about 20 years (in the UK), but a scanned version is now available on the web at the link given below.
In 1973, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC).[3] He was awarded the Pacem in Terris Award. It was named after a 1963 encyclical letter by Pope John XXIII that calls upon all people of good will to secure peace among all nations. Pacem in Terris is Latin for "Peace on Earth."
References
- ^ `Bishop of the slums'
- ^ "Quando dou comida aos pobres chamam-me de santo. Quando pergunto por que eles são pobres chamam-me de comunista." - cited in "Helder, o dom: uma vida que marcou os rumos da Igreja no Brasil" - Page 53, by Zildo Rocha - Published by Editora Vozes, 2000, ISBN 85-326-2213-5, 9788532622136 - 208 pages
- ^ AFSC's Past Nobel Nominations
External links
- links for Dom Helder Camara
- Text of Camara's "Spiral of Violence"
- Text of Camara's 1972 speeches to Mani Tese
Niwano Peace Prize laureates Hélder Câmara (1983) · Homer A. Jack (1984) · Zhao Puchu (1985) · Philip A. Potter (1986) · World Muslim Congress (1987) · Etai Yamada (1989) · Norman Cousins (1990) · Hildegard Goss-Mayr (1991) · A. T. Ariyaratne (1992) · Neve Shalom ~ Wahat as-Salam (1993) · Paulo Evaristo Arns (1994) · M. Aram (1995) · Marii Hasegawa (1996) · Corrymeela Community (1997) · Maha Ghosananda (1998) · Community of Sant'Egidio (1999) · Kang Won Yong (2000) · Elias Chacour (2001) · Samuel Ruiz García (2002) · Scilla Elworthy (2003) · Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative (2004) · Hans Küng (2005) · Rabbis for Human Rights (2006) · Cheng Yen (2007) · Prince Hassan bin Talal (2008) · Gideon Byamugisha (2009) · Ela Bhatt (2010) · Sulak Sivaraksa (2011)
Categories:- Brazilian Roman Catholic archbishops
- Brazilian Roman Catholics
- 20th-century Roman Catholic archbishops
- Participants in the Second Vatican Council
- 20th-century theologians
- Nonviolence advocates
- 1909 births
- 1999 deaths
- People from Fortaleza
- Brazilian Christian socialists
- Brazilian Christian theologians
- Brazilian Christian pacifists
- Liberation theologians
- Brazilian people stubs
- Bishop stubs
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.