SICSAL: artículos y noticias

The International Christian Service in Solidarity with Latin America “Oscar Romero” (SICSAL) was founded in 1980 in response to the challenge of Christians involved in the people’s movements of Central America inspired by Archbishop Oscar Romero and all those who gave their lives in faithfulness to the Gospel and to the option for the poor.

If your organization would like to affiliate with SICSAL, contact EPICA at admin@epica.org, or visit the SICSAL website at www.sicsal.net.

Today, SICSAL is a world-wide Christian ecumenical network of solidarity with impoverished peoples. It brings together organizations and people committed to the promotion of faith-based solidarity. It works for justice and truth as a way of serving and accompanying the cause of liberation.

The spirituality of SICSAL finds its inspiration in the spirituality of the martyrs of Latin America, especially Archbishop Romero, God’s prophet, who allowed himself to be led by the Spirit, alongside the poor, pointing toward the utopia of a new world.

The spirituality of SICSAL is centered on solidarity, which arises from the experience of God in solidarity with all people, but especially with the poor and excluded. In the person of Jesus, who stood in the tradition of the biblical prophets, announcing the Good News of justice, denouncing oppression, and consoling the afflicted, God enters into solidarity with the poor.

In a world globalized by neo-liberalism, a political project that is merciless to human beings and to nature, the spirituality of solidarity challenges us to globalize justice, hope, love, and to break down barriers and boundaries that separate us, in order to open ourselves to the peoples of the world in a spirit of respect and fraternal dialogue.

Specific Goals of SICSAL include:
1. To call together and join with faith-based solidarity organizations in a spirit of fraternal and ecumenical communion.
2. To share the spirituality of Archbishop Romero and other martyrs of the Americas in order to enrich and orient our commitment to solidarity.
3. To promote theological reflection rooted in the struggles and aspirations of those who struggle for justice and liberation.
4. To support the demands for justice of those sectors of the population - such as indigenous peoples, Afro-Americans, women and migrants - who prophetically struggle against all that threatens the life of human beings and nature.
5. To share analyses of the social, political, economic, and ecclesial reality in order to better inform our commitment to solidarity.

SICSAL is located in more than 25 countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Past presidents include Bishop Sergio Mendez Arceo and Bishop Samuel Ruiz. The current president is Bishop Alvaro Ramazzini from San Marcos, Guatemala.