RIO DE JANEIRO IS SITE OF 21ST CONGRESS OF APOSTLESHIP OF SEA

VATICAN CITY, SEP 19, 2002 (VIS) - The Apostleship of the Sea, a section of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, will celebrate its 21st congress in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from September 29 to October 5, 2002, according to a communique published by the dicastery.

"The Apostleship of the Sea in a new globalized world" will be the theme of the congress in which about 250 delegates (bishops, priests, religious men and women, experts and observers) from more than 60 countries will analyze together the impact and effects of globalization on the maritime industries in the context of the pastoral solicitude of the Church "for the men and women of the sea."

"Globalization," says the text, "has created an environment of increased competition in the maritime industry, where profits must be optimized at all costs, and more than often this is achieved to the detriment of the dignity of those who work in this industry ... who suffer from difficult working conditions, long working hours, minimum wage, no leisure, insecurity of employment. Crews are reduced to a minimum and are often multicultural and multilingual, sometimes lacking a common language, thus making it even more lonely and dangerous an occupation."

"This is the first time that a Congress of the Apostleship of the Sea is being hosted by Latin America. However, Rio de Janeiro was chosen not only for reasons of ecclesial strategy - half of the Catholics of the whole world live in that continent today -but also because it was the seat of the historical Declaration of Rio de Janeiro in 1992, which proclaims that the human being must be at the heart of the concern for sustainable development and that any global policy should consider this as a basic principle."

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