Portraits of Justice #16: Esteban {Buenos Aires, Argentina}

Can you believe it's already week #16 of this project? WOW! Today I introduce you to my good friend Esteban from {Buenos Aires, Argentina}. I met Esteban in Italy, and had the privilege of taking his portrait at the very top the Alps. He officially holds the position of portrait at the highest altitude!

Esteban does work with a community in Argentina, the Community of Sant'Egidio, seeking to bridging the vast gaps of inequality that exist in his home spaces. 

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"The definition of what comes to my mind when I think of justice is the equality of opportunity."


"I am going to give an example, why I think the definition of justice for me, is equality. I am a member of this community, Community of Sant'Egidio. It is a worldwide community that was born in Rome, but it is also in Argentina. We have this program called School of Peace, for little kids who are living in marginalized neighbourhoods. In English people call it a “tutoring program”, for kids between 6 and 10 years old."

"They live in places that are super violent, and very marginalized. They are kids that are born in families that live in these neighbourhoods and they don't get to choose where to live. I think everyone should deserve the same chances, access to education, food, health. I know that some of them are not eating well nutritionally wise, and that's not helping their upraising, their development. Even though we call it school, it is an informal like-school. Everyone is invited, even though it's a Catholic community we don't ask their denomination – even Muslims. Everybody is invited to work on peace."

"I have many many opportunities. I don't like calling myself rich, because people think rich is money – but I am rich with opportunity, and not money. Right now the kids won't have the same opportunities in the future, and I think that is not fair. I'd like everyone to have the same opportunities. I think that having opportunities is going to change the way you are. I'm convinced about it, I really am."

We also visit elderly in nursing homes. It's nice to know that even though right now my grandparents are not with me I can be adopted by many of the elderly I visit. And with the kids – I'm not married, I don't have kids – but I still have many friends who are little kids. I'm not a father, but I have kids. I have grandparents even though they're not my parents' mother and father. In a way this community helps me grow my family. Even though we don't live together we are a family.So, that's what I do to bring the equality of opportunity to many realities that I encounter. That's my way."


"With this community I have found a way to help overcome this inequality, to bring people together, to bring this equality into reality."

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Tell me something beautiful you have witnessed in your country

"One time we set up a stage in the middle of a park and we had people play music. We brought the kids from the slums of the city into this park, which a is super fancy place in the middle of a residential area. An then we also invited kids from this area. It was beautiful to see kids that would have never been together, be together. Even though they were not wearing the same clothes, and of course they did not share the same interests, they were together, in peace."

"It's very difficult to define peace, but that is peace. Being together over our differences, and realizing that it is really nice. Most of the time I define peace as a feeling, and in that moment I felt really good. It was the beginning of hope, and it was simple to make that moment possible. "

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Find yourself thinking about this story? Tell us your thoughts!

Portraits of Justice #15: Marco {Udine, Italy}

Hello my beautiful friends from around the globe! I greet you this week (#15) from the beautiful Alps in Italy, and wish to introduce to you my friend Marco from {Udine, Italy}. I met and photographed Marco in Bogota some time ago, and share his story with you today, from his home country. 

Marco is a pastor and activist, and has long been involved with the global justice movement through WSCF. 

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In my everyday life and commitment in Italy, I think  justice has to do with inclusion, with fighting against discrimination. Different groups of people are suffering from this, in different ways, but showing the same pattern made of ignorance, prejudice, incorrect information aiming to create fears and to transform people into escapee goats. Victims of this are, of course, minorities. Sexual minorities, discriminated on the basis of an outdated, closed and unfortunately “christian-washed” mentality.

Among sexual minorities should also be paradoxically included women, who suffers similar situations for the same reasons. In this time when our country has become more and more the door of Europe or of the West (become rich sacking for centuries all the other cardinal directions), other minorities suffering discrimination are all the people that are labeled as “strangers”, including migrant workers, italian citizens with foreign origins, refugee, asylum seekers (of course only if coming from less rich countries, much worst if “arabs”) and, above all, the people on whom all the hatred concentrate (even in alleged progressive milieux): the Roma people. Hidden or non-acknowledge racism and homophobia are the causes, whose toxic fruits are discrimination, mainly in terms of access to rights (building a life and a family, work, security…) and way too often violence, perpetrated by individuals who feel tolerated, justified or even authorized by the common sense.

Justice would look like a society of differences and equals, where the stories, needs, rights, loves, problems and hopes of each and everyone deserve and receive the same care.

I believe it is a precise christian responsibility to work to overcome this face of injustice and build a more just society. I am not always sure churches are enough into it. The responsibility is — at least — twofold: on one side has to do with the healing of the wounds, the other cross-cutting the different dimensions of the life of the church. So, preaching and diaconia have a role in offering empathy and re-humanizing relations, helping each one to realize her/his own dignity, that for us, christians, is to let every human being created in God’s image to shine in the reverberation of Grace.  Again preaching and diaconia have to be directed to dismantle the ideas that are the basis of discrimination and to teach and show the possibility of an alternative way.

A theological reflection is needed to bind all these aspect together and to give depth to this vision. In particular to seek the truth beyond and often against hegemonic descriptions of reality, of the world and of the identities of its inhabitants, functional to keep the power in the hands of the few. All along its narrative, Bible tell of this continuous struggle to affirm the liberating word of God against the dehumanizing political, economic and religious powers. Moses, Deborah, Elijah, Esther, Hosea… and Jesus Christ. This is the most powerful narrative to inspire us.

Tell me something beautiful you have witnessed

“Lo Sciopero dei Fiori d’Arancio” (The Orange Blossom Strike): it is a group of straight couples, really wanting to get married, decided they will not, until this will be a right for everyone. A prophetic gesture of love, that could inspire other in many situation (and healthy provoke churches, for example), with the rationale of self-suspending our own rights or interests to help affirm others’.

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Like what you've heard or seen? Share your comments and stories!

Portraits of Justice #14: Carter Habeeb {Birmingham, USA}

Welcome to week #14 with Portraits of Justice!

 We've been around the world a time or two in the last months, and are doubling back to the USA for another look. The USA is a large country with many stories that look very different depending on your location, birth place, and the colour of your skin. In a genuine effort to understand many diverse perspectives, I thought it pertinent to hear a voice from the different experiences. 

Carter is a student and comes from Birmingham, Alabama, in the south of the USA
(Read a story from the northern states {Louis, Chicago}, CLICK HERE).

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"My name is Carter Habeeb.  From my point of view, in the United States, justice is when we follow all the rules set in place and we achieve an end result that is based on precedent, on things that happened in the past. And its not necessarily what's right, but what the structure allows for."

"Put simply, ideal justice would be...what is right happening! Those have done wrong being held accountable for their actions, and those who have had wrong done to them are able to find peace and are able to reconcile what has happened to them. But again, that is not always the case, especially recently in America."

To take it a step further, what would it like to pursue the 'right kind of justice'?

"Its a hard for me to envision because in my life time I've not seen it. What I suppose it would look like is the voiceless, the people without a voice, they start being heard. The majority might start speaking up for those who not being heard at all, because a lot of the time the marginalized are those who are taken advantage of by the systems that are in place."

"One of the biggest roles in my local context is to do simple things like run food drives or hand out clothes during the winter, or raise money for local communities. Very local work. In my context, as duty of christians, is to help out our brothers and sisters. One of the best ways to do this is through programs like “Feed the Homeless”, help them get job skills, or help young people get an education – just a lot of programs on the ground. Very practical stuff."

"Something that comes to mind that I feel is really beautiful is that on July 4^th, Independence day in the United States, a lot of people will come together from different backgrounds and different traditions and different ancestries. They all come together and unite in the fact that they have goal for the future: that goal being to be free from oppression and to live in a world where we can see justice even though we are so far away from it. It's a day where we celebrate being free from oppression in the hope that we can get even further away from oppression, even though there are always forces in society that are pushing down on us and trying to silence our voices. It's a very hopeful day, we all celebrate how fortunate we are, and how much work there is left to be done to make the world, and our context, more righteous and more just.

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