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VIVAT Community during the COP30.

VIVAT International and the Divine Word Missionaries at COP30: Mission, Prophecy and Commitment to Our Common Home

Fr. José Boeing, SVD, and Fr. Jairo Godinho, SVD

VIVAT-International is present at COP30 in Belém with its 12 Congregations, totaling 50 members, participating in the conference debates and celebrating 25 years (November 13) of its work in defense of human rights. COP30, the Conference of the Parties on Climate Change, organized by the UN in Belém, Pará, in November 2025, is a crucial event for social movements and society at large.

The participation of the Divine Word Missionaries (SVD) and the Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit (SSpS) strengthened the witness of faith, justice, and solidarity in the midst of the most urgent climate debates of our time.

The Divine Word Missionaries (Brazil subzone) were present at this discussion with eight members (Fr. Olavo Junior, Fr. Jairo Godinho, Fr. Adventinus Nandus, Fr. Elfridus Binsasi, Fr. Selcilius Riwa Nuga, Fr. José Boeing, Fr. Milan, and Fr. Karl Arenz). There was also a meeting with Cardinal Nemet of Serbia, a Divine Word Missionary.

The plan was for COP 30 to offer an opportunity for social movements, including Indigenous and Quilombola (Afro-descendant) communities, to have a voice and influence on climate change decisions. Civil society mobilized to ensure their demands were heard. However, it didn’t exactly go that way.

VIVAT Community during the COP30.
SVDs and SSpS participate in the grand march.
Cardinal Nemet and Cardinal David together with COP30 participants.
SVD confreres during COP30.

Listening, Presence and Prophetic Witness

VIVAT’s Mission at COP30. During the first ten days of COP30, VIVAT International participated in dozens of spaces of dialogue, advocacy, formation, and spirituality. The main topics addressed included:

  • climate justice and human rights
  • defense of Indigenous peoples, quilombola communities, and traditional populations
  • protection of forests and territories
  • mental health of environmental and social defenders
  • ethical and participatory climate governance
  • community leadership and active hope

 

The SVD was especially present during the celebration of 25 years of VIVAT International, one of the most significant events of COP30.

JPIC as a Living Mission

During the jubilee celebration, Fr. José Boeing, SVD, recalled the missionary commitment of the SVD to Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation. He emphasized:

  • the need to strengthen JPIC in SVD parishes, communities, and institutions;
  • the importance of walking alongside vulnerable peoples;
  • the unity among the 12 congregations that form VIVAT;
  • missionary spirituality as a force to confront the climate crisis.

 

Social movements hope that COP 30 will result in more ambitious commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and implement concrete measures for climate change adaptation and mitigation. His reflection highlighted that the presence of the SVD at COP30 is a direct expression of the Verbite identity: to proclaim the Gospel by building justice and defending life.

At the conclusion of its participation, VIVAT reaffirmed:

“There is no climate justice without territorial justice. There is no defense of the forest without defense of its peoples. There is no care for our Common Home without ecological conversion.”

COP30 comes to an end, but the mission continues. The SVD, the SSpS, and all of VIVAT International will continue:

  • strengthening vulnerable communities
  • promoting ecological education and spirituality
    defending rivers, forests, lands, and traditional ways of life
  • walking alongside threatened peoples
  • inspiring new practices of care and solidarity

 

We are called to transform suffering into struggle, struggle into hope, and hope into life.

VIVAT Int.
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