Rome, 16 October 2020
To all the members of the Dominican Family
Dominican Month for Peace 2020
Final letter
Prot. 50/20/360 Promoter of J&P
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We sent you a letter on 27 July, announcing that the focus of our annual Dominican Month for Peace for 2020 would be on Ukraine. We hope that his letter was widely distributed and that you are all ready to celebrate this unique moment of solidarity of the whole Dominican Family during Advent, praying that the Prince of Peace will bless all of our efforts. It will begin on the First Sunday of Advent (29 November), run for the whole of December, and culminate on the Church’s World Day of Peace on 1 January.
In case you did not receive our previous letter, we attach it again here in order not to repeat all that has already been written. In summary, we can just say that, after showing our solidarity with the valiant efforts of Dominican men and women to build peace in Colombia in 2017, in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2018, and in India in 2019, this year we turn to a new continent, Europe, with our focus on Ukraine.
In the context of the terrible war that has been raging in eastern Ukraine for 6 years, Dominicans are collaborating with others in the search for peace through various projects which are outlined in our accompanying pamphlet. Our particular focus, nevertheless, as was the case last year, will be on peace as it applies to children and youth, which is a major concern of the Dominicans there. Our spiritual and financial solidarity, therefore, will be directed towards the St. Martin de Porres Center in Fastiv, which is ministering to children scarred by the effects of the war.
We therefore invite you, during this month, to organise activities of prayer, preaching, awareness-raising, fundraising, producing drama, songs or art, media publicity or anything else that can creatively direct our energy towards our Dominican brothers and sisters in Ukraine and to the Fastiv project in particular, to strengthen them in being signs of hope, especially to the young and the marginalised.
To assist you in the organisation of the Month, please find attached or just click on the following Google Drive https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-Fn7aEfpRCFkoGynWB3EzxwXjgKR_Qii?usp=sharing
to access, in the language of your choice, various materials and information that include:
- A pamphlet describing the situation in Ukraine, where Dominicans are located and what they are doing to promote peace and bring hope to the people.
- Suggestions of ways to express solidarity.
- Videos of testimonies of young people and those accompanying them who have been touched by the Dominican project in Fastiv.
- A description of a “Labyrinth” – a creative form of prayer.
- Texts about Ukraine.
- Art contributions made in the past years.
If you have produced other materials or if you have other suggestions on ways to express solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Ukraine, please do share them with us. We can then share them in the Google Drive for everyone else to access.
How to send contributions?
Financial Contributions:
Account Name: Polish Province of the Order of Preachers (Dominican Fathers)
Bank: BNP PARIBAS BANK POLSKA SA
Address: ul. Suwak 3, 02-676 Warsaw, Poland
Branch Code: 16001374
Account Numbers (IBAN):
PL 03 1600 1374 1849 2174 0000 0033 (PLN)
PL 73 1600 1374 1849 2174 0000 0034 (USD)
PL 52 1600 1374 1849 2174 0000 0024 (EUR)
SWIFT code (BIC code): PPABPLPK
Purpose: House of St. Martin de Porres in Fastiv – Dominican Month for Peace
Works of Art:
Write to the General Curia: Promoter for Justice and Peace un@curia.op.org
General Information:
fr Petro Balog OP,
petrobalog@gmail.com ; Tel: +380 66 250 3910
As a next step, we urge you:
- to appoint a coordinator for the Month for Peace for your entity/congregation (if you have not already done so),
- to inform our promoters of Justice and Peace, fr Mike Deeb un@curia.op.org and Sr Cecilia Espenilla jp.dsi@curia.op.org of the name of the coordinator appointed for your entity/congregation, and
- to allocate time for possible events in your regular programme for that month.
Thank you very much for your cooperation! May our small actions of solidarity, like the mustard seed, contribute to enabling peace to reign in Ukraine!
In St Dominic,
