VANCOUVER—A priest who was once on the Philippine military’s hit list as an anti-mining activist has turned a spotlight to another social justice project.

Father Edwin Gariguez, the executive secretary for Caritas Philippines, launched a Canadian campaign to help alleviate poverty and hunger in the global south Feb. 18.

“There is enough food in the world, yet 842 million people are hungry,” he said at St. Patrick’s Parish hall in Vancouver. “Hunger is not caused by a lack of food but by a lack of justice.”

Father Gariguez’s visit marked the official start of the Lenten campaign for the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace (CCODP), the Canadian branch of Caritas Internationalis.

The fundraising effort, called Sow Much Love to Give, aims to provide land for farmers in the Philippines and other countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East and teach sustainable, organic farming techniques.

“We believe that distributing land to farmers will provide equitable economic opportunities in rural areas and may reduce poverty and unrest,” he said.

According to Katrina Laquian, the B.C. and Yukon animator for CCODP, 50 per cent of people suffering from hunger are poor farmers.

“Who is really feeding the world? It happens to be small-scale farmers. Who is the majority who are starving? Half of them are farmers,” she said, “so we’re looking at that inequality.”

Father Gariguez said a major problem in the Philippines is that farmers don’t own the land they cultivate. “Agrarian reform means that you own the land, but you don’t stop at that. You need support services,” he added.

Nelia Angelus, a Filipina immigrant, was happy to hear Caritas Philippines and CCODP pledge to help farmers. One of her brothers lived on the island of Negros with a small plot of land and seven children to support.

“He had a piece of land but it was not big; it was like half a hectare, and six people owned it. He had a hard time to grow the rice because he didn’t have money,” she said.

Father Gariguez also visited the Okanagan and Victoria during his B.C. tour Feb. 15-27. Bishop Gary Gordon of Victoria voiced his support for the Share Lent campaign.

“The bishops of Canada have traditionally set aside this time as an opportunity for Catholics in Canada to learn about, pray for, and concretely support their sisters and brothers in the global south,” he wrote in a letter.

“So as we prepare to respond to Christ’s call to draw even closer to Him this Lenten season … let us recall those words of wisdom from the Book of Sirach: ‘Stretch forth your hand to the poor, so that your blessing may be complete.'”

CCODP’s campaigns have been successful in the past. Most recently, in an effort to help the Philippines rebuild after Typhoon Haiyan, it raised more than $13 million; the Archdiocese of Vancouver alone contributed $1.1 million of that total.

Before joining Caritas Philippines, Father Gariguez served on the island of Mindoro as an advocate for the rights of indigenous people worried about mining companies encroaching on ancestral grounds. He was put on the hit list of now-retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr. in the early 2000s.

“During his reign of terror, Palparan lumped together all those in progressive movements, even people from the Church doing justice advocacy for the poor, and they were targeted for assassination,” he told Philippine Asian News Today.

“His list even included me. That’s why I needed to leave the diocese for a while, while Palparan was still there.”

The Sow Much Love to Give campaign will culminate in a special collection in parishes across Canada on March 22. More information is available at www.devp.org.