Frei Betto: "Martí's thoughts are an inspiring force"

 HAVANA, Cuba, Jan 28 (ACN) “Highly charged with humanist, ethical and social justice associations, José Martí’s thoughts are an inspiring force and an ideological alternative for those who fight for a better world”, the Brazilian theologian and intellectual Frei Betto said in the opening of the VI International Conference For World Balance, currently under way in Havana.

Betto remarked in his keynote speech "Justice as a Path to Peace and World Balance" that the José Martí International Solidarity Project is a remarkable plural movement of people of good will that allowed such a high turnout at this conference to make Cuba’s National Hero better known around the world.

The author of Fidel and Religion, who claims that the Apostle’s ideology has played a key role in his theological formation and his career as a popular educator, stressed that world balance will never be achieved with weapons, but rather through the defense of justice and the daily practice of ethics in a world marked by a tense political situation and contempt for those who are different because of their sexual orientation, ideology, race and religious beliefs.

“Martí instilled in us the importance of ‘sowing ideas and conscientiousness’, and to that we must add actions based on truth and on the people”, he pointed out as he urged to heed the struggle for progress and for a better world where governments are at the service of their peoples and praised Cuba's efforts to offer its science, health and education to other sister nations.

The VI International Conference for World Balance pays tribute to José Martí on the 172nd anniversary of his birth by addressing major issues such as solidarity and peace, the international economic order, and the challenges facing today’s world.