Members of the Religions for Peace World Council (RfPWC) gathered in Bogotá, Colombia, from the 26th to the 28th of August. Over those three days, RPWC members participated in an event called the “Regional Consultation: Promoting Shared Sacred Flourishing in Latin America and the Caribbean.” The Fetzer Institute joined and supported this event as partners of RfPWC’s Sacred Shared Flourishing initiative.
The multicultural, interreligious gathering was held at the headquarters of the Latin American and Caribbean Catholic Episcopal Council (CELAM). Once gathered, these participants spent time reaffirming their collective commitment to a transformative vision that addresses the challenges facing these two integral regions of the western hemisphere.
The key to that commitment? Firmly planting the Sacred at the center of understanding human flourishing.
Addressing a “Polycrisis” in the Americas
The goal of the Regional Consultation gathering was to address the interconnected crises unfolding in the Caribbean and Latin America, including:
- Organized crime and corruption: The region’s homicide rate is more than three times the global average (18/100,000), 50% of which are connected to organized crime.
- Low economic growth: World Bank reports the region is “full of opportunities,” yet is the slowest-growing region in the world at 2.1% in 2025 and 2.4% in 2026 (projected).
- High and persistent social inequality: The region has persistently ranked high (0.452 in 2023) on the Gini Index, a statistical measure used to gauge economic inequality around the world.
- Socio-environmental crisis: Challenges such as tropical primary forest loss, which increased 80% in 2024, have hit Latin America particularly hard.
As various resources and initiatives have been developed to address these crises, the Sacred has been conspicuously absent from many major pushes. The Religions for Peace World Council directly asserts that “the dominant worldview to address these challenges has been fundamentally inappropriate by excluding the Sacred from the understanding of human flourishing.”
The answer comes in the form of the Shared Sacred Flourishing initiative.
The Shared Sacred Flourishing Initiative in South and Central America
After collective deliberation and collaboration at multiple events in 2025, the group at the Religions for Peace World Council has presented a framework for Shared Sacred Flourishing — one that seeks to rescue the spiritual dimension of integral and sustainable human development. In doing so, they have looked past differences between faith traditions, ideologies, and specific religious manifestations. Instead, the Initiative has constellated around shared essential values: love, solidarity, compassion, justice, forgiveness, and care for the Earth.
This shared perspective allowed them to create a common language everyone could use to understand a Sacred-centered lifestyle. The central view empowers individuals of all faiths and spiritual convictions to embrace lives filled with meaning and worth both within and beyond themselves. In this context, flourishing is defined as a process where humans can rediscover — and act upon — their potential. Where they can go beyond survival and thrive through a response to the deep call of the Sacred.
The final outcome of this framework was the gathered group’s adoptions of the “Shared Sacred Flourishing initiative for Latin America and the Caribbean.” This undertaking preserves reverence for the Sacred while creating action-oriented responses to the region’s key challenges. It addresses concerns and questions while maintaining respect for human dignity, care for life and creation, and commitment to the common good.
An Unfolding Vision for Shared Sacred Flourishing
The fresh commitments from this late-August convening live within the RfPWC’s pre-existing statement and goals as laid out in its “Shared Sacred Flourishing: A New Vision for Global Transformation.” This document was originally published on July 29, 2025, after 60 members of the Religions for Peace World Council met in Istanbul, Turkey. It delineates the group’s intent to empower Shared Sacred Flourishing “that responds to the crises of our time and counters the reductive materialism that threatens human dignity and planetary well-being.”
Read more about Fetzer’s views on the paper and its statements here. You may also access Religion for Peace’s full statement here, which addresses key factors such as navigating the complexities of artificial intelligence, mobilizing interreligious councils and interfaith networks for various initiatives, and upholding the inherent dignity and interconnectedness of all beings. It is within these conditions and frameworks that the RfPWC has committed to work for Shared Sacred Flourishing across Latin America and the Caribbean.
Fetzer is proud to have jointly launched the Sacred Shared Flourishing initiative in March of 2025, and is honored to have participated in developing the framework this August. The Institute commends the accomplishments of the RfPWC; the work of this esteemed group is essential in centering the Sacred within the critical work of Shared Human Flourishing. We look forward to seeing the impact of this latest convening reverberate across Latin America and the Caribbean.
Below is the Spanish translation of the Final Statement from the “Regional Consultation: Promoting Shared Sacred Flourishing in Latin America and the Caribbean” gathering.
DECLARACIÓN FINAL
Nosotros y nosotras, lideresas y líderes religiosos y espirituales participantes de la Consulta Regional: Promoviendo el Florecimiento Sagrado Compartido en América Latina y el Caribe, celebrada en la sede del Consejo Episcopal Latinoamericano y Caribeño (CELAM), en Bogotá, del 26 al 28 de agosto de 2025, nos hemos reunido para reafirmar nuestro compromiso con una visión transformadora que aborde los desafíos que enfrenta la región. Ante la inseguridad y el crimen organizado, la corrupción, el bajo crecimiento económico, la alta y persistente desigualdad social, y la crisis socioambiental, aseveramos que la cosmovisión dominante para abordar estos retos ha sido fundamentalmente inadecuada al excluir lo sagrado de la comprensión del florecimiento humano.
El concepto de Florecimiento Sagrado Compartido se presenta como un marco que busca rescatar la dimensión espiritual del desarrollo humano integral y sostenible. Nuestras tradiciones de fe, aunque diversas en creencias, comparten valores esenciales como el amor y la solidaridad, ofreciendo un lenguaje común para comprender la vida con sentido y no únicamente desde la lógica del tener. En este horizonte, el florecimiento se entiende como un proceso donde el ser humano pueda redescubrir su potencial y responder al llamado profundo de lo sagrado.
Finalmente, en este contexto, adoptamos la iniciativa de Florecimiento Sagrado Compartido para América Latina y el Caribe, porque aporta una respuesta a los desafíos en la región, con reverencia por lo sagrado, respeto por la dignidad humana, compromiso con el bien común y cuidado de la vida y de la creación. Ceñidos a la Declaración del Consejo Mundial de Religiones por la Paz “El Florecimiento Sagrado Compartido: Una Nueva Visión para la Transformación Global”, del 29 de julio de 2025, y cumpliendo con nuestro lema de “Creencias Diferentes, Acción Común”, nos comprometemos a trabajar por el Florecimiento Sagrado Compartido.
Bogotá, 28 de agosto de 2025
CLOSING STATEMENT [English Translation]
We, religious and spiritual leaders participating in the Regional Consultation: Promoting Shared Sacred Flourishing in Latin America and the Caribbean, held at the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council (CELAM) headquarters in Bogotá, from August 26 to 28, 2025, have gathered to reaffirm our commitment to a transformative vision that addresses the challenges facing the region. In the face of insecurity and organized crime, corruption, low economic growth, high and persistent social inequality, and the socio-environmental crisis, we affirm that the dominant worldview for addressing these challenges has been fundamentally inadequate by excluding the Sacred from the understanding of human flourishing.
The concept of Shared Sacred Flourishing is presented as a framework that seeks to recover the spiritual dimension of integral and sustainable human development. Our faith traditions, though diverse in beliefs, share essential values such as love and solidarity, offering a common language to understand life with meaning and not solely from the logic of “having.” With this perspective, flourishing is understood as a process through which human beings can rediscover their potential and respond to the profound call of the Sacred.
Finally, in this context, we adopt the initiative of Shared Sacred Flourishing for Latin America and the Caribbean, because it provides a response to the challenges in the region, with reverence for the Sacred, respect for human dignity, commitment to the common good, and care for life and creation. Guided by the declaration of the World Council of Religions for Peace, “Shared Sacred Flourishing: A New Vision for Global Transformation” of July 29, 2025, and in keeping with our motto “Different Beliefs, Common Action,” we commit ourselves to work for Shared Sacred Flourishing.
Bogotá, August 28, 2025