Voices of Faith 2017 - Stirring the Waters - Making the Impossible Possible

Sep 29, 2026

Speech for Voices of Faith (2017) by Arturo Sosa, S.I., urging participants to act on International Women’s Day through faith that makes the impossible possible. It emphasizes women’s resilience amid displacement and violence, especially along the Colombia–Venezuela border, and highlights how Jesuit Refugee Service support uses artistic expression to strengthen psychosocial well-being and hope. It calls for collaboration between women and men to pursue justice, peace, reconciliation, and to address gender inequality and unrecognized courage.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryReligion & Spirituality

FormatPDF

Pages3

Reading Time8 min

AccessFree to download

International Women’s Day theme: Be Bold for Change

Resilience through JRS: Art, healing, and hope

The world’s collaboration: peace, reconciliation, and gender justice

Voices of Faith 2017 Arturo Sosa, S.I. Stirring the Waters – Making the Impossible Possible Vatican March 8, 2017 I would like to thank Voices of Faith and the Jesuit Refugee Service for inviting me to celebrate International Women’s Day with you and all of those gathered here today. I take this opportunity to show my gratitude to the women who will be speaking today, women making a difference in their families and communities, especially in the most remote corners of the world. These are difficult times in our world, and we need to stand and work together as women and men of faith. As you know, the global theme for this year’s celebration of International Women’s Day is Be Bold for Change. Here in Vatican City, physically at the center of the church, Voices of Faith and JRS seek to be Making the Impossible Possible. Especially here in Rome, that is a bold change! I would like to reflect on what making the impossible possible means to me as the leader of the Society of Jesus, as a citizen of the world, and as a member of the Catholic Church. We need to have the faith that gives the audacity to seek the impossible, as nothing is impossible for God. The faith of Mary that opened her heart as a woman to the possibility of something new: to become the Mother of God’s son. JRS: Resilience As you may be aware, I come from Latin America, a continent with millions of displaced people. With almost 7 million, Colombia has the largest number of internally displaced people in the world, and a disproportionate number of them are women and children. I served at the border between Colombia and my native Venezuela for 10 years. I have seen first-hand the suffering of those forced to abandon everything to save their lives. In Colombia, for example, women and girls are among the most vulnerable due to widespread violence caused by decades of conflict. They are exposed to armed recruitment and are likely to fall victim to one form of exploitation or another, ranging from modern day slavery, to survival sex and human trafficking. Many of them flee to neighboring countries in search of safety, and often find themselves on their own in efforts to sustain their families. I have also witnessed women’s resilience. Despite this traumatic reality, women often find their way to not just surviving, but also overcoming all the difficulties of exile and forced migration. Resilience is what enables us to move forward and think of the future. Resilience is essential for making the impossible possible. Let me offer an example. At the Venezuelan-Colombian border, the Jesuit Refugee Service has been present for more than ten years. During this time, JRS has brought refugee women from Colombia together by using their artistic expression as a starting point for rediscovering resilience. While expressing themselves creatively through art, women also share their experiences and create a network of support to improve their psychosocial well-being. This healing environment is a place for listening and coming together—in other words, resilience. Resilience empowers women and ultimately results in hope and the possibility of reconciliation with the past, with those who have harmed them, and with those where they now live. Reconciliation requires courage, and too often, even in 2017, women’s courage, women’s resilience, is unrecognized and undervalued. By building human connections resilience reknits the communal fabric. Some may say such resilience is impossible to discover: JRS and Voices of Faith say otherwise. The World: Collaboration As a member of the human community, each of us is likely appalled at the situation of our world. Human displacement has hit an all-time high, representing incredible human suffering around the world. Ongoing conflicts are at the root of most of this forced exile.There are more than 65 million forcibly displaced among us: one in every 113 people globally is now an asylum-seeker, an internally displaced per

FAQs

What does “Making the Impossible Possible” mean in the speech?

It is presented as faith and audacity to seek what seems impossible, grounded in God’s possibility and Mary’s openness to new beginnings.

How does the Jesuit Refugee Service support displaced women in the border context?

JRS brings refugee women together and uses their artistic expression as a starting point to rediscover resilience, share experiences, build support networks, and improve psychosocial well-being.

Why does the speech stress collaboration between women and men?

It argues that only together can society achieve justice and peace, and that greater roles for women in the conversation can bring peace closer to reality.

Sep 29, 2026

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