Sr. Ilaria Buonriposi is an Italian Comboni Missionary Sister. After graduating in Social Work at the Universidad Pontificia Comillas (the Jesuits’ University in Madrid, Spain), she ministered for 17 years in Peru and Colombia in different areas. In Peru she had been organizing communities and educating women for the Diocese of Lurin, and running a diocesan microcredit program to eradicate poverty empowering people living below the poverty line. In Colombia she worked with street children in a conflict zone.
Extreme poverty and unjustified and indiscriminate violence deny the human dignity of most of the people with whom she lived. The apparent clash between the reality around her and God’s plan of fullness of life for all, prompted her to deepen and strengthen her roots on the meaning of human dignity from the perspective of God, pursuing a Master Degree in Catholic Social Teaching by the Universidad Catolica de Santa Maria of Arequipa, Peru.
Currently, she represents her religious congregation at the United Nations and collaborates with Catholic Mobilizing Network. The death penalty is a legal way to deny human dignity and to restrain the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God: this is why Catholics have the moral duty to act to end the use of capital punishment. The many years spent in South America and the passion Sr. Ilaria has for this continent became linguistically and culturally part of herself, making her suitable for advocacy with Hispanic people.