Maria Laura Vargas Valcarcel

Executive Secretary, Peruvian Interreligious Council
María Laura Vargas Valcárcel is coordinator of the Interfaith Rainforest Initiative (since 2019), executive secretary of the Interreligious Council of Peru (Religions for Peace), and co-secretary of the Judeo-Christian Fellowship. She worked at CEAS (Episcopal Commission for Social Action) of the Catholic Church of Peru for almost thirty years and as executive secretary for sixteen years. Later María was responsible for the area of social doctrine of the church. Before that, María worked in North Lima in adult literacy programs and local parishes for seventeen years. For three years, until January 2019, she was coordinator of Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation of the Saint Columban Fathers, a missionary society. María is a member of Pax Christi Peru, is on the board of directors of World Vision Peru, was a head of the Human Rights team of DEJUSOL SELACC (Department of Justice and Solidarity—Latin American and Caribbean Secretariat of Caritas), and a member of REDLAPSI (Latin American and Caribbean Network of Church Social Thought). She was a member of the Commission of Presidential Prerogatives of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights. María is now a counselor of the ministry’s Reparations Council. María holds Bachelor of Theology and Bachelor of Education degrees, with a specialty in social sciences. She also specialized in sociology and religion and culture.