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Justice Jottings March
2010 |
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Check Out on our Website
Social Justice Programs - For Your Marianist
Community or Group. Click here
to view the page.
We've added a new category, titled
Consistent Life Ethic, on the Links page of our
website to include organizations who are working to protect life on
several fronts. Click here
to view the page. |
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Death Penalty
Issue Team Attends "A Seamless Garment Dialogue"
Because the Issue Team regards opposition to the death penalty in
the context of the consistent life ethic, the Team held its annual
meeting in conjunction with the MSJC workshop, "A Seamless Garment
Dialogue," on the weekend of March 5-7 in Baltimore. Two new
members joined, Lauren Olson from Saint Louis and Dan Perry from
Dayton. Dan, a University of Dayton law student, reported on his
Marianist Anti Death Penalty Summer 2009 Internship with the Office of
the Ohio Public Defender. Read more about the Team's
work - including plans for future internships, collaboration with the
LIFE program, and how you can get involved - on the Issue Team's Web page.
Death Penalty Issue Team Members
(seated, left to right) Dan Perry, Lauren Olson, Brian Halderman,
SM; (standing) Jerry Sullivan SM, Bob Stoughton, Jim Vogt, Dick Olsen
SM, and Grace Walle
FMI.
The Death Penalty in Texas: A Change of Heart?
"Something is afoot in America's most 'law-and-order' state," wrote
Jordan Smith in The Crime Report in early March. In the late
1990's as many as 48 people per year were being sentenced to death in
Texas; in 2009 only nine new death sentences were handed down. Read more about her analysis, and
about factors contributing to the decline, on the Issue Team's Web page.
The Catholic Mobilizing Network to End the Use of the
Death Penalty
The Catholic Mobilizing Network to End the Use of the Death Penalty
(CMN) supports state bishops' conferences, diocesan offices, and
Catholic institutions and organizations in their efforts to end the use
of the death penalty in the United States, and in their
restorative-justice initiatives. Read more about the CMN on the
Issue Team's Web page.
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| Everyday
Justice
Social Justice and Having a Baby
by Jessica Merugu
"Before Kai, social justice was very concrete and objective for
me. The issues were easily defined, right or wrong, just or
unjust. My response to these issues was also easy: I can do
direct service! I can vote! I can advocate! The
principles of social justice, and Catholic social teaching, were the
lens through which I saw our world.
"Now, as a
mother, justice issues have become more abstract, more nuanced, more
feeling and intuition. Justice has stopped being just about the
"big" things and is more in the day to day, moment to moment, parts of
life." To read the entire reflection, click here.
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Racial and Immigrant Justice
Treatment of Immigrants Must Improve
Click here to read this
wonderful overview on the current immigration reform situation by Ted
Gorczyca, co-chair of the MSJC Racial and Immigrant Justice Team.
Ted's comments are also included in another published article about
immigration reform. Click here to read
it.
Justice for Immigrants
Justice for Immigrants (JFI) has launched a redesigned website (www.justiceforimmigrants.org) that includes
updated resources and information about the U.S.
Catholic Bishops' campaign for comprehensive immigration
reform. The website also includes an updated
parish kit, recent statements by Bishops on immigration
reform, and a new "Events" tab that JFI supporters
can utilize to get involved in local and national
JFI and immigration reform events. Click here to send a personal message to
Congress in support of immigration reform.
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GLBT Initiative
The Primacy of the Catholic Conscience
Fr.
Terry Weik, SM brings us this summary by Emmet Costello, SJ. "This
doctrine of the primacy of the adequately informed conscience has been
part of the church's moral teaching for centuries. The Second Vatican
Council made an important distinction between infallible and
non-infallible teachings. 'A Catholic who feels compelled to dissent ...
from infallible teaching ... has no option but to sever his connection
with the church. On the other hand, when the question at issue is the
obligatory force of non-definitive teaching ... then Catholics may
dissent from such teaching for serious conscientious reasons and still
consider themselves to be in full communion with the church.'" To
read more about the theological history of conscience, click here.
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Adele Social Justice Project
Tired of Winter Weather? Think Hawaii!
Start planning your trip to the Continental Assembly today!
Quite possibly the most affordable trip to Hawaii you will ever
see and a chance to grow with your Marianist Family. MSJC is
planning an entire day of workshops. Here is a taste of what ASJP is
bringing:
ASJP - Finding Our Voice as
Advocates - Get a taste of what the Adele Social Justice
Project (ASJP) is all about as we explore how to be "voices with the
voiceless." Take part in a prayer and reflection session typical of an
ASJP young adult immersion weekend and, through service, join your voice
with Mary and Adele to advocate for the "voiceless" in our
communities.
To Whom Much is
Given...Being Good Stewards - Explore this topic with
us through prayer and reflection typical of an ASJP young adult
immersion weekend. In the spirit of stewardship, participate in a
round-table discussion about the ways we, as Marianist Family members,
can foster and encourage zeal for the mission, passion for social
justice, and hunger for building community carried by so many young
adults.
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| Events
Seamless Garment Dialogue - A Great Success! "You
should offer this workshop on Capitol Hill!" This was the
response by one of the 47 participants after attending the recent
Seamless Garment Dialogue sponsored by MSJC. Fr. Joe Lynch SM
facilitated the weekend with skill and tact. Fr. John Langan SJ of
Georgetown U. was the featured presenter, but those in attendance
seemed to appreciate most the chance to interact with others, in both
large and small group settings. There was strong encouragement to
offer this kind of experience again. DVD's of Fr. Langan's talk
and the panel presentation on "Different Approaches to Social
Justice/Pro-Life Issues" will be available. Contact Jim Vogt jimvogt2@yahoo.com. There is
an article on the front page of the March 19 National Catholic
Reporter about the weekend.
Some of the Seamless Garment Participants
Don't Miss This - Marianist Lay Continental Assembly
The 8th Lay Marianist Continental Assembly is happening July 22-25
in Honolulu HI. MSJC will be offering a number of workshops during
the Assembly. Click here to register. |
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Resources
Marianist Online Courses begin April 11
The spring session for Marianist online courses begins April
11. Registration deadline is April 7. Click here for more information.
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Action for Advocates
ACT NOW! No More Needless and Tragic Deaths!
Twenty-one workers died and 31 were injured when the Garib
& Garib Sweater Factory in Bangladesh, which has contracts with
Canadian, Spanish, and Italian companies, caught fire for the second
time in six months. The emergency exit was locked and the other
staircase was cluttered with bales of yarn and boxes. Click here to call upon the
companies, the factory and the government of Bangladesh to take
immediate action to ensure justice for the victims, and to prevent these
tragedies from occurring in the future. NOTE - there may be a
silver lining here since no US companies were involved in this
factory. That may mean that pressure from the US to get our
companies to clean up their act may be having an impact.
FOUR YEARS. GO. - A Campaign to Change the Course of
History
MSJC is a supporter of FOUR YEARS. GO., an ambitious effort to
redirect humanity's current path from self-destruction to
sustainability, and to do it by 2014! Visit their website
to find out more about this project and see how you can be
involved. |
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A Thought to Ponder
THE ROCK CRUSHERS
I have to go to Mexico from time to time to
renew my visa. The trip is beautiful and I enjoy the five hour bus
ride to Tapachula. On the return trip the bus passes through Santa
Cruz Mulva - the area of the rock crushers.
From dawn to dusk these people, working with
hammers, turn boulders into gravel.
Entire families are engaged in this work including
children as young as five. They labor alongside their
parents. This is their work. This is necessary for survival.
And so it has been for generations. These people, largely
unnoticed and ignored, are slaves to evil systems that they know
not. It is in places like this that the living envy the dead.
It is true that some of them try to escape
this drudgery and are vomited by the system into Guatemala City and its
extended suburbs. Malnutrition is the norm in Latin America and it
is so evident in Santa Cruz Mulva.
I ask myself, why is the north rich and the
south poor? This Lenten question haunts me as we continue our rosary;
each day is another bead in this sorrowful journey. Violence,
hunger and exploitation, interpret our lives. When will He
set us free from the hunter's snare?
Archbishop Romero once said: The only
good that the conquest has
brought to Latin America has been the siesta.
Bro. Bill Farrell, SM | |
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