Current Events & Information

Upcoming Events & JPIC Office in the News-2008

World AIDS Day is December 1, 2008. Canticle Ministries invites you to attend their community prayer service at the Lady of the Angels chapel on the Wheaton Franciscan campus @ 7pm. To obtain more information and download a flyer, click here.

CNN, aired this first part series of Planet in Peril back in 2007; tune in on Thursday December 11, 2008 @ 8:00pm cst. Plant in Peril: Battle Lines hosted by Anderson Cooper, chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta and "The Oprah Winfrey Show" correspondent and National Geographic host Lisa Ling. CNN's award-winning series examines the environmental conflicts between growing populations and natural resources. This year, the show examines the conflicts between humans and nature they've traveled to Rwanda, Cameroon, Congo, Chad, Taiwan and South Africa. To view more on this upcoming program visit http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2008/planet.in.peril/index.html

October 17-19....
Stand Up & Take Action Against Poverty and for the Millennium Development Goals

Around the world over 100 million people in over 2,000 events across more than 100 countries are registered to Stand Up and Take Action against Poverty and for the Millennium Development Goals, from October 17-19. To learn more, find an event and take action visit http://standagainstpoverty.org/en/about-stand-up.

Please join Family Shelter and the JPIC Office on Thursday October 23, @ 6:00pm- 8:30pm for an Open Labyrinth Walk with victims of Domestic Violence. This event will be held on the Campus of the Wheaton Franciscan Sisters. To down load a flyer, click here.

Ask your senators to pass PEPFAR

What's happening now with PEPFAR (The President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief).

Haven't called yet? The President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has finally made it to the Senate floor for debate and a series of critical votes. We need you to call your senators today and encourage them to vote to pass this bill.

There is a chance that an individual senator could raise something called a "budget point of order," in which case we'd need 60 votes to bypass this additional obstacle or else the entire bill will be defeated.

We believe that there is strong, bipartisan support to pass PEPFAR, but we're not out of the woods yet. This is the moment we need you most. Please call now and ask your senators to support this bill for $50 billion dollars in critical global AIDS, TB and malaria over the next five years.

Call now:

When you speak to your senators' staff, make sure to tell them:

1. You are a constituent.

2. That you want your senator to vote consistently to pass PEPFAR at its full $50 billion level.

3. That you want your senator to support a waiver of a technical budget rule, called a "point of order," otherwise this lifesaving bill could fail in its entirety.

60th Anniversary of UN Peacekeeping: Send a Letter Thanking Peacekeepers for their Service.

Take a minute to watch the message from George Clooney below (click link). Then sign this letter and join us in thanking the 110,000 brave men and women from 119 countries serving as UN peacekeepers in 17 of the most volatile countries in the world, rebuilding societies wracked by violence, restoring confidence in people who have known little but war, and bringing peace to some of the tensest conflicts on earth.

http://www.globalproblems-globalsolutions.org/site/PageNavigator/BWC_Peacekeeping_Thankyou

Fifth anniversary of the War in Iraq

Let us continue to pray for a more comprehensive and sustained diplomatic initiative to address the war in Iraq. We support the comprehensive diplomatic initiative with a continued draw down and eventual departure of our armed forces in a responsible manner.

For further social justice perspectives as they relate to the war in Iraq, visit the Website of the United States Conference of catholic Bishops @ http://www.usccb.org/ and follow the link first to social justice and then to Iraq.

Sr. Sheila Kinsey, OSF