*(Please continue to check the Social
Justice Actions which are updated every Friday). Our petition corner
is now located http://www.wheatonfranciscan-jpic.org/currentactionalerts.html JPIC Office Blog October 1, 2009 Dear Friends, Greetings of Peace! Crisp Autumn air greeted me this morning, and Fall colors are beginning to emerge in the trees. For the past few evenings, I have been enjoying the PBS documentary series on the National Parks. It is a wonderful show depicting both the marvelous beauty of the parks, but also the history of their founding…stories of the men and women who fought to preserve the lands they loved, the beauty that nourished and refreshed them, the “magnificent cathedrals, not built by human hands” so said, John Muir. Their legacy lives on in the National Park system. What is our legacy? What is ours to do? The JPIC Office invites you to prayerfully consider the following issues and actions.
Healthcare Healthcare
Behold, I will treat and assuage the
city’s wounds; The battle for Health Care reform continues to rage in Congress and in national debate. If you haven’t written to your local congressional representatives yet, please do so. Urge them to support the White House’s call to arms, and create a bill that will see to the needs of the sick, the poor and vulnerable. What else can we do? Pray. Until Congress offers a real solution, we must sit back and wait, and pray. I encourage you to read the Catholic Health Association’s booklet: A Vision for US Health Care. It is a reflective document that provides insight into the Catholic Values of: human dignity, the common good, concern for the poor and vulnerable, stewardship, justice and pluralism.
Hunger, Poverty and the Economy Think globally, act locally. Catholic Relief Services has declared October as Fair Trade Awareness month. The daily decisions you make as a consumer can make a real, positive difference in the world. When you choose to buy fair trade products you are making a strong connection with hardworking, but impoverished workers around the world. Fair Trade products such as coffee and chocolate are available in local specialty shops, and now, even in mainstream retailers such as Walgreens, Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods. Fair trade handcrafted items are well-made and beautiful, and are available at local stores such as Ten Thousand Villages and It’s Our Earth in Wheaton, and many other online retailers. Not only are you buying a lovely gift for yourself or someone else, you are helping artisans in developing nations provide for themselves and their families – giving them the resources for the simple necessities in life. In honor of Fair Trade Awareness month, The JPIC Office is sponsoring a Fair Trade Coffee House on October 22nd in the Motherhouse Auditorium. Join us for a cup of fair trade coffee, watch a short video, and enter a drawing to win free fair trade products. Click here for more details. Learn more about Fair Trade practices, products, and the artists and farmers who benefit at http://www.crsfairtrade.org/.
Once again, I encourage everyone to watch Ken Burns’ amazing documentary on the National Park service. Even if you missed it on your local stations, you can watch the episodes online. Visit http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/for more details.
International Day of
Climate Action. Sponsored locally by the Sierra Club, there will be "350" events all over
the globe on October 24th and one right here in
DuPage County at Blackwell Forest Preserve. They're called
“350 events” after the level of safe parts per million of carbon
dioxide identified by climate scientists. Currently the globe
is registering at 390 ppm and must get levels back to 350 ppm to
avoid the worst effects of global warming. The International
Day of Climate Action is a call to global leaders to forge policies
and action at the Copenhagen conference in December which will
reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Immigration The JPIC office continues to follow and
support issues of immigration. This month we supported the
Justice for Immigrants Campaign related to immigration reform
efforts involving health care. If you haven’t already, contact
your Senator and ask him/her to support Health Care for
Legal Immigrants The following two articles of interest related to this issue are truly worth reading. The first is by our own Sr. Sylvia Wehlisch, who along with Covenant Member Mary Ellen Durbin, attended the Franciscan Action Network Conference on Immigration 2009. (click here to read Sr. Sylvia’s article) NCR: Theology in the Age of Migration.
I’d like to thank everyone who has stopped by, called or emailed to congratulate me and wish me well as I take on the role of leading the JPIC office. I know that we can work together to bring peace, hope, transformation and healing to our broken world. John Muir said that by experiencing God through the beauty of nature, “our cares drop away like leaves from a tree in Autumn.” I encourage everyone to get out into nature! Let your cares drop away and melt into the vivid oranges, golds and reds that will soon sparkle around us! Visit a local park, arboretum, or come to the Wheaton Franciscan campus and walk through our prairie!
Sr. Glenna Czachor,
OSF
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