Office for Catholic Social Justice Ministry - Archdiocese of Hartford
Para espa�ol haga clic aqui.                                                                            February / 2015
Advancing Catholic social teaching by educating and preparing parishes 
to work for social justice
From the Director

What will you DO for Lent?

 

As kids we would ask each other, "What are you giving up for Lent?" Although the Lenten practices of almsgiving, prayer, and fasting all existed, somehow the focus landed on fasting. We gave up sweets. We ate fish sticks for Friday school lunches.

 

Now, we see so many opportunities to DO something for Lent. Parishes are vibrant at this time of year. They are offering Soup and Bread Suppers with faith formation components. They hold Corporal Works of Mercy activities and Lenten speaker series. They are taking Catholic Relief Services Rice Bowl to new levels of parish engagement.

 

CRS Rice Bowl was created 40 years ago by Catholics in the United States who wanted to respond to famine in Africa. Perhaps you are of a certain age, and missed out on Rice Bowl as a child. Fear not! You can now participate as an individual or with your family or parish. CRS offers faith formation opportunities such as the "What is Lent?" video series, a mobile phone app, and you can follow along on Facebook and Twitter.  The original cardboard Rice Bowl continues to provide a reminder of how little some people have to eat. Contact us to help you get started.

 

Pope Francis has called us to end world hunger. It can be done. 

Our Lenten practices are a good way to start.

 

We would love to hear what your parish is doing for Lent.

 

Wishing you a blessed Lenten journey,

Lynn Campbell

Lynn Campbell, Executive Director

In This Issue
From the Director
Thank You!
Physician-Assisted Suicide
JFI Offers Lenten Toolkit
Get Ready for Lent
Stolen Lives
CT Delegates Advocate in DC
Lenten Fast for Climate justice
Meatless Fridays and Food for thought
Center Lends a "Helping Hand"
Social Justice Internship
Resource Review
Resources and Opportunities
CALENDAR

FEBRUARY

February 18-20

Justice for Immigrants National Call-In Days, 1-800-589-5698

 

February 18 - April 2

Lenten Fast for Climate Justice


February 22

"Assisted Suicide: Disguised as Death-with-Dignity" St. Ann Church, Avon, 1 - 2:30 pm

 

MARCH

March 4

"A Talk About End-of-Life Issues" St. James Church, Rocky Hill, 7 pm

 

March 6

World Day of Prayer

 

March 7

Stolen Lives: A Gospel Response to Human Trafficking, St. James Church, Rocky Hill, 8:30 am - 12 noon

 

March 22

"Behind the Swoosh: Sweatshops and Social Justice," St. Mary Church, East Hartford, 7 - 8:30 pm

 

MAY

May 31

Hartford Earth Festival, Riverfront Plaza, Hartford, 12 noon - 5 pm

 

JUNE

June 13

Annual Social Justice Conference, St. Paul High School, Bristol

 

JULY

July 19-23

Social Action Summer Institute (SASI), Portland OR

 

AUGUST

August 5-8

"Two Feet of Love in Action" Summer Justice Program for Young Adults

 

OCTOBER

October 21

Annual Social Justice Dinner and Awards, Aqua Turf Club, Plantsville

Join Our List
QUICK LINKS

Lenten Cross
Thank You for Meeting the Challenge!

Thank You!!! Through your generous support we met our end-of-year Challenge Grant Match!


Your support means that we can spend more time developing parish leaders like Sandra Reyes from St. Margaret Church in Waterbury.

 

Sandra is pictured here with Arturo Iriarte. With our assistance, Sandra was able to start the St. Margaret Social Justice Ministry, and became the parish's first coordinator. Sandra was recently honored by the Naugatuck Valley Project for her many contributions to the Hispanic immigrant community in Waterbury.

Physician-Assisted Suicide in CT

A proposed bill (S.B. 668) supporting the legalization of physician-assisted suicide in Connecticut has been referred to the General Assembly's Judiciary Committee for consideration. The exact language of this proposed legislation is not yet available. This is the third successive year that such legislation has been proposed by the General Assembly. Visit the Connecticut Catholic Conference website for the latest information and responses to frequently-asked questions about the topic.

 

The Catholic Bishops of Connecticut, along with members of the health care community and those representing the elderly and disabled, strongly oppose this legislation for various reasons. These groups believe that the right of individual choice is far overshadowed by the potential negative impact of this legislation upon our society.

  

We need your assistance in defeating this legislation currently before the Judiciary Committee. If you live in the district of a member of the committee - please contact them!  You can find the list of members and contact information here

 

Two archdiocesan parishes are exploring this issue, and invite the public to participate:

 

Sunday, February 22, 1:00-2:30 St. Ann Church, Avon: 

"Assisted Suicide: Disguised as 'Death with Dignity'"
(See Catholic Transcript article for more information.) 

 

Wednesday, March 4, 7:00 St. James Church, Rocky Hill:

"A Talk about End-of-Life Issues"

(See Catholic Transcript article for more information.)

JFI Offers Lenten Toolkit 

This Lent, the Justice for Immigrants Campaign invites you to pray, fast, learn, give and advocate for just and humane immigration reform, in solidarity with immigrants and refugees by committing to
one or more of the following activities. 


* Pray daily for the protection of immigrants and their families, for the boldness of the faith community to advocate for human dignity, and for our elected leaders to enact legislation that provides a pathway to legal status for undocumented immigrants and that reunifies families.
* Fast in solidarity with those who hunger and migrate from their homeland to seek opportunities to provide for themselves and their families.
* Learn from your friends, neighbors and fellow parishioners each week to better understand individual views, broader societal concerns and to help your community move forward in support of the Justice for Immigrants Campaign.
* Give your time to help organize at least one bridge-building event between immigrants and non immigrants to share stories, build new relationships, celebrate differences and improve unity among participants.
* Advocate for just and humane immigration reform by going to justiceforimmigrants.org once a week and sending an electronic postcard in support of immigration reform to members of Congress. Encourage your friends, family and neighbors to go to the website and send postcards
each week as well.
 

The complete JFI Lenten Toolkit is available for download at their website; the Spanish-language version will be available shortly at the same site.

 

The dates of February 18 (Ash Wednesday) through February 20 have been designated as National Call-In Days to urge members of Congress to support comprehensive immigration reform.  Call 1-800-855-5698 and leave this message:  "Please oppose including language in a DHS funding bill which reverses the President's executive actions on immigration, and please pass comprehensive immigration reform."

Get Ready for Lent!

40 Years of Commitment, 40 Days of Devotion,  CRS Rice Bowl Image40 Dollars to Change a Life


Is it possible to feed the hungry through Lenten prayers, fasting and alms-giving? 

 

The answer is yes - and it comes in the form of a small cardboard box.  For forty years, CRS Rice Bowl has provided support for our brothers and sisters in need each Lent. More than 13,000 faith communities across the United States engage in prayer, fasting and giving to help change the lives of others.  

 

See what's in store for 2015 and get ready to start your Lenten journey by downloading the new bi-lingual app  today!

 

A Christian who does not protect Creation, who does not let it grow,
is a Christian who does not care about the work of God.

Pope Francis, February 9, 2015

 

Visit our Website today!

Check out our NEW Feature Article, our calendar of upcoming events, 
and resource materials. Visit the "Contact Us" page 
to let us know what you think!
Stolen Lives: A Gospel Response to Human Trafficking
Human Trafficking

Join us on Saturday, March 7, for an informative and eye-opening workshop, "Stolen Lives: A Gospel Response to Human Trafficking," at St. James Church, 767 Elm Street, Rocky Hill. Featuring two local trafficking specialists, William Rivera, Director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs and Immigration Practice for the Connecticut Department of Children and Families, and Alicia Kinsman, Managing Attorney for the legal immigration program at the International Institute of Connecticut, the workshop will focus on the current human trafficking crisis within the state of Connecticut, in our own local towns and cities.


Learn more about how to recognize the signs of children at risk, and what YOU can do to aid in the fight against Human Trafficking.

The FREE workshop will run from 9 am - 12 noon (registration at 8:30) and is open to all. To register call OCSJM at (203) 777-7279 or send an email to [email protected].
CT Delegates Advocate at National Gathering

On February 7-10, the annual Catholic Social Ministry Gathering (CSMG) in Washington, D.C. welcomed 500 Catholics from across the country to learn, pray, and share their experiences working to advance the social mission of the Church. 

 

Hosted by the Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development, staff and volunteers working in social ministry at the parish or diocesan level attended presentations and took part in workshops focused on sharing the social ministry work that is happening throughout the Church. Highlights ranged from a presentation by the director of advocacy and policy for Caritas Internationalis to workshops on climate change, restorative justice, and the issue of physician-assisted suicide.

 

Jacquie Fable, a member of the Connecticut delegation to CSMG and coordinator of Crossfire young adult ministry at St. Thomas the Apostle in West Hartford, said that the workshops at CSMG offered, "an amazing opportunity to see how active the Catholic Church is in working for the poorest among us, and to recognize the responsibility we have to be the voice, hands, and body of Christ working in solidarity for the most vulnerable in both our local and international communities."

 

Participants lived out this year's conference theme "To Go Forth: Encountering Christ in the Heart of the World" when they visited Capitol Hill to advocate on behalf of the poor and vulnerable in our country. The ten Connecticut delegates met with staffers for all seven Connecticut legislators, advocating for a budget that protects the poor and vulnerable both domestically and internationally, the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act, comprehensive immigration reform, and a two-state solution in Israel and Palestine.

 

Delegate Amanda Fazzio, a member of Crossfire young adult ministry, said she "loved having the chance to advocate for social justice issues from a place of faith. It was a very humanizing experience, just to sit down with government staffers, and begin a conversation."

 

Now that the Gathering has concluded, the real work begins, as participants return to their ministries and seek new ways to go forth into their communities, using the knowledge they gained at CSMG.

 

Submitted by Rachel Malinowski, one of our newest OCSJM Board Members, who also led the CT delegation in DC.

Lenten Fast for Climate Justice

Pope Francis, in his February 9th homily, spoke of our responsibility to protect the Earth - not because we are "greens" (although we may be that too), but because we are Christians and the Earth is God's creation:

 

"God works, continues to work, and we can ask ourselves how we should respond to this creation of God, which is born of love, because he works through love.... Even for us there is responsibility to nurture the Earth, to nurture Creation, to keep it and make it grow according to its laws. A Christian who does not protect Creation, who does not let it grow, is a Christian who does not care about the work of God.... May the Lord give us the grace to understand that he is at work and give us the grace to respond appropriately to this labor of love."
  • How and where do you see God at work in creation?
  • How can we better nurture the Earth, for the benefit of all people and the whole amazing community of life that glorifies God?

We invite you to join the worldwide Church in a Lenten Fast for Climate Justice, coordinated by the Global Catholic Climate Movement , an international coalition of laity, religious, clergy, theologians, scientists and activists from every continent. In their statement, these leaders emphasize that, as St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have said as well, "climate change is for Catholics a profoundly spiritual, ethical, and moral issue."

 

In Lent 2015 (February 18 - April 2), this global fast for climate justice will join the year-long Fast For The Climate interfaith effort, asking that Catholics in every country include in their daily prayers our troubled Earth and especially those who are affected most by its violent climate shifts: the poor and those who live in threatened coastal communities.

 

In each of the 40 days of Lent Catholics and other Christians from a different country will fast and pray for action to solve the climate change crisis. The date assigned for the United States is Monday, March 16th. Please invite your friends and fellow parishioners to participate with you. Resources are available in several languages at the website, http://catholicclimatemovement.global/fast/.

 

Visit these links to learn more about Climate Change Facts and Catholic Teachings on Climate Change, and spread the word about the Global Catholic Climate Movement on Facebook and Twitter (#fastfortheclimate).

Meatless Fridays and Food for Thought

The Church asks us to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and on the Fridays of Lent. This can serve to increase our awareness of the environmental costs of our typical meat-focused diet, which depends on heavy use of energy, fertilizers, grain and water.

 

In the old days, Catholics abstained from meat every Friday and often ate fish. But today, this wonderful gift of creation is declining around the world due to overfishing, coastal pollution, oil spills, habitat destruction, and warmer oceans. And, as the oceans absorb increasing amounts of CO2, the water becomes more acidic. This reduces the ability of sea creatures - from the plankton at the base of the ocean food web to corals to oysters - to form shells and skeletons. Reducing CO2 emissions is essential to protecting the future of sea life.

 

In many places, including Connecticut, some fish are unsafe for pregnant women and small children to eat, due to contamination from toxic wastes and air-born mercury from coal. Around the world, small and subsistence fishermen can no longer catch the only source of animal protein for their families, due to over-harvesting by technologically advanced fleets.

 

Lent offers us the opportunity to prayerfully re-examine our actions and whether they bring us nearer to - or separate us from - God, our sisters and brothers, and the rest of creation. 

 

How must we change our lifestyles and habits so that others are fed and God's creation remains life-giving? 

St. Thomas More Center at Yale Lends a "Helping Hand"
OCSJM Board Member and Yale Chaplain, Katie Byrnes gathered students and other community members in January at the St. Thomas More Chapel and Center in New Haven to assemble 10,000 meal packets for the residents of Burkina Faso, a small impoverished country in West Africa.  

The effort was part of "Helping Hands," a program developed by Catholic Relief Services and Stop Hunger Now as a hands-on way for Catholics in the U.S. to tackle hunger around the world. During an event, volunteers package nutritious meals and learn about the people and country they are helping. CRS ships the meals and provides skills training and other long-term programs that help break the cycle of hunger. 

To learn more about "Helping Hands," visit the website or contact Sarah Hillier at [email protected].
Catholic Social Justice Internship
Consider becoming a CCHD Intern with us!

 

We are looking for interested applicants for our CCHD Summer Internship program, and will be accepting applications through March 1, 2015.  Working from our office in New Haven, an intern will have opportunities for one-on-one interactions with local CCHD groups, research, training and outreach, and parish interaction, under the supervision of the Archdiocesan CCHD Director.

 

CCHD internships are open to Catholics who have leadership abilities, community service experience, and effective writing and communication skills. Openness to the CCHD values of solidarity building, participation of the poor, and Catholic social teaching is essential. Low-income people from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds are especially encouraged to apply. To apply, complete the application form found on our website and send it to our office with your resume. For more information contact [email protected].

Resource Review

Refuse to Do Nothing: Finding Your Power to Abolish Modern-Day Slavery. Shayne Moore and Kimberly McOwen Yim. IVP Books, 2012.

 

Of all the books I've read and videos I've watched about Human Trafficking and Modern Day Slavery, I have found Refuse to Do Nothing to be one of the most hopeful and empowering reads. The authors are two housewives from California, who, once they learned about Human Trafficking, discerned God's call to respond. They believe that everyone can do something, right in your own home town.

 

The authors provide very practical tips on where to look for slavery, signs that someone might be a victim of human trafficking, advocacy opportunities, and the purchasing power we have as consumers.

Reviewed by Lynn Campbell

Resources and Opportunities 

The President of Catholic Relief Services, Carolyn Woo, Ph.D., has written an article titled Pope Francis and Climate Change: A Catholic Tradition. Dr. Woo explains that in taking up the important issue of climate change, Pope Francis is acting in the long tradition of the Catholic Church.

 

Climate Covenant Project Manager Dan DiLeo has written Church Authority and Assent: Clarifications Ahead of Pope Francis's Encyclical. Ahead of Pope Francis's encyclical, DiLeo insists it is important to correctly understand the various levels of church teaching authority, identify the level of potential encyclical teachings and appreciate the corresponding response to which Catholics are called by the church.

 

faithACTS is a new online initiative of Catholic Relief Services that connects people to project-specific campaigns and will serve as a gateway to learn about and support the work of CRS around the world. Click here to learn how to support two faithACTS projects - Harvesting Power in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sweet Success in Nicaragua.

You may also choose to receive periodic updates and learn about the progress and stories of the beneficiaries of the programs.

 

2015 Lenten Prayers for Hungry People

Bread for the World's 2015 Lenten Prayers for Hungry People is available for download here. Designed to sit on a table or desk, this 6 x 9 cardboard "tent" provides scripture readings, prayers and suggested actions for each of the five weeks of Lent, as well as for Holy Week. Order free copies for yourself and to share with family, church members or others.