Take Action - Justice, Peace & the Integrity of Creation - Franciscan Friars - Province of St.Johnthe Baptist in Cincinnati, Ohio

You may have read that the House of Representatives has put on hold their vote on the Colombia Free Trade Agreement by amending the House rules. The House wants to dialogue with the President about it, rather than push it through as the President has requested. There are significant problems with many of our "Free" Trade Agreements, and this one with Colombia is no exception. You can read about the concerns at the Witness for Peace website and send a letter to your Representative supporting the House's action at NETWORK's website.

You'll find the March and April editions of NewsBriefs from Franciscans International on their website.

Pax Christi USA has developed a position paper on Iraq, Toward a Just and Peaceful Solution in Iraq. And Pope Benedict has stated that war is never inevitable, but that the development of all peoples is necessary for true and lasting peace.

January 29, 2008

Greetings friars and friends,

May the Lord give you peace! With the bulk of state primaries still ahead, you may find these resources helpful. Peace Action has published a guide that gives the positions of both the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates on a number of peace related issues.

In the January issue of Washington Newsletter from the Friends Committee on National Legislation, you will find a review of Senate and House votes this past year and the way in which your Congresspersons voted on them. NETWORK has a similar list on their website, though with some different issues.

The Center of Concern has a number of resources online, including position papers, bulletin inserts, explanations of Catholic Social Teaching, etc.

Also, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good once again offer a Voting Guide based on Catholic Social Teaching which can be purchased or downloaded.

And finally, you may be interested in the Zenit article about our U.S. Bishops' letter to the President and Congress urging them to make the needs of the poor their priority in the economic stimulus package currently before the Senate.

January 10, 2008

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Jesus, Francis and Clare,

Greetings at the beginning of 2008! The New Year is traditionally a time to remind ourselves about the wonderful gift of peace that comes to us from our all-loving and all-embracing God. However, we need only take a quick look at the news to see that peace continues to be elusive in today’s world. We are especially concerned about the situation in Kenya in the wake of the presidential election. The people, including our brother and sister Franciscans, are threatened by violence, looting, displacement, loss of property and death.

Many have been asking for news about Kenya, and what we might do to help. Attached to this note find a message from some members of the Franciscan Association of Kenya. It was sent to the Franciscan Family of Kenya. The message encourages all to “take the side of Christ,” and to promote justice, truth, life and peace. The members of the Association have also asked us, the Franciscan Family outside of Kenya, to pray for the situation in their country. We, the JPIC directors of the different branches of the Franciscan Family, would like to pass this request on to you. In this way, all of us can show solidarity with those who are suffering, especially those of our Family. We pray for those who have lost loved ones and homes, for those separated from family, and for those with difficulty in finding food and safe shelter. We will try to keep you informed about the situation, and to find concrete ways in which we can be people of reconciliation and peace.

Messages of solidarity can be sent to jpicfa@gmail.com , which is the e-mail address for the JPIC Office of the Franciscan Family of Africa, located in Nairobi.

May the God of peace send the Spirit of reconciliation among all the people of Kenya, and throughout the world!

Joseph Rozansky, OFM
In the name of Romans VI (Group of JPIC Directors of the six branches of the Franciscan Family):

Guido Situmorang, OFM Cap.
Stanislaw Jaromi, OFM Conv.
Sr. Daria Koottiyaniel, OSF TOR
John Kochuchira, TOR
Attilio Galimberti, OSF
Joseph Rozansky, OFM

Nairobi, Feast of the Name of Jesus, January 3, 2007

Dear Brothers and Sisters of the Franciscan Family in Kenya, we greet you with the words the Lord revealed to St. Francis:

“May the Lord give you Peace!”[1]

In this way St. Francis liked to address the people wherever he met them. In this way he wished to witness to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. With these words we wish to greet you at the beginning of this new year 2008. But it is not so much the beginning of the new year that makes us to write to you; it is the present situation in our country of Kenya.

Prompted by the escalating acts of violence, looting, displacement of people, loss of properties and death toll taking place in our country following the elections, we want to reach all of you with an embrace of Shalom and with this message of peace.

The disrupting and evil forces at work in this present time have the enormous power to split our communities, our souls and our hearts. Tensions are felt everywhere, and fears are growing that what we are experiencing now might be the beginning of more bloodshed and the spreading of hatred and the recourse to revenge.

A great challenge is placed before us. A challenge that calls us to live as “children of light”[2] and of the common Father who loves all with the same love and makes his sun shine on all.[3] This, more than ever, is the time to live out our Christian vocation and Franciscan charism to be instruments of peace, builders of bridges of communion, creators of life and not death. “Blessed are those who work for peace; God will call them his children.”[4]

Brothers and Sisters, let us not allow another cruel page of history, like that of Rwanda, be written into the book of our country! Let’s do whatever is in our capacity to preserve unity in our communities and with the people around us. Let us all, members of the Franciscan Family in Kenya, leave behind the path of aggression and violence and open a way forward that calls for relationship and peacemaking.;

St Francis who embraced the “leper” and visited the “sultan”, teaches us to put aside resentments and stereotypes in order to reach out our brothers and sisters in need of our help and of our words of encouragement; to overcome tribal barriers and fuelled differences that are the Trojan horse ridden by all those who put greed and power before people’s lives.

Let us take no side, but the side of Christ. Let’s not been drawn into the present escalation of political and social tensions. We need to stand for justice and truth, but without advocating in any way violent means. Such violent means are not only machetes and guns, but also thoughts of revenge and hateful remarks, inflammatory talks and one-sided accusations.

LIFE and PEACE are supreme goods that cannot be sacrificed on any kind of individualistic altar! It is St. Francis, our little brother [5] and servant of all, who urges all of us, Franciscans, to live out our vocation:

“The peace that you announce with your mouth may be deeper in your heart, so that nobody be provoked to anger and scandal, instead through your peace and meekness, may all be called to peace and goodness. That is what we have been called for: to heal the wounded, bandage the broken, recall the wandering.”[6]

And “for all those who will give pardon and bear infirmity and tribulation for Christ’s love, praised be you my Lord. Blessed are those who endure in peace, for by You, Most High, they shall be crowned.”[7]

Dear sisters and brothers of our Franciscan families in Kenya, and especially dear ministers and superiors of our Franciscan communities, the Lord puts us to the test today. The present situation calls upon us to make our common vocation as builders of peace a lived reality. Let us support each other; let us be without fear; let us address tensions among ourselves, and seek answers in our common Franciscan ideals and commitments.

Most of our communities are made up of sisters and brothers of different origins, different political and ethnic allegiances. These differences need not to divide us. We have found in Christ the one who breaks down the barriers of our differences.

We are members of the one body of Christ. We cannot restore the health of this body by throwing away some of the members, but only by taking care of the wounded ones. Maybe such wounded and hurting members are among ourselves. In such cases let us passionately reach out to each other and offer help, encouragement and healing.

In this way we can all, individually and in our communities, pray with renewed conviction and sincerity, not by words only but by deeds, and by our very lives in our Franciscan families:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is error, truth;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, Joy.

O Divine Master grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Those who are praying with you and sending you this passionate appeal to embrace without fear and reservation our Franciscan vocation to be instruments of peace are
Br. Isidor Peterhans, OFMCap, Chairperson FFA-Kenya
Br. Sebastian Unsner, OFM, Provincial Minister
Br. Gianfrancesco Sisto OFM, director JPIC Franciscans Africa.
Sr. Mary Frances, board member of JPIC Franciscan Africa
Br. Benedict Ayodi, OFMCap, director Damietta Peace Initiative Kenya

[1] Testament 23; Mirror of Perfection, 26.
[2]1 Thes 5:5
[3] Mt 5:45
[4] Mt 5:9
[5] Testament 34.
[6] Anonymous of Perugia VIII, 38.
[7] Cfr. Canticle of Brother Sun, 10-11.

There are several environmental organizations that make it easy to write to Congress in support of legislation that protects the environment. Some recommended ones are:

Earthjustice, www.earthjustice.org/action;

Union of Concerned Scientists, www.ucsaction.org;

Natural Resources Defense Council, www.nrdc.org/action/default.asp;

Sierra Club, whistler.sierraclub.org/action/actionindex.jsp.

NETWORK, a National Catholic Social Justice Lobby, has an easy way to stay updated on the issues in Congress and let your Congresspersons know how you want them to vote.You can go to the NETWORK web site, www.networklobby.org, click on Legislative Action Center and get information about bills and issues and also NETWORK’s position on each.You can then directly write your senator or representative, even if you’re not sure who they are. All you need is your zip code. You can go directly to the letter-writing site at capwiz.com/networklobby.