Poverty in U.S. Increasing: “The impact of increasing poverty and the diminished economic resources of the U.S. middle class became evident in late November.  The U.S. Census Bureau reported that poverty among school-age children showed ‘a statistically significant increase’ in one in five counties across the nation, and an analysis by The New York Times of Department of Agriculture data concluded that the number of students receiving subsidized school lunches rose to 21 million in the 2009-10 school year from 18 million in 2006-7, a 17 percent increase.  According to the analysis, 11 states had four-year increases of 25 percent or more, ‘huge shifts in a vast program long characterized by incremental growth.’ Reports from Catholic Charities USA agencies across the nation were just as discouraging.  According to the organization’s 2011 Third Quarter Snapshot Survey, 66 percent of Catholic Charities agencies saw an increase in requests for assistance from families with children and 59 percent reported increases in aid requests from middle-class families.  Eighty percent report increased requests for assistance from the working poor.
 
“Perhaps most alarming were the snapshot’s findings related to the toll the rising demand was having on C.C. U.S.A. capacity.  More than 88 percent of local agencies reported that they maintained a waiting list or had to turn people away for at least one of their programs or services in the last quarter, and 64 percent reported that they could not meet the need they faced for emergency financial assistance.  Fifty-six percent of Catholic Charities agencies were unable to respond to some requests for utility assistance. Commenting on the report, the Rev. Larry Snyder, president of Catholic charities USA, said that while the need for food and utility assistance has been consistent, never in his experience had so many agencies been forced to turn clients away or place families on waiting lists. …’Washington keeps playing around with how we are going to become more fiscally responsible,’ he said, ‘but that can’t begin with the poor.’”
 
(From America, Dec. 12, 2011)

The Rise of the 99 Percent: “Long before it was a rallying cry, Catholic social justice groups were pointing fingers at the 1 percent. In fact, just last May, the Washington, D.C.-based Catholic lobbying group NETWORK launched a new ‘Mind the Gap’ program to address the growing wealth disparity in the United States. …the program was designed to call attention to the fact that the wealthiest 1 percent of the country’s population owns more than the bottom 90 percent combined.” Sr. Simone Campbell, a member of the Sisters of Social Service, is the director of NETWORK. “Most in the country believed the notion ‘that if you play by the rules and you work hard, you will get ahead,’ Campbell said. ‘That’s no longer necessarily true.  And it’s that dislocation between what had become a nationally held mantra and reality that I think then created the opening for the Occupy movement.’…Another activist said the greatest impact of the Occupy movement goes beyond the encampments, in that the protests ‘opened up a space’ for people concerned about social justice issues to speak on a national scale….Pointing to some 14,000 signatures NETWORK had presented to the White House in support of mending wealth disparity in the country as part of their ‘Mind the Gap’ program, Campbell said protesters need to call attention to specific proposals they might support to address inequality….’I think that it’s really important to be imaginative in finding new ways of coming together and solving these problems so that they meet our current reality,’ she said.”
 
(From National Catholic Reporter, Jan. 6-19, 2012)

Gibson Using Illegally Logged Wood? “Last October, dueling demonstrations thousands of miles apart improbably focused on Gibson Guitar Corporation, which manufactures the high-end instruments favored by stars ranging from B.B. King to Slash.  In Nashville, 500 Tea Party supporters attended a ‘We Stand With Gibson’ rally, while deep in the forests of Madagascar, 10,000 people gathered for a concert to draw attention to the illegal logging that is devastating Masoala National Park and its unique wildlife – and that may be providing raw materials to the United States’ iconic guitar maker.  Gibson became the unexpected American face of illegal logging after federal agents seized imported wood from its manufacturing facilities in Tennessee.  The Justice Department suspected that Gibson had smuggled rare rosewood and ebony from Madagascar and India into the United States in violation of the Lacey Act, which prohibits the import of illegally logged wood and paper.
 
“Given the rampant illegal logging on Madagascar, guitar maker Martin pulled back from the country.  But Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz hit the conservative broadcast circuit, appearing with right-wing pundits Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs, and Sean Hannity to complain about ‘government overreach.’ …Both the U.S. forest-products industry and unions representing timber workers have long supported the Lacey Act and other measures to crack down on illegal logging.  Simply put, they don’t want to compete with illegal overseas operations that log in national parks, don’t pay taxes, and sometimes even employ slave and child labor. ‘There should not be any illegal logging, whether for guitars or anything else,’ Malagasy concert organizer and guitarist Razia Said told the Associated Press. ‘These things are being sold for a lot of money and the people here are not getting much out of it.’  Meanwhile, Gibson has demanded the return of the seized wood.”
 
(From Sierra, January/February 2012)

Pesticides Linked to Parkinson’s: “Some neurologists dub the 300-mile-long string of Central Valley farm towns between Bakersfield and Sacramento ‘Parkinson’s Alley,’ and recently released statistics back them up. A study published last year by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that Central Valley residents under age 60 who lived near fields where pesticides paraquat and maneb had been used between 1974 and 1999 had a Parkinson’s rate nearly five times higher than other residents in the region. …Paraquat was banned by the European Union in 2007 but is still widely used in the United States…The EPA banned maneb for use on corn, grapes, and apples in 2005 but continues to allow its use on almonds, which are abundant in the Central Valley….
 
“Research into the link between pesticides and Parkinson’s in the Central Valley dates back to 2000, when UCLA epidemiologist Beate Ritz began comparing mortality records with pesticide-application reports.  She discovered that California counties reporting the highest pesticide use also had the highest rates for Parkinson’s-related deaths. Examining agricultural records from 1989 to 1994, Ritz found that when insecticides were applied to more than a third of a county’s acreage, the risk of its residents’ dying from Parkinson’s disease increased 2.5 fold. … Ritz and her research team found that Central Valley residents who consumed private well water and lived within 500 feet of farmland with documented long-term pesticide use were almost twice as likely to get Parkinson’s disease.   Their 2009 report, produced under the auspices of the federally funded Parkinson’s Environment and Genes Study, was the first to quantify residents’ exposure to such chemicals by comparing land-use maps with state-mandated pesticide-application records….Some of those pesticides are finding their way into residential water supplies in accumulations that surpass government safety standards, according to a number of studies. …”
 
(From Sierra, January/February 2012)

Ending Religious Violence in India: “Members of the All India Christian Council launched an initiative on Dec. 12, 2011, to raise awareness of the Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence Bill, a measure aimed at curbing violence against religious minorities.  John Dayal, general secretary of the council, said the bill is urgently needed ‘to put an end to the campaigns and to restore confidence [among] minorities.’  According to the council, the proposed law strives to provide justice for victims of religious violence, discourage hate speech, censure violent behavior by extremist religious groups and hold law enforcement officials accountable for not stopping or for abetting the violence.  Over the past four years close to 4,000 violent acts against religious minorities have occurred in India.”
 
(From America, Jan. 2-9, 2012)

Catholics Welcome Climate Fund: “…delegates to the United Nations’ climate conference in Durban [South Africa] worked an extra day and a half to finalize a new international climate road map to lower carbon emissions and aid poor countries’ response to climate change.  ‘It is without any doubt in my mind that we have worked together to save tomorrow, today,’ South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, president of the Durban conference, said Dec. 11. The hard-fought Durban Platform paves the way for a new agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol by 2020 that will curb carbon emissions by at least 25-40 percent of 1990 levels. The pact does not provide the terms of such an agreement but instead outlines a roadmap to get there, by no later than 2015.  The platform also established the Green Climate Fund, a welcome result for Catholic climate advocates pushing for assistance to poor countries combating climate change.
 
“While many have acknowledged that the fund and the pledge for an all-inclusive emissions agreement are another step forward, the perceived slow reaction to an increasingly serious issue tempered excitement.  ‘There needs to be an attitude of urgency about [climate change],’ said Dan Misleh, executive director of the U.S-based Catholic Coalition on Climate Change. … Unlike Kyoto, which enforced emissions reductions for only 37 industrialized nations, the new agreement will apply to all countries, including the developing nations of China, India and Brazil – all left out of Kyoto.  The United States never ratified the protocol, instead choosing to make its own voluntary efforts to curb gases. …The U.S. approach to climate change has frustrated many Catholic organizations.  ‘We have no clear policy hook to help Catholics appreciate the need for our nation to get serious about addressing climate change and its impacts on poor people,’ Misleh said.”
 
(From National Catholic Reporter, Dec. 23, 2011)

Slavery Still a Problem: “Difficult as it is to accept, slavery remains a contemporary misery all over the world. …According to the International Labor Organization (ILO) there are at least 12.3 million people in some form of forced labor throughout the world.  That’s about four out of every 1,000 people in the global workforce.  Other estimates place the figure much higher, to as many as 27 million people.  A tiny fraction of the world’s slaves live in the United States.  Most come under the enthrallment enforced by the world’s blackest market, human trafficking.  Victims of human trafficking live and work among us almost invisibly, but you can find them in the businesses American consumers visit each day, working on our farm fields and front lawns, in our hair salons and restaurants.Under the worst of circumstances, modern slaves are used as sexual chattel in strip clubs, brothels, and massage parlors. If you are scrupulous in the contractors you hire, the services you use, and the restaurants you visit, you can probably assure yourself that you have not contributed to modern slavery.  But what about the things we buy from places we’ve never seen? It is on the lower rungs of global capitalism that the phenomenon of contemporary slavery is most prevalent.
 
“The ILO reports that most of the world’s forced labor occurs in Asia, where more than 9.5 million people are in some form of exploitative agricultural, industrial, or sexual work.  But pockets of slavery – regional or within labor sectors – can be found all over the world.  They are often buried at the bottom of the global manufacturing supply chain – from farmworkers picking cotton in Egypt to make the clothes you wear to tantalum miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo collecting the mineral that helps power the modern world’s smartphones and laptop computers. One of the major contemporary excuses for slavery from manufacturers, retailers, and, let’s face it, consumers is: ‘I didn’t know.’  But websites like slaveryfootprint.org make that statement hard to defend.  Just walk through its clever interface to find out how many slaves work for you….Not only does slaveryfootprint.org explain how your purchases contribute to modern slavery, it also offers practical suggestions for what you can do to end it by pressuring manufacturers to devise practical, enforceable standards for sourcing raw materials and the treatment of workers.” 
 
(From U.S. Catholic, January 2012)

Human Rights for All: “In mid-December Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a passionate speech in Geneva on the occasion of International Human Rights Day, encouraging nations to support human rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people.  Much of what she says can, and should, be supported by Catholics.  Same-sex marriage has been strongly opposed by the church.  But Mrs. Clinton’s speech is referring to the more fundamental right of gay and lesbian people to live without fear and without threat of death.  Americans may have become so focused on the question of same-sex marriage that they overlook the dire conditions under which many gay and lesbian people live throughout the world.
 
“In Uganda, for example, there are moves to make homosexual activity punishable by death.  This is extreme, but Uganda is far from an isolated case.  In Kenya conviction brings up to 14 years in prison; in Tanzania up to life in prison; and in Saudi Arabia the penalties include fines, whipping, prison and death.  As Mrs. Clinton said, ‘It is a violation of human rights when people are beaten or killed because of their sexual orientation….’  The catechism teaches that gays and lesbians should be accepted with respect, sensitivity and compassion: ‘Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.’  The church should continue to raise its voice in defense of our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters who suffer from unjust discrimination.”
 
(From America, Jan. 2-9, 2012)

Food Struggles in Kenya: “The trek Somalis fleeing famine take into neighboring Kenya is sometimes called the road of death, because it is marked by mounds of soil where the fallen, many of them children, are buried. …For those who do survive it, the trek can end with relief – food and shelter at Dadaab, site of one of the largest refugee encampments in the world.  For Somalis fleeing the horrors of famine and drought, political instability and day-to-day insecurity, the Dadaab camps, and indeed Kenya as a whole, are seen as symbols of hope. Yet Dadaab is an overrun and often dangerous place; late last year it was the site of a number of grenade and landmine attacks.  And while it rests in a country that offers succor to Somalis, Kenya itself is facing its own considerable challenges of hunger, drought and climate change. …
 
“First, there is a growing fear of climate change.  It used to be common to feel that once March had arrived, people could count on rains.  No more. …the fertile valleys south and east of the capital were once ‘wet’ areas where vegetables and sugar cane grew in abundance.  But as areas have dried up and as land has become consolidated, reducing employment in rural areas, people have been forced to move to Nairobi in hopes of finding work.  Meanwhile, in northern Kenya, areas where once cattle roamed, the land needed to raise livestock is becoming scarcer, increasing the price of meat, a beloved but increasingly rare food on tables in Kenya….farming in western Kenya is becoming more perilous because of rising costs of fertilizer and the overuse of land.” These problems are forcing people to move to urban areas which are becoming overcrowded, increasing the stress on food supplies.
 
(From National Catholic Reporter, Jan. 6-19, 2012)

Bishops Renew Antipoverty Campaign: “With 15 percent of all Americans, including nearly 1 out of 4 children, living in poverty, the Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is renewing its poverty awareness campaign, Poverty USA, with a revamped Web site and a social media campaign encouraging participation in Poverty Awareness Month in January. ‘Our culture of life begins with a love that binds us to the hopes and joys, the struggles and the sorrows of people, especially those who are poor or any way afflicted,’ said Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento, Calif., chairman of the bishops’ domestic antipoverty effort, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. ‘We march with immigrant families toward a society made stronger and safer by their inclusion.  We embrace the mother and her unborn child, giving to both of them hope and opportunity.  We measure our own health by the quality of care we give to those most vulnerable.  We labor with those whose work is burdensome.’”
 
(From America, Jan. 2-9, 2012)

Life Issues
 
Catholic Theologians Oppose Capital Punishment: “The September execution of Troy Davis amid lingering doubts about his guilt in the 1989 murder of an off-duty police officer sparked a renewed outcry from Catholics against capital punishment.  More than 350 theologians signed a petition calling for the abolition of the death penalty, citing the possibility of executing an innocent person and also the tradition of Catholic teaching on protecting the dignity of human life and the gospel message of forgiveness.  ‘We need to forgive and love both in fidelity to the gospel and for our own well-being,’ the petition states.”
 
(From U.S. Catholic, December 2011)

What’s Wrong With Capital Punishment?: “The state of Georgia executed Troy Davis at 10:53 p.m. on a Wednesday in September, by lethal injection. …Nearly a million people worldwide signed Amnesty International’s petition urging authorities in Georgia to commute Davis’ sentence.  Davis spent 20 years – nearly half his life – on death row for a crime it’s doubtful he committed, and the penal system ground inexorably forward. No one could stop it. Not Davis’s family.  Not lawyers, protesters, or petition signers.  Not the six prison officials who expressed ‘overwhelming concern that an innocent person could be executed in Georgia.’…Troy Davis couldn’t get a stay of execution – despite substantial new evidence supporting his innocence – in part because of the federal Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act.  The act was part of the Republican ‘Contract with America’ signed into law in 1996 by President Clinton, who was pushed to bring a speedy and lethal conclusion to domestic terrorist Timothy McVeigh. Under the Act, ‘federal courts are unable to grant relief despite meritorious substantive claims, including …claims of racial bias in jury selection, ineffective assistance of counsel, and prosecutorial misconduct,’ concludes the Constitution Project, which seeks substantial reform to the act.  It reduces capital defendants to one, all-or-nothing, federal appeal.  If the real killer publicly confessed and there was conclusive DNA evidence, it wouldn’t matter.  Once a federal appeal has been denied, the death machinery must grind on. No matter what.
 
“More than two-thirds of the countries in the world have abolished the death penalty in law or practice, according to Amnesty International.  About one-third of the states, plus the District of Colombia, have abolished capital punishment.  Yet the U.S. ranks fifth in the world for number of executions.  Texas executes at a rate four times higher than the national average. If the defendant is African American, the odds of receiving a death sentence are nearly four times higher than if he or she is white. …Christians who are pro-life embrace a ‘womb to tomb’ theology. … What will it take for the U.S. to join the family of nations who have once and for all abolished the death penalty? As Christians we condemn the culture of death.  And whether the state uses a cross, a killing chair, or a lethal cocktail, we will choose life.”
 
(From Sojourners, Dec. 2011)

Religious Communities Challenge Corporations: “On May 6 this year, Sister Nora Nash stood before Goldman Sachs’ powerful CEO and his board for the investment bank’s annual meeting.  Nash, a Sister of St. Francis of Philadelphia who wears wire-rim glasses and a tentative smile, was calling upon the investment bank to review its senior executive compensation policies and to report its findings to shareholders. Goldman Sachs had just rewarded its top executives with $70 million in bonuses, even as workers were laid off, in the wake of spending half a billion dollars in legal fees and another $550 million in fines to the Securities and Exchange Commission for misleading clients. A coalition of allies across the country had signed onto the resolution, including the Mount Angel Benedictine Sisters and several other orders.  In fact, women religious have often been the face of shareholder advocacy. ‘We’re just asking them to look at their policies and consider what part is greed,’ says Benedictine Sister Marietta Schindler, who worries about the chasm between the sky-high executive compensation on Wall Street and unemployment and empty stores on Main Street – and what that portends for America’s future.
 
“Although this particular resolution garnered only 4.1 percent of shareholder’s votes, there is a strong case to be made that engaged shareholders are making a difference.  They may even be at a tipping point for sparking corporate reform, should more people speak out. Their goal is to create a movement powerful enough to change a bedrock value of corporate America, the value that holds that corporations (which legally have the right to be treated as ‘persons’) have only one responsibility; to maximize their own short-term profits for shareholders, no matter what the cost to society or the environment.  …Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer argues there are only three ways to change a public corporation’s behavior: through regulation, litigation, or through the collective power of shareholders. ‘I started at this desk in 2000,’ says David Berdish, manager of sustainable business development at Ford Motor Company who previously worked 17 years in the company’s manufacturing offices. ‘I was blown away by the impact of shareholder resolutions on management. I had no idea how powerful it was.’”
 
(From U.S. Catholic, December 2011)

Bishops Support Immigrants: “An emotional pastoral letter to immigrants from the U.S. Hispanic Catholic bishops offers love, encouragement, welcome and sympathy to undocumented migrants and assurance that ‘you are not alone or forgotten.’” The letter was released on Dec. 12, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and signed by 33 bishops. “Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento, Calif., said the bishops wanted ‘to reach out to the immigrant community and express our concern for them, to speak to them in a spirit of solidarity.’  Bishop Soto said that this outreach might be especially needed now because it ‘does not look promising’ that the federal government will act anytime soon to improve the legal situation of millions of undocumented immigrants. ... In the letter, the bishops expressed regret that some have reacted to the current domestic economic crisis by showing disdain for immigrants. ‘We will not find a solution to our problems by sowing hatred,’ they said. ‘We will find the solution by sowing a sense of solidarity among all workers and co-workers – immigrants and citizens – who live together in the United States.’ …
 
“The bishops also acknowledged the pain suffered by families who have had someone deported or are threatened with deportation; the anxiety of waiting for legal residency status; and the frustration of young people who have grown up in the United States but lack the legal immigration status that would allow them to go on to college and get good jobs. ‘The situation cries out to God for a worthy and humane solution,’ they wrote. They reiterated the position they as individuals and as members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have taken in support of comprehensive immigration reform. Such legislation should respect family unity and provide ‘an orderly and reasonable process for unauthorized persons to attain citizenship.’  It should include a program for worker visas that protect immigrant’s rights and that provides for their basic needs, they said.”
 
(From America, Jan. 2-9, 2012)

Educating Youth for Peace: “Peace and justice are built on ‘a profound respect for every human being and helping others to live a life consonant with this supreme dignity,’ Pope Benedict XVI said in his message for the World Day of Peace 2012, celebrated by the church on Jan. 1.  When young people recognize the dignity and beauty of every human life, including their own, and are supported in their natural desire to make the world a better place, they become agents of justice and peace in the world, Pope Benedict said.  This observation introduced his theme for the 2012 celebration, ‘Educating Young People in Justice and Peace.’ Peace is not simply a gift to be received from God, the pope said; it is a task people of good will must undertake.  ‘In order to be true peacemakers, we must educate ourselves in compassion, solidarity, working together, fraternity, in being active within the community and concerned to raise awareness about national and international issues and the importance of seeking adequate mechanisms for the redistribution of wealth, the promotion of growth, cooperation for development and conflict resolution,’ he said. …
 
“Educating people in justice and peace begins in the family, where young people learn to value the gift of life, solidarity, respect for rules, forgiveness and hospitality, he said. … Bishop Mario Toso, secretary of the justice and peace council, said the young people who energized the Arab Spring movements toward democracy this past year illustrate the fact that the young have a positive role to play in society.  They proclaimed to the world that ‘there can be social justice in their societies if there is democracy, there can be social justice,’ he said.”
 
(From America, Jan. 2-9, 2012)

Pope Asks African Church to be Model of Reconciliation: “During a three-day trip to Benin, Africa, Nov. 18-20, Pope Benedict XVI called on Catholics in the nation to become ‘apostles of reconciliation, justice and peace’ across the nation, reported CNS. The pope visited Africa to unveil the document Africae Munus (‘The Commitment of Africa’), which explores the themes treated by the 2009 Synod of Bishops of Africa.  He signed the apostolic exhortation in the coastal city of Ouidah, a former slave-trading post on the Atlantic. In an address to diplomats, civil authorities and religious representatives Nov. 19 in Cotonou, the pope urged leaders to put the common good at the forefront of their policies. ‘From this place, I launch an appeal to all political and economic leaders of African countries and the rest of the world,’ he said.  ‘Do not deprive your peoples of hope! Do not cut them off from their future by mutilating their present!’
 
“He went on to caution the international community not to see the continent as only a place of problems and failures.  ‘It is tempting to point to what does not work; it is easy to assume the judgmental tone of the moralizer or of the expert who imposes his conclusions and proposes, at the end of the day, few useful solutions,’ he said. On his final day, at Mass in the stadium in Cotonou, the pope told more than 50,000 people: ‘I would like to greet with affection all those persons who are suffering, those who are sick, those affected by AIDS or by other illnesses, to all those forgotten by society.  Have courage! The pope is close to you in his thoughts and prayers.’”
 
(From St. Anthony Messenger, January 2012)

SJB Friars Commit to Refugees, Migrants and Victims of Human Trafficking: The Franciscan Friars of St. John the Baptist Province based in Cincinnati, Ohio, held their 2008 Chapter at St. Meinrad Archabbey in Indiana May 19-23. Of the many proposals passed, the Chapter delegates affirmed a resolution to learn more about the issues of migrants, refugees and victims of human trafficking in order to better be able to respond to their needs. The resolution says:
 “We, the Franciscans of St. John the Baptist Province, commit ourselves to increase our awareness of issues surrounding refugees, migrants and victims of human trafficking in order to develop more proactive Franciscan responses on the provincial, friary and personal level.”

SJB Friars Commit to Non-violence: The Franciscan Friars of St. John the Baptist Province based in Cincinnati, Ohio, held their 2005 Chapter at the University of Dayton, May 23-27. Among the many proposals that were passed, the Chapter delegates affirmed a resolution introduced by their JPIC Office in which they committed themselves to “continued conversion to a life of Franciscan non-violence in support of a consistent ethic of life.” The complete resolution follows.

“As Franciscans, we affirm the sacredness of all human life and the inherent value of all creation. In a world where violence is rampant, we wish to be a sign of hope, actively promoting the preservation of life, peace among people and nations, justice for all and reconciliation. We commit ourselves to continued conversion to a life of Franciscan non-violence in support of a consistent ethic of life.”