The Catholic Social Teaching website offers infomation and resources about the Church’s teaching on social, political and economic issues.
“The theological dimension is needed both for interpreting and for solving present day problems in human society” Saint John Paul II
www.catholicsocialteaching.org.uk
ADVENT REFLECTION 2014
Week 3: Joyful expectation
ADVENT REFLECTION 2014
Week 2: Building the Kingdom
We are waiting for the new heavens and new earth, where righteousness will be at home.
2 Peter 3:13
He is like a shepherd feeding his flock, gathering lambs in his arms.
Isaiah
40:10
The National Justice and Peace Network of England and Wales (NJPN) held an open meeting at CAFOD’s London offices last Saturday. Nearly 40 justice and peace activists, including representatives of dioceses, religious orders, Catholic agencies as well as individual members, shared their work in the areas of justice, peace and care for creation. This followed a talk by Oliver McTernon of Forward Thinking on ‘Peace is a Fruit of Remembrance’.
They heard that the NJPN has sent suggestions re: Pope Francis’ forthcoming Encyclical on the Environment to Cardinal Peter Turkson of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. It was copied to Pope Francis, Cardinal George Pell of the Secretariat for the Economy and Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, following concern that issues important to NJPN appear in the Encyclical. NJPN hopes that points to be addressed propetically could include the link between natural resources exploitation and conflict; the role of women in managing natural resources globally; and the putting in place of Church structures to achieve the necessary degree of education of Catholics in faith, worship and witness regarding the environment and creation theology.
The NJPN Environment Working Group highlighted work on Fracking by Lancaster Diocese Faith and Justice Commission. Their discussion paper and questions for groups follows a big increase in fracking activity in the North-West which has alarmed many communities. At least 281 parish councils have rejected fracking. Poverty and social exclusion in Britain was explored at a recent study day organised by Westminster Justice and Peace Commission, particularly exploding the myth that Britain is divided into ‘skivers’ and ‘strivers’.
Middlesbrough Diocesan J&P has been working with local World Development Movement members to raise awareness of the TTIP, or Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. This trade agreement is about reducing the regulatory barriers to trade for big business, affecting areas like food safety law, environmental legislation, banking regulations and the sovereign powers of individual nations. The Africa Faith and Justice Network (AFJN) is also focusing on TTIP, particularly in relation to the countries of Africa whose raw materials are highly coveted.
Patricia and Michael Pulham of Christian CND reported forthcoming Advent vigils at Aldermaston on the 4th, 11th and 18th December. Bruce Kent will be speaking at their forthcoming AGM about effective campaigning in churches about stopping the renewal of Trident, Britain’s nuclear weapons system. Pat Gaffney, Director of Pax Christi, thanked NJPN for signing up to the Rethink Trident statement, which one archbishop and six bishops have also signed, and urged diocesan commissions to sign too. She felt the petition is a good tool for pre-election work on nuclear issues. Pax Christi’s popular annual Advent Peace Service will be held on the evening of 8th December at St. Aloysius Church in Euston.
Maria Elena Arana of CAFOD Campaigns Maria Elena reported that there have been 17 launch events since September, involving over 800 supporters of the new campaign, ‘One World One Climate’, which will run for three years. Peruvian partners spoke at some of them, particularly highlighting the impact of the loss of mountain glaciers on water supply. A number of MPs and bishops have signed up to support. All political parties are being called upon to promise in their manifestos to reduce climate impacts on the poor and to push sustainable energy. Education packs for schools will be available from January 2015. She also reminded about the Live Simply Parish Award which encourages parishes to live simply, sustainably and in solidarity with the poor, reporting that 12 parishes have now achieved the award and five others are on the verge of getting it.
Louise Zanre of the Jesuit Refugee Service said JRS is campaigning to stop the use of Immigration Detention. She reported that the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Refugees and on Migration are conducting a parliamentary inquiry into the use of immigration detention in the UK. The inquiry, which she will be chairing, will examine the use of detention in the UK immigration and asylum systems, with a particular focus on the conditions within detention centres, the impact on individual detainees and their families, the wider financial and social consequences, how detention is used in other countries, and the future role of detention within the immigration system. Following the receipt of evidence between July and October 2014, and a series of oral evidence sessions, the inquiry aims to publish a report in early 2015.
Election issues are currently being prepared by NJPN members in readiness for next May’s General Election. And an important date for the diary is 17 – 19 July 2015 – the next annual Justice and Peace Conference at Swanwick, Derbyshire with the title, ‘The Things That Make For Peace’. Fr Edu Gariguez – General Secretary of the Philippine bishops’ social justice department is one of the speakers. He has been on hunger strikes to save water and land from mining on Mindoro Island and is a winner of the 2012 Goldman prize for the environment.
The meeting opened with thoughtful prayers and readings.
The first session consisted of a briefing highlighting the concerns of a number of campaigning groups of the negotiations between the EU and USA of a new trade partnership. The transatlantic trade and investment partnership (TTIP)
The aim of the partnership is to increase trade through deregulation by harmonising regulations in the environment, food safety, workers rights and finance and giving corporation’s the right to sue governments over decisions which harm their profits. There is widespread concern that this “boost” for trade may be at great cost to individual workers, threatening labour rights, opening public services to international competition and lowering standards of environmental protection and even countries rights to self determination, so democracy itself. Despite the enormous significance of these reforms very little seems to be known about it by national politicians, as much of the negotiating is being done in secret in Europe. There was an urgent request to become better informed on this issue and contact MPs to take a more active interest in the negotiations to safeguard our rights. More information can be found at www.TTIP.org.uk
The main presentation for the morning session was a very thought provoking talk by Oliver McTernan, director of ‘Forward Thinking’, working world wide in conflict resolution and reconciliation. The title title was “Peace as a fruit of Remembrance” opening with a quotation from Populorum Progressio as a useful focus for consideration, “Peace means far more than a precarious truce. Peace is the fruit of anxious daily care to see that everyone lives in the justice as God intends.” (This is Progress: Progression, 76: 2006)
Peace cannot be imposed it needs to take root in a quality of life where each individual can fulfil their human potential. Solutions need to be rooted in justice and inclusive; what is needed is a wide approach to engage with everyone, even the most extreme so everyone is committed and feels heard. As with plants to produce fruit it take time- roots of peace need to develop.
Related to this is the sometimes uncomfortable process of remembrance, which when too narrowly viewed can be seen as glorification of war rather then the remembrance of a tragedy of loss, a sacrifice of lives.
Externally viewed remembrance parades may seem like glorification but tap into the back story. For example a 80 year old man in Islington who came one day a year to church on Remembrance Sunday. He felt he needed to be there to ask for forgiveness for all the young men he had killed. For 60 years this man had carried this burden of conscience that he had deprived other men of their future, their life. Oliver remembered this man’s story and those of others with similar burdens.
Engaging fully in rightful remembrance and the reality of the consequences and the regret of say WW1, a disaster for humanity, not an annual glorification but a remembering of the brutality of war can be a catalyst for peace. If we return to the daily care needed for everyone to live in “the Justice in which God intends” then remembrance is part of this, true remembrance not glorification should stop the cycle of violence and stop war.
The discussion afterwards was raised some of the tension in remembrance between glorification, living with horror, seeking repentance and forgiveness. Highlighting the need to be very sensitive to those caught up in war. In Oliver’s experience these most honest, open and with a deeply held morality about the consequences of their actions are soldiers themselves. He recognises that people do not choose to sacrifice their lives, they are taken, sometimes people may act heroically in a particular situation for comrades but this is not the same. Reflection and healing is needed. Engaging in private reflection of remembrance, for each of us has a memory of conflict not always war but maybe in our family, deal with the scars and the consequences – from these fruits we need to strive for peace.
It was quite poignant at this point, as we approach the end of November, the month of remembrance that Pat Gaffney highlighted that the packs for Peace Sunday where being sent out this week ready 18th January. So we can all consider how best to make Peace a fruit our remembrance.
After a chatty lunch, when we had the chance to met with people and enjoy Maria and…… 50th wedding anniversary cake we had the chance to each say what we had been doing and our concerns.
The final session of the day include NJPN reports.
Treasurer’s Report: reminded us of the need to raise revenue to remain viable
Conference 2016: was discussed possible ideas were around the family- rights and responsibilities, democracy and civic society, or climate and the environment.
The Environment Working Party: had met and have some information available on fracking
The future direction of The Ethical Investment Group was discussed, following the retirement of the Convenor.
Web site: Is currently being updated and work on this is ongoing.
There seemed to still be plenty to discuss when the meeting closed at 4pm.
CAFOD Church and non-Church partners are urgently scaling up their response to the Ebola crisis, and need to reach many more people over the coming weeks. Their work includes:
● Raising awareness: Many communities do not have access to accurate information on Ebola, or hygiene facilities to protect themselves. Our partners are working with priests and imams to spread the word about hand-washing and safe sanitation, and to distribute hygiene kits. Religious leaders are in a unique position to bust myths and ensure that communities take the right action to prevent the spread of the disease.
● Providing safe burials: Ebola can spread through contact with the bodies of people who have died from the disease. CAFOD church partners and faith leaders in affected communities are best placed to work with in making sure that communities understand the stringent procedures that need to be adhered to pre and post funerals. We will be supporting partners to promote and provide safe burials in Northern Sierra Leone.
● Supplying food: As the spread of Ebola widens, the day to day task of buying or stocking food is becoming more challenging. Farmers have been unable to work together to harvest their crops, prices have risen, and food is becoming scarce in districts that have been quarantined. We are supporting Church partners in Liberia to provide vulnerable families with food, and plan to scale up this work into Sierra Leone.
The outbreak is affecting the rest of the health system, as resources are diverted to treat patients, leaving clinics and hospitals unable to administer general healthcare, and having to close. Our partners tell us that because of restrictions of cross border imports of produce, and members of farming communities being affected by the disease, food is becoming scarce in some places, which has led to prices increasing beyond the reach of ordinary people. The deadliest outbreak of the Ebola virus in recorded history has spread across Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. There is uncertainty about how many people have Ebola, the ones that World Health Organisation (WHO) numbers stand at more than 10,000 people infected, this is made up of confirmed, suspected and probable cases. WHO confirm that 4,992 people across Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea have died from the Ebola virus. WHO now estimate that if rapid action is not taken to halt the spread of the virus in the coming weeks, there could be up to 10,000 infections per week.
To donate to CAFOD’s Ebola crisis appeal go to: https://cafod.secure.force.com/donate/?id=701C00000015FlxIAE
Writer and journalist Paul Donovan has called on the Catholic Church hierarchy to speak out for ordinary people struggling on low pay and poor conditions in the workplace. Donovan questioned how the hierarchy seem to value sanctity of life when it comes to the unborn child, the family and old age but somehow missed the link in between which is work. “Work takes up a huge amount of most people’s lives, which makes it all the more baffling that the Church has so little to say about it. The way people are treated at work has implications for family life across the country and the common good generally,” said Donovan.
Delivering the annual talk, titled “Dignity or Slavery – does work still work for the Common Good?” to the Salford J&P Assembly on Saturday, he outlined a scene that has seen the so called economic recovery being based on forcing people into insecure low paid work. He highlighted how there are now 1.4 million people struggling on zero hour contracts, while one million people have been forced from secure well paid jobs in the public sector into low paid insecure jobs in the private sector. Half the new jobs created since 2010 have come in the private sector.
Donovan condemned the growth of the number of people working but being paid so little that they receive benefits to make up the difference. He singled out the rise of 59% in those in work receiving housing benefit, with the cost to the tax payer going from £3.4 billion in 2010 to £5.1 billion. There are now more than one million people in work receiving housing benefit, where there were just 650,000 in 2010. “This rise has been because landlords have been free to push up rents but wages have been frozen or declined in the same period. A real case of welfare for the rich – in this case rack renting landlords,” said Donovan.
The journalist asked “where is the Catholic Church in all of this? Are there not some consequences for the common good from these developments?” Donovan suggested that the hierarchy of the Church seems more at home with the bosses in the boardrooms. He went onto question why church leaders like Cardinal Vincent Nichols have regular meetings with business leaders, contributing to things like the CBI’s “great business debate” and developing his own “blueprint for business,” yet ignore the trade unions who represent over 6 million working people.
“The Church’s social teachings on the world of work are very clear going right back to Rerum Novarum. The worker is alone in an unequal position against the employer, they need collective representation to counter the power inequality – this comes from trade unions,” said Donovan, who did credit the Church for its championing of the living wage. “The living wage campaign shows what can be done when people act together as Church for a real social justice goal.” He called for the Church hierarchy to open up a dialogue with the trade union movement in the same way as it has with business.
Advent Reflection 2014
WEEK 1: Be Prepared
We were all like men unclean, all that integrity of ours like filthy clothing. We have all withered like leaves and our sins blew us away like the wind. Isaiah 64:6 (more…)
Pax Christi Exec member Paul McGowan has been doing sterling work probing the Coventry Council to look at their pension investment in the arms trade, via companies such as Lockheed Martin.
Paul’s experience can be shared with you all…. might you want to start looking into your own local Council and how/where they invest? Paul would be happy to help and share his way of working. You can read more here: https://paxchristi.org.uk/news-and-events/members-news/
And Paul has an article in this issue of Vocation for Justice: access here https://www.columbans.co.uk/resources/publications/vocation-for-justice-magazine/
Paul has also provided material to encourage his MP to table this EDM on pension fund money and cluster munitions. You can see it here https://www.parliament.uk/edm/2014-15/376 Please invite your own MP to sign and pass the information on to others. 13 MPs have come on board in first 4 days.
We come to you, God Creator.
You are the source of life and beauty and power.
Your son Jesus is the way of faith and hope and love.
Your Spirit is the fire of love, the fount of wisdom, the bond of unity.
You call us at all times to be people of the beatitudes, witnesses to the Gospel of peace and love and forgiveness. You call us at this time, when war and rumours of war, weigh heavily on the peoples of the Middle East.
