Latest OMI JPIC News
Preparing for the 2025 Season of Creation – “Seeds of Peace and Hope” August 26th, 2025
(By Maurice Lange, Justice & Peace Director at Presentation Sisters & founder of the Oblate Ecological Initiative)
“Hope would have us recognize that…we can always redirect our steps.” (Laudato Si #61)
READ: 1st part of Pope Leo’s letter for the 2025 Season of Creation
REFLECTION: “…the promise of new beginnings…”. In this, the first letter from Pope Leo for a Season of Creation, he invites us to ponder the unexpected. In examining the theme for this year as chosen by Pope Francis, I’m struck by various parts of the phrase “Seeds of Peace and Hope”. Throughout the next several weeks we’ll be examining this theme along with each segment of Pope Leo’s letter.
Leo is probably still pondering the unexpected himself as he has come to know this in his life quite well! During this Season of Creation: what unexpected seeds of peace and hope may be germinating in unlikely places around us?
ACTION: The Season of Creation begins September 1 and continues through October 4. Procure and keep a Season of Creation journal. You may wish to journal about the implications of sowing and caring for seeds of peace and hope. Notice blue “bachelor button” flowers blooming along roadsides this month!
“(Ecological) education plants seeds when we are young, and these continue to bear fruit throughout life.” (LS #213)
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Visit the Presentation Sisters, US Province’s WEBSITE
READ MORE OF MAURICE’S WEEKLY REFLECTIONS
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COMING SOON – Week 2: 2025 Season of Creation Reflection
Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate – US Province Statement on Immigration August 18th, 2025
We currently serve the population of the following states:
- New York (Buffalo and NYC)
- Massachusetts (Lowell, Georgetown, North Andover, and Tewksbury)
- Illinois (Belleville, Godfrey, Fairmont City, Caseyville)
- Minnesota (Buffalo, St. Paul/Minneapolis, White Earth, Waubun, Ogema, Ponsford, Big Elbow Lake, Naytahwaush)
- Louisiana (New Orleans)
- Texas (Eagle Pass, Roma, Mission, Brownsville, Sarita, Riviera, Ricardo, Houston, San Antonio, College Station)
- California (Chula Vista, Oakland)
- Washington DC
- Alaska (Juneau)
DOWNLOAD: OMI US PROVINCE STATEMENT
CLICK THE LINK: Conference of Major Superiors of Men Statement
The statement from CMSM is fully supported by the administration of the US Province. I recognize that there are more issues the poor are facing such as healthcare, education and food support. The statement below is a good start, and it directly affects many of our parishioners and their families as well as other communities in which we minister. Our voices as Oblates make a difference and unite us to those who suffer the injustices of our world today. Through our actions and presence we can accompany those who are most in need. I encourage you to post this in your respective place of ministry if you are so inclined.
“Leave nothing undared”
Peace,
Fr. Raymond Cook, OMI, Provincial
Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate – US Province
2025 International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples August 8th, 2025
Theme: Indigenous Peoples and AI: Defending Rights, Shaping Futures
(Image by Yuri Rodriguez Rodriguez, Pixabay)
While AI can support cultural revitalization, youth empowerment, and even adaptation to climate change, it often reinforces bias, exclusion, and misrepresentation towards Indigenous Peoples.
Advancing the Legacy of Pope Leo XIII: A Call to Action for Catholic Investors August 5th, 2025
By: Christopher Cox, Seventh Generation Interfaith Coalition for Responsible Investment
In 1891, Pope Leo XIII issued Rerum Novarum, the landmark encyclical that laid the cornerstone of modern Catholic Social Teaching. More than a century later, its principles—fair wages, safe conditions, and the right to organize—remain vital. Today, Catholic investors face a renewed moral imperative to uphold these values in a rapidly changing economy.
A New Pope Leo for a New Industrial Revolution
When Pope Leo XIV chose his papal name at his election in May, he signaled a renewed commitment to defend human dignity in the face of new threats and opportunities. In his address to the College of Cardinals, he said:
“Sensing myself called to continue in this same path, I chose to take the name Leo XIV. There are different reasons for this, but mainly because Pope Leo XIII in his historic Encyclical Rerum Novarum addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution. In our own day, the Church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice and labor.”
