News Archives » Global
Bangladeshi Environmental Activists Demand Protection of Dhaka’s Buriganga River March 20th, 2012
- Sharif Jamil, Fr. Joseph Gomes, OMI, Fr. Seamus Finn, OMI and a colleague on the Buriganga RiverKeeper boat in Dhaka
Environmental activists on Saturday demanded immediate execution of an earlier High Court order to save the River Buriganga from pollution and encroachment. The High Court in 2011 issued a three-point directive to the government to save the river.
Among those demanding action to reverse the severe pollution of the Buriganga was Sharif Jamil, a close collaborator of the Oblates in Bangladesh. Sharif is the Buriganga Riverkeeper, and part of the international Waterkeeper Alliance.
Learn more – read the article…
Torture in Your Backyard: National Religious Campaign Against Torture March 20th, 2012
The National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) has released a 20-minute film, Solitary Confinement: Torture in Your Backyard, as a resource for parishes and religious congregations to learn about the destructive use of prolonged solitary confinement and to engage people of faith to call for an end to prolonged solitary confinement in their state. The film features several former prisoners discussing the mental harm they endured as a result of being held in solitary confinement and highlights how the religious community in Maine helped secure a seventy percent reduction in the number of Maine prisoners held in solitary confinement. The Missionary Oblates JPIC office is a member of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT)
On St. Patrick’s Day, Protect the Irish March 19th, 2012
Rev. Seamus P. Finn, OMI and Eric LeCompte, Director of Jubilee USA – wrote a joint piece on the legitimacy, or lack thereof, of international debt burdens. Their full article can be found on the Huffington Post:
“On the Feast of St. Patrick, there may be no better way to honor the patron of Ireland, who according to legend drove out snakes from the country, than by protecting the Irish people from bailing out a nonexistent reckless speculation bank.
Anglo-Irish Bank (Anglo) financed some of Ireland’s worst property speculators for unsustainable golf courses, hotels and super markets and saddled the Irish people with a massive, unjust debt.
At Jubilee USA Network we know a lot about unjust debts. …”
Read more…
A Good Friday Reflection: End the Use of the Death Penalty March 14th, 2012
A brochure from Catholic Mobilizing Network to End the Use of the Death Penalty is a resource we recommend to enrich Catholics during this liturgical season of Lent. The brochure offers educational, advocacy and theological reflections about the death penalty for Good Friday, which this year falls on April 6.
Invisible Children KONY 2012 March 13th, 2012
The “Invisible Children Kony 2012” video has gone viral. It is an impassioned plea to end the atrocities of Joseph Kony and his Lords Resistance Army (LRA). Invisible Children Campaign “KONY 2012” provides horrifying documentary evidence about the LRA.
Over nearly three decades the LRA has been responsible for unspeakable acts of brutality, including the abduction of children to work as soldiers. untold thousands have been maimed or killed by the LRA and hundreds of thousands of people remain displaced in northern Uganda, Northern Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and South Sudan. The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Kony in 2005, but to date, no one has found him.
This video is a plea to take action to stop the atrocities of Kony and hold the LRA accountable in a court of law. An important issue raised by the video is the need for immediate international support, and protection of these children and their families from these terrible acts of violence. Organizations such as Catholic Relief Services are on the front lines helping the victims of Kony and Lord’s Resistance Army.
