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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.

Download the brochure (PDF)

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.

MDG Target on Access to Safe Drinking Water Met! March 12th, 2012

“Today we recognize a great achievement for the people of the world. This is one of the first [Millennium Development Goals] MDG targets to be met. The successful efforts to provide greater access to drinking water are a testament to all who see the MDGs not as a dream, but as a vital tool for improving the lives of millions of the poorest people.”

– United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a statement responding to a report released by the World Health Organization and the UN Children’s Fund.

The WHO/UNICEF report concluded that the world has met the MDG target of halving the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water well before the 2015 deadline. However, while they praised this accomplishment, several media outlets and observers (including Stephanie Cappa on the InterAction blog), have pointed out that the related MDG target on sanitation is off-track and unlikely to be met by 2015.

Read the report: Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation 2012 update

Usury is Alive and Well March 11th, 2012

“You would think by now that banks and other financial institutions would have been chastened some by the scrutiny and criticism that they received during the near meltdown of the financial system in September 2008 and its aftermath. Judging by the aggressive path that some have adopted in the payday lending arena, I am sorry to report that some banks have quickly beaten a path back to their old behaviors. Constrained from many of the usual profit making services that were part of their pre-crisis business models, many have been looking at additional fees for such things as ATM withdrawals or late payments and other increased charges to make up the lost income.”

Read the latest Huffington post blog entry from Fr. Seamus Finn, OMI

Oblates and Khasi People Host US Embassy Staff in Northeast Bangladesh March 11th, 2012

Forrest Graham, Political Officer with the US Embassy in Bangladesh visited the Khasi people in the northeast in late February at the invitation of the Oblates. Fr. Joseph Gomes, OMI, Fr. Valentine Talang, OMI, and local Khasis hosted Mr. Graham in visiting the villages near Sylhet in northeast Bangladesh to learn about the culture, language and lifestyle of the indigenous peoples living there, and the challenges facing them.