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World AIDS Day 2009 – Focus on Universal Access and Human Rights November 24th, 2009
December 1st each year is World AIDS Day. It is a day dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV. The global HIV/AIDS pandemic is a major health and development issue. AIDS also continues to present pastoral challenges to the Church. Missionary Oblates in South Africa are regularly working directly with and supporting people living with HIV/AIDS.
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Conflict Mineral Trade Act 2009 Introduced in the US House of Representatives November 20th, 2009
Oblates visit a war refugee camp in DRC
On November 19, the United States House of Representatives introduced the Conflict Minerals Trade Act of 2009. The bill was introduced by Congressman Jim McDermott (D-Washington), with co-sponsorship from Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts) and Frank Wolf (R-Virginia). A coalition of faith based organizations and international nonprofit organizations concerned about conflict stemming from minerals extraction are encouraged by this Congressional action. The bill has also received support from various stakeholders in the electronics industry. To make this bill a reality, though, you need to urge your Congressional Representative to cosponsor the Conflict Minerals Trade Act of 2009 (HR 4128). Find your Representative on the House.gov website.
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Lift the Ban on Travel to Cuba, Argue Prominent Senator and Congressman November 17th, 2009
Congressman Howard Berman and Senator Richard Lugar wrote an Op-Ed for the Miami Herald today arguing that the ban on visits by Americans to Cuba be lifted.
Legislation to abolish restrictions on travel to Cuba has been introduced in both chambers of Congress. This Thursday, the House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a hearing examining the rationale for the travel ban
For some time now, The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has urged Congress to pass legislation that would end travel restrictions to Cuba and encourage more contact between Cuban and American citizens.
Read the Berman/Lugar Op-Ed here.
Conservationists Argue Border Wall Blocks Migration November 16th, 2009
A wall being built along the Mexican border to stop illegal immigration is stopping wildlife that needs to migrate across that border, conservationists say. A photo exhibit titled Continental Wall: Borderlands, Wildlife, People and the Wall showing the impact of the wall along the US-Mexico border is on show in the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, DC until November 20.
See a video clip about the show.
Fr. Sinnott, SSC released by his Kidnappers in the Southern Philippines November 13th, 2009
Mick Sinnott, SSC, the missionary priest who was kidnapped in the southern Philippines a month ago, has been released and in good health. He was kidnapped not by a Muslim group as was initially suspected, but by a group of Lumad Mindanao, an indigenous group that was trying to raise money to draw attention to their plight. They have lost nearly all of their land to settlers from other parts of the Philippines over the past century
When it was clear that no money would be forthcoming from either the Irish government or the Society of St. Columban, the group released him, but asked that a message be gotten out to the international media. “They want to convey that they are the original ‘Lumad of Mindanao’ who lost their homeland and everything else when the merchants came”, Fr. Sinnott explained.
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