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Petition seeks ‘strong Catholic voice’ demanding action on climate change April 10th, 2015
Citing a papal directive to take decisive action on climate change, the Global Catholic Climate Movement has started a petition which seeks to display “a strong Catholic voice” of concern on climate change ahead of international negotiations set for Paris in December.
“Climate change affects everyone, but especially the poor and most vulnerable people. Impelled by our Catholic faith, we call on you to drastically cut carbon emissions to keep the global temperature rise below the dangerous threshold of 1.5°C, and to aid the world’s poorest in coping with climate change impacts,” reads the petition, accessible on the movement’s recently revamped website.
In a message delivered toward the end of the last climate negotiations in Lima, Peru, the pope said that decisive climate action “is a grave ethical and moral responsibility,” and warned that there exists “a clear, definitive and unpostponable ethical imperative to act.”
Sign the petition to register your support for strong action to mitigate climate change.
Learn more at National Catholic Reporter.
Breaking the Chains: Mass Incarceration and Systems of Exploitation April 10th, 2015
The Ecumenical Advocacy Days Annual Conference will be held in Washington, DC from April 17-20, and will focus on the problem of mass incarceration in the United States.
The EAD Congressional Advocacy day will be on April 20th. Here is the EAD ‘ask’ of Congress:
Congressional Advocacy Day – April 20, 2015
(Click above to read the full “Ask” with talking points and background information.)
We call on Congress to reform federal criminal justice and immigrant detention policies toward the goal of ending unfair, unnecessary, costly and racially biased mass incarceration:
- Adopt criminal justice and sentencing reform policies that incorporate an end to mandatory minimum sentencing;
- Eliminate the detention bed quota for immigrants and implement alternatives to immigrant detention.
Our Faith Conviction
As people of faith and conscience, we call for respect to be shown all people as bearers of God’s image. Jesus tells us to act
Click here to read more »
Catholic, Evangelical Lutheran Bishops Call for an End to Detention of Families March 27th, 2015
The current policy of family detention is unworthy of our nation; Humane alternatives to detention are available
Catholic and Evangelical Lutheran bishops visited with young mothers and children who have fled violence in their home countries and are now incarcerated at Dilley Detention Center in Dilley, Texas, on March 27. The faith leaders called upon the federal government to halt the practice of family detentions, citing the harmful effects on mothers, children and the moral character of society.
Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller of San Antonio, Texas, whose archdiocese includes Dilley, was joined by Bishop Eusebio Elizondo, auxiliary bishop of Seattle, and Bishop James Tamayo of Laredo, Texas. Bishops Michael Rinehart and H. Julian Gordy of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America also joined them on the visit. Since last summer, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has detained hundreds of families at detention centers in New Mexico, Texas, and Pennsylvania, under a new family detention policy aimed at families fleeing violence in Central America.
“After this visit, my primary question is: Why? Why do we feel compelled to place in detention such vulnerable individuals –traumatized young mothers with children fleeing persecution in their home countries?” said Archbishop García-Siller following the visit. “A great nation such as ours need not incarcerate the most vulnerable in the name of deterrence. The moral character of a society is judged by how it treats the most vulnerable in our midst. Our nation’s family detention policy is shameful and I implore our elected officials to end it.”
Bishop Elizondo, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Migration, added: “The detention of families serves no purpose and undermines due process. It especially harms children, who experience emotional and psychological harm from detention. The policy is a stain on the administration’s record on immigration.”
Bishop James Tamayo of Laredo, Texas, said humane alternatives to detention exist and should be used for the population.
“The government should consider placing these families in humane alternatives to detention, where they could live in the community and access needed services, including legal representation,” Bishop Tamayo said. “The Church is ready to assist in this effort.”
Information on the USCCB position on family detention can be found on the USCCB website at:
Read the Bishops’ Letter to President Obama here…
Philippine Counterinsurgency on Mindanao Fuels Civilian Displacement March 26th, 2015
Villagers fleeing fighting crowd refugee centers.
(Photo Credit: www.icrc.org)
Humanitarian agencies are struggling to cope with a growing number of people displaced by fighting between government forces and a Muslim insurgent group on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao.
The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, says more than 120,00 have sought shelter in public buildings or informal camps since fighting broke out in January between government forces and rebels from the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a splinter group of the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Provision of food, water and latrines is proving to be a major difficulty. Meanwhile, the fighting has disrupted the rice harvest, which will lead to further food shortages for affected families.
Read the full story on UCANews…
Faith-Based Investors Convince PNC to Stop Financing Mountaintop Mining March 16th, 2015
Copyright Lynn Willis. Photo courtesy of Appalachian Voices. Flight courtesy of Southwings. Used with permission.
Faith-based investors applauded the decision by PNC Financial Services to stop financing coal company mountaintop removal operations in Appalachia.
The recent announcement by the Pittsburgh-based bank comes after a multi-year effort by members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) to convince bank officials that financing such environmentally damaging operations poses significant financial risks and hastens climate change.
Mountaintop removal mining involves dynamiting the tops of mountains to expose rich coal seams hundreds of feet below ground. The resulting debris is then pushed into adjacent valleys, often blocking important headwater streams.
Lauren Compere, managing director of Boston Common Asset Management, an ICCR partner which led the PNC effort, said conversations with bank officials took place over a four-year period and focused on the role banks can play in transitioning to a low-carbon economy. “When looking at our portfolio, coal mining is one of the red flags. One of the things we talk about with companies more generally is how are we supporting the transition to more sustainable energy sources,” explained Compere, a member of ICCR’s board of directors.
The ICCR effort has focused on the importance of managing risk because financing the coal industry is seen as risky, explained Oblate Father Seamus Finn, Chief of Faith Consistent Investing for the OIP Investment Trust, and ICCR Board Chair, who has been actively engaged with major banks on a variety of issues.
ICCR’s engagement on mountaintop removal mining is part of a broader effort by 80 international institutional investors managing $540 billion in assets to urge 63 banks to disclose their policies and practices related to climate change.
Read the article in Catholic News Service. The story was also picked up in CatholicPhilly.com.
