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Congo Week of Action: October 17- 23 October 14th, 2010
The Missionary Oblates JPIC office joins millions around the world in commemorating the Congo Week of Action.
Faith communities, civil society groups in fifty countries and about two hundred universities will mark the week-long set of actions which is designed to raise awareness about the devastating situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo and mobilize support on behalf of the country’s people. It will take place from Sunday October 17 to Saturday October 23. 2010.
Democratic Republic of Congo remains one of the largest and most neglected humanitarian crises today with more than six million deaths since 1998. Millions of people have been displaced and many thousands of women and children have
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Seamus Finn, OMI on Nightly Business Report: Discusses Impact of Derivatives on the Poor June 7th, 2010
Fr. Seamus Finn’s work on derivatives is profiled on PBS’s Nightly Business Report.
Watch the Nightly Business Report from June 7, 2010…
How does
the financial system affect the poorest of the poor? Watch the June 7th issue of the Nightly Business Report for a segment on faith-based investors and efforts to rein in the derivatives market – a cause of the recent instability that has affected nearly everyone.
In an interview with Darren Gersh, Seamus Finn, OMI clearly draws the connections between decisions made by bankers and the lives of the poor. Fr. Finn talks about the need for greater disclosure of derivative risk – disclosure that a significant number of other shareholders have favored in recent Resolutions with Citibank, JP Morgan Chase, and Goldman Sachs. Up next is legislation on Capitol Hill that could force banks to spin off their derivatives business.
Watch the Nightly Business Report from June 7, 2010 on Vimeo…
Transparency on Congo Conflict Minerals Folded into the Financial Regulatory Reform Bill May 25th, 2010
With the passage of the Restoring American Financial Stability Act (S. 3217) in the United States Senate, the Congo Conflict Minerals and the Energy Security through Transparency (ESTT) amendments have made it into legislation. However, as neither amendment was in the House version of the financial reform legislation, both amendments will be taken up by the House/Senate Conference committee which will work to reconcile the differences between the two bills. Both amendments were agreed to during the passage of the Restoring American Financial Stability Act in the Senate.
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Voting Your Proxy May 17th, 2010
Do you hold stock in publicly owned corporations? If so, you should receive information from those companies prior to their Annual General Meetings (AGM) with a proxy ballot enclosed. Bolster democracy in the Boardroom – join with others and support corporate change you care about.
Learn more in the Faith Responsible Investment section of this website…
Fr. Seamus Finn Speaks at Socially Responsible Investment Coalition April 29th, 2010
On April 28, Fr. Seamus Finn was a panelist at the annual Socially Responsible Investments Coalition Annual Event held at the Oblate Grotto Ministries Center in San Antonio, Texas. The discussion panel on current events was titled “Care, Climate and Cash.” It included Alyssa Burgin, founder of the Texas Drought Project, who spoke about specific consequences of climate change in Texas and around the world, as well as Donna Meyer of CHRISTUS Health who spoke about the recently passed health care bill.
Fr. Seamus spoke of the progress made recently by ICCR in pressing for socially responsible investment policies with corporations. He highlighted the much-higher-than expected 39 percent vote at Bank of America earlier in the day in support of the religious shareholders’ proxy resolution on derivatives filed by the Missionary Oblates. The Resolution calls for greater disclosure on derivatives trading on Wall Street. This surprising response from Bank of America shareholders and those of Citicorp, where a strong vote of support was also registered for a similar Resolution led to invitations from EWTN and the Daily Show. (Learn more)
Fr. Seamus also talked about responsible investment in the light of Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical “Caritas in Veritate”. As most of the 100 plus members of the audience were members of Catholic religious orders and church activists, the articulation of the moral, spiritual foundation of work for financial reform and other socially responsible investment work was much appreciated. Fr. Seamus ended with a plea to broaden our thinking and awareness so we see that actions taken in the world of finances and investments have implications not only for people in the United States, but consequences for the entire world.
Thanks to Patti Radle who supplied the material for this report.
