News Archives » Fr. Daniel LeBlanc
Video: Fr. Charles Rensburg, OMI & Fr. Daniel LeBlanc, OMI On Advocacy Efforts with the UN & the Importance of Partnerships November 7th, 2024
As part of his recent visit to New York City, OMI Treasurer-General Fr. Charles Rensburg attended NGO meetings with Fr. Daniel LeBlanc (Oblate Representative to the UN).
They later sat down to discuss Fr. Daniel’s advocacy efforts with the United Nations and the importance of partnering with faith-based and civil society groups.
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Watch the entire video on Youtube: https://youtu.be/SuTq2nh21IU
(A big THANK YOU to Fr. Valentine Talang, OMI for capturing this conversation)
Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility’ Hosts “Navigating Troubled Waters” September 23rd, 2024
On September 19, Frs. Daniel LeBlanc, OMI and Valentine Talang, OMI joined stakeholders and thought leaders in New York City at Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility’s (ICCR) Annual Conference Event – “Navigating Troubled Waters.”
Corporations play an important role in supporting the resilient and vibrant democracy needed to sustain healthy civic engagement, accountable governance, and a stable economy where business can thrive. However, in today’s politically charged landscape, corporations often face significant challenges navigating their support for democratic values without appearing partisan or becoming entangled in controversy.
In the lead-up to the U.S. elections, the group convened to discuss how corporations can best exemplify good corporate citizenship without furthering the divisiveness of our national discourse.
Visit ICCR’s website to learn more about their work
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August 9 – Honoring Indigenous People for their Unique Contribution to Cultural Diversity August 9th, 2024
 (Image by Marcelo Trujillo, Pixabay) |
 (Image by Kiran Hania, Pixabay) |
Reflection on May’s Laudato Si Field Trip June 14th, 2024
Contributed by Sr. Maxine Pohlman, SSND, Director, La Vista Ecological Learning Center
Advocacy was our theme in May, and so the OMI Novices and I, representing La Vista Ecological Learning
Center, traveled to our local Sierra Club Office where we met with Virginia Woulfe Beile, Co-director of the Three Rivers Project.
Virginia shared a guide their members use called the Jemez Principles. It occurred to us that any faith leader could also take these admonitions to heart:
– Be inclusive
– Emphasis on bottom-up organizing
– Let people speak for themselves
– Work together in solidarity and mutuality
– Build just relationships among ourselves
– Commit to self-transformation
Next, we enjoyed a Zoom session back at the Novitiate with Father Daniel LeBlanc, OMI, another advocacy hero! Father Dan has been a non-governmental (NGO) representative at the United Nations in New York for OMI and VIVAT International for twenty years.
Fr. Daniel LeBlanc, OMI US Province, Representative to United Nations
When asked what was challenging about his work with the UN, Father Dan offered this sage advice: you need patience to do this work because it takes many years to accomplish change at the UN. In response to a question about how to prepare for a ministry like his, he encouraged the novices to broaden their education, learning all they could! He is an example of this, for he speaks 6 languages and studied law while pastor of a parish of 130,000 in Peru.
To say we were inspired by his life and advocacy work as an OMI is an understatement. We all felt gratitude for our conversation with this remarkable Oblate!
UN & ECOSOC face a historic challenge: Fr. Daniel LeBlanc, OMI reports July 20th, 2020
Report by Fr. Daniel LeBlanc, Missionary Oblates – US Province, Representative to the United Nations
(The High-level Political Forum, is the United Nations’ central platform for follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals).
On Tuesday July 7th, the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) began with the intervention of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) President Mona Juul of Norway. The title and subtitle of her speech brought us into line with what had been the first week of the forum. The title was: “Launching a decade of action in times of crisis: putting the focus on the SDGs while combating COVID-19“. Read more about the the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF): https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/hlpf/2020
Fr. Daniel LeBlanc, OMI
This year’s version of the HLPF was designed to re-launch 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals following last year’s review, and to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations (UN). At the end of last year’s meeting and until January 2020, everything sounded like a new impulse for the Agenda and a renewal of structures, both of the UN and of the ECOSOC. We cannot say that COVID-19 has stopped the impulses of renewal, but it has slowed down the momentum. The HLPF is being carried out, almost entirely, through virtual meetings. This new modality, although it represents the unequivocal decision to move forward, does not cease to represent a lesser degree of intensity than in previous years when the dialogues were face-to-face.
The review of the progress of the SDG of Agenda 2030 has been carried out this year from the perspective of COVID-19; that is, asking how the Coronavirus is and will be influencing the achievement of each objective. The analyses have been coincidental: much of what had been achieved, with much effort, in the fight against social inequality, is going to be affected very negatively. Children and adolescents have had to stop going to school; millions of jobs, formal and informal, have been lost; there is a health crisis with hundreds of thousands of deaths by COVID-19 infections; incipient and “coming” famines, etc. I could go on listing each and every of the 17 goals of SDG2030; all have been affected. This is a global tragedy that is happening in every country and impacting every person.
In the face of this catastrophic situation, the dialogues, presentations and seminars held during this week responded in a unified manner: the path to overcome this world crisis comes from what is contained in the Agenda2030. The challenge is global, and the response must be global, as is the Agenda itself. Having said this, there is a second point that can be found in SDG Goals 10 and 17: it is necessary to act decisively against the inequalities within each country and between countries and, for this, international collaboration is necessary. Multilateralism emerges, once again, as the only viable path; but multilateralism is not based on the will of each country to build it and shape it effectively.
We finished the first week and started the second week. The second period of meetings focused on the voluntary reports of each country – Voluntary National Review (VNR) – on the implementation of the Agenda; beginning with those corresponding to Armenia, Samoa, Ecuador, Honduras and Slovenia.
We will wait, as every year, for the conclusions of the HLPF-VNR, but this year we will have to wait for something more. The whole world, by country and area, is in the midst of the shock caused by COVID-19. Until the confusion caused by this public health war is dispelled, we will not know how the world is truly reorganized as we are in the midst of the fog, climbing a great mountain. I trust that the much worked out Agenda 2030 and the UN’s own multilateralism will be the answer we find at the top.
