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Oblate Missionaries at the United Nations: Advocating for Justice, Peace and Human Dignity January 8th, 2025
By Br. Benoît DOSQUET, OMI
The Missionary Oblates advocate for the human rights and well-being of the most vulnerable through collaborations with organizations such as VIVAT International and the Coalition of Religious for Justice. In this article, Benedict reflects on the work of the Missionary Oblates at the UN and their commitment to the most vulnerable, justice and peace.
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The journey of the Oblate Missionaries at the UN and with VIVAT International
In 2004, the Superior General sent Father Daniel LeBlanc on a mission to the UN, where the Missionary Oblates were incorporated as an NGO. Initially, Father Daniel worked with the organization “Franciscan International”, whose mission was to advocate at the United Nations for respect for human dignity and for environmental justice, using a human rights-based approach.
Very quickly, the Missionary Oblates joined the NGO VIVAT International, founded in November 2000. The name of the organization, derived from the Latin word “VIVERE” (meaning “TO LIVE”), symbolizes a commitment to life for all. VIVAT International will celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2025. Today, two Missionary Oblates work directly with VIVAT: Father Daniel LeBlanc, who speaks at the UN on behalf of VIVAT and the Missionary Oblates, and Father Daquin Iyo, who represents the organization in Nairobi, where the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is located.
VIVAT International: A global commitment to human rights and justice
VIVAT International now has over 17,000 members from 12 Catholic religious congregations and works in 121 countries to promote human rights through both international and local advocacy. In 2017, the Missionary Oblates, along with 22 other NGOs, formed the Coalition of Religious for Justice (JCoR), strengthening the capacity of Catholic religious congregations on the ground and their representatives at the United Nations.
Religious NGOs are recognized at the UN for their moral presence, adopting a preferential option in favor of poor and marginalized people. They address the root causes of poverty, injustice, discrimination, violence and unsustainable development in the world.
READ THE FULL STORY AT OMIWORLD.COM
OMI Anniversary Letter of February 17, 2024: Pilgrims Radiating our Common Charism February 16th, 2024
MISSIONARY OBLATES OF MARY IMMACULATE
The Superior General
MISSIONARY OBLATES OF MARY IMMACULATE
The Superior General
Letter of February 17, 2024
Pilgrims radiating our common charism LJCetMI
Dear Oblates and members of our charismatic family:
In two years, God willing, we will be celebrating the 200th anniversary of the pontifical approval of the Constitutions and Rules and the Congregation of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, just after living the Jubilee of 2025. Both events will help us to continue our pilgrimage in communion as missionaries of hope. In my previous letters, listening to the appeals of the last General Chapter, I recalled our commitment to care for our common home: our Mother Earth and our charismatic family. Today I would like to renew our commitment to go on pilgrimage with the laity who share the charism to continue taking steps in the direction proposed by the Chapter and the Second Congress of Lay Oblate Associations.
“May we understand well what we are!” wrote St. Eugene de Mazenod to his companions from Rome, commenting on the pontifical approbation of the Congregation and its new name: Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. In these 200 years of history, every Oblate, every layman and laywoman, consecrated men and women of our family, has helped us to better understand the beauty of our charism. Each one of us who live it today brings a new ray of light that radiates in the world, a new face of this marvelous polyhedron that is this charism given by the Holy Spirit to the Church and to the world to announce the Gospel of Jesus and his Kingdom to the most abandoned.
Restoring the Forest and Ourselves June 9th, 2023
By Sr. Maxine Pohlman, SSND, Director, La Vista Ecological Learning Center
RESTOR is a global restoration movement with an inspiring mission: “accelerating the conservation and restoration of nature for the benefit of people, biodiversity, and climate”. RESTOR does this by “connecting people and their projects to resources like scientific data, monitoring tools, funding, and each other to increase impact, scale, and sustainability of these efforts. We believe that anyone can be a restoration champion”.
The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate have been restoration champions since 1993 when they were the first landowners in the area to dedicate sixteen acres, the “Missionary Oblates Woods Nature Preserve”, as part of the Illinois Nature Preserve System. In 2001 they added one hundred forty-three acres in the Forest Legacy Program. With this history, OMI has become a member of the RESTOR movement; consequently, it is possible to explore specifics about biodiversity on their land using RESTOR data. On Oblate land in Godfrey, IL, diversity includes 1,409 plant species, 31 amphibian species, 46 mammal species, and 174 bird species. That’s a lot of biodiversity on a little over 250 acres!!!
Photo courtesy of K8, Unsplash
La Vista’s Monday study group just completed reading Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass, and one of Kimmerer’s insights we loved is appropriate here. She comments that when we think of ecological restoration we think about what we are doing to and for land like invasive species and trash removal, controlled burns, and planting native species which we do at La Vista. However, Kimmerer expands this thinking when she explains that, in the indigenous tradition, when we do ecological restoration we are really restoring ourselves! This must explain why, when volunteers head back to their cars after restoration work, they comment about feeling happy, fulfilled, nourished. It is true. Why else would volunteers drive a distance to get dirty, work hard, and brave tick bites? The principle of reciprocity as at work here! Once again, native people help us with an alternative reality.
Kimmerer also phrases it this way, “Land loves us back”. In the case of preserves, it does this in part by providing a peaceful and healthy environment for those who visit; by increasing wildlife, thus reducing species loneliness and countering biodiversity collapse; by cleaning the watershed, contributing to a healthier Mississippi River for humans and other species.
Truly, ecological restoration is a two-way street, and Pope Francis agrees. In the encyclical Laudato Si’ he shows awareness of this deep connection: “God has joined us so closely to the world around us that we can feel the desertification of the soil almost as a physical ailment, and the extinction of a species as a painful disfigurement”. The opposite is also a reality – when we help heal damaged land, we are also healed. Healthy people and healthy planet go together.
Ready. Set. Go. 2020 OMI US Convocation March 5th, 2020
The U.S. Province of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate plans a Convocation every three years. It is an opportunity to renew our energies as missionaries and strengthen the bonds which unite us as members of one province. From April 13-17, 2020 U.S. Oblates will gather around the following Convocation theme taken from the Preface of St. Eugene:
“They Must Constantly Renew Themselves in the Spirit of Their Vocation”
Convocation 2020 will include moments to relax, connect, pray, and be renewed as we strengthen our bonds as a province.
Visit the 2020 Convocation’s website: https://convocation.snows.org/
Rediscovering the Importance of Brotherhood through Jesus’ Life December 5th, 2017
“Brother” is the name traditionally given to the male lay religious in the Church since the beginning of consecrated life. The title does not belong to them exclusively, of course, but it represents a significant way of being in the ecclesial community in which he is the prophetic memory of Jesus-Brother, who told his followers: “And you are all brothers” (Mt23:8)
It is important to know that Jesus was a layman calling people to be brothers and sisters. He himself represents the big brother for all of us. His brotherhood is a gift from God to the world and to the church: “Jesus Christ first of all became brother, shared our flesh and blood and was in solidarity with the sufferings of his brothers and sisters,” “The word became flesh and abides among us”( Jn 1.)
The vocation of the brother has its origins in Jesus, fount of all vocations. This particular vocation comes from a man who never was engaged as a member of the priesthood of Israel. His ministry was a ministry developed in a secular way; his consecrated life comes through his faith in God.
