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ICCR and IAF Community Organizers Join Forces Against Foreclosures September 16th, 2011

Interfaith Center on Corporate responsibility (ICCR) members, including the Missionary Oblates, have been working with Metro Industrial Areas Foundation affiliates to get Bank of America & Wells Fargo to take action on foreclosure issues in Prince William County, VA and Milwaukee, WI. This collaboration has produced results:

In Milwaukee, CommonGround, Metro IAF’s affiliate has organized successfully, forcing banks including Wells Fargo and Bank of America to commit $15.2 million to finance blight removal, a 100+ new Nehemiah homes development, and jobs in the Sherman Park neighborhood hard hit by foreclosure.
In Prince William County, VA, Metro IAF’s affiliate, VOICE, organized and directly confronted Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan at the 2011 annual shareholders meeting. This resulted in Bank of America senior leadership requiring reform of loan modification practices that has resulted in 250 backlogged modifications being resolved. Bank executives also committed to negotiate on VOICE’s demands that Bank of America fund housing counselors and reinvest hundreds of millions of dollars to rebuild Prince William County neighborhoods devastated by foreclosures.

VOICE is organizing a 1,000 person public action on Sunday, October 30th with Senator Mark Warner (Senate Banking Committee) and bank officials.

Watch this moving video of an anti-foreclosure rally organized by VOICE in Northern Virginia last April:

Oblate Center for Peace and Reconciliation in Jaffna Launches Peace Week Activities September 15th, 2011

September 15th – 21st is International Peace Week and we at the Center for Peace and Reconciliation declare this week as a ” Week of Relationship”

Let us try to do any small act of Charity with the greater Love. In order to commemorate the week, CPR has organized different activities in Jaffna, Vanni, Manner, Colombo and Vavunia in the schools and the villages with the children and teachers. On the 21st there will be a 3 hour cultural programme with all the religious and ethnic groups.

The Center calls on all to pray for lasting peace and a reconciled society.

“Peace is not the material thing that we can buy from the shop but it is valuable gift that you have within yourselves. Each one struggles for a peaceful atmosphere but never goes back to the inner self where he/she has the serenity. The struggle of the center is not to change the society but to change the individuals to realize the inner thirst for peace.”

Peace week begins on the 15th of September and ends with the Peace Day on the 21st. “We are in the 7th year of our peace week activities, and having worked for 4 years with the struggle of the people, I personally confess that it is not failure when we look back the past years in our peace struggle.”

“Appreciating the contribution that the young generation has extended during the past years to build up a better society, we are also able to convince many people to walk in the direction of peace and Reconciliation. Our conviction is to bring individuals into the web of peace in order not to be trapped into going against the path of Peace and Reconciliation.”

Bishop Duffy, Outspoken Advocate for the Poor: Requiem in Pacem August 26th, 2011

Bishop Paul Francis Duffy, OMI – an outspoken Oblate missionary and Zambian bishop whose social justice work brought him threats from government officials – died Tuesday in San Antonio.

Father Billy Morell, OMI said Bp. Duffy was known throughout Zambia for fearlessly advocating for the rights and freedoms of people in the country’s poorest areas.

In his 27 years there, Bp. Duffy was credited with helping establish Oblate Radio Liseli, the Mongu Diocese Development Center, three schools, a teachers college, a hospital and several home-based care projects, including one for people with HIV/AIDS.

“He was a major political voice for the poor in Zambia,” said Father Jim Chambers in San Antonio. “He loved Zambia, and you could see that. He had a deep concern for the sufferings of the poor, and he let the government know.”

Bishop Duffy will be buried in Mongu, Zambia.

Indigenous Peoples Celebrate but not in Bangladesh August 8th, 2011

More than 70 countries are expected to observe the International Day for Indigenous People on August 9 with a focus on “Indigenous designs: celebrating stories and cultures, crafting our own future”.

Yet in Bangladesh, the government refuses to recognize the existence of indigenous peoples, arguing instead that they are simply ethnic minorities. This designation removes the groups from protections and rights afforded by the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and ILO Convention 169, both of which Bangladesh has signed.

Sanjeev Drong, a close collaborator of the Oblates in Bangladesh,

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