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Oblates at International Conference on Mining and the Church in Latin America June 22nd, 2011
Oblates from Bolivia, Peru and the United States have participated in an international conference on Extractive Industries focused on “the problem of natural resources in Latin America and the mission of the church”. The conference was organized and sponsored by the Justice and Solidarity Department of CELAM (Bishops Conference of Latin America) and MISEREOR at a retreat center in Chaclacayo – Lima – Peru, June 14 – 16 2011.
Roberto Carrasco Rojas OMI, Edgar Nolasco OMI from the Oblate mission of St Clothilde, Peru, Gilberto Pauwels OMI from Oruro in Bolivia and Séamus Finn OMI from the USP JPIC office in Washington DC joined more than 70 participants from the diocese and communities situated on the front lines of the extraordinary expansion of the extractive industries in Latin America.
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Oblates Join Call for a Financial Speculation Levy June 17th, 2011
The Oblates have joined calls for a levy on financial speculation, specifically on trades of stocks, options and swaps. A modest levy of 0.25 percent could provide a permanent, reliable revenue stream of approximately $100 billion a year.
The small financial transaction levy proposed would exempt the middle class and those who hold securities for longer-term investment. It would discourage dangerous financial gambling and high volume, rapid speculative trading that ratchets up prices on precious commodities while inflating the bonuses of those on Wall Street.
The IMF has confirmed the feasibility of such taxes. In fact, the United States had a transfer tax from 1914 to 1966, which levied a 0.20 percent tax on all sales or transfers of stock. In 1932, Congress more than doubled the tax to help financial recovery and job creation during the Great Depression.
Critics charge that if the United States reapplies this tax domestically, it would push trading overseas. This claim is demonstrably false as the United Kingdom currently levies a similar tax and has the highest volume exchange in Europe.
Learn more: Read the letter to Mr. Gene B. Sperling, Director of the President’s National Economic Council
ICCR Celebrates 40th Anniversary! June 6th, 2011
The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), of which the Oblates are active members, has been engaging corporations on issues related to the common good for forty years.
Read about ICCR and some recent successful member initiatives.
Faith Groups Call on Obama to Stop Dirty Oil Sands Pipeline June 2nd, 2011
The Oblate JPIC Office has joined 45 other faith-based groups in asking the Obama Administration to deny the presidential permit needed by TransCanada Corporation to construct a pipeline to carry dirty oil sands from Alberta, Canada to Houston, TX.
The construction of such a pipeline would have devastating impacts on people living in the refining processing area as well as on the 500 miles of farmland and 1300 miles of privately-owned land that the pipeline would cross. It would also cross over the great Ogallala Aquifer, which provides roughly 30% of all the water used for irrigation on American farms. The aquifer would suffer as a result of any oil spills.
The tar-sands oil under the Boreal Forest in Canada is some of the dirtiest fuel on the planet. Once extracted and burned, tar-sands oil produces high levels of sulfur oxide, nitrogen dioxide, and carbon monoxide.
We need to get our energy from clean sources, and not continue to look to ever more environmentally damaging and expensive sources of fossil fuels.
Read the letter on the Keystone Pipeline XL project.
Oblate JPIC Work in India June 2nd, 2011
This OMI JPIC video features the Indian Oblate Provincial, Fr. Francis Nallappan, OMI, who describes the JPIC work done by Oblates in India.
Fr. Francis was hosted by the JPIC office in Washington D.C, who connected him with the U.S. Bishops Conference and Catholic Relief Services staff.
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