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New OMI JPIC Immigration Resource Available April 22nd, 2010
The OMI JPIC Office has launched a new resource on immigration. The 11 page booklet contains educational and advocacy tips about issues related to needed immigration reform. Now that health care is finally off the Congressional legislative agenda, representatives may be able to take up this pressing issue.
The booklet, “Oblate JPIC Immigration Resource: Immigration is Matter of Faith” is designed to offer insights useful in discussing immigration reform and exploring possibilities for solidarity with immigrants. Contents include:
- Faith communities concern for migrants; Questions for Reflections; Catholic Social Teaching on Migration
- Why Comprehensive Immigration is good; Current Immigration legislation in Congress.
- Principles for humane immigration policies and reasonable border control
- Talking Points on immigration and ways to express solidarity with Immigrants
- Quotes by Oblates reflecting about migration
Download the immigration resource here. (Download PDF)
Updates will be made as an immigration reform bill nears the congressional floor for debate.
World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth April 20th, 2010
This week, Bolivian President Evo Morales is convening the People’s World Conference on Climate Change, an alternative to the unwieldy and U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change that fell so far short of expectations last December. NGOs, scientists, activists, indigenous leaders, and representatives of 60 to 70 national governments are coming together for this alternative conference – in all, about 7,500 attendees from 110 countries.
Daniel LeBlanc, OMI – Oblate representative to the UN – is attending the conference and sent this update yesterday:
Cochabamba, Bolivia, 19 April 2010
The Conference officially begins Tuesday morning with President Evo Morales doing the honors.
However, today there were already several events and huge crowds. Fr. Gregorio Iriarte OMI was to give a talk at 4:30, along with 3 other panelists, and so I accompanied him to the stadium where credentials were given to those who had registered through the internet, as well as to those who had neglected to do so. I had already picked up my pass, and Fr. Gregorio is over around 80 years old and had to give a talk, so they let him through. Once they gave him his credentials, he was told that apart from the credentials for those who had already registered and those who had come later, 20,000 credentials had been distributed. There were still long line-ups out on the sidewalks – I estimate between 7 and 8 blocks long – and they had to send to the printer to get more passes printed – so attendance will be good, better than expected.
Please see on-line for much more information in Spanish and in English (choose language) at http://pwccc.wordpress.com/
Read a summary of the positions being advocated by Bolivian President Morales during the conference.
ICCR Resolution at Citigroup Garners 30% of Shareholder Vote! April 20th, 2010
A Resolution put forward by faith-based shareholders with Citigroup on the complex financial instruments known as derivatives garnered a significant 30% of the shareholder vote at the banks’ AGM today. The Oblates of Mary Immaculate joined the Maryknoll Sisters, the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth, N.J. and other members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility in filing the Resolution.
Sr. Barbara Aires, coordinator of Corporate Responsibility for the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth, NJ, said: “We consider this double-digit vote in favor of the resolution to be a moral victory that sends a strong message to Wall Street that the ‘old ways’ on derivatives and all of the attendant market-crashing risk they involve is no longer acceptable.”
ICCR Board Member Rev. Seamus Finn, director, Justice, Peace & Integrity of Creation, Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate was quoted in the Wall Street Journal as saying that ICCR members took this action because they are concerned “about those who are on the margins of the financial system, those in developing markets and the emerging market world.”
According to the resolution, “The recent financial crisis has resulted in the destruction of trillions of dollars of wealth and untold suffering and hardship across the world. …Very high degrees of leverage in derivatives transactions contributed to the timing and severity of the financial crisis.”
The US government holds 27% of outstanding shares in Citigroup as a result of last year’s bank bailout, and shareholders were disappointed that the US failed to vote all of its shares in favor of the derivatives resolution.
Fr. Finn excoriated the Treasury Department’s decision, saying “If taxpayers are going to own major shares of banks in exchange for bailouts then they should be just as active as other shareholders in providing guidance to management. The U.S. government controls over a quarter of outstanding Citigroup shares. It had an extraordinary opportunity here to vote all of its shares in telling Wall Street that more derivatives disclosure is vital.”
The Resolution called for the bank to disclose by Dec. 1 its policies on securing collateral for the derivatives they use in order to mitigate risk, and for using customer funds for other speculative activities. Derivatives are complex financial instruments that played a large role in the 2008 financial crisis.
Additional votes on shareholder resolutions on derivatives put forward by ICCR members will take place on April 28 at Bank of America, May 7 at Goldman Sachs, and May 18 at J.P. Morgan.
Learn more on the ICCR website …
Citigroup Faith-Based Shareholders Call on US Government to Vote Its Shares in Favor of Derivatives Reform April 17th, 2010
Faith-based institutional investors are urging the Obama Administration to send the same message to Wall Street that it is sending to Congress on financial reform. The United States government controls 27 percent of outstanding Citigroup shares, and faith-based shareholders say the US should support their Resolution urging the company to provide more disclosure about its derivatives trading. Voting will take place Tuesday morning at the Citigroup Annual Meeting in New York. The groups, which include the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, are members of the 300-member Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR).
Rev. Seamus Finn, OMI, actively engaged in pressing financial institutions for greater transparency and accountability and an ICCR board member, said, “The U.S. government controls over a quarter of outstanding Citigroup shares today. It has an extraordinary opportunity here to send a clear message to Wall Street that more derivatives disclosure is vital. Even more to the point, the Treasury Department really has no choice other than to support our resolution since a failure to do so would directly undercut its campaign for critical financial reform.”
Click here to read more »
RiskMetrics and Proxy Governance Support ICCR Shareholder Proposal on Derivatives April 7th, 2010
RiskMetrics and Proxy Governance, respected proxy advisory services, in a significant move, have supported the Resolution on derivatives filed by religious investors, including the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. The Resolution filed by members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) requests that the company provide greater disclosure regarding derivatives as a way to reduce systemic risk in the financial sector.
A lack of transparency in derivatives holdings was responsible in large part for destabilizing the financial system in 2008. Specifically, the shareholder proposal filed with Citibank requests the company to report to shareholders on the firm’s policy concerning the company’s derivative activities. The religious groups have expressed concerns for years about the risk inherent in derivatives trading, arguing that greater transparency is needed.
The full text of the shareholder proposal is available here…
