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July 2011 |
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Community Life Communiqué #3 - July 2010 Provincial Community Life - July 2011 Community Life Communiqué - July 2011Erna Day, Provincial Community Life Chairperson This communiqué is a little late due to moving to the lake for the summer months and lots of grandkids. Today is a quiet and beautiful day therefore an ideal time to get this done. All the birds are singing and everything is so peaceful. A time to think of other people less fortunate, yes it is! Archbishop Martin W. Currie, our National Spiritual Advisor, has stated in the League magazine, Winter 2011, his explanation of faith and justice as being “justice is giving a pratical expression to my faith – it is putting legs, feet , hands and heart to my faith. Justice is practical love.” Vianne Timmons was in our city of North Battleford April 18th as part of a community consultation co-hosted by the University of Regina’s Faculty and Poverty Free Saskatchewan. This is a network of individuals, organizations, governments and businesses all working together to try and eliminate poverty. This was part of the outreach effort started by the University three years ago, the role being to facilitate the discussion and bring together poverty groups to look at all the issues and find potential solutions. Timmons defined poverty as “when people do not have the resources to meet the needs of everyday living”. She said “there are a multitude of ramifications when people live in poverty”. Reduced health, and lower life expectancy as well as challenges in education are some of these ramifications. We as people in our communities can try to sit at these tables of discussions and see what we can do as people of Saskatchewan. Barbara Dowding encourages all of us that it is our responsibility to take good care of the many gifts and blessings we have received, to detach ourselves from material goods and possessions and to share our abundance with others. With poverty as the national focus it is fitting that we continue to support initiatives which are focused on eliminating the many forms of poverty in our world. The 1% program encourages members “to contribute one percent of all personal and luxury items as well as 1% of funds raised by C.W.L. councils to Development and Peace programs that empower women. Dowding also says to “join with Catholic women across Canada to enhance the role of women in church and society and to recognize the human dignity of all people everywhere”. As members of the Catholic Women’s League of Canada we must also be strong women. By this time next year let us challenge ourselves and others to see what one percent really is! A quote by Mother Theresa sums this all up: “We can do no great things – only small things with great love”. Community Life Communiqué #3 - July 2010Marlene Schnell, Provincial Community Life Chairperson This communiqué is a little late due to my husband being in the hospital for 4 weeks and passing away on June 14 and then arranging for the funeral and all the paper work after. We have been blessed with 36 years of marriage, four wonderful children, a special step-daughter, ten beautiful grandchildren and special memories. I have my moments of tears but am doing okay. Three of my daughters live within a 5 minute drive and I see one of three and the grandkids almost every day and that has been a big help along with the love and support of many family members and friends. I feel truly blessed. The G20 Summit seemed to get more publicity on the demonstrations and protests than on what they actually accomplished. In the June 30th issue of the Prairie Messenger it stated that on paper the G20 and the Catholic church want a lot of the same things but that they’re not necessarily talking the same language. A $7.3 billion pledge - $5 billion from G8 countries and another from foundations and non-G8 countries is not enough to stop millions of needless deaths among pregnant women and children under five and not enough for the G8 countries to say they’ve lived up to their responsibilities say Catholic aid groups. Development and Peace believes the G20 took a backward step on food security by trying to solve the world’s climate change problems with investments in agrofuels such as biodiesel. A Jesuit missionary on a visit to Canada from Zambia said “right now we have enough food in the world to feed everybody, but we have so many people who are hungry and malnourished because people can’t afford the food”. Brother Desmarais didn’t think these issues were addressed. World Religious Summit was held June 21-23 in Winnipeg prior to the G20 summit to lobby politicians to end poverty and promote peace. Archbishop Weisgerber of Winnipeg said the meeting of international faith leaders was valuable because they simply listened to each other. “We need to rescue the earth, we need to rescue those in extreme poverty, we need to rescue the children who are dying,” say Bill Francis, territorial commander of the Salvation Army in Canada and Bermuda and co-chair of the Canadian Delegation. In their statement handed directly to federal cabinet minister Stephen Fletcher the faith leaders asked politicians to close the growing gap between rich and poor, take bold and decisive action on climate change and military spending. Both these summit meetings emphasised poverty and we as Catholic members of the church must be aware and concerned about these issues as well. In Mary Nordick’s January communiqué she asked How can we help as League members in Africa [or other countries] to cultivate a society of peace, justice and hope? She said join then in faith through prayer, donate to Canadian Catholic Organization of Development & Peace, encourage members and councils to participate and promote the Share Lent campaign. A brochure is available on order from National office entitled Women Changing the World [item #205]. It outlines the 1% program and describes the National Voluntary Fund. Mary also mentioned on December 8 a report entitled In From the Margins; A Call to Action on Poverty, Housing & Homelessness was tabled in the Senate. The report is 290 pages and contains 78 recommendations. The issues addressed are certainly of interest to Community Life. The report may prove to be fertile ground for resolutions and is worth closer examination. Chalice, a Catholic Sponsorship programme where you can sponsor a child or buy a goat, cow for a family is a great organization. They can be contacted toll free at 1 800 766-6855 or on line at www.chalice.ca as well Save a Family Plan you can sponsor a family in India and 100% of your donation reaches the poor. Their website is www.safp.org Brochures can be ordered from both these organizations. When these countries are so far away these suggestions may seem more doable for us here. As well in Saskatchewan in the last few months we have certainly seen disasters in flooding and tornadoes where aid has been needed. Many have responded in donations and help for these communities. Volunteering at drop in centers, food banks, hospitals or visiting the elderly or someone in your community that may not have family or friends can mean a lot. I was so blessed after my husband died to have the love and support of church family, neighbours and friends who called, sent cards, brought food, visited and were there with a hug, I was overwhelmed by this expression of support and so grateful for it. In my oral report given at the Provincial convention I mentioned Fair Trade products, which are produced under fair labour and ecological conditions in countries around the world and the workers who produced it, are paid decent wages. By purchasing Fair Trade and locally produced goods, Canadians are showing their support for their communities and for farming families globally. Buying Fair Trade certified products helps to make the world a better place. When going on the website SCIS Fair Trade Project it will give a list of restaurants, stores and local farmers who sell their products under this name. In the May 19 issue of the Prairie Messenger under ‘Responsible consumers buy fair trade products” it mentions that dozens of stores and restaurants in Edmonton have already gone the fair trade route, at least with some products. The list includes Ten Thousand Villages, Superstore, Safeway, Save-On-Foods and Wal-Mart. Let us inquire who sells fair trade products and support them. The Prairie Messenger is a wonderful resource for most of this information. I highly recommend you subscribe to this paper, especially as a Community Life chairperson. I wish you all a wonderful rest of the summer with a little less rain. The good thing is I haven’t used my sprinklers once and the garden and lawn is doing well. The Lord provides. A quote from Mother Theresa “The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.” Provincial Community LifeProvincial Community Life Chairperson Community Life covers many areas and overlaps on other committees.Organic Foods: An online provincial directory of local organic foods could be one. In the October 14 issue of the Prairie Messenger there was an article on an organic directory available listing over 1,100 organic producers in the province of Saskatchewan. It is a great opportunity for us to launch the directory and let Saskatchewan consumers know that they now have an online avenue to search out organic products such as lamb and pork or carrots and raspberries, noted Elaine Sukava, Food Miles Campaign co-ordinator. “This directory is the answer to many producers’ frustrations of not being able to source certified seed for spring planting,” observed Pat Godhe of SOD [Saskatchewan Organic Directorate] website. Organic producers say that their seed search is just a click away. Their website is www.saskorganic.com Nuclear Energy: The debate is still on towards the use of nuclear energy in our province. Meetings and rallies have been held since spring. In a rally sponsored and promoted by the Coalition for a Clean Green Saskatchewan held in Saskatoon in October there was concern that the energy created by a proposed nuclear plant in Saskatchewan would be used to power the oil sands and corporations up north and in Alberta and not to power our homes. There is also a concern of a nuclear waste dump in the province. Nuclear energy must be carefully studied and as residents we too must keep informed. Climate Change: There is concern Canada is not showing leadership on climate change voiced by the general secretary of CIDSE [Consolidated Integrated Development Support Environment]. Climate change is exacerbating the food crisis and creating hunger in low lying countries like Bangladesh where sea water is coming into fields. The CIDSE is organizing an international petition that can be accessed through their website at CIDSE.org under “Create a climate for justice.” The petitions and postcards will be forwarded to world leaders. CIDSE has sessions with Canadian Organization for Development & Peace and Caritas International. Poverty: In an article written by Jim Harding in the November 25 issue of the Prairie Messenger he stated Parliament pledged to eliminate child poverty by the year 2000 when the percentage of children living in poverty was under 12 percent. It’s now over 15 percent. The promise among all political parties was that poverty would decline with economic growth, yet the opposite has happened. Human Trafficking: As we get closer to the Winter Olympics we again have concerns. Bill C-268, had its 1st reading October 1st that would impose mandatory sentence of 5 years on those who traffic children under 18 years of age. This Bill however will not be passed by February. Letters to the Olympic Committee asking that prostitution be discouraged may have some influence. When going on the website “Human trafficking at the 2010 Winter Olympics”? states the Canadian Religious Conference which represents superiors of Canadian Catholic congregation believes so and is weighing in with an educational kit it wants to distribute to Canadian schools to teach students about the root causes of trafficking. The victims of human trafficking are usually from Eastern Europe, China, Southeast Asia and Latin America. Going on the website gives much information. |