SNJM-Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) - Newsletter - April2021-EN

Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Newsletter

Collaboration at the center of our actions This second newsletter from the SNJM JPIC Coordinating Committee focuses on collaboration in our efforts to learn, train, share and act in relation to Justice, Peace, Integrity of Creation (JPIC).

IN THIS ISSUE z Province Highlights z Canada & Aboriginal Peoples z Lesotho Flood Damage z Tampa Rose Project z Women Religious 2021 z UNANIMA on Trafficking z Youth Climate Initiative z Call to Action

PROVINCE HIGHLIGHTS

US-ONTARIO

Seattle School Supports Students in Kenya For over ten years, Holy Names Academy (HNA) has partnered with the Friends of Seattle Mombasa Schools to support scholarship students and build a well at St. Michael’s Girls Secondary School, which is outside of Mombasa, Kenya.

Each year, students, faculty, and staff collect funds for scholarships for students, providing $700 to cover each recipient’s annual tuition.

In addition, teacher delegates have traveled to Kenya to visit the school every 2-3 years.

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Students at St. Michael’s Girls School in Mombasa, Kenya.

Since March of 2020, HNA has paused its plans to send teacher delegates to Kenya, but Holy Names has continued collecting funds for the program.

During the first three weeks of Lent in 2021, HNA collected approximately $2000.

SNJM JPIC Newsletter

PROVINCE HIGHLIGHTS

US-ONTARIO

Silent Prayer and Public Witness against Human Trafficking

PHOTO COURTESY MARYLAND CATHOLIC CONFERENCE

Mid-Atlantic Coalition Against Modern Slavery (MACAMS) is a group of lay and women religious committed to the elimination of human trafficking through prayer, education, and advocacy. Monthly, MACMS engages in “Silent Prayer and Public Witness” at a busy intersection in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland.

They pray silently, carry educational posters about human trafficking, and respond to inquiring pedestrians.

During Lent, MACAMS invited others, locally and virtually, to join them for the Stations of the Cross to end human trafficking, thereby connecting the story of Jesus’ passion

with the kidnapping and suffering of Josephine Bakhita, a Sudanese woman who survived trafficking.

TOP: MACAMS meet on the streets of Silver Spring, MD. to pray for the end of human trafficking. L-R: Carroll Ann Kemp, SNJM, Frankie Barber, SNJM, Ann Marean, SNJM, Kathleen Keller, SNJM, Kate Finan, Marie Romejko, SND de N, Marie Pilar Chamorro, CCV, Carol Ries, SNJM, Carmen Soto, CCV. BOTTOM: MACAMS monthly planning meeting.

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SNJM JPIC Newsletter

PROVINCE HIGHLIGHTS MANITOBA

Identifying Unconscious Bias / Changing Behaviours Last spring, the Manitoba Justice & Peace Committee opted to focus its efforts, for the next year or two, on issues relating to “indigenous peoples”. We thought it best to start by reviewing our own attitudes as predominantly “white people” and trying to better understand the relational dynamics therein. We first conversed with an OMI brother who has worked closely for years with the indigenous population.

More recently, we have met virtually with two women elders of the Ojibway-Metis Nation. These have been most enriching encounters.

We are presently developing a short self-assessment tool for use with our usual base — sisters, associates, colleagues.

Hopefully, it will help us to identify unconscious biases, change some behaviours and lead us to a greater acceptance of the “other,” too often discriminated against.

LESOTHO

Collaboration to Care for Earth, our Home An environmental cleaning campaign took place at St. Angela Home for Disabled Children, an SNJM ministry and in the surrounding area of Lithoteng. This project, a response to Laudato Si’, the cry of our mother Earth and the SNJM General Chapter Acts, involved young professed SNJMs, the village Chief, many youth and elders of the area.

Media outlets covered the event including: TV Lesotho; Radio Lesotho; Radio Maria; Moeletsi oa Basotho.

SNJMs in Collaboration is part of the Global Catholic Climate Movement (GCCM) in Lesotho.

Some of our sisters serve as animators of the group.

The Environmental Cleaning Campaigns are held at different districts either in circles April 2021 | Issue No 2 | 3 of 9

St. Angela Home for Disabled Children near Lithoteng, Lesotho

or together as a large group.

However, because of restricted movements due to COVID-19, GCCM Lesotho has been using media more often to speak out on integral ecology.

A current focus of the GCCM is promoting the use of organic gardening and encouraging the planting of trees and flowers.

SNJM JPIC Newsletter

PROVINCE HIGHLIGHTS

QUEBEC

Sr Anna Maria Vilca Mamani

On Climate and Interculturality The SNJM Quebec Justice and Peace Committee is planning two important meetings this spring.

Sr Joanne Pundyk

SNJM Still Active Against Human Trafficking The global pandemic prevents direct action on the ground to counter human trafficking in Brazil and Peru. Nevertheless, the work continues, as Sisters Joanne Pundyk and Anna Maria Vilca Mamani pointed out during their presentation to the SNJM Quebec Justice and Peace Committee in February. In both countries, efforts are focused on prevention and education, especially through social media, to stop the problem at its source. This work is essential because it is very difficult in these two countries to get traffickers convicted, the two sisters explained, stressing, among other things, corruption and the pitfalls of government legislation.

18 participants joined the SNJM Quebec Justice and Peace Committee meeting on human trafficking in Brazil and Peru.

As for aid to victims of trafficking, Sisters Joanne and Ana Maria deplore the lack of resources allocated by the authorities of both countries to help them. And yet, “the victims remain traumatized for life.”

Nevertheless, several actions are producing encouraging results as they try to reach vulnerable populations, such as women refugees from Venezuela and people living around mines in the jungles of Peru. For more information, see the web article here.

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One, at the beginning of April, will focus on the climate. This monthly meeting will allow members to share something positive brought about by the pandemic in relation to the climate crisis. The meeting participants will then identify an action that will be suggested to the sisters and affiliates of the province.

The other meeting, on Sr Huguette Fleurant’s intercultural experience in Manitoba, has been postponed until May. Initially planned for 2020 and cancelled because of the pandemic, the organizers hope that Sr Huguette will be able to go to Quebec to make her presentation in person. Failing that, they will opt for a virtual one.

SNJM JPIC Newsletter

Canada, the Churches and Bill C-15 on Aboriginal Peoples

The meeting, which was a panel discussion involving only Indigenous speakers, highlighted the importance of the Canadian government’s efforts to bring itself up to international standards in order to advance decolonization.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2015) called on the Government of Canada to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) as a framework for reconciliation. The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women/Girls reiterated this call in 2018.

At the same time, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission called on faith-based groups to comply with this Declaration (UNDRIP) and to respect the right of Indigenous peoples to self-determination in spiritual matters. It has encouraged them to engage in public dialogue and action to support the implementation of this Declaration in Canada.

Support from Faith-based Organizations The virtual meeting provided an opportunity to take stock of Bill C-15, which was tabled by the Canadian government in December 2020. Its adoption would provide a roadmap to ensure that Canada’s laws respect the UN Declaration (UNDRIP).

Faith-based organizations in Canada expressed their support on 21 January for Bill C-15’s action plan to promote justice and good relations with Indigenous peoples. Its adoption by Parliament and the Senate would make Canada the first country in the world to harmonize its legislation in accordance with the UNDRIP. In 2007, the United States was one of four countries, including Canada, that did not support the UN resolution adopted by 144 countries. During the Obama presidency, efforts to work with US tribes were initiated, but then halted during the next presidency. A recent open letter to President Biden seems to give hope.

“If we would listen, and would have hearts to receive, we would have a new world,” said Anglican Bishop Mark MacDonald, moderator.

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Anglican Bishop Mark MacDonald, moderator.

It is an invitation to ask ourselves genuine questions about the situation of Indigenous people. Why are they more likely to be poor, unemployed, incarcerated? Why do Indigenous people have fewer resources for education and health care? Why is their life expectancy shorter than Canadians and Americans? As a congregation, are we ready to act? What actions can we take to make a difference?

This article is based on a report by Sr Marylyn Gibney (MB).

PHOTO COURTESY ANGLICAN CHURCH OF CANADA

Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary (SNJM) from Manitoba, Quebec, Ontario and Washington State, participated in the virtual meeting entitled “Canada, the Churches and Bill C-15” in February.

SNJM JPIC Newsletter

SNJM Partners with Local NGO to Assess Damage from Tropical Cyclone On January 28th and 29th, northern Lesotho experienced substantial flooding after Tropical Cyclone Eloise hit landfall off the coast of Mozambique in Southern Africa.

Shortly thereafter, the Transformation Resource Centre (TRC) undertook an investigation into the impact of the floods, specifically in the Mokhotlong region, which was especially hard-hit.

Although the local water supply doesn’t seem to have been affected, the damage to footbridges and roads has made it hard for area residents to get to health and social services and the destruction of many maize fields has left farmers without their sole source of income.

Stilts in the river are all that is left of a footbridge used by several villages to access local health services.

The TRC’s aim is to develop recommendations on how to rebuild the area and for better disaster preparedness and recovery, for the future. The TRC, an ecumenical resource centre working to improve the living conditions of marginalized populations, has been a SNJM partner for over ten years.

TRC advocates assessing the impact on farmers’ fields.

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SNJM JPIC Newsletter

AHN Tampa: Sisters Stories, Students’ Service Lisa Perkowski, IHM, Director of Mission & Ministry and Visual Arts Teacher (HS) at Academy of the Holy Names, invited six SNJMs (Kay Burton, Cynthia Canning, Marylyn Gibney, Linda Haydock, Mary Ellen Robinson and Kathleen Ross) to share reflections for

For our Rose Project, we had the opportunity to work with a local organization called Where Love Grows. Their mission is to address the immediate needs of hungry children while implementing a long-term positive impact.

Our mission of service changed us by exposing us to local poverty in the Tampa Bay area. We are motivated to work with local organizations, such as Where Love Grows, in the future so that we can eliminate poverty and injustice in our community.

We hope to lead our school towards being more active in the Tampa Bay area because of this eye opening experience. We want to raise awareness to the issues of childhood hunger and poverty. We hope to break down the social barriers that often come about between those serving and those being served during community service.

We have a changed perspective and want to welcome the poor and vulnerable as if they were our own family and friends. We are grateful for your inspiring stories that guided us through our Rose Project.

Sincerely, Martina, Mattie, and Alana , AHN Students

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(L-R) Martina Bain, Alana Young, and Mattie Mangan food shopping for Where the Love Grows.

The Rose Project Missionary Journal: Encounter. We invite you to read the sisters’ stories and enter into the pastoral circle process.

Sr Linda invited the girls to write to the SNJMs to share their story of becoming leaders through service. Here is the letter we received from the AHN students.

SNJM JPIC Newsletter

Justice Conference of Women Religious 2021 The Justice Conference of Women Religious (JCWR) held their 2021 convocation virtually on the theme of Justice in a World in Transition: Revolutionary Love at the Intersection of Racism, Migration, and the Climate Crisis.

For Valarie Kaur, the presenter on revolutionary love, the greatest challenge is how to bring about a revolution of the heart, one where love is the driving force of social justice.

We are the ones who can help our community and all of

humanity in this great transition. We need to engage in the labor of revolutionary love if we want greater justice in the world.

In the session on racism, presenter John Shively reminded us of recent racist incidents that spurred rage and he wondered if our response was one of radical love... a love that calls us not to judge the rage by its manifestation but to try to understand where it comes from. He ended by saying, “If peace is what we desire, we must set our hearts on fire for justice to be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

PHOTO: PAUL WEAVER / SOPA IMAGES

Speaker Briann Moye, of Poor People’s Campaign, then addressed the issue of racism from the perspective of poverty — how racism seems to flourish in it. For Briann, poverty is but one part of five interlocking evils: systemic racism; poverty; ecological devastation; militarism and the war economy; and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism. To stem the tide of these evils, the underlying Presenter Briann Moye speaks at a Poor People’s Campaign press conference at the Pennsylvania State Capitol, March 15, 2021.

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PHOTO KRIPALU CENTER FOR YOGA & HEALTH, 2021

Speaker Valarie Kaur

plea for governments, for organizations and, indeed, for each one of us is to work for a “moral revival” and to simply do, in all possible ways and circumstances, what is right.

Hanane Hakkou and Yvonne Massicotte, SNJM, attended the Conference on behalf of the SNJM JPIC Committee. Click here to watch the conference.

SNJM JPIC Newsletter

UNANIMA: News on Homelessness, Trafficking and Mining UNANIMA International’s recent newsletter highlights work on the grave issue of homelessness and its links to human trafficking. The newsletter includes information from the NGO Committee on Social Development, as well as an article on the tragedy of mining in Brazil and its

impact on housing. The publication completes its overview by reporting on an initiative addressing human trafficking in the Philippines.

Intercommunity Youth Climate Crisis Initiative: A Work in Progress As part of a JPIC Intercommunity Youth Climate Crisis Initiative, five Canadian and twenty-three U.S. religious congregations are collaborating to partner with and empower youth. An exploratory core committee including Yvonne Massicotte, SNJM, and lay collaborators Dominik Tremblay-Perron

from the Congregation of Notre Dame, and Samantha Yanity representing the twenty-three congregations of the Intercommunity Peace and Justice Center, are studying the feasibility of building a broad network of young people to address the climate crisis.

The core group have met several times and have developed

a vision and a mission statement. They identified values that would be promoted in this endeavour. The animators will be seeking youth to serve on the core committee and holding international virtual meetings with youth to determine the direction of the project.

Call to Action Which story inspired me? What call am I hearing to act for justice, peace and the integrity of creation?

In this Easter season we invite you to connect with another person or community group and share a hope that has arisen in you from reading this issue of the SNJM JPIC Newsletter.

Find an opportunity to act on your hope with others.

Write to the Congregational JPIC Coordinating Committee at snjm@snjm.org and share your hopes or your collaborative actions.

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