Office for Social Ministry e-link  ---  Diocese of San Diego  -  858-490-8323

 

Dear OSM e-link Subscriber,

The OSM e-link membership now numbers 211 and is growing daily.  Thank you e-link coordinators for spreading the word on e-link!  Also, we want to thank those on our regular OSM database who have made the switch to e-link.

 

Wednesday, April 16, 2003

OSM e-link  -  Bulletin # 3

 

Table of Contents:

 

- Comments from Kent Peters, Linda Arreola, Jim Walsh, and Jo Brower

 

- Key Upcoming Gatherings (please join us if at all possible)

            ICWJ gathering in support of La Costa Resort workers on April 22, 2003

                     

- Updates from the Office for Social Ministry

             The OSM Assistant Director position has been filled.

                

- Advocacy Alerts

            Support AB 1041, excused absence from school needing parental consent

            Support SB 133, ban on all forms of human cloning in California

            Sign an online petition in support of Living Wage Ordinance for the City of San Diego

      

- Web and e-mail-based resources and opportunities

             Link to USCCB web site - various materials on human cloning

             Link to San Diego Living Wage Coalition web site

          

- Article/Statement for April 2, 2003

              USCCB Statement A Place at the Table

 

 

Remarks from Kent Peters, Linda Arreola, Jim Walsh, and Jo Brower

 

This Holy Week, as we prayerfully move through the Passion of our Lord to the celebration of the Ressurrection, we are torn.  Taken from the depths of torture, humiliation, betrayal and murder to the heights experiencing new life in Jesus, like the early disciples, we experience disappointment, sadness, grief, and anger, but our celebration eventually culminates in great joy.  In our current life circumstances, right within our own diocese, we are also torn.  There is much suffering in our community.  The preborn are under deadly attack, women are abandoned by family, community and the fathers of their children, neighbors are working two and three jobs, but because of low pay, are falling ever further behind, soaring prices have ended the dreams of home ownership for the majority of working people in our community, and thousands of families live with the risk of having no health insurance.  And yet, with all the suffering around us, we never lose hope that our prayer, our work for justice, and our direct support will somehow bring joy to those who struggle.  We have never been promised by Christ or the Church that suffering would be eliminated by the work we do, but our work to strengthen the community does bring joy both to those who give and to those who receive.  Our active presence brings hope, and with that hope comes joy.  It can also be said that sometimes our work does make a difference in people's lives.  May the joy engendered by our caring for the community be celebrated as a part of the joy that eternally springs forth from the certainty that Resurrection awaits us all.

San Diego, pray for us.

Our Lady of Refuge, pray for us.

Key Culture-of-Life Gathering

 

Clergy and People of Faith Washing Feet for Justice and Delivering Bitter Herbs for Fairness, Tuesday, April 22, 2003, Noon to 1:15 p.m. at La Costa Resort and Spa, 2100 Del Mar Road Rd. Carlsbad.  Meet near the Lobby at the Valet Stand   This will be the 5th Interfaith Community for Worker Justice visit to La Costa Resort in support of La Costa Workers.  Please join us.

 

The workers at La Costa have been offered a final and terrible contract by the KSL management that they do not intend to accept.  It is imperative that the faith community demonstrate, yet again, to the KSL management team that we will not sit quietly while they take away wages and benefits from loyal and hard working employees, many who have worked at La Costa for more than 25 years.  At this event we will present bitter herbs to the La Costa management and, as Jesus did to his disciples, we will prayerfully and publicly wash the feet of 12 La Costa employees. Please join us!

 

For those who are unfamiliar with the work of the Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice and the close collaboration it has with the Office for Social Ministry, there is an article we would suggest you read.  It highlights the executive director of the ICWJ, Rabbi Laurie Coskey, but it also gives an accurate sense of the ongoing work of the organization.  It can be found in the San Diego Jewish Journal.  It is a great read!  Select the web address below.

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.sdjewishjournal.com/stories/april_cover.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Short Reports

 

Jim Walsh Hired as New Assistant Director in the OSM - Primary Duties to Include, Program Coordinator for Restorative Justice and CCHD Coordinator

 

Jim Walsh (left) is welcomed to to the Diocesan

Pastoral Center by Kent Peters

 

Jim Walsh, Permanent Diaconate candidate and member of Mission San Luis Rey Parish, began duties as Assistant Director in the Office for Social Ministry on Monday, April 14, 2003.  Jim's primary responsibilities are in the area of restorative justice (detention ministry, outreach to victims of violent crime, and outreach to families with incarcerated members) and the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.  Welcome aboard, Jim! 

 

E-link members... watch for information on restorative justice in the coming months. 

 

 

Web and E-mail-based Resources and Opportunities

 

1)  To learn more about the San Diego Living Wage Ordinance go to: http://www.sdlivingwage.org/

 

2)  To learn more about human cloning and why the Roman Catholic Church opposes all forms of human cloning go to http://www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/bioethic/cloning/index.htm

 

 

E-link Advocacy

 

Kent's Report on HR 760, the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act

 

Kent called Duncan Hunter's DC office the week of April 7th and talked to Larissa Bounds, the legislative aid who deals with HR 760, the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act.  She reported that Representative Hunter had supported similar legislation in the past and would be voting in favor of HR 760.  He thanked her and asked that she send something in writing.  She indicated that a letter would be sent within a day or two and expressed her appreciation for the call.  

 

We hope you all took the time to call your U.S. Representative. 

 

 

Support AB 1041, "Excused absence from School Needing Parental Consent"

 

At the present time, school officials in California are allowed to take students (most often female, including minors as young as 11 or 12 years old) off campus for health-related treatments, without the knowledge and/or consent of their parents.  These school officials are protected by the California Constitution and its blanket offering of privacy to women, regardless of age, when dealing with any problem related to reproductive rights.  This practice routinely involves taking students off campus to obtain contraceptives, to deal with sexually transmitted diseases, and to secure abortions, again, all without the knowledge and/or consent of parents.  AB 1041 will protect minors, by requiring that school officials obtain parental consent before students can be taken off campus.  Our rights as parents have been trampled upon for far too long.  Reasonable people understand that it is parents who have the best interests of their children in mind, not school counselors, teachers, or administrators.  AB 1041, however, is not a popular piece of proposed legislation in Sacramento, and we need your support to move this bill forward. 

 

Contact your California Assembly and Senate members in support of AB 1041.  Simply indicate that you would like to see this reasonable bill become law in California.  Please remember to ask that your legislator respond in writing.  This bill will be heard in the California Assembly Education Committee on Wednesday, April 23rd.  A call today will make a difference!  Thanks for your support.

 

To determine who your California Assembly and Senate members are, go to http://www.vote-smart.org and insert your 9 digit zip-code where indicated.  

 

If you are shocked by present California law and how it negatively impacts families and would like to have this kind of information shared with other parents, encourage them to sign up for e-link at www.osmelink.org  E-link, where you will get all the latest updates.

 

Support SB 133, "Ban on All Human Cloning"

 

SB 133 will ban, in California, all human cloning, whether the intent is for biomedical research or to produce a human child.  For basic information on the Church's opposition to human cloning, go to http://www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/bioethic/cloning/index.htm

 

This bill will be heard by the California Senate Health and Human Services Committee on Wednesday, April 23rd, so as you express your support for AB 1041, simply register your support for SB 133. 

 

Sign an Online Petition for the San Diego Living Wage Ordinance 

 

The Office for Social Ministry, in conjunction with scores of organizations throughout the City of  San Diego and neaby municipalities, is asking the City of San Diego to pass a living wage ordinance that will directly benefit low-wage City employees, employees of businesses that receive City service contracts, and employees that receive economic development subsidies from the City.  Our tax dollars have created low-wage jobs for years.  Now is the time to ask that these resources be used in a way that promotes the life and dignity of those who receive their employment at the discretion of the City of San Diego.  Several years of planning and work have preceeded the final "request phase" of this effort, and your help is needed to make this dream a reality.  In the final analysis, about 3,000 workers will directly benefit from its passage. 

 

To sign the online petition and to locate basic information on the effort, go to: http://www.sdlivingwage.org/

 

 

Article/Statement for Bulletin #3:

 

A little known and even less understood teaching of the Catholic Church, the Universal Destination of Earthly Goods (see Catechism #s 2402-2406), presents most practicing Catholics with a challenge they would prefer to avoid.  A capsulized paraphrase of this teaching would go something like this, "Those who have more than they need are obliged in faith and chairty to use the surplus, ie., goods posessed that are not used to satisfy human need, in the service of those who have less than they need."  How many of us violate this principle by participating in luxury? 

 

This teaching does not mean that ownership cannot extend beyond need, but rather that all we own, especially that which goes beyond our current and future need, must be made fruitful for those who lack the resources sufficient to live lives with dignity.  Imagine what could happen in our communities if Catholics used all their surplus to insure that their neighbors would receive a meaningful place at the table, i.e., education, health care, living wage work, etc.

 

Accept this hefty challenge, please read the statement of the U.S. Catholic Bishops below.  We have only included here the first two sections of the Statement.  Those who wish to download and read the statement will find a link to the entire document following the second section. 

 

 

 

A Place at the Table, A Catholic Recommitment to Overcome Poverty and to Respect the Dignity of All God's Children

 

A Statement From the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

 

 

How can it be that even today there are still people dying of hunger? Condemned to illiteracy? Lacking the most basic medical care? Without a roof over their heads? . . . Christians must learn to make their act of faith in Christ by discerning His voice in the cry for help that rises from this world of poverty.

Pope John Paul II
Novo Millennio Ineunte, no. 50

 

I. A Table

A table is where people come together for food. For many, there is not enough food and, in some cases, no table at all.

A table is where people meet to make decisions—in neighborhoods, nations, and the global community. Many people have no place at the table. Their voices and needs are ignored or dismissed.

When we gather as Catholics to worship, we gather around a table to celebrate the Eucharist. It is at this altar of sacrifice that we hear the saving word of Christ and receive his Body and Blood. It is Christ's sacrificial meal that nourishes us so that we can go forth to live the Gospel as his disciples. Too often, the call of the Gospel and the social implications of the Eucharist are ignored or neglected in our daily lives. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church insists, "The Eucharist commits us to the poor. To receive in truth the Body and Blood of Christ given up for us, we must recognize Christ in the poorest" (no. 1397).

In our world and nation, many of our sisters and brothers live in poverty. The causes are complex, but the results are clear. They cannot find decent work, feed their families, educate their children, secure health care, or find adequate housing. Millions of children live in nations with too much debt and not enough development, in societies with deadly diseases and inadequate health care, in lands where conflict and corruption leave people without a place at the table. Millions of families cannot live in dignity because they lack the conditions worthy of human life.

As Catholics, we must come together with a common conviction that we can no longer tolerate the moral scandal of poverty in our land and so much hunger and deprivation in our world. As believers, we can debate how best to overcome these realities, but we must be united in our determination to do so. Our faith teaches us that poor people are not issues or problems but sisters and brothers in God's one human family.

In many ways, these are difficult times. We bishops and our Church are confronted with the terrible scandal of clerical sexual abuse and all the hurt and pain and loss of trust and credibility that have come with it. We bear special responsibility to address this crisis and our roles in it. In our dioceses and as a bishops' conference, we are working diligently to protect children and to restore trust. At the same time, we must recognize that our world faces other urgent challenges. Our nation is dealing with terror on its own shores. Our economy is hurting, shaken by corporate misconduct—and its impact on workers and investors—as well as broader forces of globalization and economic change. Our world is broken by deadly violence and widespread hunger and deprivation.


 

II. A Mission

With our Church under challenge, our nation confronted by terror, and our world haunted by conflict, why focus on issues of poverty and human dignity at this time?

 

  • Our faith calls us to it. The Gospel and Catholic social teaching place our service of the poor and vulnerable and our work for justice at the center of Christian witness.
     
  • Our nation needs it. A sixth of our children are growing up poor in the richest nation on earth.1 The blessings and burdens of American life are not being shared fairly.
     
  • Our world requires it. More than 30,000 children die every day from hunger, deprivation, and their consequences.2 Disease and debt, corruption and conflict are threatening the lives and dignity of millions in our increasingly globalized world.
     
  • Our salvation demands it. In Jesus' description of the Last Judgment, the critical question is "What did you do for the least of these?" Jesus identified himself with the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the imprisoned, and the stranger, insisting that when we serve them we serve him.3
     
  • Our actions can make a difference. In the face of these challenges, our community of faith must continue to preach the Gospel and pursue the Church's evangelizing and social mission. We can help shape a world where the lives and dignity of all people are respected and protected.

In his hometown synagogue in Nazareth, Jesus outlined his mission and ours: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me . . . he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free."4 In these challenging times, this mission of Jesus is our way forward and our urgent task.

This pastoral reflection is offered for pastors and parishioners, for Catholic educators and citizens. It will be complemented by other resources for reflection and action in families, parishes, and schools. This reflection draws on existing teaching and policies to recommit our community of faith to be ever more faithful witnesses of God's love and justice, protecting the dignity of all God's children, especially the poor and vulnerable.

To read this pastoral statement in its entirety, please go to: http://www.usccb.org/bishops/table.htm 


Our next e-link Bulletin should be in the "mail" on or about May 6, 2003

Have a very blessed Easter celebration!

The Staff of the Office for Social Ministry