For more information contact Bet Lawrence at the ICWJ at 619-584-5744, ext 60.
 

Number 4:   Walk for Life West Coast set for January 22, 2004 in San Francisco

Number 5:  The Office for Social Ministry, through the Diocesan Institute, will offer its 15 hour course, Parish Social Ministry, beginning in January of 2005 at St. Rose of Lima Parish in Chula Vista.  Linda Arreola will be the instructor, and the course will be bilingual. 

Course topics include: the place of social ministry in the mission of the parish, models for its organization, and methods for developing active parish social ministry.

For more information contact Linda at 858-490-8327.

Short Reports on OSM Related Issues/Events

Number 1:   San Diego's Life Resource Network (LRN) holds successful LifeWalk and would like to thank all those who attended.

The Life Resource Network has declared Life Walk 2004 an official success!  The staff at LRN want to thank each one of you for your hard work in promoting and praying for this important event.

The Life Walk drew about 600 walkers from all over San Diego County.  These walkers represent the 51 churches that promoted the event this year in efforts to raise funds that will enable the continuation and expansion of education through LRN’s Speakers Bureau.

During Life Walk promotion (August through October) LRN educated our community by addressing 157 groups.  Fifty five of these groups were students; including 7 days spent at St. Augustine High School, teaching every single student about the sanctity of human life, responsibility to others, and the beauty of chastity.

The Life Walk itself was held at two locations: Escondido and La Mesa.  The Escondido location was hosted by the St. John the Evangelist, Encinitas Knights of Columbus and St. Timothy’s Knights of Columbus.  The La Mesa location was hosted by St. Rose of Lima and Journey Community Church.  Local legislators and pastors came to show their support.

Bishop Salvatore Cordileone (see photo at left with Bishop Cordileone, Linda Stewart and Deacon Greg Smyth) gave a greeting and blessing to the walkers at Harry Griffen Park and shared words of encouragement and hope for all those committed and loyal to the life movement.

The Life Walk was a success because of the people that were involved. Lives have been changed!

Here is just one story that is a direct result of the education that the Life Resource Network does in our community:

After a recent presentation at Mesa College the professor was praising LRN’s approach to the abortion issue and telling Michaelene (President, LRN) that LRN’s message has changed the outlook of her students when one of the students approached, saying, “You probably don’t remember me, but I heard your presentation last semester.  Two weeks later I found out I was pregnant.  I panicked, dropped out of school and was planning on having an abortion.  But than I started thinking about what you had said – that many women feel pressured into having an abortion due to finances and I thought about my mother who wasn’t financially ready to have me but she did and she did a great job.  I decided that I didn’t want to be forced into having an abortion because of money.  I feel so much stronger since I made that decision and (rubbing her stomach with a smile on her face) I’m so happy I’m having this baby!  Thank you so much!  I would really like to get involved.”  (She is due in December.)

Assemblyman George Plescia (R-CA) took time off of his busy schedule to visit with walkers.  (see photo at left with Assemblyman Plescia, Michaelene Fedenburg, Executive Director of LRN, and Lynda Jeffries)

Changing one heart, one mind, one person at a time…until abortion is unthinkable!
 

The Office for Social Ministry would like to thank the staff and volunteers of the Life Resource Network for all they have done to help establish an educational foundation in the Diocese of San Diego that makes possible monumental cultural change in favor of respect for human life.

Number 2:   Each year, in November, the San Diego Rescue Mission sponsors a memorial service for the homeless members of our community who have died on the streets during the past year.

To the left is a collage of just a few of those who read the names of the deceased at this year's memorial service, along with the placard containing the names of those who died.

(seen reading the names are: Msgr. Joe Caroll, President of St. Vincent De Paul Village, Imam Sharif Battikhi of the American Islamic Services Center, Rabbi Alexis Roberts of Congregation Dor Hadash)

 

Following are the remarks given by Jim Jackson, Director of the San Diego Rescue Mission, as he opened the service. 

Nearly 10,000 of our fellow citizens are homeless this evening in San Diego County -- Some of them died alone during the past year.
 
Today is Homeless Persons Remembrance Day - Our mayor issued this proclamation because 96 people died in the canyons of our city, in vacant lots, under freeway bridges.
 
We are gathered as people of faith to remember each and every one.
 
We will celebrate their lives while being true to our various religious traditions.
 
For example --
 
Buddhist teachings emphasize our common humanity that moves us to compassion.  We can transcend suffering through compassionate acts guided by wisdom.

Hebrew prophets call us to a society ruled by justice and compassion for the poor.

Jesus of Nazareth taught us to love our neighbor as ourselves, in fact, eternal joyfulness depends upon feeding the poor and clothing the naked.

The Prophet Muhammad taught us that one of the pillars of the faith is generosity toward the poor.
 
Join us now in your own way as we remember homeless persons who died alone this past year.
 
Let us begin by reading together words of comfort and reassurance for those who mourn.  Let us read aloud together the words of the psalmist printed in your program.

Let us bring hundreds of Catholic parishioners to next year's memorial service and send a message to the community that all who reside in our city deserve respect, whether they have residences or live on the streets.

Number 3:   Community Celebrates with Fr. John Auther, SJ, noted detention ministry leader in the diocese, at his recent farewell dinner
 
Father John Auther, SJ, has served at Our Lady of Guadalupe in San Diego and has been actively involved in jail ministry at five different detention facilities over the last four years.  He has provided leadership and inspiration for many of the volunteers who serve in this ministry.

Jesuit leadership has called Father John to a period of Tertianship, part of ongoing Jesuit formation, during part of 2005, following his delivering a retreat in Lima, Peru.  

Father John Auther, SJ (see photo at left) paused for a photo with volunteers Leticia Cheung, Mary Terry, Barbara Walsh and Mara Martin as he was honored at a farewell dinner at St. Joseph Cathedral on November 13, 2004.  Mary Terry and Rev. Richard Brown, SJ arranged for Fr. John's parents from Arizona to be present for the dinner.

Father John has provided presence, compassion, hope and love for hundreds of inmates through his direct service in the jails and through his correspondence program from the "outside".  He has garnered the respect of inmates, jail chaplains and staff.

The volunteers who served with him, as well as Diocesan detention ministry staff, and the parishioners at Our Lady of Guadalupe will miss him and pray for his continued success wherever God sends him.

Thank you Fr. John!

 

Number 4:   A Respect-Life Month concluding celebration was held on Saturday, October 30, 2004 at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in El Centro.  Mass was celebrated by Bishop Salvatore Cordileone and several priests of the El Centro Deanery, and workshops in Spanish and English were given by the Office for Social Ministry, Rachel's Hope and BirthChoice of El Centro.  More that 100 participants attended.

Bishop Cordileone spoke on the differences between a utilitarian society and one that has accepted the One, true God.  In the utilitarian society the person has merit only if he/she is of use.  In it the members are playing God and the world is ugly and dangerous.  But in a society where God is accepted as Truth, the person is seen as having intrinsic human dignity.  In this society compassion, love and generosity is called forth.  Our role as lay persons is to transform the community and all its institutions and structures by establishing a culture of life and love.  

Following the workshops, those who stayed behind with questions for the speakers gathered for a photo with Fr. Jaime Escobedo, Pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The Office for Social Ministry would like to thank the priests of the El Centro Deanery for their work in making this celebration such a  success.

This is a first for e-link. Advocacy, to date, has consisted of requests to contact politicians or leaders who have the ability to change policy and benefit those who are under attack or who are marginalized.

In this issue, however, we are asking you to learn about a global farming problem and then purchase and consume a product, one that most of us use each day, from a unique source.  It's called Fair Trade Coffee.  It's a project of Catholic Relief Services (CRS).

Catholic Relief Services works overseas to provide assistance to people who struggle to survive.  This includes low-income coffee farmers.  Here in the United States, CRS supports those farmers by promoting Fair Trade, an alternative system of international trade that is rooted in the principles of human dignity, economic justice and global solidarity. 

Please click on the photo of one of CRS's coffee growers to the left or follow the link below to learn how you can order Fair Trade coffee from CRS.  Order it for your family (Fair Trade Coffee makes a perfect Christmas gift).  You may even want to propose that your parish order CRS Fair Trace Coffee for use at its functions.

http://www.crsfairtrade.org/

Thanks for promoting CRS Fair Trade Coffee! 

And then, as always, please report back via e-mail reportback@diocese-sdiego.org on how your purchase of Fair Trade coffee went.

When Rituals Replace Reality