Do Vincentians care about Social Justice?

 A brief introduction to the Vincentian perspective on social justice by looking at what the Rule and Statutes has to say.

St. Oscar Romero - Martyr for the Poor

 

Following is a homily by Deacon Marian Pawliszko delivered at St. Elizabeth Seton Parish, Newmarket, on 5th Sunday of Lent, 2021

On Wednesday, March 24, the Church will remember the anniversary of the assassination of recently canonized St. Oscar Romero, the Archbishop of El Salvador. Oscar Romero is probably known to many of you. He was murdered by government agents while presiding over mass in the hospital chapel on the 24th of March 1980.

Voice of the voiceless poor
Archbishop Romero had used his position to speak up against all kinds of social injustices. He was the “voice of the voiceless poor.” He was denounced by the government and their allies as a political agitator and received constant death threats. But this never discouraged him from preaching against the social injustices that plagued his nation during the civil unrest.

In his homilies he spoke against violence and repression, and all kinds of discrimination based on the exploitation of the poor.

He said that “preaching that does not denounce evil is not preaching the gospel… Preaching that awakens, preaching that illuminates, it can be compared to a light that comes on when people are asleep, naturally it will bother them. This is the preaching of Christ”. (Preached on January 22nd 1978)

At the mass in which he died, the gospel reading had been from the Gospel of John 12:23-26: “The hour has come for the son of man to be glorified…unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain. But if it dies, it bears much fruit…” In the short preaching that would be his final homily, Archbishop Romero said: ‘You have just heard in the gospel of Christ that one must not love oneself so much as to avoid getting involved in the risks of life that history demands of us, and that those who try to fend off the danger will lose their lives. But whoever out of love for Christ gives himself to the service of others will live, like the grain of wheat that dies…only in undoing itself does it produce the harvest. Seconds after finishing his homily, a single shot rang out, fired from the back of the chapel which hit Romero in the chest. He was rushed to hospital but died in the emergency room shortly afterwards. The year before, he had said prophetically: ‘Christ is saying to each one of us: if you want your life and mission to be fruitful like mine, do as I have: be converted into grain that is buried. Let yourself be killed; do not be afraid. The one who avoids suffering will end up alone. There is no one more alone than selfish people. But if, out of love for others, you give your life for others, like I am going to give mine, you will have an abundant harvest; you will experience the deepest satisfaction.’ (Preached on April 1st, 1979)

Today's Gospel Reading [Jn. 12:20-33] reaffirms what has just been said. In a parable, Jesus said, "Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies; it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also."

Preferential option for the poor
To follow Jesus these days is not always easy. Many Christians in the Middle East and in all over the world are still unjustly persecuted today. There are still people who are preoccupying their worldly minds with wealth, violating the dignity of human life, not focusing on the preferential option for the poor, not to mention their ignorance towards the gospel values.

For three years Oscar Romero served as Archbishop, but his legacy is eternal, because it teaches us to build the beautiful structure of God’s Kingdom, that creates conditions of kindness, of trust, of freedom, of peace and of love even if we only accomplish a small fraction of God’s work in our lifetime.

Let us imitate Archbishop Romero’s courageous example as our model and guide to follow - and let us be mindful and stand up for social justice, always protecting and supporting those who are poor and marginalized in our society. As we approach the final two weeks of our Lenten journey let us deeply reflect on seeing God in the poor and being Jesus’ disciples in this world.

Season of Creation 2020 - Jubilee for the Earth

 

Endorsed by Pope Francis in 2015 and supported by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, the annual month-long ecumenical celebration entitled the Season of Creation will begin on 1 September (World Day of Prayer for Creation) and continue until 4 October 2020 (feast of Saint Francis of Assisi). 

The celebration calls on the global Christian community to promote prayer and action to protect our common home, and is one of the initiatives to celebrate the Special Laudato Si’ Anniversary Year which runs from 24 May 2020 until 24 May 2021. The theme for this year’s season is “Jubilee for the Earth”. 

For more information and resources on the Season of Creation, please visit the website at https://seasonofcreation.org/

Reproduced from the website of the  Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB)

Precarious Work, Vulnerable Workers and COVID-19

 

Image credit: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk

Precarious Work, Vulnerable Workers and COVID-19


 

Precarious work is a term used to describe certain types of employment, usually, but not always, non-standard or temporary. It is precarious precisely because it is insecure and unprotected, it pays poorly and unreliably, and provides very limited or no social benefits and statutory entitlements.

People who are dependent on precarious work employment for their income find it extremely challenging to support a household and often need to take two or even three such jobs in their efforts to make ends meet. Such people are justifiably termed, "vulnerable workers".

A Canadian View: Black Lives Do Matter - by Jim Paddon

Bishop Mark Seitz and the Roman Catholic Clergy kneeling during a Black Lives Matter demonstration.

Reproduced unchanged from "A Canadian View: Black Lives Do Matter" first published in "famvin".

Jim Paddon lives in London, Ontario, Canada and is past president of the Ontario Regional Council of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul. He is currently chair of the National Social Justice Committee of the Society in Canada.

Over 400 years ago Africans were captured and removed from their native lands, homes and families to be taken to the New World and reduced to objects that would assist their owners to have a profitable business and comfortable life for their families. This subjugation of another race which was founded on the principles of someone being inferior and subhuman simply because of their skin colour is one that continues to plague North America. The institution of slavery is one that attempted to rob those affected of their basic human dignity. As has been proven many times by courageous acts of defiance, no one can take away the God given gift of human dignity.

Laudato Si' - just some kind of 'green' encyclical about climate change?

Pope Francis has called for special events this week to mark and draw attention to the 5th anniversary of his encyclical, Laudato Si'.

Safe, Secure and Affordable Housing - April

Following are some extracts and highlights from CHANGING TIMES - April 2020, Safe, Secure and Affordable Housing Is a Human Right, an article by Jim Paddon, Chair of the National Social Justice Committee of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul published in the April, 2020 Social Justice newsletter of the SSVP National Council of Canada.



In a previous article, I mentioned the Working Group to End Homelessness (WGEH), which currently consists of 31 United Nations Non-Governmental Agencies (NGOs) who have come together to form the WGEH. The mission of the WGEH is “to influence the UN political proceedings to heighten Member States’ and Civil Society’s concern for and the action against the social injustice of homelessness.” There are several Catholic agencies who are members of the WGEH, including several who are Vincentian family members and, of course, the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul…

The WGEH has developed a description for homelessness, which reads as follows: “Homelessness is a condition where a person or household lacks habitable space, which may compromise their ability to enjoy social relations, and includes people living on the streets, in other open spaces or in buildings not intended for human habitation, people living in temporary accommodation or shelters for the homeless, and, in accordance with national legislation, may include, among others, people living in severely inadequate accommodation without security of tenure and access to basic services.” …

Safe, Secure And Affordable Housing Is A Human Right

Following is reproduced from the Social Justice Committee Newsletter of the SSVP National Council of Canada.
It is written by Jim Paddon, Chair of the National Social Justice Committee.

As we continue to discuss the national campaign theme of safe, secure and affordable housing being a human right, I’d like to focus on the topic of systemic change as it relates to the campaign theme. The systemic change concept is based on the understanding that there is a relationship among many factors which all contribute to a result.

Regarding poverty, we must take a holistic approach and consider all the relative factors that lead to an individual experiencing poverty. If we only address one or two of these factors, the result will likely be that the person continues living in poverty with little or no hope of escaping his or her situation. Our charitable works can address immediate needs such as short-term supply of food but fails to offer any sustainable assistance.

To read more, click on this link:
https://www.ssvp.ca/newsletters/social-justice/changing-times-march-2020

The Courage of Bl. Frederic Ozanam

Silk Workers' Revolt - Lyon

We pray at every conference meeting for the canonization of Bl. Frederic Ozanam, and we all know Bl. Frederic Ozanam to be a man for the poor. In the popular imagination this consists in giving alms to widows and orphans and those in need. While this is true, it is far from the whole picture that describes Frederic Ozanam. As a professor in Lyons and the Sorbonne universities with a doctorate in law, especially commercial law, Ozanam held forth in his lectures on the proletariat: the wage-earners whose only possession of significant material value is their labour-power. Regarding these workers Ozanam said in one of his now famous lectures at Lyons: "Exploitation occurs when the boss considers the worker not as a helper but as a tool that he has to drag the greatest possible service out of at the least possible price. Exploitation of a man by a man is slavery" (Lecture 24 at Lyons).

This was in 1840, eight years before Karl Marx published his Communist Manifesto. Frederic taught that workers had a duty to work in return for the right to a living wage for their families, including being able to educate their children and have time to relax to restore their strength. He was concerned not only with helping the poor in their need but also wanted to address the root causes of poverty. At the time, 26 year old Frederic needed much courage to teach this in his university lectures since the powerful wealthy political class considered this to be political gunpowder designed to stir up the working class to revolt as indeed some had in an earlier uprising by silk workers six years before. In those days, such teaching could have gotten Frederic Ozanam killed. It took another fifty years before official Catholic Social Teaching in the form of an encyclical by Pope Leo XIII validated what Frederic taught.


In the spirit of Blessed Frederic Ozanam, this Lent can be a good time to reflect on our attitudes towards the poor, and the assumptions, usually unconscious, which influence or govern our attitudes. We live in an age and society where many are trapped in precarious employment, many juggling two or even three low-paying, part-time jobs, many others are considered unemployable for reasons such as addiction and mental health, or simply because they are homeless, without an address and without a phone, where many children will leave school too soon and many others will not be able to take on the debt of post-secondary education; others who did are now hounded by debt-collectors. Our assumptions largely determine whether or not we merely want to help the poor in their material need or whether, like Blessed Ozanam, we also want to see social justice, to see the root causes of poverty addressed.

Why we don't help the global poor. Should we?

"The gospel accounts of Jesus portray him as giving more emphasis to helping the poor than to any other ethical concern, so this should be a top priority for all Christians."

"In addition, for Catholics especially, the church has taught, at least as far back as Ambrose, and continuing through Thomas Aquinas to several recent papal pronouncements, that what the rich have in “superabundance” is owed, by natural right, to the poor for their subsistence. That is very similar in its implications to the position that I hold."

Interestingly, these are the words of a committed atheist, Peter Singer, in an interview with Charles C. Camosy, Associate Professor of Theological and Social Ethics at the Jesuits' Fordham University. The interview is published under the title, "Peter Singer on why we don't help the global poor and why we should."

Daily Advent Meditations with Pope Francis and Laudato Si'

These meditations were originally published in 2015 by St. Vincent de Paul Parish Community in Baltimore.

 

Sunday, Dec. 1: God's loving plan

Third World Day of the Poor - Vatican Announcement

Pope's message:  they are not parasites of society

Learning the Land: Walking the talk of Indigenous Land acknowledgements

Indigenous activists have drawn attention to threatened waterways, neglected Residential School cemeteries and other social issues by walking across Land. Here a group of settlers on an Indigenous Land acknowledgment pilgrimage. Laurence Brisson/The Concordian, Author provided

Matthew Robert Anderson, Concordia University
University, religious, sports and other gatherings often begin with an Indigenous Land acknowledgement. For instance, this article was written in Montréal, or Tiohtiá:ke, on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk), a place which has long served as a site of meeting and exchange amongst nations.
Land acknowledgements recognize what for some Canadians is an uncomfortable truth. These are formal statements that recognize “the unique and enduring relationship that exists between Indigenous Peoples and their traditional territories.”
On Land where territorial treaties were negotiated, the acknowledgement may use the term “traditional Lands,” and go on to specify the treaty and its number (Treaty 4, for example, includes much of southern Saskatchewan.) Land is so important that Gregory Younging — scholar, editor and author of the copyeditor’s book Indigenous Style — insisted Land be capitalized.
But when governmental and business meetings are far less likely to include acknowledgements of Indigenous Land titles, or when artistic and educational events move from initial statements to silence about their political and economic ramifications, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that such recognition is simply lip service.
What do groups mean when they say they recognize Indigenous presence, resilience and Land? And how can settler groups begin to walk the talk?

The spirit of egotism or the spirit of sacrifice - October reflection

(Updated 8 October 2019)

Jesus told the pharisees: “You know the saying, ‘Red sky at night means fair weather tomorrow, red sky in the morning means bad weather today.’ You are good at reading the signs of the weather in the sky, but you can’t read the obvious signs of the times!” (Matthew 16:2-3)

Bl. Frederick Ozanam beautifully illustrated what it means to  read the signs of the times in this following extract from a letter  that he wrote to a friend in 1838. Listen to these words bearing in mind that the 2nd French Revolution occurred in 1830 and the 3rd revolt happened in 1848, the same year that the Communist Manifesto was published.

Barricades at Rue Soufflot on 24 June 1848 - Vernet

The question which divides people in our day is no longer a question of political forms, it is a social question—that of deciding whether the spirit of egotism or the spirit of sacrifice is to carry the day; whether society is to be a huge traffic for the benefit of the strongest, or the consecration of each for the benefit of all, and above all for the protection of the weak. There are many who already have too much, and who wish to possess still more; there are a greater number who have not enough, and who want to seize it if it is not given to them. Between these two classes of people a struggle is imminent, and it threatens to be terrible—on one side the power of gold, on the other the power of despair. It is between these two opposing armies that we must precipitate ourselves.

Talking to us about this quotation at our recent "Recharge the Batteries" event, Fr Roy commented that this letter was prophetic. Indeed it was, coming ten years before the "third" revolution and the publication of the Communist Manifesto.

Spiritual Reflection for September - Charity & Justice

Charity and Justice

We are well acquainted with the two-fold commandment that Jesus quoted, to love God with all we've got and to love our neighbour as ourselves. (See Matthew 22:36-40.) To be commanded to love is somewhat paradoxical. The act of loving, of course, can only be done voluntarily: we cannot be dragged kicking and screaming to love; we choose to love or not to love. But, for us as Christians, it is nevertheless a matter of obligation. 'Love, or take the consequences.' The paradoxical nature of Jesus' command helps us better understand what Jesus intends here. He is NOT commanding us to have warm, fuzzy feelings in our hearts for God and our neighbour. Trying to work up such feelings inside of ourselves would not be a good place to start rolling out how to fulfil the Great Commandment. This love is to be exercised in action, not emotion, by acts of compassion and kindness.

"I have come to set the earth on fire" - Jesus of Nazareth

Here is the Pope's address before the Angelus today...

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

In today’s Gospel (Lk 12:49-53), Jesus warns the disciples that the time to make a decision has come. His coming into the world, in fact, coincides with the time to make decisive choices: choosing the Gospel cannot be postponed. And to better understand His call, He uses the image of fire that He Himself came to bring to earth. Thus, He says: “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing”. These words are intended to help the disciples abandon any attitude of laziness, apathy, indifference and closure, to welcome the fire of God’s love; that love which, as Saint Paul reminds us, “has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Rom 5:5). Because it is the Holy Spirit that makes us love God and makes us love our neighbor; it is the Holy Spirit that we all have inside.

Feast of St. Joseph the Worker - Who do we work for?

Today's feast of St. Joseph the Worker is a good opportunity to pause and ask ourselves if we are affording work and workers the dignity with which God views work and those who work.

Image: freepik.com

Workers have not always been treated with dignity and, in many instances and places, they still are not so treated. Unions did not arise because workers had nothing better to do with their time. They arose because workers were treated like disposable machinery, useful only insofar as they increased the company's bottom line.

In this article posted in National Catholic Reporter, Michael Sean Winters S.J. gives us food for thought appropriate to today's feast. Read for yourself Today's feast is a moment to reflect on the dignity of workers
https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/todays-feast-moment-reflect-dignity-workers

CHANGING TIMES - APRIL 2019 - from the SSVP National Newsletter

Johanna Cross is the new Social Justice rep for BC and Yukon. This is an article she posted on the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul - National Council of Canada website (https://www.ssvp.ca) with the subtitle, "I’m the New Social Justice Rep for BC and Yukon… Now What?"
(https://www.ssvp.ca/newsletters/social-justice/changing-times-april-2019). Click on this link to go to the original post where you can also download a PDF version if you wish. 
The article is reproduced below for your convenience.

A few months ago my name was put forward to be the new Social Justice rep for BC and Yukon.  I fully admitted that I didn’t know much about social justice but I’d be willing to take a huge leap of faith and say YES - so here I am!

Papal documentation of the importance of social justice dates back to Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum Novarum in 1891 which stressed the dignity of every human person as well as the common good. Each pope, since, and up to Pope Francis in his encyclical Laudate Si, has written about social justice, laying the foundation of what is The Social Doctrine of the Church.

At the BC and Yukon Regional SSVP AGA in May 2019, the importance of social justice as part of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul mandate will be put forward. The expected result is that social justice will become a Rule; that is every conference will be required to have social justice on their regular agenda.

Feb 11, 2019 - Spiritual Reading - Frédéric Ozanam & Social Justice

Rule and Statutes

3.22 Working for Social Justice

The Society is concerned not only with alleviating need but also with identifying the injustices that cause it. Therefore, it is committed to identifying the root causes of poverty and contributing to their elimination. In all its charitable actions there should be a search for justice.

Affirming the dignity of each human being as created in God’s image, Vincentians envision a just society in which the rights, responsibilities and development of all people are promoted. The distinctive approach of Vincentians to issues of social justice is to see them from the perspective of those in need who are suffering from injustice. The Society helps those in need to speak for themselves. When they cannot, the Society must speak on their behalf so that they will not be ignored.