Resolutions to Action

I have just read A Mighty Heart, Mariane Pearl’s book about Daniel Pearl’s murder by terrorists in Pakistan. It occurs to me that my education did not provide enough information about Pakistan, about Muslim distress over the division of Hindus and Muslims in 1945, and certainly not enough knowledge of the confl ict over Kashmir. This is only one area that I feel I should know more about to be a responsibly informed adult in our multi-cultural world.

The Mayan man said, “We did not want to be like them.” That is what he said about why he did not fi ght back when the army came to get him. The Mayan people of Guatemala suffered greatly during the 36-year civil war ending in 1996. Many were tortured, disappeared, or killed. This reality exists in many countries where there is war or where other forms of domination squelch human rights.  The torture that happened in Guatemala still happens in the world today. 

In just the past month, we have heard the stories of migrant women from all over the world.  Mandesa from Nigeria attempted to enter Spain on a boat to the Canary Islands. Juana from Mexico works as a nurse with elderly patients in Los Angeles. Asian mafi a traffi cked Sunitha from Sri Lanka to Australia. An Albanian sells his sister to a man migrating to Italy...

The phenomena of migration and immigration present complex problems to both our international and national communities.  They affect nations of origin (for example, the exodus of medical personnel from the Philippines), of transit (the multiplication of refugee camps in Kenya for Sudanese citizens), and of destination (reflected in the current US debate about the “strangers” among us).

It is March 1, 2006.  We write from Detroit, Michigan on the 159th anniversary of the state of Michigan becoming the first English-speaking territory in the world to abolish the death penalty.  This first official act of Michigan’s legislature resulted because the state had witnessed the public executions of a mistaken perpetrator and the misapplication of “justice” in the case of a mentally incompetent criminal...

Racism is systemic and permeates virtually every US institution – judicial, political, social, medical/healthcare, education, labor, small and large businesses, the professions, sports teams, the arts, and the church.  Reflection on racism indicates a mixed message of progression and regression over the years...

More than a billion people in the world lack access to clean water. More than two billion do not have adequate sanitation. Pollution, waste, depletion and a rapidly growing human population are contributing to a global water crisis. On our present path, by 2025, nearly two-thirds of the world’s population will experience serious or severe water shortages. Whole eco-systems, dependent on water, will suffer devastating effects...

Each day we experience violence of all kinds: bombings and other terrorism, a pre-emptive war policy, a national budget that tramples the poor, murders by school children, domestic violence, diseases that could be avoided, trafficking of women and children.  Is nonviolence possible?  If not us -- who?  If not now, when?

In 2000, 189 countries of the world signed the United Nations Millennium Declaration.  This was an historic moment and set forth an ambitious agenda for improving the lives of the world’s poorest citizens by 2015 through a joint effort of developing and developed nations. The MDGs are a set of measurable goals and targets for combating poverty, hunger and disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women.

Throughout the past decade congregations have begun to participate in the marvelous story of our universe with new understandings. We have, with the new knowledge brought forth by scientists, environmentalists and theologians, become much more aware of our relationship with Earth. We are part of Earth, not apart from it. We have come to understand and believe in our interconnectedness as a human family with all of creation. This new understanding has helped us to use a new lens when we look at our world.

Wal-Mart operates more than 4,400 discount stores throughout the United States. The company reported sales of $256 billion and employed 1.4 million people in fiscal 2003. The mega-corporation is the largest employer in the world.  If it were an independent nation, it would be China’s eighth-largest trading partner. In its efforts to become the world’s largest retailer, the company has encounter many criticisms for its human rights violations, racial and gender discrimination, and its disregard for workers, among many other issues.

The FTAA is essentially an expansion of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) into Central America, South America and the Caribbean.  NAFTA, a trade agreement between Canada,Mexico and the United States, took effect in 1994 and has devastating effects on working families and the environment.  In the United States where many of our sisters serve in parishes, schools, hospitals, clinics,social services, etc. they have seen thousands of people lose their jobs because the factories have moved to Mexico or another country where labor is cheaper.

“Sacred is the call, awesome indeed the entrustment. Tending the holy. Tending the holy.” How do we continue to move beyond these lyrics to a change in our patterns of action? The August 2003 LCWR national assembly grounded us in the reality of the sacred enterprise in which we exist not as dominators of creation but as participants in a cosmic story.  Does our participation reverence the earth or is it characterized by an addictive over-consumption, which depletes Earth’s non-renewable resources?

In May 2001 the members of the International Union of Superiors General declared their commitment to address the “trafficking of women which has become a lucrative multi-national business.  ”At their joint  national assembly in August 2001, LCWR and CMSM passed a resolution calling members to oppose the trafficking of women and children and  educate others regarding the magnitude, causes and consequence of this abuse.

At the August 1998 Joint Assembly, a resolution on World Debt was approved by the members of LCWR and CMSM. The resolution challenged conference members to participate in the global movement to cancel impoverished countries’ debt in a variety of ways. Several congregations joined the Jubilee 2000 campaign and encouraged their members to advocate for the passage of U.S. debt relief legislation.

Practices and policies that promote poverty, racism and violence seem to engulf us.  We see our President and his advisors careening toward military action.  We see people suffering from failures in our welfare system.  We see new and smarter forms of racism afoot in our country.  In response, we make phone calls, send faxes and e-mails, endorse statements, and engage in public protest.  We engage in advocacy efforts on behalf of those who suffer oppression.