January 6 Interfaith Vigil

On January 5, Bishop John Stowe of Kentucky, President of Pax Christi USA and Sr. Carol Zinn, SSJ, Executive Director of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, are joining the Franciscan Action Network and others for an on-line interfaith vigil to commemorate the attack on the nation's Capitol on January 6, 2021. 

According to the organizers, "The aim is to reclaim January 6 and make it a  day of unity, tolerance and respect.  No partisan speeches or politicians, just people sharing their faith in song and prayer. It all starts with our interfaith candlelight prayer vigil on Capitol Hill!"

They will be joined by Rabbi Stephanie Crawley, Associate Rabbi at Temple Micah, Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, President & CEO Interfaith Alliance, Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, Director of the Kairos Center for Religion, Rights, and Social Justice and Imam Dr. Talib M. Shareef, President, Masjid Muhammad, The Nation’s Mosque.

The on-line event will be from 6-7 p.m. For more information or to register, click here.

Catholics and the Poor People’s Campaign

On Thursday, May 5, at 7 p.m., there is a webinar to educate Catholics about the upcoming Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls on June 18. This assembly is the culmination of a year-long campaign that is seeking legislation to improve the condition of poor people in America. Proposals include expanding voting rights and the Voting Rights Act; a living wage; the right of workers to form and join unions; and high-quality pre-K-12 education for all. 

This webinar is especially for Catholic groups. Among the sponsors are the Franciscan Action Network, Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, Pax Christi USA, Leadership Conference of Women Religious, and NETWORK. Speakers include the National Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis; Bishop John Stowe, Bishop President of Pax Christi USA; and Sister Patricia McDermott, President of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas. Locally, the activities of the Poor People’s Campaign have been organized by the New York State Labor-Religion Coalition. I am on their Board of Directors.
 
Click here to register. More information about the Poor People’s Campaign is here.

Religious orders urge support of voting rights legislation

The Sisters of Mercy and the Franciscan Action Network are urging people to participate in a call-in today (July 28), demanding passage of S.1., the For the People Act. 

Supporters of the legislation note that it has five main components: 

1. Election administration: Expand voter registration and voting access, specify how to appropriate remove voters from voter rolls.

2. Redistricting: Require states to establish independent redistricting commissions to carry out congressional redistricting (states begin the redistricting process once the 2020 Census data is released, so this could have a huge impact for the coming 10 years).

3. Election Security: Investments and enhancement.

4. Financial transparency: Campaign Transparency, Countering Foreign Interference, Empowering Small Donors and Related Reforms, Enforcing Campaign Finance Laws, Strengthening Campaign Contribution Limits.

5. Ethics Reforms: Supreme Court Ethics Reform, Expanding Lobbyist Disclosure, FARA Reform, Recusal of Presidential Appointees, Executive Branch Ethics Reforms, Congressional Ethics Reforms, Disclosure of Presidential Tax Returns.

Please call each of your senators at 1-888-885-1748. 

“My name is {NAME} from {CITY/TOWN}. I’m calling because as a person of faith I am deeply concerned about state laws that are passing around the nation to restrict citizens’ voting rights. This is a moral issue for me, since when we infringe upon the voting right of one individual, we fail to recognize their human dignity and we end up threatening the health of our democracy. I urge Senator {NAME} to make it a top priority to pass the For the People Act (S.1), which would establish federal rules to protect the sacred right to vote and supersede those anti-voter laws.

Will the senator do whatever it takes—including delay recess and confront the filibuster rule —to pass the For the People Act?” 

 

On Civility in Political Communication

Albert Merz, OFM, has written a short paper for the Franciscan Action Network entitled On Civility in Political Communication. Here is an excerpt:

One of the consequences of incivility in how we talk “to” or “at” each other is alienation. People are pushed apart rather than pulled together. The roots of solutions to society’s problems have to be found in common ground. It is almost impossible to find this common ground in a non-relational environment.

The more threatening consequence of incivility in how we talk “to” or “at” each other is that it can become a “seed of violence.” Our minds and our emotions feed on words. Both the speaker and the hearer are affected by them. There is an old saying: “We become what we eat.” In an applied sense we might say: “We become what we speak.” The very words we speak change us. We can calm ourselves and we can ignite ourselves by the words and tone we use. Likewise we can affect the ones to whom we are speaking.

. . .

Recently I read that the public school system in the United States grew out of a concern on the part of our political leaders that people were losing a sense of the common good, i.e., they were becoming uncivil. Therefore, the need for education in civics in the original meaning of the word was deemed necessary. Civility, then, really means more than just being polite. It means genuinely respecting and caring for one another.

It seems to me that we need to revive such courses in civics, but this time in adult education programs. I would visualize the course syllabus to include the following topics:

1) How perspectives are formed – thus we could respect how others obtained their points of view;

2) The value of open-mindedness to a diverse pool of ideas – thus we might spawn a greater idea;

3) The necessity of serving the common good – thus we would realize the need for some individual sacrificing;

4) The importance of building trust in the community – thus we would be able to function together;

5) The significance of respect and civility in communication – thus we could maintain a positive atmosphere for creative progress.

We suggest that you read the entire statement here.