For love of the game

The September issue of U.S. Catholic magazine has an interview with Clark Power, founder of Play Like a Champion Today, which is described as “a national initiative that has provided education to tens of thousands of coaches, parents, and athletes. The goal of the program is to create a positive youth sports environment for all children, even as we see an increase in bullying, the desire to win at all costs, and rage from parents.” The article connects two subjects that we do not always see mentioned in the same breath, i.e., sports and justice. He writes, in part:

. . . adult coaches in youth sports culture exercise a fair amount of control over children’s play. When you play pickup games, you choose your own teams: “You’re the first baseman, I’m the pitcher, you’re the shortstop, you play left field.” These days, adults are choosing teams. Adults scout kids. They stack teams. They set the lineups. They control the strategy.

I was observing that in many ways the adults were taking children’s heads out of the game. Adults were playing against adults. From a developmental psychology perspective, that made no sense. Once adults control the game, what’s happening can no longer be called “play.” It becomes more like work. The kids are performing to please a person who has control over what they are able to do.

But psychologists think that as a child you need situations that you can control. We play games like baseball, but we also play made-up games, variations of tag and hide-and-go-seek, where we create the rules. Psychologists think that’s really, really good.

When adults set the rules, the focus is no longer on how children will benefit from play. Instead, adults seem to be asking, “How much more elaborate can this get?” because in a sense they are now playing with other adults.

 [snip]       

. . . From a purely moral standpoint, as a matter of justice, every child has an equal right to play. That’s not dependent on whether you’re a good athlete or a bad athlete, whether you’re deaf or partially blind. Every child has a right to play and a right to play sports in our country.

There is no reason for some children to be sitting on the bench watching other children play. That, I think, is immoral. I think it’s a matter of justice. It’s not a matter of being nice to kids. It’s a simple matter of justice.

I may never look at youth sports the same way again. You can read the rest of this article here.

Justice newsletter

The Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development (JPHD) of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops promotes awareness of Catholic social teaching and opportunities to live the Baptismal call to love God and neighbor. You can sign up for their monthly newsletter here.

Can business lead to holiness?

Catholic News Service reports that the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace has released a handbook for business educators and entrepreneurs to help businesses stay strong and healthy, and avoid the occupational hazards of greed, overwork and exploitation.

"Vocation of the Business Leader: A Reflection" is a 30-page primer from the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace that spells out the risks of unethical economic strategies and the principles needed for running a sound, moral business.

It seeks to heal the so-called "divided life" of Catholic employers, who may practice their Christian values at home and church, but not in the company they manage or run.

"Dividing the demands of one's faith from one's work in business is a fundamental error which contributes to much of the damage done by businesses in our world today, including overwork to the detriment of family or spiritual life, an unhealthy attachment to power to the detriment of one's own good, and the abuse of economic power in order to make even greater economic gains," the booklet says.

The ethical principles of the church's social teaching are presented not as hindrances to the smooth functioning of a market economy but as tools for its repair.

"Without guiding principles and virtuous leadership, businesses can be places in which expediency overcomes justice, power corrupts wisdom, technical instruments are detached from human dignity, and self-interest marginalizes the common good," it says.

The reflection was issued with zero fanfare in Rome: just a simple communique in French noting it was available online through the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn.

The real unveiling came in Lyon, France, where about 2,000 people gathered for a world congress of Christian business leaders March 30 to April 1.

The council's president, Cardinal Peter Turkson, presented the guidebook at the congress, saying the church wanted to help business people excel in their field and their faith.

Far from portraying business as a bogeyman, the text acknowledges that "businesses produce many of the important conditions which contribute to the common good of the larger society" and support the well-being of individuals.

But when the common good and human dignity are neglected in an exclusive pursuit of profits and dividends, the authors warn, an otherwise noble vocation has been hijacked.

The handbook offers a renewed vision of what successful businesses are meant to be and do.

You rest of the article and a link to the booklet can be found here.

Update

Update, the newsletter of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, is available here:

We particularly like the section Peace & Justice Initiatives. Here is a sampling from two articles. More details are included in the complete stories.

In solidarity with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Student/Farmworker Alliance (SFA) has launched a national campaign, “Dine With Dignity,” to show students across the country how to take action for the dignity of farm workers in Florida’s fields.

SFA encourages students to take action on campus by campaigning and discussing with their campus dining services directors the conditions under which the food on their campuses is produced.

+ + + + + +

The Franciscan Action Network is designed to bring a coordinated and effective voice to matters of Justice, Peace, and Care for Creation in our world. Through education and advocacy, the Franciscan Action Network hopes to bring a spirit of healing and reconciliation for the transformation of the world, as inspired by the Spirit of God. We see that we have the power to effectively advocate for redistribution of resources, the responsible care for creation, and the healing of relationships within society.

Four broad activity areas form and grow our membership:

1) Spiritual formation and prayer—FAN provides resources for its members. For example, FAN has dedicated the month of June to prayer and action in response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Information and resources for individual and communal prayer and suggested action are available in the “Care for Creation” section of FAN’s website.

2) Capacity building— FAN helps members increase both the quantity and quality of justice, peace, and care for creation opportunities within their own ministries and institutions. In early fall, FAN will be hosting “Ours to Do” which is a workshop designed especially to meet these needs. Email Monica Herald (herald@franciscanaction.org) for more information.

3) Networking— FAN helps Franciscans and Franciscan-hearted people connect locally, regionally and nationally for social action formation, direct service, and other opportunities.

4) Effective Advocacy—FAN enables the growing network of Franciscans to share and amplify their message of change in efficient, timely, and strategic ways. We do this through action alerts (http://www.franciscanaction.org/Action/exec/alerts) that our members receive.

After Christmas

A Christmas Poem

When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,

The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among others,
To make music in the heart.

-Howard Thurman