• Catholic Social Ministry Gathering
• Ecumenical Advocacy Days
• Churches for a Middle East Peace

We continue to collaborate with other organizations to promote in an ongoing way these social issues of Catholic concern. We encourage the members of the Passionist family to keep engaged on these issues and links through these organizations. The summer offers us many opportunities to engage with our congressional representatives locally due to the summer recess which will begin on August 9 and go through September 12. During this time your congressional representatives will be in their districts so you can call their local district scheduler to see when you can make an appointment to see them locally.  Below is a highlight of updates and links related to the campaigns and issues the JPIC office has addressed.    

Economic Justice:

The USCCB has promoted a great advocacy site through its Justice, Peace and Human Development Office. Many of the issues that they address are related to the issues of the Catholic Social Ministry Gathering that we attended in February of this year. Another Catholic organization that addresses the issues of Economic Justice is Network, A Catholic social justice lobby group. They have a new website designed for easier access to their action alerts. Some of the issues that they are raising this summer are:

• Support a Responsible Estates Tax
• Support Local Jobs for America  

Immigration:

The Justice for Immigrant Campaign is a coalition of Catholic organizations including the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops. They, along with Network and other immigrant justice organizations, are advocating for a comprehensive immigration reform bill that will address the immigrant issue following the social teachings of the Catholic Church.

• Justice for Immigrant postcard campaign 
• Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Ecology/Energy:

The Catholic Coalition on Climate Change is a newly organized coalition of Catholic organizations that is looking into policies and issues related to climate change. By clicking on this link you will be visiting the action page of the Catholic Coalition which will give individuals some personal practices that will help address our own individual carbon footprint. Unfortunately the Senate has chosen not to create a comprehensive climate bill this summer. Instead we would like push Congress to bring this issue as we advocate against S. 3072 which will undermine the Clean Air Act and block the EPA’s global warming pollution cuts. But we also support any legislation like H.R. 4690 that will push the US to adopt more sustainable living practices especially in developing alternative modes of public transportation. 

• H.R. 4690 Livable Communities Act
• No to S. 3072

Peace and Disarmament:

In the area of international peace there are a great number of concerns. However in this year the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops have placed their emphasis on two priorities. With regards to the conflicts in the Middle East the issue of Israel and Palestine continue to be of primary concern in this area. The other priority continues to be the concern regarding the reduction of nuclear weapons and a call for a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.

• Urge President Obama and Congress to take a strong leadership in promoting the two state solution between Israel/Palestine
• Urge the Senate to pass the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty  

Global Poverty:

The Catholic Church is part of a global family. The growing community now includes our Asian and African brothers and sisters. The social call for developing solidarity is nothing less then a call to be part of the universal church. Our own national policies has economic repercussions throughout the world. Again the issues related to this concern are many but we have tried to focus on current issues related to global poverty. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is one of the fastest growing Catholic communities in Africa and the human right violations that they face is directly related to the interest that our own extractive industry has in the mining operations of this nation.  

• Urge Congress to support Humanitarean Funding FY 2010 Supplemental Appropriations Bill
• Urge Congress to support s. 891/h.r. 4128 to help improve the lives of our Congolese sisters and brothers.

Her martyrdom has raised the issue of protecting the Amazon rainforest and as a result the government of Brazil has adopted strict environmental enforcement policies that are being monitored by the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources. Her congregation has vowed to continue her vital ministry and they remained involved in promoting land reform and ongoing projects of sustainable development.

Sr. Stang highlights an emerging face of Catholic Martyrs, martyrs who die in the service of the Gospel’s challenge to protect the dignity of marginalized people and the integrity of creation. Sr. Stang’s story is awe inspiring but it is not an isolated story. Many other missionaries have also given their lives and paid the ultimate price for preaching the Gospel of life and justice. In preaching this Gospel they challenge a global economic market system that is driven by easy and unethical profit making. What is impressive with Sr. Stang is how her community mobilized itself to continue promoting a ministry that they saw as a vital expression of modern evangelization.      

The Passionist of Holy Cross Province also has a modern martyr of the Gospel message. Fr. Carl Schmitz, CP was a Passionist priest who grew up in Chicago and who became a dedicated missionary serving in the United States and then in the Passionist missions in China, Japan, and the Philippines. By 1976 Fr. Carl was driven to preach the Gospel to a poor indigenous community in the Philippines known as the Bila’ans. They are a tribal mountain people of 80,000 who lived on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. He was sent to work with the mountain people in a rugged jeep. Clambering hand over foot along muddy mountain paths, sleeping on dirt floors in thatched huts, he struggled to learn a new dialect and be a sign of God’s love to these people.

The Bila’ans were an abused people who had been displaced from the lowlands to the mountains where it was hard to find suitable land for their small gardens. Murder and burning of properties were rampant. Violence was constant. Fr. Carl found himself as chief negotiator for peace and an advocate for the Bila’an people.

Two serious issues faced the missionary. Paramilitary forces in the area often turned out to be bandits who used young Bila’ans as their agents in illegal logging and rustling water buffalo. When Fr. Carl discovered that going on, he would head up the mountains, find his people, persuade them to go to the coast with him and seek amnesty.

The New Peoples Army (Communist) was another problem. Young Bila’ans often saw the NPA as a way to gain back their stolen lands. Fr. Carl tried to persuade his young men to leave the rebels and seek amnesty.

His activities did not make him popular with the paramilitary. On April 7, 1988 Fr. Carl had brought six young Bila’ans who were involved with paramilitary activities to his out-mission at Bolul. He planned to take them from there to the authorities the next day. The paramilitary were probably uneasy, fearing some action could be taken against them.

Determined to stop Fr. Carl, they got a young Bila’an, Johnny Monday, half drunk. Handing him a Garand rifle they told him to kill Fr. Carl. Some teachers at Bolul, who were housed close to Fr. Carl’s rectory, tell us what happened then.

The half-drunk Johnny Monday lurched into Bolul and stopped at the bottom step of the thatched rectory.

He shouted: “Get out here Fr. Carl, I’ve got a bone to pick with you.”

“Take your time, Johnny, I’ll be there.” Carl came out and stood at the top of the steps about 10 feet from Johnny Monday, who continued to shout: “I am going to kill you, Fr. Carl.”

“Why would you do that, Johnny?”

“You are a bad man–you give money to the Communists.”

“You know better than that, Johnny, I take care of my poor. Just this afternoon, I paid for your wife’s medicines.”

“You’re smiling, Fr. Carl, you are never going to smile again.”

The first shot went through the Fr. Carl’s mouth and killed him instantly. Johnny Monday then emptied the magazine and tore his body apart.

A tragedy? Yes.

But for Fr. Carl, it was a missionary career crowned with martyrdom for justice. He loved the Bila’an people and would not allow them to be corrupted by the paramilitary, who were often bent on illegal logging and the rape of the virgin forests. Quite aware of the risks he was taking, he saw the face of Christ in his people and he knew the blood of Christ was shed for them. He was Passionist and missionary through and through, and malicious men brought him to a martyr’s death.

The Passionist community like the Sisters of Notre Dame will continue to uphold the brave Christian witness and sacrifice from these modern martyrs of economic globalization. With the Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation Office the Passionist are creating a network of solidarity for all lay and vowed members of the Passionist family who faithfully preach the Gospel of justice in places that continue to challenge our most basic Christian values.

Times have changes and the population that requires the type of quality and affordable services is not the same as the population who were the recipients of these services in the past. The issue of poor education and high dropout rates has affected minority, new migrants and low income communities throughout the US. As the demographic trends have shifted so too has the global economic environment.

In order to respond to these changing trends and to update the ministry of providing good and affordable Catholic education the Jesuits have engaged in creating a new model of High School education throughout the US known as the Cristo Rey model. Starting in Chicago the Cristo Rey model high school goes to your low income communities and gives youth in these areas an amazing opportunity to truly become all they can possibly be. For a meager tuition the Cristo Rey students receive 4 days of top quality education. One day a week they are employed at a prominent downtown corporation engaging in an entry-level job that sets them on the path of experience and future employability. To prepare the students for these business opportunities the freshman class receives a summer training experience where they learn the basics of performing in a business environment. The companies pay these students a salary that goes to their education and they in turn receive dependable employees. Besides offering education and work skills this Catholic High School model is primarily geared at producing college bound students. Cristo Rey schools can boast of having 100% college acceptance. Part of the student’s curriculum at these schools includes top quality college preparatory education. 

The Passionist community participates in promoting the Cristo Rey model. The community of Bedford Stuyvesant in Brooklyn NY was instrumental in developing a Cristo Rey high school in the area. However the Passionist Community in Birmingham AL went all the way to transform a troubled high school in the area of Ensley into the performing Holy Family Cristo Rey Catholic High School.

The hybrid work-education model is the distinguishing development of these modern day Catholic high schools. But besides that they serve the same mission that Catholic High Schools served in the past. The environment is family centered and the schools play an active role in the community. They have a Catholic mission and they serve the economically challenged students to be culturally sensitive and to serve the community. These Catholic schools continue to have a discipline based environment so that the student will excel in the business and higher education world.

I spent some time with the Holy Family Cristo Rey Catholic High School president Fr. Alex Steinmiller, CP. In this video that we produced Fr. Alex discusses the Passionist presence in Birmingham and the opportunity that the youth and community of Ensley in Birmingham now have thanks to the Cristo Rey model.

Passionist Holy Family Cristo Rey High School from John Gonzalez on Vimeo.

The Passionist Position:

The Passionists are an international Catholic religious community. One of the aims of our international commission for Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation is to promote a culture of solidarity within the international Passionist family. I recently shared a blog post that was written by our UN director Fr. Kevin Dance, CP where he shared his own experience at the Passionist community in Bethany, which is on the border of Israel and the West Bank. In that article he and former superior Fr. Claudio discussed their concern for the Palestinian community in the area where they lived. Of specific concern was the situation of “The Wall” which cuts through our Passionist property. The Passionist and a community of religious sisters offer the local community of Bethany the service of providing elementary education and running an orphanage. These are services that can no longer be offered to the Palestinian community who are effectively shut out from these and so many other resources that are basic necessities of family life. The situation of the checkpoint crossings was also an issue of concern where Palestinians are forced to undergo a rigorous and sometimes humiliating process on a daily basis.

The Passionists shares CMEP’s vision and hopes for a two state solution between Israel and Palestine. We recognize that Israel must be allowed to provide for its own national security and that both Palestine and the Arab league must be able to live in peace with this neighboring state. However we also believe that for Israel to achieve its goal for a lasting and stable peace it must work with the Palestine community and build a cooperative relationship between them.     

Palestinian Christians:

The situation between Israel and Palestine is not just about a conflict between the Jewish and Muslim community. Throughout the Middle East but particularly in Palestine the plight of the Christian minority is becoming more critical for us and for the universal Catholic Church. The Christian groups have lived between a rock and a hard place for decades now. With the situation becoming increasingly difficult this population has been opting to emigrate in vast numbers out of the region. Many Palestinian and Iraqi Christian communities have been reduced to over half of what they once were. We heard some disturbing trends from Catholic Relief Services suggesting that in some areas where ancient Christian communities once thrived, like the Chaldeans or Greek Catholics, will be abandoned within a generation. CMEP invited Palestinian Christian clergies to report on the situation and what we heard is that the situation of religious freedom is becoming less tolerated. If this conflict continues to increase the divisive attitudes between the Israeli and Palestinian ethnicities then the Palestinian Christian will be the ones who suffer the reactionary and defensive policies from both communities.

Pope Benedict XVI has recently shared his anguish with regards to the Christian community in the Mid-East. For that reason the Vatican is organizing a synod in the Middle East that will focus on the situation of the religious freedom and the Christian minority. We shared with our representatives our grave concern with our own communities in the region and we informed them that they can expect a renewed legislative activism from the Catholic community when the findings of the synod become public. Our congressional representatives expressed interest in this upcoming synod and their findings.

CMEP Legislative Asks:

 On June 15 we visited our congressional representatives advocating that they support the administration in pushing both parties and holding them both accountable for the establishment of a two-state solution. Through the use of congressional resolutions and dear colleague letters we offered them some creative suggestion where they could demonstrate congressional support by using language that holds Palestine and Israel accountable for any violation or obstruction to the negotiation of a two-state solution. We cited how congress has done this to express accountability from the Arab community when Senators Bayh and Risch wrote a letter to President Obama but that unfortunately this letter said nothing that holds Israel accountable for continuing to create settlements in Jerusalem even though it has a settlement freeze. The settlement freeze was a laudable move by the Israeli government toward this process and we hope that it will not expire in September.

Jerusalem must be shared between the two nations. Neither side will allow themselves to give up this city. Furthermore Jerusalem is icon for the three Abrahamic faiths. We request Congress to urge the President to hold both sides accountable to violence and illegal settlements in that city and to be an active mediator on the final status of Jerusalem.

Finally we also shared with them our concern with the humanitarian situation in Gaza. While we again understand the security rational for the blockade we believe that the situation has become a human right violation. In this case we suggested that the Christian presence can have a positive effect in this area if religious communities and NGO’s had the resources to build necessary infrastructure and schools that can bring hope and a viable future to a youth and young adult population that dominate the population in Gaza. A disenfranchised youth population could become an explosive liability to the security of Israel and we suggest the United States must become diplomatically creative with offering carrots and incentives for peace. We suggested a smarter blockade that keeps Israel secure while granting the Palestinian youth an opportunity to have a viable and cooperative future with its northern neighbor and to lessen its reactionary allegiance to Hamas and other fundamentalist groups.

For 101 years Passionists have lived in Jerusalem, ‘City of Peace.’ Perched on the back of the Mount of Olives, where those great friends of Jesus–Mary, Martha and Lazarus — offered him hospitality and a home, is the Passionist Retreat of St. Martha.

A gaping hole now tears apart the stone wall round St. Martha’s and a much higher wall is poised to cut through the quiet grounds.

On June 16th, 2002 Israel began building the wall to protect its citizens against suicide attacks. It will be 750 kilometers when finished and enclose almost 400,000 Palestinians. It symbolizes the deepening division between Israelis and Palestinians and makes peace more elusive.

Both peoples have suffered too much from dispossession and pain. A new word –genocide– had to be minted to name the extermination of Jewish people in the madness of the Nazi Holocaust. To create a refuge for the Jewish people, another people was dispossessed of homes and lands in Palestine.

The past four years have seen the needless deaths of hundreds of Israeli Jews (975) and thousands of Palestinians (3,086). Too many were children and innocent bystanders going about their lives.

At the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a dispute over borders. Two peoples with too much history and too little geography.

Without reservation I support Israel’s right to exist as a sovereign state and for its citizens to live in peace, free from fear of violence or terror. I support, with equal strength, the Palestinian people’s right to a viable and sovereign state where they can live in peace, without fearing destruction of their homes. I am for both peoples; I am also for that justice of right relationships whence peace springs; facts cannot be sacrificed to rhetoric by either side of the conflict.

If the wall were completed, Palestinians would lose more than 900 square kilometres of their land between the Green Line and the wall. In one town close to Jerusalem, 30,000 people cannot enter the city. In four villages, the source of the people’s income–olive, almond and fig trees–have been torn up. They can no longer reach their land farmed for hundreds of years.

If the wall were truly about security, it would have been built on Israel’s internationally recognized 1967 pre-occupation border (Green Line). But the wall does not follow the Green Line–it cuts deep into Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Concerns about the wall’s impact on peace and human rights, led the UN General Assembly to ask the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to give an Advisory Opinion on the legality of the wall. The Court presented that Opinion on July 9, 2004. As this was happening in The Hague, the Supreme Court of Israel had been asked to give a ruling on the legality of the Separation Barrier.

Both Courts have rejected the present path of the wall. Both courts have ruled the present path violates international law and imposes immense and unnecessary suffering on the Palestinian population. The International Court of Justice advised that if Israel wants to build a wall, it should do so on the pre-1967 Green Line. The Israeli Supreme Court decided to reject most of the present path and to bring the wall much closer to the Green Line. The Israeli government says it will ignore the ICJ’S advice. Perhaps it will listen to the decision of its own Supreme Court.

On July 20th the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to require Israel to comply with the ICJ’s advisory opinion that declared the construction of the separation barrier in violation of international law.

The resolution was adopted by a vote of 150 to 6 with 10 abstentions. It calls on UN Member States to fulfill their obligations by not recognizing “the illegal situation resulting from the construction of the wall in the occupied Palestinian territory, including in and around East Jerusalem.”

The Resolution also calls both parties to the conflict to immediately fulfill their obligations to the Road Map for peace. The resolution calls Israel to heed the Court and calls the Palestinian Authority to show clear signs of its efforts to restrain and arrest individuals or groups planning or carrying out violent attacks.

In the early morning of December 6th, 2003, Father Claudio Ghilardi, a Italian Passionist priest living at St. Martha’s monastery near Jerusalem, was awakened by Israeli military bulldozers breaking through the ancient monastery’s stone walls to prepare for a thirty-foot high concrete security wall. Plans are for the wall, estimated to cost over a billion dollars, to wind 450 miles through the West Bank. Running to the site, honored by Christians as “Bethany,” where Jesus found hospitality in the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus,

Father Claudio (right) protested that this was Vatican property protected by a 1997 agreement between the State of Israel and the Vatican. The construction, temporarily stopped, threatens to split not only the monastery property, but also a Catholic complex of orphanage, school and rest home run by other Catholic religious orders.

The Israelis claim the wall is meant to separate Israelis from Palestinians. Clearly, here, deep in the West Bank it will separate Palestinian from Palestinian, and Christian from Christian. “This is not a barrier,” Father Claudio told Larry Fata, from the World Council of Churches, “this is a border. Why don’t they speak the truth? This wall is scandalous.”

Now, Father Claudio offers the monastery property, once a peaceful spread of olive and pine trees, as a thoroughfare for his Palestinian neighbors: men, women and children desperately trying to avoid an Israeli checkpoint in order to get to work in Jerusalem, or visit family, or seek medical attention at clinics. Along with Ecumenical Accompaniers from the World Council, Father Claudio facilitates their passage against the wishes of the Border Police. The Palestinians call him “Abuna” (”Father”).

“They are my guests and this is my house,” the priest says. Fitting words from a spot where the gracious Martha once welcomed her Guest.

Pope John Paul offered a wise reminder that we need to build bridges, not barriers to peace in this place so many of us call the Holy Land. What can each of us do, in the spirit of Martha, Mary and Lazarus, to help create an atmosphere of hospitality once again? What could we do to melt the bitterness and point to a shared way forward for two peoples who in the depth of their hearts want only peace? Oppressed and oppressor are both victims of too much violence!

The Passionists have three parishes in Ensley. On the one hand these parishes serve as a spiritual center for the African American Catholic community. But on the other hand they also function to empower the community in creating needed services and programs that can stem the tide of poverty in this area.

Holy Family was the first Passionist parish that was established in 1938. As the parish evolved it gives the new Catholic community the liturgy and sacraments that are part of the universal church while also creating a worship community that celebrates their cultural richness. St. Mary’s was later established in 1943 and in a similar way they also give the local community the ability to integrate this unity of faith with the diversity of culture. The Parishoners of Holy Family saw education as ministry priority in their area. Education is rightfully considered the greatest tool to liberate a group from the endemic cycle of poverty. Holy Family parish began by offering elementary and later high school education. Also, when the main Birmingham hospital denied health services to the African American community, the Parish worked with the local community to create their own hospital to provide for the medical needs of Ensley. Now the High School has been transformed into a Cristo Rey School which is a top academic model for schools in the United States that target low-income communities. This past year, the parishioners of Holy Family have identified another educational issue. In addressing the lack of a high school education with the adult population the Holy Family parish along with Bevill State Community College has been offering Free GED classes at the parish hall.

St. Mary’s Parish uses their parish center as a base for Metro West Ministries. Metro West Ministries is a faith based organization in Western Jefferson County that provides material and spiritual assistance to people in need. These programs include:

• Operating a food bank that serves between 200 and 300 households per month. 
• Low income heat and energy assistance Program 
• Financial assistance to people who need help with rent and utility bills. 
• Summer day camp

Another community service that is used at St. Mary’s Parish center is the Family Action Network which provides struggling families with professional consultation and therapy to address a variety of stresses and living issues in order to achieve a higher quality of family life.

This is one example of how the Passionists engage in building the Kingdom of God by building up one local community at a time.

The night weather was cold and the crowd of two hundred dispersed throughout the night while a group of enthusiastic youth stayed behind chanting, singing and telling their story. They shared what it means to be undocumented and, in some cases, what it means to have your parents or other loved ones live with the challenges of not having a Social Security Number. In the midst of songs and poetry the buses transporting deportees began to arrive around 3:00 A.M. Unmarked vans and shuttle buses lined-up in front of the center as they awaited their turn to drop-off our migrant brothers and sisters. Inside the cars the men and women sat shackled by their ankles and wrists , having only the clothes in which they were apprehended.  The mood grew really heavy. A few of us spoke directly to the men and women inside the vans, both officers and migrants. Some spoke messages of hope and solidarity to those who where going to be processed in the center and others attempted to deliver a message of compassion and conscience to the officers.

As I sat and prayed by myself during the cold night, I kept asking God and myself who would benefit from separating families, terrorizing children with the immanent threat of having one of their parents taken away, and from destabilizing entire communities. According to the Detention Watch Network (DWN), the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and the GEO Group Inc. make an estimated $1.5 billion in revenue with a net income of $133 million a year. In many ways, undocumented immigrants have become a commodity for our society. CCA operates 65 facilities in 19 states and the District of Columbia with more than 75,000 beds and nearly 17,000 employees. 12 of CCA’s facilities are used to hold immigration detainees. GEO operates 50 facilities in 16 states and one in Guantanamo Bay. In the long run, however, no one will benefit. Fearful children will make fearful adults. This will only create cycles of social alienation and violence. My cold feet and nose brought me to the realization that while the rule of law and sovereignty of a nation is important and valuable, the price that we will pay for it will be very costly.

As the Sun was coming out, our religious leaders, youth and other organizers reconvened for another moment of prayer.  We all felt very exhausted and nervous as the consequences that the arrest could have on their lives were explained to our friends. Miguel Gutierrez, a young twenty-three year-old, who was going to risk arrest told us that given his background as the son of undocumented immigrants he had to use his inherited privilege.  Compared to what many immigrants endure, as a U.S. citizen, he felt it was the least that he could do. After a few chants and songs, the huge electric gates of Broadview’s Detention Center opened and a white, unmarked van pulled out. Twenty-two men and women stand in front of them. Rapidly, the traffic, commercial trucks and workers living leaving the factories around the areas began to pile up in what was an empty street. While the men and women, now sitting on the ground chanted and called on the officers to let go of the deportees, the cameras of the media were gathered around the “protestors”. As I watched and heard the chants, such a scene was a marvel to me. We were exercising our right to come together and we knew that although our friends will be arrested they will live to see another day. The same police that took them away will make sure that their safety, for the most part, was guaranteed. If this is what democracy looks like, why would we not let others, 12 Million plus people, who live under the shadows of our society, partake of it fully?

*Written by Hugo Esparza, CP

* All Photos taken from www.icirr.org (Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights)

• Acts 14: 21-27. Paul and Barnabas complete the first missionary journey and report to the community at Antioch which had commissioned them. They relate all that God had helped them accomplish and repeat the need to undergo many trials perseveringly.
• Revelations 21: 1-5. John sees a vision of the new heavens and the new earth, also the new Jerusalem, beautiful as a bride. Every tear will be wiped away.
• John 13: 31-33, 34-35. Jesus will soon depart and recommends love for each other, “such as my love has been for you.”

Thoughts for Your Consideration: By John Gonzalez

The Gospel reading for this weekend offers us the final instruction of Jesus to his disciples before being glorified through his own Passion, Death and Resurrection. The instruction is to “Love one another as I have loved you.” In fulfilling our Sunday obligation of attending Mass we are in fact fulfilling our obligation of remembering Christ as we listen to his Holy words in Sacred Scripture and by participating in the last supper during the liturgy of the Eucharist. But the act of remembering is not an historical exercise. We are not merely role playing with an event that happened sometime in the past. A great Passionist scripture scholar, Fr. Carroll Stuhlmueller, reminds us in his commentary on this passage that “remembrance is re-living now what was done then. …Remembrance combines past, present and future, suffering and glory, hopes and fulfillment. The liturgy of the Eucharist enables us to do much more than we ever anticipated, for it brings the mirabilia Dei, the wondrous deeds of God, from the past right into our contemporary actions.”    

Because of the laws of nature humanity is limited by the dimensions of space and time. However God exists beyond these confines and spiritually we too transcend these natural limitations. That is why it is nearly impossible to describe supra-natural concepts that John witnesses in the book of Revelations such as the new heaven, the new earth and the New Jerusalem. The relevance that the second reading has for us is to remind us of our Christian goal which again transcends time and space. Heaven does not become a personal future reward for us if we successfully live a good life. Heaven becomes a liberated form of existence, an existence where we live in a complete holistic relationship with God and each other. What this existence will look like in the end we do not know, but from what John was able to observe “there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, for the old order has passed away.” Our Christian hope is for a new culture of life that will replace the current culture of death. The social culture that placed Jesus on the cross will give way to a new culture that will transform the crucified Jesus into the risen Christ.

We are called to share in that liberated existence now. We remember this existence when we recall the life that Jesus lived and the incarnate relationship he had with God and humanity. We re-live that relationship now as Christians building the Kingdom of God by our very example and by advocating for the society based on the culture of life, a life that compassionately walks with all who suffer, a life that stands in solidarity with all who are mourning, wailing or in pain.

The Passionist community takes a vow that remembers the passion and death of Jesus Christ. This act of remembrance calls us to re-live that suffering by serving and standing with all who continue to face the pains and injustice of our contemporary society. The Passionist Constitutions describe it in this way: “His Passion and death are no mere historical events. They are ever-present realities to people in the world of today, “crucified” as they are by injustice, by the lack of a deep respect for human life, and by a hungry yearning for peace, truth, and the fullness of human existence.”

This path of remembrance is described by St. Paul in the first reading when he instructs the disciples to persevere in the faith. “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” God’s Kingdom is not something we wait for, it is something we build together as a community of faith that believes and hopes for a fuller existence. We remember this vision through the life and love that Jesus shared with all humanity. We re-live this vision today when we reach out and relate to all our brothers and sisters and especially those who need us the most. Finally we also hope that these efforts will help build a new society that is founded on the love and life that God wants to share with all of creation.

Christian eschatology calls us to live in the present by looking to the past and remembering tomorrow.

Consider the image that is being used here, the Last Judgment. To follow Jesus is not to follow a competing philosophy. It is to follow a divine mission whose ultimate benefit is eternal life. Eternal life, Heaven, Kingdom of God, these are terms that we use to comprehend a greater form of existence. The theologian or the clergy cannot offer you a comprehensive image of what this looks like. But what we now through faith is that we are invited by Christ to share in the ultimate form of existence where we can consciously be part of a divine community with God and Christ. Furthermore, as witnesses to the Resurrection, we have a basic awareness of this existence through Christ. In Matthew 25, besides emphasizing that are salvific goal is beyond the secular world of today, Jesus also offers the benchmarks from which our actions will be judged. These are all specific actions of social responsibilities:

• Providing food, drink and clothing to the poor
• Hospitality, welcoming the stranger
• Caring and healing the sick and infirmed.
• Ministry of presence with those in prison

These are all acts of charity that we are called to fulfill. All four of these can be addressed individually and socially. On our own we can volunteer or help run a Parish or Community ministries that provides direct service. As a political community we then should advocate for policies that address the social issues of:

• Poverty and economic development
• Immigration, refugee and displaced peoples
• Healthcare
• Restorative justice

We are called to fulfill both the individual and social applications of these works of charity. They are not options for our choosing. In whatever capacity we have to do these acts of charity we are called to do so.  

Besides offering retreat and parish ministries individual members of the Passionist lay and vowed community have engaged in many of these individual and social ministries. In 1852 when the first four Passionist came to America one of the first ministries that a couple of them engaged in was with the sick and orphans. But one of the founders, Fr. Stanislaus Parzyk, CP also engaged in visiting and being present to a man who was in prison awaiting execution.

In upstate NY the community of the Our Lady of Hope Parish has organized a ministry of presence by writing letters and cards to people in prison and to those who are in death row. As one can imagine many of these people are in a point in their lives where they really need to relate with otherse with regards to where they are in their lives and to share and discuss personal and spiritual matters. Next week I will be sharing some of the stories from members of this parish community regarding their wonderful act of charity. One of their leaders, Kathy K. had told me that it was her pastor who suggested that while she continues to work for the abolition of the death penalty that it was also important for her to also get to know and share about the real people who are in Death Row. Through this pastoral suggestion a committee was formed to do this valuable ministry of presence.

People in prison and on death row are people who are suffering. Society has the legitimate responsibility to provide for the safety and security of the community. Our Christian obligation does not undermine this in any way when we provide avenues of forgiveness, reconciliation and presence to those who are marginalized in prison.

Fr. Ronan Newbold, CP:

This year Ecumenical Advocacy Days (EAD) were, again, an occasion for serious thinking and conversion. What are we doing to the people who live in the USA? The first evening Bishop Minerva Carcano, of the United Methodist Church, spoke to us about how families are being separated with devastating results for children and our society. Sister Mary McCauley, BVM, spoke of the May 12th 2008, raid on 400 undocumented workers at an Agro-processor factory in Postville, Iowa. They were shackled, put on school buses and taken to detainment facilities by local police, state police and members of the National Guard. What are we doing to the people who live in the USA.

There are arguments against letting these undocumented people become documented; such as using our education system and health care system without paying a cent into them. They are accused of criminal activity along the Southern border. During this EAD, there could have been a better explanation of how these people really do pay into the education and health systems of our country by paying sales taxes every time they purchase something. But there was more than adequate explanation of how they are keeping our economy going. Moreover, without them, our economy would really begin to stagger. If all were documented, and signed into our income tax system, then education, health and retirement would not only be helped but would be able to expand to take care of the growing number of our elderly. The one figure I remember was this: if all of the undocumented were documented, $1.3 trillion would be added to our gross national product over the next ten years. Moreover, all of these people in the shadows would now come to light and policing of them would cease to be an expense.

Here is another thought. Some worry that if we do set up a system of documenting these people, a “billion” people from all over the world would want to come to the United States. Wrong. The United States is probably number 4 or 5 among nations that people would like to move to. Australia, New Zea land, Canada, and Switzerland are more likely to draw people from foreign lands due to their policies of peace and awareness of health in their governments.

The speech of Sister Helen Prejean (author of Dead Man Walking) was truly an occasion for conversion. Can we hear the cry of the poor? That is the question. Does their cry rank highest is our hearts? The people of Jesus’ time brought him to death. There is nothing that we can do about that. There is something we can do about the people who are dying trying to cross into our land, who are incarcerated, who are kept on the fringes of our society and who are the presence of God among us. Sister’s question remains: “Can we hear the cry of the poor?”

Br. Ed Hall, CP

Awareness of our millions of immigrants who are living in the shadows of our communities and our neighbors was brought home to my attention at the Ecumenical Advocacy meeting in Washington DC the weekend of the 20^th of March. The realization that many who come to worship in our churches are living without protections and guarantees, because they do not yet possess legal status. I was encouraged that weekend with the passage of the health care reform bill for these living millions living in the shadows without health care coverage.

I was among 200,000 people along with Ronan Newbold, Chris Gibson and John Gonzalez on the mall in Washington DC for a Rally in favor of immigration reform legislation. People where there to spur Congress and the White House to overhaul the nation’s immigration system and offer its 10.8 million illegal immigrants a path to citizenship this year against increasingly long odds.

We were warmed by bursts of sunshine; the crowd was peaceful and festive. The sounds of drums and American flags and posters filled the air. One could read placards that said, “Change takes Courage” and “Obama Don’t Forget Your Promise!” Rep. Luis Gutierrez(D-Ill) said “It’s time to let immigrants come of the shadows into the light and for America to embrace them and protect them.”

I felt hopeful and encouraged by this weekend. The fraternity and support of Chris, Ronan and John to continue to be committed and involved in this important issue of overhauling of immigration laws for the many who are in our neighborhoods and churches is hopeful to me.