Monthly Archives: December 2014

Environment

Global group of Catholic bishops call for end to fossil fuels

BBC

Monsignor Salvador Piñeiro García-Calderón, Archbishop of Ayacucho, and president of the Peruvian Bishops’ Conference, said: “We bishops from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe have engaged in intense dialogue on the issue of climate change, because we can see it’s the poorest people who are impacted the most, despite the fact they’ve contributed the least to causing it. They’re the ones who respect the planet, the Earth, the soil, the water and the rainforests.”

Matt McGrath Environment correspondent, BBC News, Lima

Aerial view of Lima Negotiators are gathered in Lima, Peru, for this year's UN's climate meeting
Aerial view of Lima Negotiators are gathered in Lima, Peru, for this year’s UN’s climate meeting

Catholic bishops from around the world are calling for an end to fossil fuel use and increased efforts to secure a global climate treaty.

Catholics, they say, should engage with the process leading to a proposed new deal to be signed in Paris next year. Continue reading Global group of Catholic bishops call for end to fossil fuels →

Church

Church Asks If It’s Time to Ban the Bomb

America Magazine

The Holy See continues to question the ethical basis to the so-called doctrine of nuclear deterrence. Ethical and humanitarian consequences of the possession and use of nuclear weapons are catastrophic and beyond the rational and reasonable.

Kevin Clarke

Representatives of several faith traditions assemble to discuss no-nukes movement at forum in Vienna.
Representatives of several faith traditions assemble to discuss no-nukes movement at forum in Vienna.

Speaking at a conference on the potential and current humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons, a two-day event which drew the participation of 150 nations and media from around the world but which has been largely ignored in the United States, a representative of the Holy See questioned the persistence of deterrence as the ethical underpinning of the geopolitical strategy of the world’s nuclear powers. “We all know the risks of nuclear weapons, not least that of the instability they cause,” said Archbishop Silvano Tomasi as the Holy See took its turn during a round of international statements on nuclear weapons. “Is it reasonable to think that the balance of terror is the best basis for the political, economic and cultural stability of our world?” he asked. Continue reading Church Asks If It’s Time to Ban the Bomb →

Food Security

Eat Fresh, Die Hard – Subway, Wal-Mart, Whole Foods and the Plight of the Mexican Worker

America Magazine

Jim McDermott

CNS photo/Karen Callaway, Catholic New World
CNS photo/Karen Callaway, Catholic New World

In northern Mexico, many farm workers—over a hundred thousand of them children—live in overcrowded, rat-infested conditions, with little food and sometimes no potable water. So the L.A. Times reported yesterday, in the first of a four part series on produce pickers in Mexico.

Though they are supposed to be paid weekly, in many places once workers arrive on the job—often from very poor regions to the South—they’re told they won’t see any of their pay until they complete their work. Some never do get paid. And those that do often earn very little, $8 to $12/week. Continue reading Eat Fresh, Die Hard – Subway, Wal-Mart, Whole Foods and the Plight of the Mexican Worker →

Racism

The Life and Times of Michael B

Ferguson put the U.S.’ racial apartheid on the global stage.

Institute for Policy Studies

By John Feffer

Marchers protest the acquittal of Michael Brown’s killer in Chinatown, Washington, DC. (Photo: ep_jhu / Flickr)
Marchers protest the acquittal of Michael Brown’s killer in Chinatown, Washington, DC. (Photo: ep_jhu / Flickr)

Economic inequality is a hot topic in America these days. It is the subject of hefty bestsellers, presidential addresses, and even Hollywood movies. The issue has even appeared on the radar screen of foreign policy pundits.

In this Sunday’s Washington Post, former assistant secretary of state Kurt Campbell writes about how “income inequality undermines U.S. power.” Campbell writes about how the growing divide between rich and poor undercuts U.S. “soft power” and saps U.S. ability to compete economically with a thriving Asia. Continue reading The Life and Times of Michael B →

Slavery, trafficking

English cardinal: Young Africans being seduced into modern slavery

Catholic News Service

By Simon Caldwell

Newly freed human trafficking victims from Myanmar are held in a detention cell near the Thailand-Malaysian border. (CNS/Reuters)
Newly freed human trafficking victims from Myanmar are held in a detention cell near the Thailand-Malaysian border. (CNS/Reuters)

MANCHESTER, England (CNS) — Young Africans are being seduced into modern slavery by the promise of a dream that never comes true, an English cardinal told a conference on human trafficking.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster said “there seems to be no enticement that isn’t being used” by human traffickers to entrap children. Continue reading English cardinal: Young Africans being seduced into modern slavery →

Racism, Religion

Statement of Catholic Theologians on Racial Justice

Catholic Moral Theology

Posted by David Cloutier

Advent is a season of waiting and of hoping. In the face of conflict, distrust, and division – in the wilderness – we are called to cry out for a different way. In consultation with several others, CMTer and former law enforcement officer Tobias Winright has prepared a statement of commitment to racial justice, which names the particularly difficult hope we might bring to illuminate darkness. We are happy to share the statement here on this blog. Many Catholic theologians, including myself and my co-editor, Jana Bennett, have already signed on to the statement. Please pray and act for truth and reconciliation this season…

Statement: Catholic Theologians for Police Reform and Racial Justice Continue reading Statement of Catholic Theologians on Racial Justice →

Religion

Christian, Muslim leaders vow to ‘walk hand in hand’ to promote peace

Catholic News Service

By Cindy Wooden
ROME (CNS) — Catholic, Anglican, Sunni and Shiite leaders vowed to do all they can to combat “ugly and hideous” distortions of religion, and to involve more women — often the first victims of violence — in official inter-religious dialogues.

Holding the third Christian-Muslim Summit in Rome Dec. 2-4, the leaders said that while more and more women are involved in high-level dialogues, there is still much to be done, including recognizing that “women play a key role in peace building.” Continue reading Christian, Muslim leaders vow to ‘walk hand in hand’ to promote peace →

Kenya

ICC drops Uhuru Kenyatta charges

BBC

Uhuru Kenyatta Uhuru Kenyatta, who was elected president last year, denied orchestrating violence after elections in 2007
Uhuru Kenyatta Uhuru Kenyatta, who was elected president last year, denied orchestrating violence after elections in 2007

Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague have said they are withdrawing charges against Kenya’s leader Uhuru Kenyatta.

A statement said the evidence had “not improved to such an extent that Mr Kenyatta’s alleged criminal responsibility can be proven beyond reasonable doubt”.
Continue reading ICC drops Uhuru Kenyatta charges →

Racism, USA

America’s ‘Post-Racial’ Lie

OtherWords

White Americans have no right to judge the outpouring of black anger in Ferguson.

Jill Richardson

The Prejudicial System. (OtherWords cartoon by Khalil Bendib)
The Prejudicial System. (OtherWords cartoon by Khalil Bendib)

Shortly before Michael Brown’s fateful encounter with Ferguson cop Darren Wilson, I was appointed as a teaching assistant in a class on race and ethnicity.

I’m white. I didn’t go to grad school to study race — I study agriculture. When it comes to race, I’m clueless.
Continue reading America’s ‘Post-Racial’ Lie →

Climate Change, Environment

Carbon bubbles in the boardroom

New Internationalist

The fossil fuel divestment movement is taking the world by storm. What started four years ago with students at a few US college campuses asking their universities to stop funding an industry whose business model is causing planetary disaster, has rapidly grown into an international movement with more than 500 active campaigns. But what has the divestment movement achieved so far?
The fossil fuel divestment movement is taking the world by storm. What started four years ago with students at a few US college campuses asking their universities to stop funding an industry whose business model is causing planetary disaster, has rapidly grown into an international movement with more than 500 active campaigns. But what has the divestment movement achieved so far?

1 – It got public institutions to ditch their fossil fuel holdings

Investors with a collective worth of more than $50 billion have pledged to drop their fossil fuel holdings – and that does not include thousands of individuals who have moved their money. The most symbolic commitment came from the heirs of the Rockefeller family, who made their fortune from oil. They announced that it was no longer morally acceptable or financially prudent to put their money in oil, gas and coal. This is just one example of the divestment commitments the movement has triggered. The immediate financial impact of these decisions will not bankrupt the industry. However, every institution taking a stance helps to erode the fossil fuel industry’s social acceptance and consequently their political power.
Continue reading Carbon bubbles in the boardroom →