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by Mary Tomski-Crane, Pastoral Associate
St. Alexander, St. Helen, and St. John Kanty Parishes
After attending the Social Action Summer Institute at Marquette University this past July, thanks to a scholarship provided by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, I left feeling renewed as well as challenged: how will I communicate what I learned about Catholic Social Teaching and injustice in our larger world back in the three south side parishes where I serve as Pastoral Associate? And most importantly, how can I help parishioners grow in compassion and acts of charity and justice for others, especially those who are not in their neighborhood or ethnic group or nation?
Our Human Concerns Committee has four dedicated members who have toiled with me this past year on many projects like hosting an immigration forum and a letter-writing campaign for Darfur, coordinating Advent projects (including one for La Sagrada Familia), and expanding our food pantry and English as a second language classes at our parishes. In 1993 the United States Catholic bishops challenged all Catholics to make social justice and peace their mission so that we would be communities of salt and light for the world. How can our small Human Concerns Committee tackle such a mammoth task? We aren’t supposed to do this as lone rangers! We must join together with our pastor, council, staff, and parishioners. And we desperately need creative ideas, like those from this conference, to help us.
At this Institute I purchased the book, "My Lord & My God: Engaging Catholics In Social Ministry," by Jeffry Korgen, to help develop a vision for Catholic Social Teaching in the entire parish, not just our Human Concerns Committee. Sounds good – but how do we go about “engaging” Catholics? Korgen describes three critical tools: invitation, conversion, and empowerment. I will begin using his “one-on-one meeting” by inviting parishioners to converse about their lives, gifts, and hopes for their community and world. Announcements and bulletin ads can help, but they are not the best or only way to find leaders. Yet it is only God’s Spirit who can convert our hearts and call us!
The best part of my week was meeting remarkable people who see a larger world and are passionate about social justice issues. I think of Jenna Mueller from Catholic Relief Services who volunteered in Bosnia as part of a peacemaking project. She described the people’s intense hatred and fear dating back over 400 years. Peace would come about only through a slow, never-ending process involving counseling to help heal people’s grief and forgiveness. Forgiveness did not mean forgetting past atrocities, but reframing them in light of God’s grace.
Since I am a chocolate lover, I enjoyed sampling Fair Trade Chocolate through Catholic Relief Services! I look forward to sharing it with our Human Concerns Committee and parishioners so they can learn what is so different about this chocolate: These cocoa farmers are part of a cooperative in Ghana where they pick the cocoa beans and own one-third of the company. They have to compete against agriculture subsidized by the governments of the United States and European nations. I learned that global trading regulations hurt third world farmers because they cannot compete in the global market and barely survive on their miniscule profit. Something as simple as purchasing Fair Trade Chocolate can help support these farmers and their families’ livelihood.
At the Institute I learned about many resources like JustFaith, a program for teenagers and adults, which invites Catholics on a journey to become people of justice and compassion. Another resource I look forward to sharing with our parishes is “Dying to Live; A Migrant’s Journey,” a film which shows how humans are affected by our immigration system. Stories about real people struggling in the midst of poverty or war or injustice can be the most powerful avenue to open people’s minds and hearts. These stories need to be told in homilies, bulletin and newsletter articles, in classrooms and at service projects, and even meetings. Books like Left to Tell; Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust about Immaculee Ilibagiza who survived genocide, can broaden our small worlds.
I left the conference encouraged, refreshed, and thankful for our Church’s Catholic Social tradition and all those I met who have been transformed by Christ and are working for justice. Most of all, my prayer is for God to enlarge my little world and change me.
The next Social Action Summer Institute will be held in Atlanta, Georgia in July of 2008. For more details on this event, contact Rob Shelledy, Director of Catholic Social Action at 414-758-2286 or via e-mail at shelledyr@archmil.org.
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| | Article created: 9/25/2007 |
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